Diaper Up

Last night at work I put a diaper on a little old lady with explosive diarrhea. Fun. Fun.

When she tried to stand up for the x-ray she grabbed her rear end, "Oh, oh it's coming out again!"
Me - "Ok. Well, I have this diaper-sort-of-thing(that is a diaper). Should we use that?"
Her-"Ok. I guess so."

After the x-ray she went to sit back down, "Oh NO! It's really coming out now! What should I do?!?"
A very pungent stink starts to fill the room.
Me-"Well....hmm....I don't really have anything to clean you up with here....hmm."
She rode back to the ER sitting in her stinky diaper.

I felt bad for her.

Summer's End

I know this post is a little late - it's the middle of Sept., but I wanted to show off some of my garden........again.
Cheddar Cauliflower

Squash

Royal Golden Melon - It grew twice as big as this and turned bright orangy-gold. Mmmm and so sweet too!

Veronica Broccoli

Lincoln Peas with clotted cream

Purple Cauliflower

Kale, Cucumbers, ect.

Watermelon-growing


Watermelon- ripe

Doctor Notes

I stole this from the furry monkey
It's so funny!

Real Doctors Notes

1. Patient has two teenage children, but no other abnormalities.
2. Patient has chest pain if she lies on her left side for over a year.
3. On the second day, the knee was better, and then on the third day it disappeared.
4. The patient is tearful and crying constantly. She also appears to be depressed.
5. Discharge status: Alive, but without my permission.
6. Healthy-appearing decrepit, 69-year-old male, mentally alert but forgetful.
7. The patient refused autopsy.
8. The patient has no previous history of suicides.
9. Patient has left white blood cells at another hospital.
10. Patient's medical history has been remarkably insignificant with only a 40-pound weight gain in the last three days.
11. She is numb from her toes down.
12. Occasional, constant, infrequent headaches.
13. I saw your patient today, who is still under our car for physical therapy.
14. Skin: somewhat pale but present.
15. The patient has been depressed since she began seeing me in 1993.

Tomorrow at work they are "going live" with a new computer system in the ER. They plan on "phasing out" the ward clerks/secretaries. Now with this new system the Dr. has to enter the info on all the pts and order all the tests - by himself - no I'm NOT kidding. Ridiculous. They don't spend enough time with the pts right now. Personally, if I were a pt I would rather have my Dr suturing my hand or something instead of entering orders!!!

Adventure Chick

Warning:Chicken Heavy Picture Post!!!

Lavender isn't broody any more! And she's almost done with her molt. Lookin' good.
She likes to hop up on this chair and eat the green bean leaves that are growing through the fence. She's the only girl who is light enough to do it and brave enough.

Big Blob

The big white blob, in these CT images, is not supposed to be there.

This 36y/o patient went to the ER twice, complaining of headaches and dizziness. The Dr. told him it was just a migraine, because he was under a lot of stress. He gave the pt. a prescription for some pain meds. Finally, the pt. made a third ER visit, because his wife woke up in the middle of the night and the pt. was screaming and convulsing on the bedroom floor. The ER Dr. (finally) ordered a CT.


An acute hemorrhage with coarse calcification, suggesting an underlying neoplasm. In other words, blood and cancer.
There is also an 11mm midline shift from left to right.
He was transferred out and had surgery to remove the blood and as much of the cancer as they could get to. He is now taking radiation and chemotherapy, but he has lost the use of his left arm and leg.

Full Moon

Whoa!
This Saturday I broke the department record for most x-rays done by a single person in one shift.
The previous record was 17. I did 22!
My previous best was 15, but now I'm the new record holder!
And I didn't have to call in my back-up person.
Although, I did call her in on Sunday.
We had 2 traumas come in at once and I decided I couldn't do everything.

This week-end I did 52 patients total in 3 - 8 hour shifts. I think the total for all shifts was well over 100 patients. Plus I answered a million phone calls, refaxed ultrasound paperwork to the radiologist( the US tech couldn't get her paperwork to the right place, ever), entered all the orders for each exam (plus the CT and US exams) and made exam copies for patients.

What a week-end.

Drive Away

This is a new one-

ER nurse- "Patient X in bed 3 won't be over for their x-ray. They have to drive their wife somewhere. We'll call you when they get back."

Hmmm, I guess the husband's night sweats and chronic cough weren't worrying the wife very much. She still wanted her ride 'somewhere'.

The patient showed up 45 min. later. I made my student do the x-ray.
Better they get TB than me.

Up-a Creek

I went hiking in August with some friends. We also swam in the river.


This is a scary spider we found clinging next to a boulder where we crossed the river. It's about as big as my fist. Yuck.

Swimming in the river.
There's a waterfall that runs over the edge of a cliff into this natural swimming pool. The cliff is about 20 to 25 feet above the pool. There are pockets of deep water in the pool and sharp rocks everywhere else. While we were there some local kids dove off the cliff into the pool. Thankfully, the didn't hit any of the rocks. I was prepared to call 911 though.

I'm Off

Well, in about 5 minutes I'm off to the big Department Meeting.
It's my day off, but there's no way I'm missing this!
I think the Boss and Others will tell us that they are cutting out mammography services from the dept. So.....my hours will be cut too. Sucks to be me, right?
Why did they hire me?
I left a perfectly good job (where I made more, but I had to drive farther) to take this job only THREE months ago.
Did they know they were going to cut mammos then?
I really don't want to lose my Mamms accreditation, but what can I do?

We will also discuss an inspirational book that the Boss gave everyone to read. I was not inspired. It was a hard cover book - $20 a piece + 75 employees = a ton of money they could spend somewhere else.