Snow Melt

I'm so sick of snow and winter.

Blah.

I just spent >$400 on seeds and plants. Is that excessive? One order from one catalog out of six I plan on ordering from? I need help!

I'll just keep telling myself it's OK. After all, it's my only real hobby. People spend money on hobbies. Deep breaths. It's OK.

Anyway, today we had a ETOH guy in his 40's come in to the ER for jaundice. The ER Dr ordered a chest x-ray. For jaundice? OK whatever.

When I bring the wheelchair into the room and tell the pt I'm taking him for his chest x-ray, he says, "Just an x-ray? I'm supposed to have something else. Like a cat scan (sigh, no cats are involved people! Too bad-it would make my job a lot more fun.) or something like that."

OK I'll go check with the Dr. I talk to the nurse. We roll our eyes. She tells him, 'No the Dr just ordered an x-ray."

I'm wheeling him to my dept. and he's totally obsessed with CTs. Every room we pass, "Is that where you do cat scans?" No. "Is this the cat scan room?" No.

Later on in the ER, I hear him talking to the Dr., "I think I really need a cat scan."

The Dr. (who is famous for ordering every scan in the protocol book) miraculously says, "Well, I want to get your labs figured out first and then we'll worry about that."

They admited him to the ICU for ETOH detox (?) and ordered an abd/pelvis CT for tomorrow.

So he'll get his 'cat scan' after all.

24 Down

Well, 1 hour down 23 to go.

It's 8:30 AM and I've already dealt with a stupid Dr. If the Rad dictated a report on the dictation line and I can hear it, why can't the Dr.?

'Can you send up a typed report?' - No.

'Why not? Can't you type up the dictation?' -No.

'Why not?' - Because I'm not freaking Med. Records!

'Well, I don't know the # for the dictation system. We don't have those #'s.' - Ok, sigh. Here's the #. (for the 50,000 time.)

How long have we been using this dictation system? For TWO YEARS!! Yes, it's true....they're stupid.

When I work a 24 hour shift, I work 4 hours at regular pay and then for the next 20 hours I'm on call. I live 30 mins. away from the Hosp. so I stay over night in the Hosp. and sleep on a little cot in the dept. - yeah it sucks.

What do they pay me to be on call and literally live at the Hosp.? $3.oo an hour. That's right $3 dollars. When I was a student 4 years ago at a different Hosp. I made $4.50 an hour on call.

At the school Hosp. they let students work nights, week-ends, evenings, and day shifts(on your day off). It was a lot of fun, at times, and really frightening, most of the time. Sometimes you would have a 1st year student playing tech., with a 2nd year and 1st year student assisting...and that was it. 3 students in charge of the whole dept. for a night. Surgery, ER, ICU, ect. We covered everything by ourselves. And this is at a busy Hosp. Not a city Hosp., but still - in a town of 25,000.

After graduation I felt like I already had 2 years of experience being a tech. So, when people still, after 41/2 years of working at this Hosp., ask me if I'm 'new'......I say no.