Something Small

So......................I had an interesting Sat.

My finally call was a 6:55am.
That's right, 5min. before my shift was done.
CT facial bones on a drunk guy, punched in the face.
Sissy posh kid, wearing loafers.
His skin wasn't even bruised. I've seen worse marks on the daily LOC-old-lady-bumped-head.
His friends were very funny. One was getting a facial lac sewn up when I brought Loafer Boy back to the ER.

LB's friend,whispering drunkenly:"Is he gonna stay OK?"
Me, whispering:"I don't know."
LB's friend, whispering to another friend, sitting in the corner trying to hold his head together with two hands(hangover, anyone?): "He look 'sa real bad, huh? She saysa he gonna not be good. Ouch, right?"
Crazy drunks. Home for Springbreak I suppose.

Lemonsucker Tech was late, so I ended up working 24 hours and 25 min. Lotsa money for me!

Dr. Shrug was working in ER again this week-end.
At 11am: A 74y/o man came in with chest pain radiating into his back. Dr. Shrug ordered a Port CXR. She talked to the Rad., Dr. Pissoff, about it. She calls in Dr.Tightpants and they admitted the pt.
I'm having fun naming everybody!

Anyway, around about 3PM the floor orders a 2view T-spine film for back pain. Ho hum. Boring.
When I get to the pt's room, Dr. Tightpants is telling the pt about a report she just recieved from another hosp.

3 months earlier the pt went to hospital Xxxx and had some tests.
Results: Thoracic aortic aneurysm (TAA)
Treatment: Um, nothing.
The pt. didn't even know what an aneursym was. Dr. Tightpants tried to explain it without totally freaking him out.
"Well, it's a sac, in your chest, full of blood, that bulges and if it ruptures (not that your's is!) it can be fatal. You can die."

This is the part where I jump in.
"Ah, Dr. Tightpants? Are you looking for a TAA?"
"Yes."
"Well, you know a T-spine x-ray won't really show that very well. A CT would show that a lot better."
"Mmmm, maybe, but Mr.CP here has an iodine allergy. Could we do it without contrast?"
"The images would turn out better with contrast, if you wanted to pre-medicate him? or I could do it without contrast. The images won't turn out as nice. It's better to do it with contrast, but..."
"No, I don't want to wait and do pre-medication. Just do it without the dye."
"OK"

Fastforward: CT done. I call the Radiologist, Dr. Pissoff.
"Hi, Dr. Pissoff. This is Katalia from hospital Xxx."
"Hello! Hello! How are you this fine day?"
"Great thank you. I have a CT chest that I just sent over. I don't know if you have the paperwork yet? It's a Mr.CP"
"Well, sure I do, it's right here. For TAA, hmm?"
"Yeah, that's right, um I just wanted to warn you, Dr. Tightpants wanted me to do it without IV contast.."
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME! That just PISSES me off!"
"..so I did it without and the pt has a contrast allergy..."
"I am so PISSED OFF right now! What the hell were you thinking! What the HELL!"
"...and so I did it without contrast."
"So PISSED OFF. GOOD BYE. whatthehell"
He slams the phone down.

It turns out Mr.CP had a ruptured leaking TAA. He was rushed to another hospital for surgery. I hope he is still alive. Only 20 to 30 percent of ruptured TAA pts survive.

Thanks USA

This post ,about a family's ER and hospital experience, made me thankful that I live and work in America.

Can you imagine working in a third world country's medical system?

Stir Fried

I stayed inside this week-end and cooked. It's -15F outside with a windchill of -35F. At that temp. any exposed skin freezes in about 15 minutes. I hate winter.
I watched The Day After Tomorrow at work last week.
In the movie first there are terrible tornadoes that kill hundreds of people.
Then the oceans rise and finally a deep freeze covers the northern hemisphere.
In the movie, living where I live, I would be frozen dead.
One thing that bothers me about the movie: the temp gets down to -135F and humans freeze instantly, unless they're standing next to a fire.
Question: Would a fire burn at -135F? Wouldn't all the oxygen be sucked away from the fire?


Well, that's what I've been thinking about this week-end. Freezing and dying.
This is a pic of some tofu I marinaded and then baked at 500F. It comes out of the oven salty and crispy on the outside and creamy soft on the inside.

My mom used to make this for me as a special treat.
It's my second favorite snack.
I guess some people think of mac&cheese or chocolate pudding as comfort foods, but this is what I like.
My favorite meal is really weird. Nobody outside my family likes it.
It's fried onions, bean thread noodles, textured veg. protein, mushrooms, and soy sauce.
It's cooked like a casserole. Mmmmmm. Yum yum.

This is a pic of the stir fry I made. I love baby corn! And jasmine rice.

This is a pic of the egg bread I made today. And a radish sandwich.

Eggy bread,butter, and radish. Mmmmmm.

And then I made some molasses cookies.


I slept for hours and hours this week-end. Work on Friday really tired me out. I worked a morning shift after working a shift the night before. Then I was on CT, on a Friday, always exhausting. People always try to get in on Friday for pain they've had all week.
But what if it gets worse over the week-end?
True.

Secretly, I don't really mind. I can do an Abd/Pelvis CT in 15mins.(they're scheduled every hour) and a head CT in 5 mins.
I've made it sort of a game.

Also, one of my co-workers (we'll call her Talky), who is six months younger than me(as opposed to everyone else who are: 35,45,47,57,64 years old) was working and we always have a lot of fun.
We have our own inside jokes and we can complain about other people.
It's fun.
After working for 3 years with people as old and older than my parents, it's nice to have someone closer to my age to work with.


And I can boss her around sometimes.
Because she is younger than me.
But sometimes she talks too much.

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.

Rice Fire

I love Indian food!
Dum Aloo is my favorite. It's potatoes in a semi-fiery tomato sauce with lots of good spices. Mmmmm and samosas and naan.

I wish I could find a recipe for the red relish that's often served in Indian restaurants for an appetizer. I think it's made out of finely chopped onion and lemon juice, but what makes it red and gives it such a great flavor? Cumin? Annatto?-that would give it a bright red color. Hmmm. I guess I'll keep looking.

So far today at work I have done ONE, yes, count it, one Abd/Pelvis CT on a chemo pt.

My boss asked me today if I would be interested in working from 2pm to 2am x 3 days a week without week-ends and NO CALL!!!!
This seems like a pretty good deal to me. I'll have to see if it works out though. I don't think I would be interested if I still had to work week-ends.

I wish I knew what kind of shifts other x-ray depts. worked.
As I've just passed my Mamm boards (in Dec. score of 98, thanks very much!), it would kind of suck if I didn't get to do mamms at all. They only schedule mamms until 3pm, because there's only a staff of one(me!) in the dept after 3:30pm.
Ho Hum, have to see how it goes.