Dead Time

I hate my job.
Getting called in at 4am to do perfectly healthy pt.s
Now I can't sleep.

Yes, dear pt. it is quiet in the hospital at 4am.
In fact it's dead around here.
Oops, did I say dead?
In a hospital?
To you?
Sorry.
I only did it because, I know there's no way you could die, you're just fine.
Rash-on-my-head-for 2 weeks-attention-seeking-come-in-at-4-in-the-morning-lonely-old-man.

Why Not?

Dr. Rad,
Why don't I want to call you, you ask?
Well, duh,'cause everytime I do you swear at me!
Sorry your Sat. is ruined.
And I know you can't yell at the Dr.s that are ordering x-rays.
Thanks so much for taking it out on me.

Much hate,
Me

Buck Up

People! If you're going to insist on telling me your life history: Please Put In Your Dentures!!

Ok, ok, maybe you weren't telling me your life history, you were complaining about me running over your foot, but I would have known that if you had Put In Your Dentures!

edited: I've only run over two patients with a wheelchair and one Dr.'s foot with the portable machine. I'm really a very good driver. wink wink

edited again: And a surgeon's foot with the C-arm. He said(yelled) I broke his toe, but...

24 Hours

Working a 24 hour shift again.

Moon Attacks

I'm reading this book, Life As We Knew It.
Just like when I watched The Day After Tomorrow, I feel like hording food, buying a woodstove and learning how to make homemade soap.
Actually, I wouldn't mind learning how to make my own soap, it sounds like fun, but I suppose you'd have to use lye....hmm I don't know.

Anyway, this book is a, "frighteningly plausible account of the local effects of a near-future worldwide catastrophe.", according to Amazon. It's written like a diary and describes the family hording food and winter clothing, cutting down to two meals a day, chopping down trees for heat, washing clothes in the bathtub, ect. ect. I'm only half way through and I wanted to stop reading after the first three pages, because it hits a little too close to home.

After a comet crashes into the moon and alters its' relationship to the earth, the fuel and food prices skyrocket. Does this sound familiar? I guess we don't need astronomical interference to bring the end of the world.

Well, I plan on canning a lot of food this summer and maybe getting a wood stove.

X-ray Poem

I took a little artistic liberty(!) with the Statue of Liberty poem, The New Colossus, by Emma Lazarus.

Radiographer's Poem

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled kyphotic masses yearning to breath free, without COPD,

The wretched refuse scooped from off the floor

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed half-drowned to me,

I lift my x-ray beam inside the lead lined door.

Here's the original poem:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame,
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

I love my job! This week has been really, really good in x-ray land. I did an awesome cross table knee on Tues. The pt was unconsious, but the films looked like they were done on a walkie talkie. X-ray rocks!

Suck In

Reasons for holding my breath, while pushing a patient's wheelchair:

• vomit and nicotine
• greasy old man hair
• greasy old woman hair
• old woman butt crack
• rotting cast skin
• week old urine
• diarrhea
• full and leaking ostomy bag
• smoker's stench
• infected bed sores
• full diaper
• cow poop on shoes -came in from the barn stink
• drunk yesterday-tequila leaking out pores stink
• mouth breather with rotten tooth stumps
• football/hockey player locker room stench

Peep Peep

I haven't written about my pet chickens in a long time, so...

This post will be all about them.

They arrived in a box at the post office on Aug. 1st, 2007.

I was expecting them to arrive the next day, but the post office called at 10pm and asked me to 'please pick up your peeping package'.

Sadly, one chick, a bantam barred rock, died from shipping injuries.

This is their first picture. From the right-clockwise: Pippa(Sebright Bantam), Honey(Delaware),Zela(Australorp),Butter(Delaware), and Lavender(EE Bantam).

They were very sleepy after hatching, being popped into a box, and traveling through the postal service.

I love how Pippa used to sleep on her head!

They grew up fast! Here they are at one week old.

Pippa's such a fashion model!

Here they are 2 weeks old.

At three weeks they're starting to look a little ratty. Poor pre-teenagers! Just wait it gets much worse. They lose all their baby fuzz and get their first big girl feathers.

At five weeks, Honey is starting to look like a big girl, but there's a long way to go. She's still a little chick!

At six weeks, they enjoy a juicy tomato and hopping up onto my back!

Here they are a seven weeks. The big girls, Honey, Butter and Zela really start to grow, leaving the bantams, Pippa and Lavender, in the dust.

The big girls are standard size chickens.

Bantams are usually miniature versions of standard size chickens. Like if you have a toy or miniature poodle, there's a standard size too.

However, Pippa is an exception to the bantam rule.

Sebrights are true bantams and there isn't any standard size (large) chicken of her breed.

Sebright bantams were bred by Sir John Sebright in the early 1800's.

They are the only chicken breed named after a man.

(You never know - this could be a winning Jeopordy question some day! File this info away.)

Well, this is a long enough post. More some other day.

Aspirin Kills

A funny thing just happened in the ER!

A woman came in with chest pain and I was doing an EKG. The pt. was using mask O2, because she was having a hard time breathing with all her chest pain. Anyway, I'm putting the stickers on her chest and the nurse is on the other side of the bed talking to the pt.

The nurse pulls down the mask and says, "OK I'm giving you 2 baby aspirins now."
She pops the aspirin into the pt's mouth.
The pt starts choking and we quickly help her to sit up.
After a good hard cough the pt finally weakly says, "It went down the wrong tube. Are you trying to kill me?"

I thought this was hilarious! But the ER nurse didn't think it was too funny.

Come in for chest pain and we'll choke you!

Amo esto

These are some things I love.

The streets - Dry Your Eyes



And Fit But You Know It


Monarch of the Glen - I'm a big, big, fan of Duncan! But after Hector died the show sucked!


Decemberists - 16 Military Wives video Poor Carl :(


Newsies - Christian Bale singing and dancing


Highland Reign - Ride with the Devil - Crazy drunk guy dancing


HP sauce!! I can't decide if I like fruity or indian better. mmmmm makin' me hungry.

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?

Happy March

Happy March!
I turn 25 this month. Boo.

It's depressing. If I live to be 100 (ha,ha, not likely) 1/4 of my life is already over.

But really, I should look at it as 1/3, because statistically I'm more likely to only live to 75.
Sad.

I thought this article about hormone related side effects was interesting. I see anecdotal evidence of this when I'm doing mammograms on women that have taken HRT in the past. Their breasts are very firm and hard, so it's much more difficult to get adequate compression. We all hate doing HRT pts.

However, the worst are women with breast implants. We draw straws to see who has to do those.
One woman came in to the dept. and was suprised at how difficult her mammogram was now that she had breast implants. Her surgeon told her that mammograms would be easier now that she had the implants, because there 'wasn't as much breast tissue'. -Not true!

As you can see from these pictures.
First, standard mamm views are taken with moderate force to the breast and implant.



Then, implant displacement views are taken. The implant is pushed back against the chest wall and the breast tissue is pulled forward and compressed. Imagine a half empty tube of toothpaste. Just like pushing the toothpaste toward the cap, we push or squeeze the implant toward the chest wall. There are double the views(x-rays) = more time and more times compressing the pt.

Knead Me

I did a bunch of baking today.

First, Brioche.

Date-Nut bread.

Almond puff pastry baking.Almond puff pastry with lingonberry preserves. Drizzled with lemon sugar frosting and topped with candied pecans