Strawberry Jam

I made strawberry jam last week. The strawberries were from my own garden! This was a great year for strawberries. There were tons! Too bad the season is already over. Now the black raspberries have started!

Fresh strawberries.
Crushed strawberries.
Adding the pectin, butter, and sugar.

Jars sealing.
All done! Every jar sealed!

Ring Ring

Yes. This is my butt.

This is also the phone that I carry around while I'm working. People call me on it and tell me to do stuff. Sometimes I listen to them.

A favorite, never gets old tech joke:

Hey! Your butt's ringing!

First Tomater

I GOT MY FIRST TOMATO!!

(of the summer,

I've had tomatoes before, I'm

not a total cretin)

Yay!

Yay!

And I ate it.

With salt.

It was good.

Tomatoey.

And it was a small tomato, like I said before,

I don't have giant hands! Really! I swear!

Getting Old

This is such a neat x-ray in real life, but unfortunately it doesn't copy very well.
The pt was an 86 y/o cancer pt. She had absolutely no control over her arm. When I lifted her arm to position it, it flopped around like a wet noodle.
I also did an external rotation, but that did NOT copy at ALL. And it was so gross looking too.

Ding Dong

Look at how small this newborn is! That's my HAND it's sitting on.

(and NO I don't have giant hands!) It was so tiny!

However, look closely at its chest: Bell shaped. That's a sign of Down Syndrome. Sad.
Upright Abd of a newborn.

Tree Jumper

This is what happens when you're 9 and you jump out of a tree.
And you land on your shoulder and break your clavicle.
The 1st one is the angled shot.

Tu Mama

Bathroom fun:
I guess someone forgot to flush!

Woo Hoo

I went to Valleyfair last Sat.

So much fun! I love the Scrambler and Monster.
I'm such a chicken with the big rides.
I've tried them all and decided I never want to try them again! For good reason - Wild Thing crash.

Also, ran in a 4 mile race recently. My time was 44:12. Not very fast, but at least I finished. I ran the last 500 feet really, really fast. My mom (who ran it with a back injury) did it in 32:07. She got 4th place in her age group.

For a while, during the race, I was running near a boy and his dad. The dad was trying to encourage his son: "Pace yourself!" "Pick up your feet!" "You wanted to do this, stop whining." "Straight back!" "Keep your head up!" "Stop flopping you feet around, step lightly, easy on your knees."

Ahh, it brought back fond memories of my childhood. I wanted to tell the kid, "It eventually gets better and they leave you alone."

In Control

I think it's strange that 3 months ago I sat sweating, praying, on the edge of my seat, waiting for my interview in a new department AND NOW I'm in control of that department.
I worked my first 4 day week-end by myself. Thurs. to Sun.
I'm not following anyone around anymore.
It was interesting.
Very, very busy.
Exciting.
Boring.
Gross.
My very first patient on Thurs. painted the walls, floor and x-ray table with vomit.
It smelled like hamburger.


I had this funny little conversation with a nurse on Sat. night. The ER was packed and I was working on one patient and a nurse brought over another patient. The computer was slower than a 92 year old on ice. I'm trying to work fast and get done with the first patient, so the nurse can go back to the ER with him, but the computer is Too Slow!!
She's breathing down my neck.

Then she starts walking around looking for something and she finally comes back to me and says: Are you here all by yourself?
Me: Yeah.
Nurse: Well, that's strange.
Me: Uh, on a Sat? Evening? I think there's usually just one person.
Nurse: Yeah, but don't you need a license or something to run the machines?
Me: Uhhhh.......I've been a tech. for 5 years.
Nurse:...............oh, never mind.

Should I be insulted?

Garden Again

More Pictures of my garden on Thursday 6-12-08

Wet Feathers

I gave my pet chicken Butter a bath!
She loved it!

She took a nap after her bath, wrapped up in her towel, for almost 20 mins.

Wiped Out

Thursday (today) we did 18 fluoro/interventional pts. I was doing or assisting in almost every case. PLUS I did 3 In pts, 2 girls from a MVA and 4 other ER pts. All 7 of the ER pts were on backboards, so everything was cross table. Knees, c-spine, l-spine, ect. Ugg.
And 2 of the in pts were kids. So sad....little cancer kids with bald heads.

I'm having a hard time letting the students do stuff. It's really tough. Either I end up jumping in and doing everything or I let the student do it, but I forget that I'm supposed to stand there and watch them. I end up walking away to do some paperwork or answer the phone. Then I run back when I remember that they're "just" students. Aaaaaaaaa!

Some of the techs are really rude to the students. Even though they're students they're still HUMANS! Do unto others as you would like done to you.
Please.
It's embarrassing to watch them belittle the students. It just makes them look incompetent.

Well, I've collected a couple really juicy, grusome stories during this last week........... but I'm waiting for people/media to forget about them. No HIPPA lawsuit for me thanks very much!

Hello Feet

If you are so fat that the hospital staff need to use a steel dolly to move you into and around the hospital.......you need professional help.
You are too fat.
You are killing yourself.
And you're only 31.