Dime a dozen

Dime a dozen
Originally uploaded by Nikki McLeod

hawaii's got nothin' on oregon in the fall and spring. ok, maybe the ocean temp. but as far as rainbow state rivals, i would wager hawaii could just get cozy in that back seat. my commute is beautiful. and, at least one trip of the day is done in daylight hours, so that's a bonus.
in the dark it is kinda creepy on the back roads.

last week i hit a possum on the way into newberg. it got to me more than i ever thought it would, mostly because it was not by any means a small possum, but i pushed it neatly under the figuritive rug.

until today, when my first legitimately *crazy* patient showed up with some sort of acute psychosis going on. after ruling out she wasn't seizing (generally not a bilateral movement phenomenon that one can talk through) i tried the old cure for pseudo-seizure my preceptor recommended...smelling salts. and hey, they work! imagine that. snapped my patient right out of it long enough to get out of her that she was having these constant visual hallucinations....of dark places, with animals with red eyes....

and dammed if the first thing i thought of was that unfortunate possum.

and her fear became real to me. i got it. it would really suck to be stuck in that world forever. i'd probably be shaking non-stop too.

acute onset schizophrenia? maybe. it sure fit. not up to me to make that diagnoses, and i'm glad it never will be. admit to psych. done. yikes.

in other news, the boys are madly whittling down their halloween preparations...initially it was supposed to be some sort of scooby doo holiday, but now we might be going in another direction altogether...tomorrow is the deadline. we shall see. liam rode around the neighborhood this afternoon making a map of the super decked-out halloween decorated houses, so we're gonna hit those up first. last year they lasted about 2 blocks before the desire to eat the candy outweighed the desire to get more. this year, mommy has a chocolate quota that needs to be met, cool decorations or no.

if i'm going to be shipped out to newport, WA for a northern exposure stint in 2 weeks without my family, then i will need all the emotional and cocoa-bound nutritional support i can get. will enjoy the scenery and the sugar in the meantime.

some swine with that cheese.....

ER celebration humor
Originally uploaded by Nikki McLeod

oh ER humor.

swine cakes in celebration of ER nurses week showed up today. painstakingly and wonderfully handmade.... including the pink marshmellows. touche, martha.

i might add a sad note, however, that last week, in honor of PA week, there was nothing. not one treat. this week it might as week might as well be halloween, valentines and easter all rolled up into one sugary gooey morsel. and the one PA who i actually wished a happy PA day to responded, "oh, ok. wait, what? we have a day?"

who needs recognition, anyway. i can steal the nurse's treats and be just as happy.

besides being ignored by hospital administration as a professional, however, i have been having quite a fabulous time in the ED. more fun that i thought i would have. seeing more craziness than i thought. rural ER's are fun that way, since the weird is usually funny and interesting instead of...really weird. ie... drunk/stinky/psychotic.

gunshot wounds, eyeball foreign bodies, GI foreign bodies, broken bones from tripping over the dog and falling off tractors, GI bleeds, heart attacks, miscarriage, lacerations, car accidents, ginormous hernias gone unchecked for 8 years, lumbar punctures, central lines, NG tubes, and today, icing on the cake, an addisonian crisis. i mean....that's good stuff. i might be in love.

except for the swine flu bit. these patients are everywhere. probably a 3:1 ratio to all the fun stuff is flu symptoms. and these people are miserable, but sent home. and not accounted for, cause that only happens in the state of OR if you're admitted. fun fact for the day. huh.
my favorite are the patients that come in after trying to battle it out for a day at work and then realize they're too sick. nice. move. people.

i have yet to be immunized for that. i'm sort of hoping that i'm getting enough exposure to sort of boost my immune system just by showing up. i am intrigued by the RN's tales of consequences at the hospital, and at other hospitals about what will happen to them if they don't get the H1N1 immunization. like having to take vacation time if they get sick, or in extreme circumstances, being fired. it's quite a controversy these days, and i think it's weird that it seems to have landed on the RN's shoulders the hardest. this as we admitted 5 patients on my shift alone today and then had to divert the rest since the nursing staff in the rest of the hospital was too depleted to fill the remaining 10 beds that were open....8 RN's called out sick on one floor alone today. i thought the nursing supervisor was going to lose it completely.

so
fingers will remain very clean and crossed from here on out.
except for when they're covered in chocolate and pink icing...