I've got a busy day tomorrow. EMT class from 8-5, and then my first clinical rotation from 6-10 at a busy trauma one. I'll be hanging out with the triage nurse, taking vitals and doing assessment.
It's crazy... I'm at the point in my education where I'm starting to live, eat and breathe emergency medicine. Things like pneumothorax and anaphylaxis and HIPAA play in my brain on some sort of sick carousel. I love it.
By the way... are you aware of the danger that hybrid cars pose to emergency personnel? Click here to learn more and find out how you can stay safe when dealing with an MVA involving a hybrid.
2.22.2008
2.20.2008
The age of majority
So I'm 18 now. How do I feel?
Sexualized.
There's some disturbing, blatant sexualization that comes with being a remotely attractive 18 year old girl. It's the minimum socially acceptable age you have to be for men to openly objectify you. It's pretty nauseating, when you think about it.
Scared
HOLY SHIT I DO NOT WANT TO GET OLD. Death doesn't scare me, but circling the drain, slowly losing vitality of the mind and body does scare the shit out of me. It's scary to think that in a couple of years the downward slope will begin and there's no fighting it. I've only got a couple of years left of my mind and fitness gaining.
Excited
And although I feel I've come so far, I know the journey is really just beginning.
Sexualized.
There's some disturbing, blatant sexualization that comes with being a remotely attractive 18 year old girl. It's the minimum socially acceptable age you have to be for men to openly objectify you. It's pretty nauseating, when you think about it.
Scared
HOLY SHIT I DO NOT WANT TO GET OLD. Death doesn't scare me, but circling the drain, slowly losing vitality of the mind and body does scare the shit out of me. It's scary to think that in a couple of years the downward slope will begin and there's no fighting it. I've only got a couple of years left of my mind and fitness gaining.
Excited
And although I feel I've come so far, I know the journey is really just beginning.2.15.2008
High Altitude Flatus Expulsion
TO THE EDITOR: We would like to report our ob-.
servations upon a new gastrointestinal syndrome,
which we shall refer to by the acronym HAFE
(high altitude flatus expulsion). This phenomenon
was most recently witnessed by us during an expedition
in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern
Colorado, with similar experiences during excursions
past. The syndrome is strictly associated
with ascent, and is characterized by an increase in
both the volume and the frequency of the passage
of flatus, which spontaneously occurs while climbing
to altitudes of 11,000 feet or greater. The
eructations (known to veteran back-packers as
"Rocky Mountain barking spiders") do not appear
to vary with exercise, but may well be closely
linked to diet.' The fact that the syndrome invariably
abated on descent leads us to postulate a
mechanism whereby the victim is afflicted by the
expansion of colonic gas at the decreased atmospheric
pressure of high altitude. This is somewhat
analogous to the rapid intravascular expansion of
nitrogen which afflicts deep-sea divers and triggers
decompression illness.
While not as catastrophic as barotrauma nor
as debilitating as HAPE (high altitude pulmonary
edema), HAFE nonetheless represents a significant
inconvenience to those who prefer to hike in company.
Some experience from recent Everest expeditions
suggests that the use of digestive enzymes
and simethicone may minimize the hazard.
At present, we can advise victims that the offense
is more sociologic than physiologic.
HAFE should be added to the growing list of
medical disorders that are associated with exposure
to high altitude. We are planning a prospective
study for the summer of 1981.
PAUL AUERBACH, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Attending Physician, Emergency Services
Temple University Hospital
Philadelphia
YORK E. MILLER, MD
Research Fellow
Pulmonary Division
Department of Medicine
University of Colorado Health Sciences Center
Denver
(Published in the Feb 1981 issue of the Western Journal of Medicine)
servations upon a new gastrointestinal syndrome,
which we shall refer to by the acronym HAFE
(high altitude flatus expulsion). This phenomenon
was most recently witnessed by us during an expedition
in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern
Colorado, with similar experiences during excursions
past. The syndrome is strictly associated
with ascent, and is characterized by an increase in
both the volume and the frequency of the passage
of flatus, which spontaneously occurs while climbing
to altitudes of 11,000 feet or greater. The
eructations (known to veteran back-packers as
"Rocky Mountain barking spiders") do not appear
to vary with exercise, but may well be closely
linked to diet.' The fact that the syndrome invariably
abated on descent leads us to postulate a
mechanism whereby the victim is afflicted by the
expansion of colonic gas at the decreased atmospheric
pressure of high altitude. This is somewhat
analogous to the rapid intravascular expansion of
nitrogen which afflicts deep-sea divers and triggers
decompression illness.
While not as catastrophic as barotrauma nor
as debilitating as HAPE (high altitude pulmonary
edema), HAFE nonetheless represents a significant
inconvenience to those who prefer to hike in company.
Some experience from recent Everest expeditions
suggests that the use of digestive enzymes
and simethicone may minimize the hazard.
At present, we can advise victims that the offense
is more sociologic than physiologic.
HAFE should be added to the growing list of
medical disorders that are associated with exposure
to high altitude. We are planning a prospective
study for the summer of 1981.
PAUL AUERBACH, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Attending Physician, Emergency Services
Temple University Hospital
Philadelphia
YORK E. MILLER, MD
Research Fellow
Pulmonary Division
Department of Medicine
University of Colorado Health Sciences Center
Denver
(Published in the Feb 1981 issue of the Western Journal of Medicine)
2.12.2008
The strangest, easiest search I've been on
Unfortunately, it's also my second unsuccessful search. On Sunday the team went up to the second operational period for the search of a man missing in a busy ski resort town. We went door to door and probed snow drifts, covering the entire town. Unfortunately, we turned up absolutely no sign of him.
Now the family has hopes that he's not in town and possibly alive based on the fact that SAR could not locate anything after two full days and the fact that the man had hitchhiked before.
Now there's a $10,000 reward out for information about him.
Now the family has hopes that he's not in town and possibly alive based on the fact that SAR could not locate anything after two full days and the fact that the man had hitchhiked before.
Now there's a $10,000 reward out for information about him.
2.09.2008
Wandering drunk in the freezing cold alone. Not good.
Well I got a page a couple of hours ago for a search up in the high country. Looks like a man got totally wasted last night and was last seen staggering out of a bar at 2 am in freezing cold, high winds, and snow. He's young, he hasn't been missing for too long and "police say in the past, Barbiere (the missing dude) has decided to sleep in strangers' cars" so I'm pretty hopeful. We're leaving tomorrow at the crack of dawn.
I'll let you know how it goes.
I'll let you know how it goes.
2.05.2008
uniform hell
I realized today that I will probably never wear street clothes to work. I have yet to graduate high school, yet I already have 4 different uniforms. Every week I will wear each of these uniforms at least once. They take up about half of my closet space. I don't mind. Gives me less to think about in the morning.
2.04.2008
why I chose EMS
When I was 5 years old my family went on vacation for a week. We left a brand new kitten at home under a neighbor's watch. When we returned home we couldn't find her anywhere. My mom commented for some reason that she had forgot to drain the bath tub. My dad jokingly said that the kitten had probably drowned thanks to my mom.
20 seconds later we found the kitten's body floating in the old bathwater.
I ran to my room to grab this pump I had... I had this balloon animal kit that came with a manual air pump. I wanted to pump air into the kitten... I wanted to bring her back to life.
When I was 6 we had a little barbecue... just my mom and dad and I. My mom and I were eating hamburgers in the 2nd story bedroom while my dad turned the grill off in the backyard. Suddenly there was nothing but fire outside the window... and then screams. The barbecue had exploded and my dad was badly burned- third degree burns all over his face and chest. The neighbors came rushing because they thought a car had exploded.
The paramedics came and took him to the hospital. This is when I decided I liked ambulances and emergency rooms and the nurses and doctors. He was in the hospital for a while and it took a long time for him to heal, but now you can't even tell he was burned.
When my grandma was in the ICU an amazing doctor played latex-glove-balloon volleyball with me. He explained why an elevated white blood cell count was bad. The nurses showed me stuff on the monitors.
When I was 10 my dad started convulsing on the couch. I remembered the story he told me about his sister having a couple of seizures in childhood. I called 911 immediately.I rode up front in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. This is the day I decided I would be involved in this field. I just knew.
Basically, I've been in the ER or the back of an ambulance or in the hospital either as a patient or as a family member many, many more times than I can count. Every single time the paramedics, EMTs, nurses, respiratory therapists, and doctors have treated me with respect and compassion, regardless of my age or situation.
I was always fascinated by medicine and I enjoyed being in the hospital. I felt guilty throughout my childhood because although concerned, I always got a little bit excited and happy when one of my family members was hospitalized because I enjoyed being in the the hospital so much. I felt "right" there. I still do.
I realize that I am very young and I refuse to confine myself to this one option; I will remain open-minded. However I feel deeply that it is my calling and I will pursue it vigorously until something else proves itself more worthy.
20 seconds later we found the kitten's body floating in the old bathwater.
I ran to my room to grab this pump I had... I had this balloon animal kit that came with a manual air pump. I wanted to pump air into the kitten... I wanted to bring her back to life.
When I was 6 we had a little barbecue... just my mom and dad and I. My mom and I were eating hamburgers in the 2nd story bedroom while my dad turned the grill off in the backyard. Suddenly there was nothing but fire outside the window... and then screams. The barbecue had exploded and my dad was badly burned- third degree burns all over his face and chest. The neighbors came rushing because they thought a car had exploded.
The paramedics came and took him to the hospital. This is when I decided I liked ambulances and emergency rooms and the nurses and doctors. He was in the hospital for a while and it took a long time for him to heal, but now you can't even tell he was burned.
When my grandma was in the ICU an amazing doctor played latex-glove-balloon volleyball with me. He explained why an elevated white blood cell count was bad. The nurses showed me stuff on the monitors.
When I was 10 my dad started convulsing on the couch. I remembered the story he told me about his sister having a couple of seizures in childhood. I called 911 immediately.I rode up front in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. This is the day I decided I would be involved in this field. I just knew.
Basically, I've been in the ER or the back of an ambulance or in the hospital either as a patient or as a family member many, many more times than I can count. Every single time the paramedics, EMTs, nurses, respiratory therapists, and doctors have treated me with respect and compassion, regardless of my age or situation.
I was always fascinated by medicine and I enjoyed being in the hospital. I felt guilty throughout my childhood because although concerned, I always got a little bit excited and happy when one of my family members was hospitalized because I enjoyed being in the the hospital so much. I felt "right" there. I still do.
I realize that I am very young and I refuse to confine myself to this one option; I will remain open-minded. However I feel deeply that it is my calling and I will pursue it vigorously until something else proves itself more worthy.
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