Dagens Namn -- 30 September 2005

Today is your name day if your name is Helge.

"Where the hell is that patient's nurse?!?!"

While I generally enjoy the TV show House, I feel like must complain about it a little bit. Apparently the hospital in the show does not employ nurses. My sister must be getting really tired of me yelling at the TV, “Where the hell is that patient’s nurse?!?!” All this blood drawing and medication administration that the main characters do would never happen in real life. The only doctors on my floor that administer meds are the anesthesiologists (during surgery and for epidurals). The obstetricians don’t even have access codes for the med pyxis. In this week’s episode the doctor is shocked to find out that the patient hasn’t urinated since the previous afternoon. If the patient had a nurse, they sure as hell would have known that his kidneys were failing much much earlier. Especially since he was on a drug known to cause nephrotoxicity. Despite my complaints, however, I do enjoy the diagnostic reasoning part of the show, as we have been learning a lot about it in my health assessment class. It is fun to see them do their medical detective work. The other medical shows I watch (ER and Grey's Anatomy) aren't much better in their portayal of nurses. I really just wish that there was some show on TV that depicted nurses in a positive and realistic manner.

Dagens Namn -- 29 September 2005

Today is your name day if your name is: Mikael or Mikaela.

Dagens Namn -- 28 September 2005

Today is your name day if your name is: Lennart or Leonard.

Good and Bad Things

Good things that happened at work yesterday:

1) We all got $175 Visa gift cards. This was presumably to thank everyone for helping the hospital pass JCAHO inspection last week.

2) My manager actually gave me a compliment. I had given her my Clinical Nurse III application to review and sign before I submitted it. One portion of the application was an essay about a patient care situation that was particularly meaningful to us and that demonstrated the advanced nursing skills engendered by a prospective Clin III. She said that I "write very well." That's probably the nicest thing she's ever said to me.

Bad things that happened at work yesterday:

1) The lady who was scheduled for c-section on Wednesday came in early. She was at her doctor's office and they weren't able to find a heartbeat. Of course all perinatal losses are sad, but this one particularly so since she was already at term and had planned to have a normal delivery two days later.

2) We have a patient who is just a total mess. Her list of problems includes: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and emphysema (2 packs a day since age 13), schizophrenia, seizure disorder, syphillis, cor pulmonale (heart disease generally as a result of lung disease), cocaine and alcohol abuse (most recent cocaine abuse just a week ago). Oh, plus she's 35 weeks pregnant! She actually bummed a cigarette off another patient's family member the other day in the waiting room. What kind of STUPID IDIOT gives a pregnant woman a cigarette?

Dagens Namn -- 27 September 2005

Today is your name day if your name is: Dagmar or Rigmor.

Dagens Namn -- 26 September 2005

Today is your name day if your name is: Einar or Enar.

Dagens Namn -- 25 September 2005

Today is your name day if your name is Tryggve.

Letters to the Editor

In the most recent issue of the Economist, there were a number of letters to the editor in response to their September 10th article, "The shaming of America." Some supported the government response to Hurricane Katrina, but many didn't. One comment from a Norwegian man struck me as particularly funny, but also astute and sadly true:

SIR – New Orleans's mayor should have called the hawks in Washington before Katrina struck and told them that 30 al-Qaeda-looking types were at the levees. Help would then surely have arrived in time.

Stein Glorvigen

Skjetten, Norway

I tried to put in a link for the original story, but you have to have premium access for that. Check it out at the library if you are really interested.

Dagens Namn -- 24 September 2005

Today is your name day if your name is: Gert or Gerhard.

Anna Nalick

My new favorite CD is "Wreck of the Day" by Anna Nalick. I bought it a couple of weeks ago and I've had it in my car stereo ever since. Regarding her influences, her website says this:

Citing a wide range of influences running from Fiona Apple and Tori Amos, with whom she shares a complex feminine poignancy, to Blind Melon and John Mayer, whose adroit poetic paradoxes reverberate in her songs, to Stevie Ray Vaughan, whom she calls, simply, "The guy that I'm going to marry when I get to heaven," Anna generates a sound and sensibility distinctly her own

She's going to be at the 9:30 Club on October 11th, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to go. Have to see what school and work are like. Anyway, check out the album on Amazon or Anna's official website.

Gynecologic Teaching Associates

Tomorrow in my health assessment class we have to do breast, pelvic and rectal exams. At the beginning of the semester for a brief second we were afraid that we would be doing them on each other. Turns out we do them on GTAs (gynecologic or genitourinary teaching associates). These are people who are professionally trained and paid (well) to teach students how to perform breast, pelvic, and rectal exams. They teach you how to do it on themselves by themselves. Our models (both male and female) apparently come from Johns Hopkins. How in the world you find people who are willing to do this is beyond me. I mean one pelvic or rectal exam would be enough for me, let alone four or five in a row. I'm guessing the money is really good. I was searching on the internet for info on GTAs. I didn't really find anything about the money, but I found this interesting article from the Village Voice written by a medical student about his experience with a GTA.

Dagens Namn -- 23 September 2005

Today is your name day if your name is: Tea or Tekla.

Dagens Namn -- 22 September 2005

Today is your name day if your name is: Maurits or Moritz.

Dagens Namn -- 21 September 2005

Today is your name day if your name is Matteus.

Sveriges Radio

I have been listening to Swedish radio recently. Because my mom is Swedish, I can read/write/speak/understand Swedish. There isn't anything particularly different or exciting about Swedish radio, I just like being able to listen to the spoken Swedish word. It sounds so nice to me. I am also hoping that listening the Swedish radio programs will help increase my Swedish vocabulary. If you would like to check it out, see the Sveriges Radio link in my links section.

Dagens Namn -- 20 September 2005

Today is your name day if your name is: Elise or Lisa.

Dagens Namn -- 19 September 2005

Today is your name day if your name is Fredrika.

Dagens Namn -- 18 September 2005

Today is your name day if your name is Orvar.

Happy Birthday!!!

Today is my mom's birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Ok, who's excited about the upcoming new Harry Potter movie? I am, I am! It comes out November 18th and there is a "new" trailer poster on Yahoo. Check it out.

Dagens Namn -- 17 September 2005

Today is your name day if your name is: Hildegard or Magnhild.

Prayers and Positive Thoughts

My classmate Jill's father had a stroke today. She found out during the middle of class and of course left right away to get home to New York. I just can't even imagine what that must be like. If you are the type of person who prays, please add her and her family to your prayers. If you aren't the type of person who prays, please at least think some positive thoughts and send some positive energy her way. Thanks!

West Wing

Last night, some of my coworkers and I had the opportunity to have a private tour of the West Wing of the White House. The tour came courtesy of one of our former patients who is a member of the White House senior staff. We met up with our patient over at her office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. That place is locked up pretty tight. We had to go through two security checkpoints before we were even allowed into the building. Our patient had a wine and cheese spread for us in her office. It was good to see her again, as well as another former patient who is a good friend of hers. She really is one of the coolest and sweetest people I know (even if she is a Republican). We got to watch the beginning of the president’s national address from New Orleans in her office before the tour over in the White House started.

If you watch the West Wing on NBC, you will possibly be disappointed to know that the Oval Office is the only part that is accurate. One of the coolest parts was the numerous large photographs on the walls in all the corridors. These photographs are apparently rotated on a fairly regular basis. A photograph taken of the president in the morning can end up on the wall by the afternoon. When we there yesterday there were tons of pictures of the President surveying the devastation down on the Gulf Coast.

Although I am not the biggest fan of our current president, it was still pretty cool to be at a place where so many important things happen on a daily basis and have done so for over a hundred years. I guess the sense of history was what impressed me most, as opposed to just focusing on the fact that it is Dubya’s office now.

Dagens Namn -- 16 September 2005

Today is your name day if your name is: Dag or Daga.

Dagens Namn -- 15 September 2005

Today is your name if your name is Siri or Sigrid.

Dagens Namn -- 14 September 2005

Today is your name day if your name is Ida.

Race

In class today, we watched the first part of a fascinating documentary called, "Race: The Power of an Illusion." It was the kind of thing that really made you think. The documentary was produced by California Newsreel and broadcast by PBS. To quote from the film's website:

The division of the world's peoples into distinct groups
- "red," "black," "white" or "yellow" peoples - has became so deeply imbedded in
our psyches, so widely accepted, many would promptly dismiss as crazy any
suggestion of its falsity. Yet, that's exactly what this provocative, new
three-hour series by California Newsreel claims. Race - The Power of an Illusion
questions the very idea of race as biology, suggesting that a belief in race is
no more sound than believing that the sun revolves around the earth. Yet race
still matters. Just because race doesn't exist in biology doesn't mean it isn't
very real, helping shape life chances and opportunities.

Before we watched the film, our professor had us take a "Race Literacy Quiz." Going over the answers was really eye-opening because so many of the answers were different from what you would expect. Take it yourself and see if it doesn't make you think.

Dagens Namn -- 13 September 2005

Today is your name day if your name is Sture.

Why are people so dumb? Part IV

Ok, I mean seriously, what in the world is wrong with people? Read this article and you will be asking yourself the same thing. I can't believe this wasn't caught before. Sounds like it could have been going on for at least 3 years. You'd think that a couple who was responsible for that many foster children would have to undergo some kind of regular "inspection." The whole thing just makes me sick.

Dagens Namn -- 12 September 2005

Today is your name day if your name is: Åsa or Åslög.

Dagens Namn -- 11 September 2005

Today is your name day if your name is: Dagny or Helny.

Dagens Namn -- 10 September 2005

Today is your name day if your name is: Turid or Tord.

Back to School

For the next month, my life will be pretty much be all about school or work. For the next four weeks I have class on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Lucky me! The rest of the days of the week I have to fit in my three 12 hour shifts at work (days or nights). The class that I have all day Fridays and Saturdays is my Advanced Health Assessment class. It only lasts for four weeks and when I pass it I can go out and do clinicals in the community. We had our first day of lecture (7 hours!) for this class today. It was overwhelming to put it lightly. Information overload! We covered cardiovascular, respiratory and integumentary assessment. Tomorrow we have our first lab day (also 7 hours!), where we get to examine each others' cardiovascular, respiratory, and integumentary systems. Fun stuff. We even had homework that we got today, that is due tomorrow. Who would have ever believed that there were so many things to examine/question and so many differential diagnoses for someone complaining of a cough? Hopefully I will emerge from this month not too much the worse for wear. If, however, you don't hear from or see me for a while, you now know why.

Dagens Namn -- 9 September 2005

Today is your name day if your name is: Anita or Annette.

Dagens Namn -- 8 September 2005

Today is your name day if your name is: Alma or Hulda.

Dagens Namn -- 7 September 2005

Today is your name day if your name is: Roy or Regina.

Junebug

I went to see the movie “Junebug” yesterday with my mom and my sister. To summarize the premise briefly…

It is a deceptively simple character study of a family in North Carolina whose eldest son, George, marries Madeline, a sophisticated art dealer from Chicago. They fall in love and marry quickly, so they still don't know much about each other. Madeline is trying to sign a small town artist who lives near George’s family. So they make a trip to North Carolina to woo the artist and to meet George’s family.

The film is slow, gentle, and contemplative. It kind of has the feel of a good short story. If you can only handle action packed thrillers, don’t bother seeing this movie. The movie has gotten a lot of positive critique so far. All of the actors give good performances. Even Benjamin McKenzie of “The O.C.” fame, who plays the moody younger brother Johnny. The actress who steels the show, however, is Amy Adams who plays Ashley, Johnny’s pregnant wife. Ashley is like Scarlett O’Hara with ADD, a desperately cheerful chatterbox who is earnest and childlike, but more intelligent that she first appears. It is as though she just talks and talks and talks because to be silent would be to confront her life's emptiness. To quote one the reviews I read, “Ms. Adams's incandescent Ashley floods the movie with a heartbreaking sweetness and warmth.” Adams had better be on the list for best supporting actress when the Oscar nominations come out. She has already received praise for her performance by winning a special jury prize for dramatic performance at the Sundance Film Festival

In conclusion, I’m so glad we went to see this movie. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would highly recommend it to any of you.

Dagens Namn -- 6 September 2005

Today is your name day if your name is: Lilian or Lilly.

Dagens Namn -- 5 September 2005

Today is your name day if your name is: Heidi or Adela.

Beslan tragedy

As if I wasn't depressed enough already with all the coverage of the hurricane, I happened upon a documentary on HBO tonight about the Beslan tragedy, which occurred a year ago this past weekend. It was so compelling that I ended up watching the whole thing. For those of you who don't know about this event, it involved a group of 30 armed terrorists taking 1,300 people hostage at a school in the town of Beslan in the southwestern part of Russia. It occurred on the first day of school, so not only were students and teachers present, but also many parents, younger siblings, and relatives. The siege lasted 3 days and in the end 29 of the terrorists and 344 civilians died. The documentary provided a summary of the events interspersed with interviews with children who had survived the tragedy. They were all so young (between I’d say 7 and 12) and it was just depressing to think what they had been through. Most of them lost friends and many of them lost family members. In the last part of the documentary they focused on how the kids were doing now. There was so much anger, which is obviously understandable. Many of them talked about what they would do to the terrorists if they ever saw them again. It is just heartbreaking that these kids have to be filled with so much rage at such a young age.

Why is it?

Why is it that some people think that traffic/road signs don't apply to them? Signs with messages like, "Stop," "Yield," "No left turn," "No right turn on red," are all there for a reason. In my many drives through Georgetown I am convinced that certain people have absolutely no conception of what, "Stop, All (Four) Way," means. When the sign says, "Yield to underpass traffic," that means that you must yield to the cars coming out from the underpass, not cut them off. Do these people have a death wish? Or maybe they are out to hurt other people? Who knows. I certainly don't understand it.

Dagens Namn -- 4 September 2005

Today is your name day if your name is Gisela.

Do Somethin'

Celebrities are pouring out of the woodwork with offers of monetary support for hurricane relief. I applaud these efforts because if you have as much money as some of these people do, you should be sharing it with those who are less fortunate. Especially at a time like this, when so many people are in dire need. Louisiana natives, Ellen DeGeneres, Tim McGraw, and Harry Connick Jr., are all involved in some fundraising effort or another. One Louisiana native who is blatantly missing from the donation scene is Britney Spears. The girl is worth an estimated $125 million and grew up in one of the states most affected by the hurricane. You would think she could cough up a bit a cash. While a promise of money is still absent, you will be glad to know, however, that she has said that she is praying for all those affected. Now I know she has a baby on the way soon, but even so I think she could afford a small donation. I mean, Hillary Duff donated $250,000 and she’s not even from one the states that was badly affected by the hurricane. Earlier this year, Hilary even donated sales from her sold out Most Wanted Tour to the Tsunami victims in South Asia. Somehow I doubt Britney donated then either. Come on Brit, you have more money that Hillary Duff, don’t you? Shell out a few bucks.

TANSTAAFL

The devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina is truly astounding. I have tried to stay away from the TV news coverage because I just find it so utterly depressing. I do, however, still read the newspaper and that is enough. There was a short article in the Post yesterday that caught my interest. The headline was, “U.S. Considers Aid Offers From Two Dozen Countries.” (Follow the link and scroll down to the second article for the full text.) According to some State Department spokesman, Condoleezza Rice has decided “no offer that can help alleviate the suffering of the people in the afflicted area will be refused.” The sad thing about it is that the word “considers” is used. The damage caused by this natural disaster is so great that this country will not be able to overcome it without help. The state of the world today, however, makes it so that offers can’t just be openly accepted. For example, Venezuela has offered humanitarian aid and fuel. Sounds good to me, but Venezuela apparently has a contentious relationship with the Bush administration. It would be a distressing thing to think that aid offers would be turned down because our current administration can’t get along with other countries. I realize of course that these offers probably don’t all come freely either. I’m sure that some of the offers are being made with the expectations of other favors from the US in the future. It just shows how messed up our world is today. I guess that Milton Friedman was right, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”

Dagens Namn -- 3 September 2005

Today is your name day if your name is Alva or Alfhild.

Dagens Namn -- 2 September 2005

Today is your name day if your name is: Justina or Justus.

The Five Maseratis

I have added a new link to the sidebar. See right. It is for this cool little band called The Five Maseratis (Matt Kelly, Jorge Pezzimenti, Rob Steward, and Jon Darby). Matt and Jorge are also in The Legwarmers (which I already have a link to). Jorge and Rob are also in a band called the Pietasters. Busy guys, which is probably why their shows are few and far between. I have never actually seen them perform live, but having listened to their stuff online I think I would enjoy a show. Check out their website and their MySpace page.

Dagens Namn -- 1 September 2005

Today is your name day if your name is Samuel.