Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Oscar Nominations
The nominees for this year's Academy Awards were announced this morning. I won't list them all here on the blog, but you can probably find them at the official Oscar website. Primarily I just wanted to say how happy I am that Amy Adams was nominated for best supporting actress for her role in Junebug. As you may recall, I posted about this movie back in September and specifically stated that she had better be on the Oscar nominees list. Apparently a few other people agree with me. The movie isn't very widely known; Katie Couric hadn't even heard of it when they discussed the nominations on the Today Show. It is out on DVD now, so by all means go buy or rent it! Rachael Weisz (nominated for The Constant Gardner) has won some of the bigger supporting actress awards this year (SAG, Golden Globes). Amy Adams hasn't done too bad though, being nominated 11 times and winning 7 times in the smaller awards. I guess we'll just have to wait until March 5th to see what happens.
Monday, January 30, 2006
Swedish Royalty in the Big Apple
Having recently complete her degree in History of Art, Ethnology and Modern History at Stockholm University, the youngest member of Sweden's royal family, Princess Madeleine, is moving to New York City. She will apparently be interning at UNICEF and living in a "posh Manhattan pad" with three of her closest friends. Ah the life. Hopefully she will be around in March when my sister and I are planning to go to New York. Not that we are stalkers or anything, but it would be fun to see her while we are there. Both Madeleine's older siblings have lived in the US. Crown Princess Victoria studied at Yale, as well as doing internships at both the UN in New York and the Swedish Embassy in Washington DC. Prince Carl Philip went to a private high school in Connecticut for two years.
Whale Vomit
Apparently, perfume manufacturers used to use ambergris (or whale vomit) as a fixative in perfume. Now it is such a rare find that most manufacturers use a synthetic version. A fisherman on the south Australian coast, however, has found a 32 pound piece of ambergris on a beach. For this find, the man could receive upwards of $295,000.
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Christian Valdemar Henri John
Three month old Prince Christian Valdemar Henri John of Denmark was christened this past Saturday. He's pretty darn cute as you can see from the picture below. Doesn't hurt that his parents (Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary) are rather decent looking as well. One of his eight godparents is my own personal favorite princess, Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden. She is apparently a popular godmother, as Christian is her sixth godchild.
Monday, January 23, 2006
My schedule is super fun!
So, this past week has been a little rough and it isn't over yet. The following is my schedule for the past week and the next few days:
1/16 - work 12.5 hours
1/17 - class 4 hours
1/18 - clinical 8.5 hours
1/19 - clinical 8.5 hours
1/20 - work 12.5 hours
1/21 - work 12.5 hours
1/22 - clinical 8.5 hours
1/23 - class 3 hours
1/24 - class 4 hours
1/25 - work 12.5 hours
1/25 - DAY OFF!!!!
This is all by way of trying to explain why I haven't posted anything but the Dagens Namn posts for the past six days.
I have to say that clinical while exhausting has been rather enjoyable. I am certainly learning a lot. On Wednesday I saw 15 patients, on Thursday I saw 13 patients, and on Sunday I saw 11 patients. A significant number of them came in with upper respiratory infections, which you can't really do all that much for. I've gotten to do both some time in both the Family Practice and the Urgent Care settings. You really do get to see an interesting mix of patients. It certainly gives me a better appreciation for practitioners and how busy they can get. It is very easy to get behind in your schedule because every patient thinks they are the most important person there. People are generally appreciative though. I've only had one patient refuse to be seen by a student (which is their right). I try not to take it personally, but at the same time it really annoys me. The only way a practitioner gets to be a good practitioner is by gaining experience. The more people refuse students, the less the students will learn and consequently come out of their program (be it medical or nursing) as weaker practitioners.
No more fake triplets at work, but I was telling someone the story and they brought up the other end of the spectrum. And by this I mean the women who come in at full term fully dilated and claim they had ABSOLUTELY no idea they were pregnant. I think these people are at least equally if not more deluded than the people who falsely claim they are pregnant. How can you not feeling a living being moving around inside your body and not think there might be something going on? Having never experienced it myself I can't say for sure, but I'm pretty certain that you would feel a full term baby inside you.
1/16 - work 12.5 hours
1/17 - class 4 hours
1/18 - clinical 8.5 hours
1/19 - clinical 8.5 hours
1/20 - work 12.5 hours
1/21 - work 12.5 hours
1/22 - clinical 8.5 hours
1/23 - class 3 hours
1/24 - class 4 hours
1/25 - work 12.5 hours
1/25 - DAY OFF!!!!
This is all by way of trying to explain why I haven't posted anything but the Dagens Namn posts for the past six days.
I have to say that clinical while exhausting has been rather enjoyable. I am certainly learning a lot. On Wednesday I saw 15 patients, on Thursday I saw 13 patients, and on Sunday I saw 11 patients. A significant number of them came in with upper respiratory infections, which you can't really do all that much for. I've gotten to do both some time in both the Family Practice and the Urgent Care settings. You really do get to see an interesting mix of patients. It certainly gives me a better appreciation for practitioners and how busy they can get. It is very easy to get behind in your schedule because every patient thinks they are the most important person there. People are generally appreciative though. I've only had one patient refuse to be seen by a student (which is their right). I try not to take it personally, but at the same time it really annoys me. The only way a practitioner gets to be a good practitioner is by gaining experience. The more people refuse students, the less the students will learn and consequently come out of their program (be it medical or nursing) as weaker practitioners.
No more fake triplets at work, but I was telling someone the story and they brought up the other end of the spectrum. And by this I mean the women who come in at full term fully dilated and claim they had ABSOLUTELY no idea they were pregnant. I think these people are at least equally if not more deluded than the people who falsely claim they are pregnant. How can you not feeling a living being moving around inside your body and not think there might be something going on? Having never experienced it myself I can't say for sure, but I'm pretty certain that you would feel a full term baby inside you.
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Friday, January 20, 2006
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
"They're Hiding"
Monday was pretty slow at work because of the holiday. At about 4:30pm, however, we got a frantic call from the ER telling us that there was a patient coming in by ambulance that was at full term and in active labor.
About 10 minutes later, the patient (a 350 pound black woman) came flying through the doors on a stretcher with a full entourage of ER and EMS staff (one ER doc, one ER nurse, and four EMTs). The EMTs were helping her breathe through her contractions and holding her hands. Apparently, the patient was apparently 3 days past her due date and her water had broken about 30 minutes prior to her arrival. Oh, and by the way, she was carrying triplets!! First red flag. None of our perinatologists would ever let triplets get past about 35 weeks gestation, yet this patient is apparently past 40 weeks.
All the same, we rushed her to the recovery room next to the OR, because if she was indeed in labor we would need to do a c-section. The NICU was alerted and came running over looking harried. According to the patient, she had gotten her prenatal care with Dr. P. Second reg flag. Dr. P moved her practice to another hospital about a year and a half ago.
The ER doc had done a quick cervical check in the ER just make sure there wasn't a head coming out. This check was confirmed by our OB docs. The ER staff then went back down to the ER. Since there were about 8 people in the room I went back out to the nurses station to keep an eye on all the other patients. A few minutes later the ER nurse called up and said, "You know, I was talking to one of our docs down here. He thinks he remembers that patient and said she's totally crazy. Just so you know, she may not even be pregnant. Call me back when you guys figure out what's going on with her." I promised to give her an update when I heard any news.
About five minutes later the OB resident came out with an exasperated look on her face. After doing both an abdominal and a transvaginal sono, they confirmed that there was absolutely no baby in the patient's uterus, let alone three. To this the patient had responded, "Oh they always have trouble finding them. They're hiding."
After that, the patient was sent back down to the ER, as she was clearly a psych case and not an OB case. I talked to my friend in class the next day who works in the ER. She says they get psych cases all the time claiming to be pregnant. I guess most of them just don't make it to us. Probably they just don't put on quite as much of a show as this woman did. As I said before, she was 350 pounds, with a belly that looked like she easily could have been pregnant with at least one baby. Plus, she really did act like she was having painful contractions. Maybe she was faking it or maybe due to her mental illness she really was feeling psychosomatic pain.
About 10 minutes later, the patient (a 350 pound black woman) came flying through the doors on a stretcher with a full entourage of ER and EMS staff (one ER doc, one ER nurse, and four EMTs). The EMTs were helping her breathe through her contractions and holding her hands. Apparently, the patient was apparently 3 days past her due date and her water had broken about 30 minutes prior to her arrival. Oh, and by the way, she was carrying triplets!! First red flag. None of our perinatologists would ever let triplets get past about 35 weeks gestation, yet this patient is apparently past 40 weeks.
All the same, we rushed her to the recovery room next to the OR, because if she was indeed in labor we would need to do a c-section. The NICU was alerted and came running over looking harried. According to the patient, she had gotten her prenatal care with Dr. P. Second reg flag. Dr. P moved her practice to another hospital about a year and a half ago.
The ER doc had done a quick cervical check in the ER just make sure there wasn't a head coming out. This check was confirmed by our OB docs. The ER staff then went back down to the ER. Since there were about 8 people in the room I went back out to the nurses station to keep an eye on all the other patients. A few minutes later the ER nurse called up and said, "You know, I was talking to one of our docs down here. He thinks he remembers that patient and said she's totally crazy. Just so you know, she may not even be pregnant. Call me back when you guys figure out what's going on with her." I promised to give her an update when I heard any news.
About five minutes later the OB resident came out with an exasperated look on her face. After doing both an abdominal and a transvaginal sono, they confirmed that there was absolutely no baby in the patient's uterus, let alone three. To this the patient had responded, "Oh they always have trouble finding them. They're hiding."
After that, the patient was sent back down to the ER, as she was clearly a psych case and not an OB case. I talked to my friend in class the next day who works in the ER. She says they get psych cases all the time claiming to be pregnant. I guess most of them just don't make it to us. Probably they just don't put on quite as much of a show as this woman did. As I said before, she was 350 pounds, with a belly that looked like she easily could have been pregnant with at least one baby. Plus, she really did act like she was having painful contractions. Maybe she was faking it or maybe due to her mental illness she really was feeling psychosomatic pain.
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Waiter Rant
A while back, a friend of mine told me about this blog called "Waiter Rant." I checked it out and found it really well written and hugely entertaining. It has been on my favorites list ever since. I was telling my parents about it the other day at dinner and of course they had never heard of it. They wanted to know what the link was and after I told them they said they would never remember it. Couldn't I just put the link on my blog, they asked. Well, if you check out the links section on the right hand side of the page, you will now notice that there is a link to "Waiter Rant." Check it out and enjoy!!
Monday, January 09, 2006
Sunday, January 08, 2006
Just A Few Things
1) I work on Labor and Delivery. Generally my job is a happy one, but every now and again there are truly sad moments. On Wednesday, I took care of a woman who broke her water way too early and delivered twins prematurely at 22 weeks. Generally 24 weeks gestation is considered viable and this is when the NICU team would be there to whisk the baby away and help it breathe and generally just hang on to life. But at 22 weeks the NICU team doesn’t come and so even if the baby is born alive (i.e., with a heart beat and some respiratory effort) you kind of just have to watch it die. One of the twins from Wednesday was born dead (a stillbirth), but the second one was actually born alive. He weighed just over one pound and lived for almost an hour after he was born. He looked perfect in every way, but he was just too small and his lungs too underdeveloped to sustain life. As the NICU team wasn’t there, I was left to take care of him and comfort his grieving parents. Days like this remind me that no matter how much I may think my life “sucks,” there are other people who are clearly worse off. I wouldn’t wish that kind of grief on my worst enemy.
2) On to a happier note…I went to see a concert at Iota Club and Café in Arlington on Thursday. The main band was Full Minute of Mercury (official webpage, Myspace page) and the two opening bands were Chrysalis (official webpage, Myspace page) and Run Silent Run Deep (official webpage, Myspace page). I went expressly to see Full Minute, as their singer is also the one of the singers in the Legwarmers (whom I saw on New Year’s Eve). I had never seen them perform live before, but had listened to a good deal of their songs on the internet and such. They put on a pretty good show. They know how to perform their songs rather than just sing them. As far as the opening bands were concerned, I enjoyed Chrysalis more than I thought I would. Somehow they were better live than what I had heard of them on the internet. I kind of wish I had had earplugs for the Run Silent Run Deep set though. This was because their music was really just too loud, as opposed to their songs being bad or their singer singing off key. This loudness factor wasn’t an issue I had with either of the other bands that night. All in all it was a good night and I was glad that I finally got to see Full Minute live. Hopefully I will get to see them again soon if they have a show that doesn’t coincide with my hectic work/school/clinical schedule.
3) Friday I had dinner at this place in Arlington called Ruffino’s Spaghetti House. Even though I have lived in Arlington almost my whole life and this restaurant has been around for a while, I have never actually eaten there. My verdict on the place is that it is a quaint unpretentious Italian restaurant that serves good food at decent prices. Check it out if you are ever in the neighborhood (4763 Lee Hwy, Arlington, VA 22207).
4) I got to spend most of Saturday with my cute little triplet friends. As per usual, I took tons of pictures. They never cease to amaze me at how they grow and change. Now they truly laugh at things, instead of just giggling every once in a while. They are also interacting more with each other. The two girls were sitting off in a corner by themselves and all of a sudden your hear them laughing hysterically. One or the other must have done something that they both thought was funny, because there was nothing else around to provoke that kind of laughter. Later on they were playing this kind of peek-a-boo/hide-and-seek game with their mom, where she was sitting on the floor and they were kind of walking around her. She would pretend not to see them and ask aloud if anyone knew where they were. Then all of a sudden she would pretend to “find” them. This got them to laugh hysterically. She did it like ten times in a row and they found it equally funny each time. Kids crack me up!
5) Today I went to see “The Chronicles of Narnia” with my family. I have to say I found it just okay. It was certainly better than the older version that I remember seeing on PBS, but somehow I don’t remember it being quite so “dorky” (this is using dorky in my mother’s sense of it). I’m going to reread the book and see if it is just that the story really is like that or if the movie just didn’t do the original story justice.
Friday, January 06, 2006
Thursday, January 05, 2006
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
DC Restaurant Week
January 9th through January 15th (aka next week) is Restaurant Week in the DC area. This biannual event is presented by the Washington, DC Convention and Tourism Corporation and the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington. The restaurants offer a 3-course fixed-price meal for $20.06 (lunch) or $30.06 (dinner). Some retaurants offer lunch, some dinner, and some both. Some of restaurants on the list aren't really worth those prices, but others are. Galileo, Kinkead's, Vidalia, Bistro Bis, Colvin Run Tavern, Heritage India, and Prime Rib, are all Washingtonian Magazine Blue Ribbon Award Winners. Below is a postcard I got at the National Building Musuem a while back. It sums up my feelings about Restaurant Week.
Happy New Year…Just A Few Things
Happy New Year to you all!!!
1) I had a great time on New Year’s Eve this year. For the past three years I’ve just gone to bars and it wasn’t really too fun. This year I went to a Legwarmers concert at the State Theater. The Legwarmers always put on a good show and as always the place was packed because every show they put on sells out. I even got to meet a couple Legwarmers and a Leghorn. That’s what happens when you know people who know people. With a few free drinks thrown in the deal was pretty sweet.
2) I’m not quite sure that I believe in New Year’s resolutions. It doesn’t really seem like they are ever maintained for any respectable amount of time. All the same, my New Year’s resolution this year is to get my butt back into the gym. Between work, classes and clinical, I didn’t really make it into the gym so much last fall. But every month my credit card bill comes and there’s that charge from Gold’s Gym. I got such a good deal when I signed up and if I cancelled my membership I certainly wouldn’t exercise more. I’m going to try starting out with committing to one day per week and then work upwards as my schedule allows.
3) According to the 2006 Cosmopolitan Bedside Astrologer, February 16 th, July 7 th, and October 1 st will be my hottest days of the year. Mark those days on your calendar and stay tuned! The online version will give you your horoscope for the current month, but you have to buy the current print issue to get the whole year. Check out my horoscope for January and follow the links to find out your own.
4) This past Friday was possibly one of the most ridiculous days I have worked at my job in the recent past. We only had five nurses for a patient load that ideally would have required about eight nurses. We did seven deliveries in our twelve hour shift, which is the amount we normally do in twenty-four hours. We did four c-sections, including a set of triplets. This number doesn’t even account for the other patients on the floor that didn’t actually deliver, but still required our care and attention. Also, once the babies are born they don’t go to the nursery like at other hospitals (unless they are preterm of course); they also become our patients who require care and attention. I hesitate to say it, but at moments during the day it was even a little unsafe by nursing staffing standards. Now I know there are those of you who don’t quite understand what it is that nurses do, but trust me, we are responsible for a HELL of a lot more than just emptying a few bedpans here and there. Obstetrics is one of the most litigious areas of medicine and I am thankful to say that we made it through the day without any major disasters. Thanks so much to my four colleagues who worked their butts off, barely sat down the whole day, and certainly didn’t get their prescribed 30 minute lunch break (try NO lunch break).
5) I was introduced to a new blog by one of my coworkers today: Duh & Nuh-uhh. Julie has a great writing style and I look forward to reading more of her posts.
Monday, January 02, 2006
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