Pictures of the ring

The camera obviously does not do it justice, but here's some pictures of the ring. Hopefully we'll get better ones soon!

Our big news...

We're engaged!!! Thursday I had my last final and I was told we were going out to celebrate that night and it was all a surprise. I was almost done getting ready when JM told me that he couldn't get the Christmas ornament he got me to stay on the tree right. Seriously? I'm trying to get ready!!!

Anyways, I went out to check the ornament because he seemed concerned about it. The ring was on the ornament, so when I took the ornament off the tree and turned around he was on one knee and asked "Will you marry me?"

Obviously, I said yes ;-) After that we went to dinner in Broad Ripple and then he had some of my friends meet us out at a bar and surprise me to celebrate. Tonight my parents took us out to dinner to celebrate as well. I don't think the enormity of it has sunk in all the way! I started reading this wedding workbook Lynds got me and was totally and completely overwhelmed. Yikes!!!

We have no idea the date or place...so far it's the fall and Indy. We're trying to work around a couple of things (i.e. my brother's deployment) but my goal is to have the date and place finalized before we go back to school in a couple of weeks. I'm working full-time (as well as over-time) and have my best friend's wedding over the break, therefore it might not work out as well as I think it will!

I tried to upload pics of the ring but for some reason it's not working. I'll try again later!

I actually got a picture of Kodi and you can see his eyes!!!! I think it's a first!

Studying is for pansies

I have an exam tomorrow. At least I've opened the notebook, right? :-) I'll get to it, I swear. I wanted to upload the pictures from this weekend first!
Saturday JM and I slept in and went to Bob Evans for breakfast. We had an awesome server who hooked us up with free pumpkin and banana nut bread, then sent us home with some free biscuits. Low carb diets are something we obviously aren't trying.
We were going to head down to Oliver Winery and maybe Nashville (Indiana) but it was SUCH a beautiful day that we made some adjustments. It was seventy-something degrees out, not a cloud in the perfectly blue sky, and the leaves were changing. We picked up Kodi and threw him in the car (ok, we walked him to the car, didn't throw him) and headed down to Brown County State Park. Neither of us had been there so it was quite the experience.
If you want to see all the pictures from the weekend, I've posted a bunch of new ones at http://picasaweb.google.com/shannonmoliver

This is my favorite picture. We took trail 7, which went around Ogle Lake. Everything was gorgeous and I took 500 pictures. Wow, I exaggerate a lot.

This is Ogle Lake at the start of the trail. We were just amazed, it was so beautiful. There was a wedding going on just to the left. That couple totally lucked out with the great weather and scenery. Any other day this month has been rainy or hot as Haites!

Kodi, JM and I off the trail. I'm obviously slipping on the leaves.

Another gorgeous view of the lake from the trail.

Our last stop, Hesitation Point. Kodi was as exhausted as he looks!

We did stop at the Oliver Winery on our way back but were only able to stay for a few minutes because we got stuck in stupid IU football traffic. Then we rushed home and my parents took us to dinner at Harry and Izzy's downtown. It was sooo good. I had filet and lobster...woo hoo! Then we went to Nicky Blaine's, the martini and cigar bar downtown. I had a few more excellent martinis before we had to leave because the stupid mall parking garage closed at midnight!

JM left for Georgia today for two weeks for Army stuff. I took Kodi to my parents because I have really long days and without JM here, Kodi may go insane. We had birthday cake, the traditional Taylor's with fall flowers. It's the same one I've had every year -- I believe since we moved here about 18 years ago.

Mom and Dad got me some great presents as well. They got me the Dansko's I've been wanting. I swear everyone at the hospital has them and says they're the best thing for your feet. They also got me a "Life is Good" t-shirt with a turtle on it -- I love sea turtles. I also got a frame/memory box since I'm all into trying to decorate the apartment with pictures.

Aunt Judy and Uncle Dave sent me a giftcard to Barnes and Noble...my favorite store. I can't decide which book to get. I have a huge list of to-reads!

Ok, Wedding Date is on so I should get going. Wait, what I meant to say is that I need to study a bit before I go to bed!

Pumpkin time!

JM and I carved our pumpkins today. We had to do them a little early since he'll be in Georgia for Halloween.

My pumpkin was growing little babies in it.

The finished products. Notice our new dining room table!Lighting them became a bit of a problem. It was really windy and as soon as you would get one lit, the other would blow out.

JM's is on the left, mine's on the right.

Scary pumpkins in the dark!!!

MIA?

I thought it took me a long time to update this last time! Guess I was able to lengthen that one.

Things are still really busy. I'm at Seton Specialty Center for my current clinical rotations. It's a long-term care facility...and pretty depressing. There's so many terminal weans. Granted, there are the patients that get better and move on to rehab centers, but not enough.
http://www.stvincent.org/ourlocations/hospitals/seash/default.htm

I really enjoyed my last rotation. After being at Riley's Pediatric ICU I thought there was no way I would ever be able to work with children. I didn't like anything about it. Then I went to St. Vincent's Women's Hospital in the Neonatal ICU. It was amazing...I loved everything about it. The doctor's were all called by their first names and they would ask the RT's what they thought should be done. Those are things that don't happen in bigger hospital settings. http://www.stvincent.org/ourlocations/hospitals/womenshospital/default.htm

I'm still working at University Hospital, I worked today in fact. It's going well -- it's great money but long ours. Guess I need to get used to those shifts!

I'm taking the rest of the weekend off to celebrate my birthday...yes, the national holiday. It's not until Tuesday but JM is leaving for Georgia Sunday and will miss it. The Army is sending him there for 2 weeks for some training. Last year he missed my birthday because he was in Iraq, now it's some other Army thing...I think he's just making stuff up now! Kidding. He gave me my presents tonight which he did wonderful with. I got a Joel Olsteen book as well as a James Patterson book. He got me an Office t-shirt that goes along with my favorite saying from the show. When Dwight asks Stanley what the ratio is between Schrute bucks and Stanley nickels, Stanley says, "It's the same as the ratio between unicorns and leprichauns". Priceless. Then, for the big finale, he got us tickets to see Dane Cook when he comes to town in a couple of weeks. I'm so excited, I love Dane Cook and I didn't even know he was coming to Indy.

Tomorrow we're going to just spend the day together which we never seem to be able to do anymore. Between school and work and clinicals...we get about an hour together each day and I'm always exhausted and decompressing. We're either going to go to the Oliver Winery and hang out in the nice field or go to the Covered Bridge Festival which I've never been to. Then we're going out to dinner with Mom and Dad at Harry and Izzie's downtown. It's a new place so it should be good.

Ok, that's enough for now. TGIF!

Picture blog update

Things are finally starting to have some order to them here in the new place. Kodi moved in on Sunday and is adjusting as well as could be hoped. We've both been paying SO much attention to him there's no way he can't be happy!

We've both been working a ton. I'm working 12 hour shifts at University Hospital getting orientated 3 days a week. JM's working almost every morning from at least 5-10 am at Costco. It's hard getting adjusted to a bedtime of 9:30!

There's not many yet, as the only rooms that have been finished are the bathroom and the bedroom. But, for now, here's some pictures!

http://picasaweb.google.com/shannonmoliver

First night in the new digs

Well, here we are! We're officially in our new digs. The majority of my furniture is here, plus or minus a few things. A lot of my boxes have made it over...of course I'm unpacking the kitchen wondering where in the world my silverware is and such. There's still a couple of boxes in my parents basement, hopefully they're in there!

JM's already asleep, the day was long and exhausting. I'm running a load of dishes through the dishwasher and waiting for them to finish. I always like to give dishes and such a quick wash after a move. The military movers will be here first thing in the morning with JM's stuff. I'm really hoping there's not too much...just with my stuff the apartment is getting full!

I finally finished unpacking our housewarming present from my parents. They went above and beyond and filled this huge plastic tub with all kinds of things you need...staple foods (like cans of soup, mac and cheese, peanut butter), medicines, cleaning supplies, dog biscuits, toilet paper....seriously, you name it they got it. I don't know if they'll ever really know how much that meant or how much that helped us. It's always nice to know that you're parents support what you're doing. Living with a boy is a first for me!

Side note, I'm using JM's laptop and the H key is sticking. It's driving me insane.

Anyways...oh, yea, the new place. It's nice. Very much a 'starter' home. It has the nice tall ceilings (or low floors, whichever way you want to look at it), patio, first floor (which I wanted with Kodi), 2 bedrooms, etc. The ceiling fan we bought was installed when we moved in and I have to say I love it! I think it's gorgeous. You just can't look straight at it because the light bulbs the maintenance guys put in it are REALLY bright!

My BIG, HUGE, RIDICULOUS problem is the carpet. There are literally stains everywhere. Well, at least in the living room and bedroom. We're not talking a couple of small spots, we're talking large red stains, blue stains, black stains, brown stains. There are a couple of very bad stains in the bedroom, and then the living room is spotted all over with them. We stopped at the office on one of our trips today and told the guy, and he said, "oh, yea, the red stains?". I said yes, but there are many other stains as well. He said the cleaners tried to get those out but couldn't. He'd call them again and have them come out on Tuesday. Ummm...if they didn't get it out before, I'm thinking they can't get it out now. If the people before us had trashed the place this badly...recarpet! So I wrote the management an email tonight and said it's unacceptable. We want the stains GONE. I also asked for someone to come over to document all of the stains and locations because the move in form they gave us does not have nearly enough room for me to write all of them down!

So...other than that, it's good :-) Moving was rough, there were a few arguments and a couple of 'testy' times, but I think that's to be expected. Nothing to worrisome!

I left Kodi at my parents tonight. First, whatever they used to clean the carpets left an odor so bad that I have a headache. I'm also worried that the stains on the carpet are from another animal, which would drive him nuts. Then JM's movers are coming, as well as cable and they're delivering our washer and dryer. With all the boxes and 'stuff' in here right now, I'm not sure if he'd even fit!

Ok, I'm going to go check on the dishes. I'm been taking pictures so I'll write later with our journey!

Pictures from Greg's arrival in Indy 6.22.07

http://picasaweb.google.com/shannonmoliver/GregSIndyHomecoming2007

Thoughts on the cost of tea in China?

Everyone's in trouble if I could ever find a way to post music on this thing. I have "Sweet Escape" by Gwen Stefani stuck in my head. I went to her concert on Saturday and it was great. Since then, I've had every song of hers stuck in my head. It probably doesn't help that I downloaded her CD and have been listening to it. I know, I'm acting like a 13 year old girl, but it lifts my spirits so I'll do what I want :-) Anyways, I was surprised. The tickets were $9 so I didn't expect a whole lot. JM went with me and we met up with my friend Tom from RT school and his friends. I ran into Courtney and tried to find her later...but boo hoo. Sorry, I'm off track again. Gwen was incredibly entertaining. We're talking costumes and choreography...the works. Best $9 I've spent in a LONG time!

Today I had my last day at this "particular" hospital till Tuesday. I definitely needed this break. I have to admit, today wasn't as bad. I had a MUCH better preceptor. An unbelievably better preceptor. And, more importantly, no prisoners!!! I had some messed up patients, but none of them displayed unacceptable behavior.

We had a couple of patients up in the burn unit, which is I believe the only one in Indiana. I must've sighed and said "poor guy" a million times. That's all you could do. The worst one we had was working and a furnace exploded. Over 90% of his body was burned...and burned down to the muscle. Do you know how they make your non-burned skin cover more area on your body? They cut it off and put it through a mesher. What's a mesher? Exactly what it sounds like. It stretches and meshes the skin. There were a few areas where they were able to do it on him and it literally looked like mesh material over him with those tiny little open triangles. That skin will grow fast enough and fill the triangles and now more of his open wounds are covered! Having so much of his body surface burned there is not enough intact skin to work with. They have to take a couple of his skin cells and grow them in a petri dish. After at least 4 weeks, the skin has grown enough to be put over some of the burns. It's this huge, long and expensive process, but it seems to work miracles. They had a lady in there earlier this year who was schizophrenic and poured gasoline all over and then set herself on fire. After 4 months in this burn unit, she WALKED out of the hospital. Amazing.

One of the patients had me cracking up though. I felt ok about laughing because he wasn't in pain and nothing was too wrong with him, he just gave me a much needed laugh. He's in the burn unit but almost completely healed. They can even keep his door open which means his body can handle the bacteria that could infect the wounds that are open. Anyways, we got a call that his level of consciousness was regressing and they couldn't figure out why. We did an arterial blood gas and the results showed that the amount of oxygen in his blood was remarkably low (normal range is 60-80 and his was in the 20's). This happened because he was breathing very shallowly and slowly, so his body basically just wasn't getting enough oxygen into his system. When that happens, you do start to lose consciousness and in this case, hallucinate. He had me rolling. When I first walked in he yelled "Why aren't they chasing you?" I asked him to explain and he said that the wolves have been chasing him for hours, but as soon as I walked in the room they sat down. I told him I had a special bond with wolves. While I'm switching him to a stronger oxygen mask, he asks me what I think about the cost of tea in China. No joke. I said I wasn't really sure and he started going off on the subject. Ok, even in my normal state of mind I could never come up with a whole conversation of the cost of tea in China. Granted, all that he was saying may have just been jibberish, but it sounded real to me! As I was walking out of the room I told him he needed to relax and take deep breaths. He told me he wouldn't have trouble doing that if the orange box with teeth outside of his room would stop staring at him. What was hilarious was he wasn't even upset by these things, just very matter-of-fact.

I guess that's my rambling for the day...I really need to go to bed. I have tomorrow off but need to run some errands and accomplish SOMETHING...ANYTHING. Then I'm driving down to JM's for the weekend and we're having a yard sale to get rid of his junk. Oh, sorry honey, I mean his treasured possessions which aren't going to make their way up to our new apartment.

Happy Friday!

Don't make me go...

I started my week of clinicals at a particular downtown Indy hospital this week. Before I went, I considered it the 'scariest hospital in Indy'. Wow...I was right! It's horrible. Too many of our patients are prisoners with huge chains around their ankles. The nurses have to keep them sedated for OUR safety. It sucks.
I had one patient yesterday which was a prisoner who was intubated (breathing tube down his throat), sedated, restrained with the cloth restraints on each limb and then in addition his ankles were chained. Today I had him again and he was doing really well. So on my suggestion, the doctor ok'd him to be extubated, I did it myself and then treated him for the scratches he had in his throat. Of all the people he should've been nice to today, it was me.
I went in after lunch and the police officer who was guarding his room told me that she had tried to talk to the nurse, but no one seemed to understand. Turns out, they had unrestrained his wrists. He is now not sedated, not restrained, and able to speak and eat and all of that good stuff. I even tried to talk to people because the cop couldn't tell me what he had done, but she made it very clear that this wasn't a good situation. Thing is, you can't restrain a patient without a doctor's order. The cop's comment was..."but he's a prisoner". Yea, I agree.
Anyways, of course I was an idiot and reached across him to turn an alarm off because I thought he was asleep and he grabbed my arm and pulled me across him and said something very unacceptable. I got the joy of punching him in the arm (although to this massive man, it probably felt like a light breeze) and then seeing 2 cops react at an amazing speed. I was quite impressed.
Ok, that's enough for now. It's actually past my bedtime...I need to get to bed so I can enjoy my wonderful 12 hour shift tomorrow bright-eyed and bushy tailed. 7 days left at this hospital.

Lungs in Motion

The American Lung Association is holding a "Lungs in Motion" event this Friday night at the Statehouse downtown. Part of the evening is an Asthma Walk in which I'm participating in. If you're interested in joining my team or donating (or know someone else who might want to), here's the website to my team, The Bronchodilators.

http://www.mrsnv.com/evt/e01/team.jsp?id=1282&tid=340

Kentucky DMV Introduces Game of Chicken To Driver's Test

May 29, 2007 Issue 43•22

LOUISVILLE, KY— The Kentucky Department of Motor Vehicles announced yesterday that the game of chicken will be added to the state's driver's-license road test, testing prospective motorists' ability to drive directly towards one another at an accelerating speed.

"We want to make sure new drivers can handle everyday Kentucky driving scenarios," said DMV spokesman Marty Kerta.

The state's test is already one of the most challenging in the nation, requiring Kentuckians to drive through stop signs, hurtle into police roadblocks, achieve at least two seconds of airborne status, and do donuts.

"If we have drivers on the road lacking these vital chicken skills, something terrible could happen—like, for instance, someone swerving away at the last second like a giant pussy," Kerta said.

1st Lt Gregory Oliver

Greg was promoted yesterday to 1st Lt! Since they're not back yet, the had the ceremony on the ship.

As far as the update on his arrival, the USS Boxer will be arriving in San Diego on Wednesday! Yes...THIS Wednesday!!! Mom's flying out there tomorrow morning to be there when he gets in. He doesn't start his block post-deployment leave until June 22nd, which is a Friday. As of right now he's planning on flying in to Indy on June 23rd, the Saturday. I'll keep you updated if there's any changes!

Here's some pictures he sent of the promotion...

California came and went too fast

My vacation in California was wonderful. The main purpose was to get things done and ready for Greg's arrival. When JM returned from Iraq there were so many little things he had to do...get his car tuned up, buy new toiletries, unpack, get groceries...a million little things instead of getting to just relax and enjoy being on US soil for a couple of days. I wanted to get all those things done for Greg so he could have some time to adjust without HAVING to do anything. I guess I also had an alteriative motive. If he didn't have as much to do, he'd spend more time in Indiana with us!!!

Anyways, after this semester of school and especially finals week, I really needed to get away. Just take a break from everything. I flew out on Tuesday and Trish and Kayla were sweet and picked me up from the airport. It was nice to get off a long flight and see friendly faces. Greg's apartment wasn't as bad as I had anticipated. It wasn't great, but it could have been much, much worse!

I spent my mornings cleaning, doing laundry, and running errands. Then I'd go to the beach and take a nap in the sand and then walk up and down the ocean's edge for a little exercise. Then I'd grab dinner and head back to the apartment, clean some more and then sit on his awesome porch, drink a Corona Lite and read my book. It was so relaxing...and I hope I got a lot done to help Greg out.

The funniest thing was his truck. AAA came on the first day to re-connect his truck battery since I was clueless. When the guy opened up the hood he said mice must've been in there because there was feces in there. You could hear some scurrying so we figured they vacated when we opened it up. That was Tuesday. On Friday morning I took his truck in to get tuned up. When they opened up the air coolant compartment to clean the air filter, a rat jumped out! It had nesting and food and everything in there...a little home! And it had stayed in there while I drove it around and washed it! I actually felt bad. The little thing got scared, lost its home, and was left in a strange place!

Here's a couple of pictures of my trip...

4 days and counting...

That's right...in about 2 hours there will only be 4 days left of this semester! I'm starting to feel so relieved, which probably isn't good because I still need to study for finals!

Studying is what I did most of the weekend. Friday we had class in the morning, came home and slept, then studied intermittently throughout the afternoon and evening. Saturday was Mom's birthday, so we went to the Orchard in Bloom which is this really cool garden show basically. There's some exhibits of landscapers and then booths galore with plants and all different decorating things. Mom got some flowers for the yard and I got a dwarf euonymus which I love. It reminds me of my old Bonsai tree...in a cute little pot and it looks like a mini tree. Hopefully I'll do better with this one though, Greg used to joke that my Bonsai tree had lived 70 years and then met me. In my defense, I left it in my dorm over Christmas break with the dry heaters going.

Let's see, got home, did some studying with breaks here and there, then went to dinner at Villagio for Mom's birthday and ate wayyyy too much. It's this little Italian restaurant in downtown Zionsville that has a real 'homemade' feel to it. I had the lasanga which was incredible. Then we came home, had some cake and I did a little more studying before just basically passing out.

I've gotten a little more in the groove of studying today. I'm still only working on disease which isn't probably the best idea. I have to work for Jill tomorrow till noon, so I think I'm going to have my stuff already packed and leave straight after work for school and stick myself in the library for a good few hours. My goal is to stay at least till 7 or 8. That's long for me :-) My finals schedule is:

Tuesday -- Cardiopulmonary Diseases

Wednesday -- Pediatrics and Neonates

Thursday -- Life Support Lecture (basically ventilators) and then the Lab Practical

Friday -- Pharmacology

The only two I'm really concerned about are Tuesday and Thursday. Tuesday just because there's a lot of info and his exams are hard enough as it is without being cumulative. Thursday is worrying me because it's the instructor that I always seem to have a hard time with and I'm never as prepared for her exams as I think I should be.

Ok, off to bed. Try to get a good night's sleep so I don't have any excuses not to study hard tomorrow!!!

she believed she could so she did

Today's reason to drink:
It's National Beer Day in Germany! Need I say more?


After what seemed like forever, I got a call today from St. Vincent hospital and they offered my the job!!! This is the hospital I really wanted. It pays the most, is in the part of town I wanted, offers more hours, and on top of all that...it's been my favorite place during clinicals. I never had a bad experience or preceptor there and all the patients even seem nicer. I think that's partially because at St. V's they don't have to share rooms like they do at the other Indy hospitals.
http://www.stvincent.org/default.htm

Mom got me a cute little plaque that I had seen at Hallmark awhile back and said if I got the student job I wanted that I'd buy myself. It says "she believed she could so she did". Reminder that I didn't quit a real job and go back to school for nothing!

So, that's one thing taken care of! I officially am employed there on July 2nd and will start orientation on July 6th. I go in for a physical and drug screening on June 25th...I think I'll pass ;-).

JM was in town this weekend. He didn't get in till late on Friday because he took his Grandpa to the Cubs game. I babysat for the same people I did last weekend in which I had a horrible experience. Luckily, they were much better. Still had some problems with the son, but I just made him go to bed and that took care of it! Saturday we were supposed to go look at a couple of apartments, but it was beautiful out so we just went and got my old couch from my old house, walked the dogs, played with the neighbor kids and cooked out. My parents went out on Saturday night so we got to watch a movie on the big tv...fun times! Sunday we went to brunch and started looking at some living options on the west side of town. JM got a call later in the day that the 3rd roommate who was going to move into his house now backed out...so we're not sure if he'll be able to move out in July or if he'll have to pay for August as well. If that's the case, we can't get a new place until the end of August...we can't afford two rents!

Jill cancelled my babysitting this morning which worked out well because I was very tired. I slept in, went to the doctor's, and then went down to school to practice my lab checkoff for tomorrow. We'll have 4 different checkoffs: intubating a pediatric patient, intubating an adult, extubating, and inserting an LMA tube. I think I should be ok. My friend Tom and I scheduled our checkoffs for the last time slot, so we'll have a couple of hours before our checkoff to go over things in our heads. Afterwards we're going to head down to Acapulco Joe's for $4 margaritas to celebrate our last checkoffs of our student career and our last lab!!! Woo hoo!!!

For those who don't know, I was chosen for a marketing trial of a new FDA approved weight loss drug that comes out on the market in June. I got the pills in the mail last Monday and started them on Thursday. They work in your digestive tract, so there's no phen phen or anything crazy like that. You're supposed to try to limit your fat intake to about 15 grams/meal and you can't save them up for one meal or anything like you can in Weight Watchers. The pill (alli) will help your body rid about 25% of the fat you intake. So by decreasing your fat intake, alli will get rid of quite a bit of the rest. I think they say that alli will help you lose up to 50% more than dieting and exercising alone. For example, if you were to lose 10 pounds, alli would help you lose 15 instead. Anyways, since Thursday I've lost a pound :-) I've done really well and become accountable for what goes into my mouth. The more fat I intake, the more 'treatment effects' I get with alli...including oily gas and nice things like that. Motivation to stay on track! If you want to check it out, the website is: myalli.com

Ok, I need to hit the hay. Have a good night!

Mutts

Tromboning and Lube

Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly.

-St. Francis de Sales

Today was rather uneventful. I missed my first class because I didn't feel so hot, but I felt fine later so I think it was more psychological. I did go to the next two...nothing to fun about those. I had my lab this afternoon and for the first time in a LONG time I LOVED IT!!! We learned how to intubate a patient. I'll try to add some pictures as to what that is at the end. It was amazing. It's more surgical and you feel very important. Can I say I loved it again? And more than that...I was good at it! It's a lot like a skill I had to perform as an EMT, so I already had the feel for it, but this is so much more intense. You have 30 seconds to find the vocal cords, flip the epiglottis, and then guide the endotracheal tube into the opening, take they stylette out, inflate the cuff and then resume bagging the patient. I was timing myself, and I got it down to about 10-15 seconds. I definitely want to work at a hospital that allows the RT to do this. Up until now I haven't really been sure about what field I wanted to work in, but now I'm definitely leaning towards the OR and ER.

Anyways, I have lab now with a group of people that I adore...Tom, Lauren and Lindsay mainly. I'm no longer allowed to sit near them or across from them. We all know how immature I can be (i.e. I laugh every time I go to 'Dick's sporting good store'), but I was way over the line today. First off, anytime the word 'lube' is said I would get the giggles (with intubating, you lube a lot), then I'd see Tom or Lauren or Lindsay giggling and it would make me laugh, then laugh harder. Then one of our naive instructors defined the word "tromboning", and not only did I find the word hilarious, but the action was even funnier. Then there was a whole issue about the baby dummy with balloons as lungs...it was a fun time in lab. Either RT school is becoming more fun, or we have officially lost our marbles.

This is what we use to move anatomical structures and flip open the epiglottis, a laryngoscope.

In the left hand is the laryngoscope and in the right is the endotracheal tube being guided into the trachea.

Another shot of insertion.

And this is what it looks like when we're looking down into the trach! I think this is amazing!!!

Adventures in Babysitting

Besides that, my weekend was great. JM snuck away and came up on Friday which was excellent because I thought I wouldn't see him till next weekend. It's been a few weeks since we last saw each other so getting to see him was much needed. We looked at some apartments, found a couple we like, went to Lyndsay's nephew's 3rd birthday party, went to dinner, then looked at some more apartments. So far, these two are the ones we're liking...
http://www.homeisoaklake.com/
and
http://www.aimco.com/Communities/default.aspx?PropertyID=039613

The first one is a better price and has things we like in the apartment. One bad thing is that our bedroom window is on (and I literally mean on) the walk into the other apartments. Another bad thing is the area, it's not as nice as I'd like. Inside the complex is nice, but outside the complex leaves some things to be desired. The second one is a higher price, and more utilities, and no washer/dryer hookup. But, it's a great area. And it has 2 80-acre stocked lakes and the community is huge. For those of you who remember, Kodi and I lived there when I first moved back to Indy and I loved it. But, it has to be what's best for both of us (JM and I, not Kodi and I!). JM's coming back up next weekend so we'll get to look again and hopefully get it narrowed down. Just looking this weekend really helped out weed out quite a few. We drove through some neighborhoods and were able to cross some out due to the quality of people walking around and a busted car window. JM's taking his grandfather to a Cubs game on Friday so we'll have Saturday and Sunday. Speaking of which, if anyone's interested in some Cubs tickets for Friday let me know...JM has extra!!!

Hope you had a good weekend!!!

Today's reason to drink 4.13.07

April 13, 2007


It's New Year all over again! It's the first day of the Thai and Cambodian New Year!

Job Outlook

I went to a "woo-ing" session today after class at St. Francis Hospital. We call them woo-ing sessions because hospitals are so desperate for RT's right now they feed you and give you little souvenirs and try to talk you into working for them. I can start working as a student RT after my clinical session this summer, which will be towards the end of June.

St. Francis was ok. Itr's not the hospital I thought it was, though! I thought it was the one when you take 65 South that's on your right...the really nice, new, big one. Nope, it's this smaller one in the ghetto of the southside. It's a very old hospital and kind of creeps you out.

The lunch was nice and the people were incredibly nice and easy to talk to. It seems like it would be a good place to work as far as the staff and management go. Thing is, they're paying almost $3 less an hour than St. Vincent...and, it's further away. I'm not sure exactly where we're going to move it, but we've been planning to stay on the northwest/west side of town. I did schedule my interview with them though, it will be next Thursday afternoon. I figured I might as well go as many places as I can and find out what they have to offer. Maybe they'll love me and offer me more :-)

I had my interview at St. Vincent on Monday. It went awesome...I've never had an interview go that well. She said they'd let me know within 2 weeks, so I'm anxiously waiting. I would love to work there. I've heard some bad things from the seniors that worked there, but I liked the people and loved it when I did my clinicals there.

Keep your fingers crossed that I find something!!!!

Cardiologist Joke

We had a cardiologist as our guest lecturer in Naum's class.

He said he's always been jealous of Respiratory. They get both the A and the B while he only gets the C.

In case you're not getting it, the first step in any patient care is the ABC's...airway, breathing then circulation.

Maybe you have to be in the respiratory field, but I found that hilarious.

Reuters Prenatal Smoking

http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USCOL06627420070411


Prenatal smoke exposure tied to attention problems
Tue Apr 10, 2007 8:25PM EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Teens whose mothers smoked while pregnant with them and are themselves smokers have a harder time paying attention and focusing than their non-smoking peers who were not exposed to smoke in the womb, a new study shows. The researchers also found gender differences in the effect of nicotine exposure, with exposed girls showing both visual and auditory attention deficits, while the boys only had difficulties in listening.

Nicotine is known to bind to receptors involved brain development and studies have identified both intellectual and auditory problems in smokers' offspring. Both the prenatal period and adolescence are critical times in brain development and smoking has been linked to memory and attention problems in teens.

To better understand the effects of nicotine exposure on attention, Dr. Leslie K. Jacobsen of the Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven and colleagues had 181 teens perform a series of tests to evaluate how well they grasped visual and auditory cues. Sixty-three of the teens had brain scans while they took the tests.

Among the 92 who had been exposed to cigarette smoking in the womb, 67 were themselves daily smokers. Forty-four of the children of non-smoking mothers were current smokers, while 45 didn't smoke.

Smokers who had also been exposed to nicotine in the womb performed worst, while non-smokers who weren't exposed in the womb performed best. Study participants who either currently smoked or whose mothers had smoked fell in between.

This pattern was seen for both auditory and visual attention tasks for girls, but only appeared on tests of auditory attention function in boys.

Certain brain regions worked harder during the tests among the nicotine-exposed teens, suggesting that the exposure had lessened the efficiency of brain circuitry involved in processing during the tasks, the researchers note.

The findings suggest that males' auditory development may be particularly vulnerable to the effects of nicotine exposure, while females are vulnerable in terms of both visual and auditory development, they write.

"The present findings underscore the importance of developing smoking prevention programs that target women of childbearing age and of developing effective programs for tobacco dependence that do not involve nicotine replacement," the researchers conclude.

They point out that up to 16 percent of female smokers who become pregnant are unable to quit.

SOURCE: Neuropsychopharmacology, March 21, 2007.