Cindy the SRNA - Weeks 30 - 44
Yes, I'm still breathing. And even if I wasn't, I can now intubate and mechanically breathe! It's kind of sad, really.
So, what's been going on... Mostly school. I'm permanently exhausted. More so than ever, I think. January kinda sucked. Left Mt Shitty, which I actually ended up really liking , to go to Big C. My old nemesis. Hated that place. They have some really nice CRNAs, like Amy and Amanda who are absolutely precious, but everything else about the place sucked. Even Amy agreed. My second day with her (which was also my first week), we get banished to endo. 13th floor of another building, the equivalent of a 3rd world country for a famous hospital, and the girl starts CRYING! She apologized because she said she hates it there and she always cries when she goes there. Considering it's at least once a week...... Those poor people. 1 day in endo, 1 day in cysto, 1 day in eyes, every week! That place sucks. I pray I never, ever NEED to work there again!
All in all, it was a pretty sucktacular rotation. Constantly hovered over, no freedom, I felt all the skills I learned at Mt Shitney atrophied. And that really sucked. There was 1 memorable moment where I raced into a room to setup for an emergent surgery for bleeding and moments before, the tech decided this would be the perfect time to move out the cart and restock the room. I managed to find a blade and 'scope and said if someone gives me a straw, I can intubate! Fortunately, she came back w/ the cart just as the pt was being wheeled in, so all was ok.
Next rotation was trauma and IT SUCKED!! Slowest month of the year!! DAMNIT!! And it cost a fortune to go and be down there! I was so disappointed. Most exciting cases were a 20-y.o. in an MVA and some dumbass who got himself shot at 1am on a snowy night. Dude, stay home in bed! There were actually some funny stories! We had one dude who was chopping down a tree and he fell out of the tree and the tree fell on him! I called it "Nature's Revenge." LOL, but the poor guy lost a leg, so I felt kinda bad about it, especially since he was young (late 40's). Another young drunk was so wasted one night his GF refused to let him out of the apartment. So he decided to rectify this situation by going out the window. Except their apartment was on the 2nd floor. I couldn't stop laughing, it was hilarious to me. Most of the time, there was nothing going on. Spent one night texting Padma while waiting around the Trauma ER for something to happen. If it wasn't for her and one of the ER residents, it would have been so boring. We had 1 60-y.o. army dude come in, he accidentally shot himself in the hand while cleaning his (shot?)gun. He went to the VA and they sent him to us. We were standing around waiting for him to arrive via ambulance and going WTF, what's taking so long? I started joking that I'll bet he's walking (the VA is a block or 2 away), and sonnavabitch, dude comes walking in with a little bandage on his hand! The actually entry wound looked nasty, and he had been debating about coming in in the first place. No emergent surgery though. Did a lot of very ugly skin wounds that had been festering and not healing. I was smelly and gross. Had one guy come in where they were operating on every limb! 4 teams, 1 limb each. It was nuts. Had to go w/ groin lines.
Needless to say, one thing I did learn there is ALWAYS WEAR YOUR SEATBELT! I'm still trying to figure out how people get fractured pelvises in car accidents while on the passenger side, but they do! Scary. Was telling a classmate and found out she did trauma and she started telling me horror stories. Like a young girl who wasn't wearing her seatbelt was ejected and landed in a tree. She had branch lacerations in her vagina! :O
I was deathly ill my last week there, spent my one day off in bed with fevers. It was awful. I hated being away from home and so sick while I was all by myself. :(
So, now I'm at "The Hotel." It's a nice site, lots of friendly people. I like the men more then the women, I find they're more laid-back. But I'm disappointed. This isn't "it." I thought this was going to be "it," I'd have the place I want to work at and that'd be it. But I'm not ecstatic to be there. It's only ok. The thought of working there doesn't fill me with glee. I'm bummed about that! Not that they're hiring anyway....
So, I still don't know where to work. I'm interviewing near home tomorrow. I think it'll be the best thing. I'm tired of being away from home. Was trying to feel out an offer in a place that's 2.5 hrs away, but I haven't gotten any info and I have no idea how I'd get up there to interview anyway. Oh well.
As for life events, Aunt Mary is getting closer to the beyond. I think she's realized that. She's terrified enough that she's actually taking her medication now. She realizes vitamins don't work. It's quite a change really. We'll see if she makes it to my graduation. Hope so.