Far Far Away, in closing

I packed quite a bit into my last week here in Far Far Away. I spent two sleepless days with my brother in Little City (we saw Rise of Planet of the Apes and got up to the usual shenanigans. It was pretty awesome.), and then spent as much time as I could with my cousins at FHB. And yeah, I don't really have much more to say on this.

This summer I think I went on twenty-nine ambulance runs, the longest being about over five hours round trip and the shortest being fifteen minutes. One ground transfer which took ten hours round trip. Three or four medevacs to Big City and like twelve medevacs to Little City. It might have been more, but they've all blended together now. Dead weight has taken on a much more literal meaning for me and I have come to greatly appreciate the rare few fully cooperative patients. That or the unconscious patents, but they bring up other issues.

Clinic side, I started off just shadowing the provider and moved to scribing (she dictates her notes, I write it), to helping with procedures to actually doing some of the procedures. I had a lot of hands on experience with patients with many common ailments in all age groups, some not so common issues, and I got to see things from all sides. At least, all sides present in the clinic. From picking the patient up, to rooming the patient (and other nurse's duties), to doctor's visit, to radiology, to labs, to patient care, to pharmacy and if need be to transferring. I saw firsthand just how bad the insurance companies can be/how bad they are doing and came to a good understanding of what would happen if we switched to socialized health care.

On the home front, I developed a slightly healthier lifestyle and became more active. I got to see a loquacious little girl go from barely comprehensible gibberish to mostly understandable polysyllabic words. I was able to spend more time with my brother than I have in a long time, I saw and stayed with family members who, unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to spend enough time with. Most importantly and above all else I had fun and believe this summer was well spent.

Now I'm sitting in the airport in Little City, waiting to board my flight to SeaTac. I'll get home sometime tomorrow. Once there I'll have about three days before I need to head off to school and get back into the college grind.

I'm not really sure to do with this blog now. As soon as I board the plane it will have served its purpose and I truly believe that blogs like this are what's wrong with the 'blogosphere'. It doesn't actually provide any content or anything useful. It's just a journalesque medium for someone to ramble on. I suppose I could keep rambling on throughout the school year, although I imagine that would be significantly less interesting.

Meh.

The final week

I've been slacking. I actually had my final week at the clinic and with EMS over a week ago, but I'm only getting around to this now. /sigh Anyways, compared to my first week at the clinic, this was a very boring week. No exciting emergencies, more silly patients complaining about the wrong thing ("I've got these skin tags under my eye, should I be worried? Oh and since I'm here, I have pain in my left arm radiating to my chest, it feels like a ton of bricks are weighing down my chest, so I can't seem to catch my breath, and my left arm is like tingly/numb. But mainly I'm here for the skin tags." At which point I put the clipboard down and went to get the provider. That's like classic heart attack right there.), and more strep. Seriously, half the population of Home must have passed through the clinic with strep over the course of the summer.

I can't remember, but I don't think I mentioned this yet. When someone is having a stroke, time matters. I understand that praying makes you feel better and I understand that everyone wants a moment with the patient, but when you pray for fifteen minutes (I clocked them) and let even the two-year-olds have five minutes (each) with the (mostly) unconscious patient, then you really are helping to ensure that it will be the last five minutes they get to spend together.

Speaking of praying, I was part of a prayer circle! We were just finishing up with a patient whose smoking habit was literally shaving years off of her remaining life and complicating other issues that she had. She finally decided that she wanted to quit and in addition to prescribing Chantix, as we were all standing up to leave, the provider grabbed each of our hands and motioned me to take the patient's other hand. Then she started praying, asking the Lord to help this lady quit and stay off. I honestly can't say I was all that surprised. After all, the clinic is a faith based organization, and all the regular providers believe in creationism, but it still strikes me as odd when a doctor tells a patient to pray (in addition to taking whatever medication/lifestyle or diet change).

Anyways, I'm getting sidetracked. I said my farewells on Friday and returned all the equipment I had borrowed from EMS. They want me to come back next summer again, and honestly I think I'd like to. I had fun, I saw more than I expected and I learned so much.

Later that day, I packed up and left Home for FHB. I'm going to miss most of the time with the girls, but definitely NOT the screaming.