Ridin' and hidin' his pain

2005-01-20 - 8:06 p.m.

I've been dead all day today. It didn't help that I worked an evening shift yesterday and a morning shift today, but it was the early evening shift, and shoot, people do that sort of thing all the time I'm sure and think nothing of it. I'm sure Aunt Flo didn't help either. But man, it sure was a long slow day.

The most exciting thing that happened to me today was the mock code. I think it's pretty cool, this hospital that I work in now has mock codes, I've never been in a hospital before that had them. You know what a code is, right? They call a code when someone is dying, basically. They announce it over the intercom and the people who specialize in the warding off of sudden death come running to the patient's room. In the hospital where I was a resident, basically they'd call the code and whoever wanted to would go running until eventually the room was so jam-packed with people it was just chaos. It's amazing that people's lives were actually saved in the process. Here at this hospital, there's actually a select group of people who are assigned to attend codes. Those people and only those people are allowed into the patient's room and each of those people has a specific place to stand and a specific job to do. It's really cool. At any rate, the mock code is a practice run. They put a dummy in a bed and call a code on it. They give advance warning, though, so that the people with the least experience (hello!) will be sure to attend. Then we went through the whole process as though it were a real patient while some bigwig doctor guys watched. Afterwards we stood around and talked about what went well and what could've gone better. So if you were a patient, which hospital would you rather code in, this one or the one where I did my residency? Yeah, not much competition!

But anyway, I was damn nervous even though it was just a mock code. There are two pharmacists on every code (during the day shift). One is the scribe. The other mans the code cart and hands out drugs. I was the scribe. You'd think that'd be easy, wouldn't you? Heck no! My god, I couldn't even tell time properly (my main role as scribe is to keep track of when each intervention is done so the code leader knows when it's ok to repeat an action or when it's really time to move on). I got to the code somewhere around 1402. I wrote down on my little scribe sheet that I got there at 1307. I was off by an hour and five minutes and didn't notice until about ten minutes into the code. Not that that really mattered since the important thing is the time intervals, but geesh! I have to admit that had it been a real patient I probably would've really freaked out. But since it was a dummy, I didn't have any real qualms about fudging on the numbers a bit when I wasn't sure. When the code leader yelled, "How long since the last shock?" and I shouted back "Seven minutes!" even though I was just guessing because I had completely confused myself with the whole not being able to actually read a clock thing, I didn't feel too bad about it. So...do I need to invest in a digital watch for days when I'm going to be attending codes? Ack, imagine if I had actually had the tough job. Can I handle it?

Let's hope so because Sunday I'm going to be lead pharmacist on the night shift. That's right. That means that I'm in charge of the whole hospital! The other pharmacist is going to be a per-diem person so if there's a code, I'll be the one going (especially since I'm so well trained now!). It also means that since the day shift will have gone home, I will be the only pharmacist on the code. Which means I'll be manning the cart and being the scribe. I think I can hand the scribely duties off to someone else if I need to. I certainly hope so. Oh please please please don't let anybody code Sunday night.

So, other than that, not much going on. I mentioned that I had a date with a new guy on Tuesday, right? I'm going to go ahead and give him a nickname here. I hope that doesn't jinx things. Anyway, from now on, he's _______ . (Right, ok, so I couldn't come up with a nickname I liked for him. Guess I'll get to that bit later.) I heard back from him after the date, so that's good, right? I think we're going to get together on Saturday. I feel like there's some excitement in me somewhere for this, but I'm too tired to actually feel it at the moment.

Did I tell you that I made an appointment with a dentist? I finally picked one. It's one that Duke recommended. I'm actually sorta looking forward to my dental appointment in 10 days. I've gone nuts for sure. But actually, it's been a year since my last cleaning and I have that whole chipped tooth thing going on still. I think I chipped it a little more a few days ago. It still doesn't show up terribly obviously (thank goodness), but I can't keep my tongue out of the hole and I'm constantly worrying about it.

Oh, do you remember I told you that Tuesday night I was planning on going to a volleyball open gym? When I went. I took Duke with me and we arrived at 8pm when it said it was going to start. It turned out that the gym was full to capacity by 7:30! What the heck? I watched them play for a few moments and they had some serious volleyball going on in there. It looked like so much fun, I wanted to join them so badly. I felt so ostracized. And that was the day I was in a funk anyway, so that didn't help. I still had Duke with me and he wanted to go for a jog. I really didn't want to so we ended up going to Starbucks for lattes instead. It was so warm that night that we sat at a table outside in our shorts and T-shirts (with none of those outdoor heater things, either). Anyway, now I know that I have to get there a lot earlier if I want to play. The next time I have a Tuesday evening off is in two weeks, so perhaps I'll try again then. On the bright side, at least I didn't re-injure my foot as I was afraid I might.

I have tomorrow off. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with myself. Thinking of maybe doing some more shopping. I actually got around to unpacking my books the other day. I filled up all my bookshelves and still have four full boxes of books. Perhaps I'll get another bookshelf tomorrow. Maybe while I'm out I can look at couches. And I need to go grocery shopping. I think I'm going to make some cookies to take with me to work on Sunday when I'm lead. And I accidentally bought a pair of pants from Eddie Bauer that are the wrong size so I need to take them back. I haven't decided if I'm going to exchange them for the correct size or just take them back. But I'm afraid that if I go back to that store I'm going to cave in and buy this really cute jacket I saw there.