Christmas...sort of.

So...I don't think I ever mentioned that I got my license. Dad's paying for the insurance, and I am doing all the filing for the business, not quite a fair trade, since filing takes a long time, but it's a job I can do at home, and at any time, so it's easier then going out to a jobsite and having to work there.

My church had their Christmas play on the 15th and the 16th. I think it went okay...I believe we had 2 people saved, so all the time and effort we put into it was well worth it.

Here's a picture of my "wife" and me. That's Molly Buesking, who played Mary. I had no idea she was making that face, or I would have burst out laughing, and not had that nice, kind, and caring smile on my face. Molly's brother, Sam, is peeking out from behind us...with his eyes closed. :)

We went to Silver Dollar City on Thursday with a bunch of friends. That was a fun time. We even saw SDC's version of Charles Dicken's "A Christmas Carol." It wasn't half bad. Grace will probably get mad if I don't mention something about her...so...We invited Grace L. to come with us to SDC. She, like always, is a blast to hang out with. There, I've mentioned her. :)And if that's not enough, I've even included a picture of her. :)

I went to see National Treasure: Book of Secrets tonight with the rest of the family. It was okay, but nothing as good as the first National Treasure. It had a couple of objectionable scenes. Really, though, you could tell the whole plot from the beginning of the movie, and even though there was some good action-scenes, it was almost a boring movie. Broken up a few times, or course, by Riley's hilarious interjections. That's really the whole reason I went to see the movie, was to see him and listen/watch him do his lines. All in all, I wouldn't reccommend the movie as one to see.

Christmas time is coming!! Yeah!! A time to celebrate the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Why December 25 was chosen for the day to celebrate Christ's birth, I have no idea. Especially as this day is supposedly the day of Yuletide, which is/was a pagan holiday. No matter...Whatever day was chosen is fine for me, just as long as there is a set day. I only wish that Christmas wasn't as commercialized. It seems like every corporation, big and small, is out to make Christmas a time to make more money. They don't focus on the real reason for the season. We have Santa Claus coming to visit us, instead of the baby Jesus. We get, get, get...or for the businesses...make, make, make...money. Follow the wealth, right?? Greed, wealth, power...

911 ER Surgery Pasta

Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it. - G.K. Chesterton

These are supposedly real 911 calls. I don't know if they really are or not, but they are kind of funny.

Dispatcher : 9-1-1 What is your emergency?

Caller: I heard what sounded like gunshots coming from the brown house on the corner.

Dispatcher: Do you have an address?

Caller: No, I have on a blouse and slacks, why?

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Dispatcher: 9-1-1 What is your emergency?

Caller : Someone broke into my house and took a bite out of my ham and cheese sandwich .

Dispatcher : Excuse me?

Caller : I made a ham and cheese sandwich and left it on the kitchen table and when I came back from the bathroom, someone had taken a bite out of it.

Dispatcher : Was anything else taken?

Caller : No, but this has happened to me before and I'm sick and tired of it!

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Dispatcher: 9-1-1 What is the nature of your emergency?

Caller: I'm trying to reach nine eleven but my phone doesn't have an eleven on it.
Dispatcher: This is nine eleven.

Caller: I thought you just said it was nine-one-one.

Dispatcher: Yes, ma'am nine-one-one and nine-eleven are the same thing.

Caller: Honey, I may be old, but I'm not stupid.

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Dispatcher: 9-1-1 What's the nature of your emergency?
Caller: My wife is pregnant and her contractions are only two minutes apart.

Dispatcher: Is this her first child?

Caller: No, you idiot! This is her husband!

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And the winner is..........

Dispatcher: 9-1-1

Caller: Yeah, I'm having trouble breathing. I'm all out of breath. Darn....I think I'm going to pass out.

Dispatcher: Sir, where are you calling from?

Caller: I'm at a pay phone. North and Foster.

Dispatcher: ! Sir, an ambulance is on the way. Are you an asthmatic?

Caller: No.

Dispatcher: What were you doing before you started having trouble breathing?

Caller: Running from the Police

_______________________-----------------------------________________________

Okay...

I had a surgical rotation tonight. I had 2 hours of surgery, and two hours of ER. Surgery was pretty good. They had someone who had gotten his face busted up in a farm accident. They had to do a facial fracture repair. They wired the jaw shut, and then peeled the skin on the cheek bone away so they could fix the zygomatic arch (the arch of bone that extends along the front and side of the skull beneath the eye), which was kind of in pieces. It was fun to watch, and the doc and the anesthesiologist did a good job of explaining things to me.

ER was boring...they had a slow night, so it's understandable. I ended up going with the guy I was shadowing to get food for some of the other employees. So I didn't get a whole lot of gruesome stuff. Oh well...more next time.

Surgery and Symphony

"So what makes you want to be a Colon Surgeon?" This was the question asked of me by the lead surgeon in the operating room in the hospital. I was standing not 3 feet away, watching as he reached into the hole in the patient's abdomen, pulled out a couple of feet of the colon, and let it slip through his fingers back into the abdomen. I chuckled nervously, and said, "well, I haven't decided if I want to specialize in any specific type of surgery yet."

This was my introduction into Surgery. My 3rd rotational night as a MedEx started out in the Operation Room with a good friend that I used to go to church with, Michelle. We watched the surgeon perform a colonectomy and a gallbladder removal. The colon had cancer in it, and so they removed about 1 and 1/2 feet. So the person had a hard time walking after that, cause they only had half of a foot left. And no right. Can you imagine walking with only half of your left foot, and no right?? Except that's not exactly what happened. What I meant to say was that a foot and a half of the colon was removed. I didn't know that colons had feet, but I guess they do. After all, I watched them being removed. As for the gallbladder, the removal was unexpected. Let me rephrase that. They meant to remove it, but they didn't know they were going to remove until after the surgery started. I'll let the surgeon's wisdom explain.
Lead Surgeon: "Is that the gallbladder?? Hmmm.....it's now the largest organ in the body."
Back-up Surgeon: "Excuse me, but the skin is the body's largest organ."
LS: "Ha. Notice I said 'largest organ in the body', not of the body. Anyway, that's not a good thing, that the gallbladder's that large...Let's take it out." *turns to Michelle and me* "We weren't planning on doing this originally, but it'll save problems for the patient later if we take it out now."
I'm like, 'okay, whatever you think is best, cause I sure don't know what you know.'
After spending two hours in the OR, I took a two hour rotation in Neuro-Intermediate, where I had my first rotation. I met this really neat guy. He was telling me all these stories about when he was in the Navy. He was so incredibly funny. Example:
Nurse Aide: George*, this is Josiah. He's a Medical Explorer, following me around tonight."
George: Well, good to meet you."
Nurse Aide: *speaking to me, but still facing George* "He's a truck driver."
George: *to me* "You're a truck driver??? You sure don't look like a truck driver."

Or how about when I first met him.
Nurse Aide: *before we enter room* "This next guy is hilarious. He's always making funny comments or taking something that anyone would normally know what you meant, and acting like it means something different."
*entering room*
George: "Where you been?? I've been waiting my whole life for you to come. I always knew you were the one for me."
Nurse Aide: *turns to me* "See what I mean?"

I went to the Symphony performance tonight. They had an amazing cellist. Just phenomonal. Incredible emotion. Wonderful control. And Jewish to boot.
Need I say more?? Oh yeah. You should have been there. It was amazinging, phenomonal, incredible, emotional, wonderful, controlled...wait, I've already said most of that. We'll just stick with the "you should have been there" part.

*Patient's name changed so as to not violate HIPAA laws.

Grandpa dying...and other various updates on things that I haven't posted about for a while, or just random items I wanted to throw in, just to make y

our day, since you checked my blog again...so faithfully.

"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”-C.S.Lewis.

What an awesome quote!!! I totally love it.

Well...my dad's dad is slowly dying. He had been in a nursing home for numerous reasons. He had a massive heart attack on Friday morning, and was admitted to the hospital immediately. Tuesday, they found out he had double pneumonia, and kidney failure.

We went up to visit both grandma (who's also in the nursing home up there) and grandpa on Sunday. As far as I know, Grandpa is a Christian. Of course, that is only really known between him and God. I kind of think that it would be best if Grandpa died pretty soon. No more suffering for him. And most of the family is either already there, or coming in this weekend. We'll just see what happens. I'll try to update the blog if we find anything else out. (i.e. major changes in his condition).

I worked at the S-'s new house on Monday and Tuesday. I was working with J, L, S, J, J, and W. Plus two sheetrockers. We sheetrocked almost the entire upstairs walls and ceilings. I am sooo sore. I am totally not used to working with sheetrock up over my head. In fact, I'm not used to working with sheetrock at all. :) I had a massage today, so that made up for a little bit of the soreness.

Last Thursday, I had my 2nd clinical rotation. I was on the Post-Surgical ICU ward. Okay, so last time, when I approached the nurses station to find out what I was doing, the stuck me with a nurse for the 2 hours that I was there. This time, in the ICU, they told me to do whatever I wanted. Just walk around, visit all the rooms, talk to whoever I felt like talking to, etc...So I did. I helped with a bed turning, and helped clean a room out. And I watched/helped with a lung suctioning. I almost passed out at that one. The fellow doing the lung suctioning was a student at a local college. He was being supervised by a respiratory therapist. Anyway, he was up the nose and going down the back of the throat with this tube, suctioning the whole time. Then all of the sudden the junk he was suctioning up changed colors, and the RP in charge said, "I think you're in the esophagus." Yeah...the room started to get a little warm feeling at this point. I'm holding down this poor old lady's hands so she wouldn't grab at the tube going down her throat. She was coughing and gagging. So the student tries again..."nope, still in the esophagus. Pull it out a little until you can feel that you're in the back of the throat. Twist the tube around if you can't tell." Here's where my vision starts to tunnel. It would have been just fine if I was the one doing the operation, but to sit and just watch while feeling this old lady struggle under my hands was almost too much. After the guy got done, I went out into the hallway, and took a few deep breathes. The awful feeling went away pretty quickly, but I'm glad I didn't have to watch multiple lung suctions in a row.

Next week I have 2 rotations on the same day. One is watching a surgery, and the other is the same as my first, Neuro Nursing. So hopefully my feet and back won't give out. Then I've got a piano recital the next day. I'm playing a piece by Chopin, called Nocturne. The actual song itself isn't too difficult, it's just getting the style and accidentals right. And all the stinking trills. Actually, the trills make it easier, cause if you mess up, then you can trill or chromatic up or down to the right note. :)

We had our family picture taken a couple of weeks ago. Here's a couple of the results.

Don't we look grand?? Or at least like a hundred dollars?

And here's the good-looking bunch of boys. Except for....well, I won't write that. Just use whatever your imagination brings to mind. :) And here's me...trying to look smart. Notice the light bulb above my head is not lit. In fact, it almost looks burnt out. :)

And finally, here's a picture of some clouds that my sister took.

First Rotation

So I had my first clinical rotation tonight. I worked for 2 3/4 hours on the Neuro-Intermediate Nursing Floor. Basically it has patients with anything from head trauma, to stablizing from a neuro surgery, to any neuro related disease. That includes Cerebral Palsy and Mental Retardation.

When I first got to the hospital floor that I was going to, I went to the nursing station, and told the secretary-looking lady what I was there for. She turned around and told the charge nurse that I was there. She started asking me what kind of medical experience I had. Like if I was a certified nurse assistant, or a med tech, and so on. I'm like, "I don't know a thing, and I can't legally do very much at all." She says, "oh, okay. Well then..." *turns to the other nurses standing there* "who should he go with so he'll see something really good?" Unfortunately, there wasn't anything "good." Or maybe disgusting...but to me, that'd be really cool.

I shadowed two nurses. The shift change came about 45 minutes after I got there, so the first nurse I had been shadowing left, and I shadowed the nurse that took her place. Both the nurses were really nice. They both showed me what they were doing, and why. The first nurse explained what in tarnation those diagnosises meant, and why they were receiving what they were getting. Basically we just went from room to room (we had 6 rooms) and handed out meds, and answered questions, etc. I say we, but actually, the nurse did all that, and I just stood there and looked handsome. :) It's not that hard once you've had practice.

Okay, now that I've posted on my experience, here's some of the world's funniest one-liners.

1). Ninety-nine percent of lawyers give the rest a bad name.
2). Borrow money from a pessimist -- they don't expect it back.
3). Time is what keeps things from happening all at once.
4). Lottery: A tax on people who are bad at math.
5). I don't suffer from insanity; I enjoy every minute of it.
6). Always go to other people’s funerals, or they won’t go to yours.
7). Few women admit their age; few men act it.
8). If we aren't supposed to eat animals, why are they made with meat?
9). No one is listening until you make a mistake.
10). Give me ambiguity or give me something else.
11). We have enough youth. How about a fountain of "Smart"?
12). He who laughs last thinks slowest.
13). Campers: Nature’s way of feeding mosquitoes.
14). Always remember that you are unique; just like everyone else.
15). Consciousness: That annoying time between naps.

my life, as I don't know it.

Hmmm...it's been a while.

Well...I did it again. I am now laying on the couch in our den...unable to rise and walk normally. I have twisted my ankle again. In the same manner as I did before, though not nearly as bad. I was playing football, and came down hard on the side of my foot. My ankle bent...and it now hurts....really badly. I don't know if that is correct or not. Should I say "really badly", "really bad", "real badly", or "real bad"? I don't really care right now.

Anyway, I now have a goose egg on the side of my foot that looks vaguely familiar. I think I had one for about 6 or 7 weeks earlier this year. I can sort of walk on it, but I have to at least wear a brace, and it's slow going. I am also sick with some bug. I've got a pretty sweet headache, and chest congestion. Besides the fact that my leg pounds with every heartbeat.

But...I'm still saved, Jesus still loves me, and I love Him. So everything's good.

Tuesday I have my first Clinical Rotation in the Hospital. I am going to do Neuro-Intermediate Nursing...I'll let you know what it entails and how it went after I finish. Then on the 1st of November, I've got a rotation in Post-Surgical ICU, and 2 weeks after that, I've got a rotation in Surgery, and another in Neuro-Intermediate Nursing.

Yesterday I had to teach Guitar theory at orchestra. Liz is on "vacation" and so I became the teacher instead of Mr. Crowd Control. Have you ever tried teaching 13 boys (ages 8-11ish) and keeping them under control? And when you have no clue what you are teaching, since you have never had a guitar lesson in your life, and the only thing you know about it, you've taught yourself. That'd be me! Yeah. And btw, Pris, if you read this before Liz leaves, which I kind of doubt you will...tell her that she is supposed to get a candy bar this next week from one of her theory students. :)

Here's some more quotes for you LotR fanatics...or at least those of us who love to hear some of Tolkien's works again and again. These are from the book, this time. Just for you, Grace. :)

"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve." - Bilbo at his party

"Where is the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing? They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow; The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow."; - Theoden before battle at Helm's Deep

In rode the Lord of the Nazgûl. A great black shape against the fires beyond he loomed up, grown to a vast menace of despair. In rode the Lord of the Nazgûl, under the archway that no ememy ever yet had passed, and all fled before his face. All save one. There waiting, silent and still in the space before the Gate, sat Gandalf upon Shadowfax: Shadowfax who alone amoung the free horses of the earth endured the terror, unmoving, steadfast as a graven image in Rath Dínin. "You cannot enter here," said Gandalf, and the huge shadow halted. "Go back to the abyss prepared for you! Go back! Fall into the nothingness that awaits you and your master. Go!" The Black Rider flung back his hood, and behold! he had a kingly crown; and yet upon no head visible was it set. The red fires shone between it and the mantled shoulders vast and dark. From a mouth unseen there came a deadly laughter. "Old fool!' he said. 'Old fool! This is my hour. Do you not know death when you see it? Die now and curse in vain!" And with that he lifted high his sword and flames ran down the blade. Gandalf did not move. And in that very moment, away behind behind in some courtyard of the City, a cock crowed. Shrill and clear he crowed, recking nothing of wizardry or war, welcoming only the morning that in the sky far above the shadows of death was coming with the dawn. And as if in answer there came from far away another note. Horns, horns, horns. In dark Mindolluin's sides they dimly echoed. Great horns of the North wildly blowing. Rohan had come at last. - Gandalf confronts the Witch King



And two from the Movie.

Home is behind
The world ahead
and there are many paths to tread
Through shadow to the edge of night
until the stars are all alight
Mist and shadow
Cloud and shade
All shall fade
All shall... fade.
- Pippin sings to Denethor

can't you just hear Pip singing this haunting song?

"Spears shall be shaken, shields shall be splintered. It is a sword-day; a red day, ere the sun rises! Ride now! Ride now! Ride for ruin, and the world's ending! Forth Eorlingas!";
- Theoden to the Rohirrim, before battle at the Pelennor

Inspiration to end the world, eh?

Lord of the Rings

Okay, so I must needs post on some favorite quotes from Lord of The Rings. Thank you to Mr. Tolkien for writing this so many years ago, so that I could post them on the internet. :)

“Sam: [Both are overcome by exhaustion] Do you remember the Shire, Mr. Frodo? It'll be spring soon. And the orchards will be in blossom. And the birds will be nesting in the hazel thicket. And they'll be sowing the summer barley in the lower fields... and eating the first of the strawberries with cream. Do you remember the taste of strawberries?

Frodo: No, Sam. I can't recall the taste of food... nor the sound of water... nor the touch of grass. I'm... naked in the dark, with nothing, no veil... between me... and the wheel of fire! I can see him... with my waking eyes!

Sam: Then let us be rid of it... once and for all! Come on, Mr. Frodo. I can't carry it for you... but I can carry you!”

How this could apply to our lives as Christians! Christ commands us to carry one another's burdens. See Galatians 6:2 "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." In this case, Sam could not carry Frodo's burden, and burden it was, but he did what he could. In this case, he carried Frodo himself.

Pippin: I feel like I'm back at the Green Dragon.

Merry: [through a mouthful of food] Mm. Green Dragon.

Pippin: A mug of ale in my hand, putting my feet up on a settle after a hard day's work.

Merry: Only, you've never done a hard day's work.

[They laugh; Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli ride up. Merry stands and gives an exaggerated bow]

Merry: Welcome, my lords, to Isengard!

Gimli: You young rascals! A merry hunt you've led us on, and now we find you... feasting and... and *smoking.*

Pippin: We are sitting on a field of victory enjoying a few well-earned comforts.

[Merry blows a smoke ring]

Pippin: The salted pork is particularly good.

Gimli: [eagerly] Salted pork?

Gandalf: [exasperated] Hobbits.

Merry: We're under orders from Treebeard, who has taken over management of Isengard.

Treebeard: [as they walk toward the tower] Hroom, young master Gandalf! I'm relieved that you've come. Wood and water, stock and stone I can master, but there's a wizard to manage here. Locked his tower.”

I love the part where Merry tells Pip that he's never done a hard day's work in his life. That'd be completely true for a Hobbit. And watching the actors doing this scene in the movie is totally cool.