CPR or CRP?

Ok, so I had a clinical on Tuesday in the Cardiac ICU, as stated earlier on this very blog. Anyways... it went quite well. In fact, I had quite an experience. The nurse I was with was caring for 2 patients. One of these patients was really fat and lazy and never moved. This fat, lazy patient needed surgery (Coronary Artery Bypass x3 to be exact) but was turned down because he was lazy and didn't move. It is impossible to recover from a surgery if you don't move. So they sent him to the cath lab to put stents in his Coronaries instead of bypassing them. So...

Here we are in the cath lab watching a routine procedure. There is the physician, the scrub, another guy helping out, and the lab tech that I was with back in the watching/monitoring/documenting area. Suddenly we see the patients heart stop. Yes, it stopped. Just like on the movies.

The tech sitting next to me in charge of documenting (a 10 year Resp. Therapist turned cath lab dude) jumps up and yells "He's blocked!" and runs into the lab. At this point 2 things happen. 1) I jump out of my seat and look around waiting for someone to tell me what to do, and 2) realize that CPR (cardio pulmonary resuscitation) should really be called CRP (crap right in you pants). I did not do this, however. [see previous notes on Dr. P's blog about emergent situations and pucker factors].

The tech that ran out of the room started to hook up the defibrillator while a tech from the next room ran in and started CPR. Ya. The scrub points at me and starts asking for various items from the shelves that he cannot grab because he is sterile (not that he can't have kids - he has gloves and gown and everything on). I gladly comply.

Soon enough the patient re-stabilized and everything was semi-back to normal. The techs muttering about how this patient shouldn't even be here, etc... I am back in my position with the tech monitoring when the physician says, "get RT in here - we're going to need CPR." The tech sitting there looks at me, "go do CPR." I put down my bagel and say, "uh, ok." and run out and start compressions. RT arrives shortly and intibates the patient. This equals me not doing mouth-to-mouth. I know you are all disappointed, but I did do compressions. Was it awesome? Yes. More techs and the nurse started filing in to help. CPR was stopped and I was asked to 'bag' the patient. For those you not named Dr. P. this means deflate the bag of oxygen that will be delivered to the non-breathing patient (this is a continuous deal). Was it awesome? Yes.

As I am sitting there breathing for the patient, an external pace maker was inserted as was a swan-ganz catheter. Very cool. Hadn't seen that done. Finally, the patient was transferred back to the CCU. After about an hour, the patient was stable, sedated, but stable. I drew some labs from the art line and swan-ganz, and continued to help my nurse. Was it awesome? Yes.

So, that was really long, and Dr. P bags patient every day, but this was my first experience and I thought I would share it with whomever cares. It was a bit long, but there were some details left out. Hope you all made it this far.

If you are still reading and you don't really care about any of this... I ate at Tucanos today. You are all jealous.

Better Cover Up Your Keyboard...

I don't want you to drool all over and get the keys all wet. Yes, the Jalapeno Burger from Carl's Jr. is the best burger out there. It is a perfect concoction of bun, beef, and fixins. These include lettuce, tomato, onion, jalapenos, pepper jack cheese, and Santa Fe sauce. Can it get better than that? No. I have tried. I have searched far and wide for the best fast-food burger out there and I am here to crown the champion. There you have it.

For those of you that are worried about your tongues exploding from just the mention of jalapenos - do not fear. The Santa Fe sauce (I believe) has mayo in it. Now since I have a fair amount of experience with the combination of mayo and peppers I will share with you. When you mix mayo and peppers on a sandwich, the mayo dulls the spicy right out the pepper and you get the luscious flavor of the jalapeno. It is so good. Is there a kick? Yes, however, it is very slight. You can handle it.

I choose not to go into detail about what happens or how it feels when your large intestine is through absorbing the nutrients from the jalapeno burger. I will warn you that the mayo no longer has the effect of dulling the spice. But, it is still worth it.

There you have it. My ode to Carl's Jr. and their best burger. I think I average 2.6 of these bad boys a week. All you need to order is: Double Jalapeno Burger Combo -- medium size -- Dr. Pepper. That will be the best $7.29 you ever spent. You're welcome.

By the way - I like the Double Jalapeno Burger the best, but here is the nutritional info for the Six Dollar Jalapeno Burger: Calories - 1010, Carbs - 52 grams, Protein - 39 g, Fat - 72 grams, Saturated Fat - 26 grams, Cholesterol - 150 mg, and Sodium - 2070. Roughly that means two things: 1) for every burger you eat, you lose 10 months off your life, and 2) they are freaking good.

Since 2001?

Have iPods really been around for that long? The answer is yes. I am just glad to finally come around. This valentine's day started about as awesomely as any day could. Class. But wait, it got better - after class I went to work. But it really did get better.

Long story short - Ash got me (out of nowhere) an 80 gig black video iPod and I love it. Apparently she really does like Valentine's day, and you know what --- I like it too.

So FYI, I have like 65 gigs left to fill if you have any suggestions... I have spent the last 3 days converting my Media Player music library into the iTunes compatability.

Oh, and as for Nelly Furtado... I've got it. Well, not the album, just her recent hit. I just listen for the beat though. I don't listen to the words. Does anyone really believe that?

Warning: Not Funny...

OK, here is the deal. This post may not interest anybody besides Colby, but I have no choice. I have to post about something - so here goes... I recently aquired my clinical schedule for this semester. I am pleased to announce to you all that I am actually looking forward to going to the hospital. I know, that sounds crazy, but after hearing about my set up this semester and comparing it to the mother/baby rotation I had to go through last semester - ya, that's what I thought.

Ok, so I start off with 2 weeks at Primary Children's - my first day I saw alot of RSV and a lot of tubes stuck up noses to pull out excess boogers. It was ok. Next week I will be in the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit). We walked through it last week and all the patients had seriously like 12 IV pumps going... that is insane. But that is not really what I am looking forward to...

This semester at UVRMC (not my choice of hospitals - but that is where we all are) I will spend 3 days in the CCU (Cardiac Care Unit). I understand that this is where the critically ill heart patients are. This will be very interesting. Dr. P worked there or on a similar floor at the U I believe? Anyway, I am really excited. I will also work on the telemetry floor which I think is like a Med/Surg but still with heart problems. I will also be at the wound care clinic for a day and somewhere else for a day, I can't remember where.

Now, just so you all know - if I could have chosen where I could go - I would have chosen where I am going. Did that make sense? I hope that I can be of some assistance to the nurses that I will be shadowing there. Doc P, any suggestions on what I can expect to see or expect to do or need to know? That would be great. I think that I would like to work somewhere like this. I am not sure because, obviously, I haven't been there, but cardiac is awesome.

So there is your update. Super funny, right? I know.

War the Patriots getting beat down. War Tom Brady getting ''put to the ground" all game. War Bill not being the genius that everyone said he is. I loved every second. Oh, and war the 7-layer bean dip that my superstar wife made. It was crawling with tomatoes. So freaking good. One more - War my mother-in-law telling me that I am a bad influence for watching the superbowl. I told her to just embrace the whole experience. Maybe I should post that story?