Work hard, play hard, sleep... as much as I can get away with

I think this is my motto lately this summer. I'm working in big chunks and then taking chunks of time off and doing something fun. It's kinda nice that I've gotten comfortable enough with work that I can stay up a little later the night before I go, sleep thru the night (I used to wake up a lot), and be ok at work the next day. This week is a prime example of how I have taken advantage of this fact.

Wednesday night after work I played Monopoly with 3 guys on the table moved to the center of my living room. I will happily say that I beat them all with my 6 hotels despite the fact that somebody kept accurately predicting his rolls too many times.

Thursday I went to the hospital for a class in the morning. ACLS, you have to get certified every 2 years. They give you scenarios like "You find a person who isn't breathing and has no pulse, what will you do." So you say, (this is the short undetailed answer) I would start CPR, hook them up to the defibrillator, shock 'em if indicated at 200 J. They say "doesn't work." So you say, I'd give them Epinephrine 1 mg followed by bla bla bla... They say "doesn't work." So then you proceed to say what other 49 drugs you'd give them with the correct dosages to which they reply "still no pulse" at which point you say THEY ARE DEAD. And they "Very good!" Hmmm... Luckily you get to use your handy dandy handbook to look up a lot of questions that you don't know. Our class got shortened however because the hospital was put on a code orange (internal disaster) because EPB blew up a huge transformer. Parts of the hospital only had emergency lighting and most of the hospital had NO AC. On a 90+ degree day that was horrific. We had to clear out of the conference rooms because the media was coming in for a press conference to grill them about what they were going to do about it. I left all my coworkers in the sauna and went home to go out on the boat with the Heilmans (see MJ's blog for some pics) and then to a Lookouts ballgame with Ryan Heilman, Ryan Knight, John, and Hollie. Ryan and Ryan got to race to put on frozen T-shirts while standing on the dugout (maybe Ryan H. will put some pictures on his blog!). We moved seats about 4 times, sometimes to dodge the rain, and ended up behind home plate where all the hard core baseball people sit.

Friday I worked again and today I did the usual Sabbath activities of playing for Sabbath School, church, eating with the Heilmans, and taking an afternoon nap. Now it's 3 more days of work with some boating in between and Carrie is coming down for Ryan H's last weekend in Collegedale. :-(

Weekend at Carrie's

I spent a long weekend at Carrie's. The first day was spent running setting up apt/residency errands. Here we're putting together a microwave stand while Carrie talks to Ryan on the phone.

I kept waking up and Carrie was out on the floor. Sometimes on purpose, sometimes she didn't remember how she got there. ;-)


Off with the old, on with the new. Reaching this point took us 2 days and several hours of time going between the DMV, the County offices, and the bank.

We did a little site seeing walking around carrying camera equipment and stopping every 2 minutes to take pictures, mostly of each other I think. As usual, there are other pictures on Carrie's blog.

Nashville Zoo

We spent Sabbath afternoon at the zoo.


Here's a funny swimming lizard.


I found my own burrow.


Carrie tricked the lorikeets into liking her SAU ID card. I think she'd like to take one of these home with her.

Wouldn't this clouded leopard make a pretty pet?

The bamboo forest was my favorite part of the zoo. I think we both liked it so much we made a wrong turn...

... but we found these neat wooden chairs.

Belle Meade Plantation

On Sunday we went to Belle Meade Plantation. This plantation was owned by the Hardings who then married Jacksons. Sadly, neither are related to anybody important you know. However, there are lots of famous racehorses who trace their ancestry back to the bloodlines raised here including Seabiscuit and Northern Dancer. This family farm has the oldest registered jokey uniform/colors in the country.

This was the look of the weekend... don't like it... adjust the settings... try again...


The photographer is photographed...


... taking this picture.

The photographer of the photographed...

We spent the afternoon driving around the south side of Nashville with detours to the airport and the Opry on our way to Opry Mills mall. Rainforest Cafe was neat to look inside as well as the usual Outdoor World. Unfortunately, we only came away with a pair of tennis shoes for Carrie.

Family night at the fireworks

After work was over I met Nick, Dave, Kari, and Mindy at the Lookouts for a baseball game and fireworks. I made it in the 7th inning because one of my patients blew a hole in his femoral artery (he already had a hole there from a procedure that day, it just reopened) and I had to hold pressure forever to get it stopped. Then when I got to downtown there was NOWHERE to park. I drove around for probably 10 minutes looking for a spot and everybody else along with me. I was about to call and tell them I was going home because I couldn't find a spot when I got one.
Kari called some other family members from the game to say hello and tell them we were having fun without them. :-)

So, the Lookouts lost, as usual, but there was some excitement in the 9th when they struck out the other team with bases loaded. The batter even had a temper tantrum and broke his bat on purpose. Afterwards they let everybody out on the field to watch the fireworks across the highway. How often do you see a bunch of people on a ballfield? Walking back to my car they started the fireworks downtown so I saw those, then caught some driving thru Collegedale on my way home. So all in all I saw parts of all 3 displays last night.

A Snapshot of Jaclyn, RN, BSN

I had to take my camera with me today and didn't want to leave it in the car all day so... I decided to take some pictures while I had my camera handy. It will probably never happen again.

For those of you who call my cell phone during the day, this is where it answers: my locker.


2 Central Nurses Station
The balloons are because our floor shocked the hospital by winning the patient satisfaction award for this quarter.


From the other side...


The coveted trophy
What you see behind is the monitors booth. Somebody sits there and watches the patient's heart rhythms at all times.


The medroom/supply room 1


The medroom/supply room 2
The grey machines are called a pixis (would that be pixi for plural?) that hold medications. You have to know a code to get into this room and you have to use your ID and scan a finger to get into a pixis.


Our floor has 34 beds (I think) on 4 halls...
This is the front hall or 41-48


Affectionately called "The HOLE" this is 51-63, the longest hall. My legs ache when I work this hall (which I did yesterday and today) and it tends to attract the hardest patients somehow.


66-73


The back hall, 76-81, going to the Chattanooga Heart Institute


The connecting tunnel to CHI where I come to get the weather report, when I have time.