I've been thinking...

and I've come to believe that...

The truth in the mouth of the simple is better than lies in the mouth of a sage.

                                                                                                       

What do you think?

Reasonable Perspectives on Reason

Skepticism is a kind of intellectual disease that generally arises among people who are both well fed and well read. ~ Benjamin Wiker

Reason is a great servant but a terrible master. ~ Stuart McAllister

Eight Keys to Healthy Living

The time has come! Next weekend is my last scheduled work stint in Northwest Texas Hospital ICU. For the last 3 months life seems to have been mostly filled with working two jobs and not nearly enough time for LIVING. The two work environments have been great for building experience and resume, but I’m very excited to finally be approaching a more sane schedule. In contrast to working 2 twenty-four hour shifts on the helicopter, and 2 to 3 twelves in the ICU each week, I’ll now have only EagleMed as my primary job and commitment. The plan is to continue working at NWTH on an as need basis which will probably amount to a couple of days a month for me.

Leaving the Surgical Intensive Care Unit comes with mixed emotions. For the most part I am quite happy to be decreasing my hours there in favor of more variety. However, one of the down sides is that I’m leaving a very educational environment. Yes, not only in the field of medicine, but also watching people as they go through life’s “school of hard nocks.” (often literally:) The book of Proverbs tells us that we should learn from the mistakes of others rather than suffering the consequences of foolish behavior.

Because of this I would be amiss to not pass along some of the valuable lessons I have learned from my patients. They are all true and from my experience in the last year. I’ve tried to put them in an anonymous way so as to not break patient confidentiality. (If you happen to recognize yourself in a story, just leave a comment saying that was me, and I’ll delete that section:)

Now for the all inclusive safety checklist...along with free bonus explanations...

1. Don’t ride horse downtown while drunk. You may fall off and spend a couple of weeks in ICU with a head injury.

2. Don’t cut off the tree limb you’re sitting on. You may fall and break multiple bones. (I think that alzheimers played a factor in this case, but I never thought I would see this in real life)

3. If your girl friend wants to leave, don’t try to stop her by climbing on the hood of her car. She may dump you (for the second time?) causing a fatal head injury.

4. When you and your girl friend get in a fight, shooting yourself in the stomach doesn’t help much. It just hurts and makes you spend a while in the hospital.

5. When you and your girl friend are driving somewhere at 70 mph, don’t jump out of the car window…even if the argument gets really bad. It may surprise you, but such actions can cause fatal head injuries.

*on this topic, it’s shocking how many serious trauma patients come from what I call “Love gone south.” Broken down into specific categories of the causes of life threatening trauma such as auto accidents, industrial and recreational accidents and so on, my experience has been that sour romance is among the most common categories. I’ll have to leave some of the more interesting stories off the list due to this being a “G” rated blog.
(Conclusion: “Romance” is a passionate part of human life with great potential for good or evil.)

6. If you want to be home for Christmas, don’t do meth on the road. Otherwise you may end up in the hospital and then jail over the “holidays.” (with great remorse over not being able to be there for Christmas)

7. Don’t sell drugs in dark allies. You may be found later with the pulp beat out of you.

8. Oh, yeah, I almost forgot the most common…don’t drink and drive. You may land yourself (or someone else) in the hospital…or grave.

Follow these simple rules, and trust me, you'll greatly decrease your chances of landing in Surgical/Trauma ICU.

Until next time,

Be in touch and Be Safe.

The Great Time Struggle

Doesn't it often seem that the busier you become the faster time flies? I thought that I had been feeling the correlation over the last couple of months. After all, I recently added a second job to my schedule. However, I'm beginning to think that it actually goes much deeper. You see, I've entered into a mysteriously strange struggle with time. Its almost like a "bitter sweet" relationship. My new job has literally taken me air born...and in one way I have joined time in flight! Now, lest you think I have entered into comradory with time...the "bitter" part. The new job sometimes puts me in a direct confrontation with time. More simply put, I am often in "a fight against time". Bewildering and confusing isn't it?

Perhaps its because of the latter that I've felt soooo short on time over the last months. Enter into a direct confrontation with time... don't expect it to give you much of its self...very disturbing considering that's where I'm at right now. I don't even know if I'll sleep tonight!

OK, maybe the time conflict is disturbing on paper but I don't think I'll lose any sleep over it. The real reason I don't know if I'll sleep tonight is because I'm currently on shift at The Guymon Oklahoma EagleMed base. EagleMed is a privately owned air ambulance service based out of Wichita Kansas. This company became my employer when they recently opened a new helicopter base here at Guymon.

Job description? First of all, no I do not fly the helicopter! That's the job of our highly trained and qualified pilots. As a nurse/paramedic, my responsibility is to provide in-flight medical care to any patients requiring rapid transport to a specialty hospital. Our patients may come directly from an accident scene/ambulance, or from any of the surrounding small town hospitals that lack the equipment and staff to care for critically ill or injured patients. Each mission we fly has three staff aboard the helicopter...a pilot, RN, and Paramedic. We all try to work together to provide topnotch medical care, as well as speedy transport as we join our patients in a fight against time. It makes for a very diverse and interesting job that I'm happy to have.

The Bird

Extra equipment


My partiner today, Paramedic Andrew

Pilot Toni at the stick.

Planned Parenthood

From time to time I work a night shift in the ICU...it tends to be much slower paced than day shift and makes for a nice change. On such a night a few weeks ago we had some down time and I randomly pulled out a pro-life article I had received. Funny thing was, it prominently displayed a Planned Parenthood emblem which happened to catch the eye of another nurse. She positively asked about my affiliation with PP and stated that she used to work at the PP clinic here in Amarillo. I had to chuckle as I explained that I was actually pro-life and this article was anti-Planned Parenthood. In the friendly discussion that followed, another nurse emphatically stated that he's not against PP, but he simply apposes abortions. Sound reasonable? Check out the work of Lila Rose.

As a Pro-life student reporter at UCLA, Ms. Rose has been investigating just what Planned Parenthood is made up of. Employing the help of an actor, she called PP clinics in seven states offering to donate money specifically for the abortion of black babies. In my opinion, the recorded conversations are not only appalling, but more importantly revealing of the true PP.

Can we judge the entire organization based on the words of these representatives? Based on the lack of public denouncement and disciplinary action passed down from the leaders of Planned Parenthood, I would say yes. What do you think?

See if these links don't nock your socks off...

http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=LK08B57&f=WA08B46

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA4cM7x_o4M&feature=related

For Free. The Virginia state senate voted on Feb. 29 2008 to withdraw all state support from PP due to their pro-abortion stance. Way to go Virginia!

Looking Back at Fawn Memories

As it sometimes goes this time of year, the flu has been visiting our home. Anna and I seem to have picked it up about the same time and both spent the last three or four days dealing with aches chills and coughs. Unfortunately, at the time that Anna and I are on the mend, Angela is just getting the same set of symptoms. I hope and pray that she’ll have a speedy recovery.

Remember those times as you’re recovering from a sickness, that you don’t yet feel up to par, but you have a restless drive to be up and doing something? That’s how I felt yesterday and it put me in a very unusual mode---closet cleaning mode. Not too big a deal…reorganized stuff, threw out a batch of junk, and also came across some fun memories. One of which was a story I wrote after the summer of 2003. As I read through it today, I laughed over and over as it reminded me of the experiences of that summer. I decided to go ahead and post it even though it is a little long. Read it if you have the desire and the time.


Fawn Memories

During the early part of this past summer, I spent many hours on horseback checking cattle in our pastures. Because the rides often took me along or across our creek, they were a wonderful opportunity to observe nature. The most memorable experiences turned out to be the many encounters I had with small fawns.

The first incident took place when my brother, Micah, and I were returning home from moving some cattle. We were riding side by side, trotting briskly across a grassy low land, when Micah spied the spotted fawn as we passed on either side of it. The baby, only the size of a large house cat, never twitched as we thundered by. Circling our horses, we gazed at the little creature curled in the grass. Though scared, it lay motionless. Was there anything that would scare it into fleeing? We cherished the moment and continued homeward.

A couple of days later, Micah and I had the opportunity to learn more about fawn behavior. We were crossing the creek near the site of the previous meeting, when our nervous horses helped us detect the fawn, tucked in beside a clump of green grass. Wow, another once in a life time experience! Burn the picture deep in your mind. It may have to last you a long time. The little thing certainly has been well taught to lie still. We enjoyed the seconds. The fawn did not. After about a half a minute of having the big ugly beasts stare at it, the fawn had had enough. Without warning, it jumped to its feet. We, calming our terrified horses, watched as the baby sprang backwards into a pool of water. It stood up, covered with mud and water. “Where’s my mommy? Maybe on the other side of those horses, farther up the creek. I’ll have to risk it!” As it dashed between our horses, the fawn let a pitiful maa/yelp. It soon disappeared around a bend of the creek. While Micah and I couldn’t help but chuckle at the humor of the ordeal, we both hoped that Mommy got to lick baby deer clean really soon.

While that was the last time I saw a fawn in its hiding place, we continued to have interesting encounters. One, was a little more interesting than the fawn would have preferred. I had just crossed the creek with four sick cattle and was driving them across a low land toward our house. They insisted on spreading out so I let them and followed behind. It was hardly surprising when a couple of them flushed up a little fawn. What did surprise me though, was the baby’s course of action. In spite of other options, it ran straight up the hill toward our house! While I wished for a cell phone to call home, I hurried the cattle to the side and around the house. I then topped the hill in time to see the fawn (practically in our front yard) thrashing against the chicken fence. Mama and the girls were watching with perplexed looks on their faces. I rode around the house and tied my horse. The fawn, meanwhile, found its way back out to pasture, so I joined the girls and Mama, who still had funny looks on their faces. Funny enough, that when Mama asked me if I had done that on purpose, I hurriedly shook my head and pointed at the cattle!

Cattle also led me into another more friendly meeting, this time with two young fawns. The two sick cattle that I was driving home were in the creek bottom, and I was on the bank above. They were playing the “see if you can make me cross the creek” game, with turned into the “up and down the creek” game. While they were trying their up the creek tactic, I noticed a fawn standing in the grass a short distance farther ahead. Declaring the cattle “short term winners”, I dismounted to watch the curious baby. As the horse and I stood still, it wandered closer and closer, looking us over intently. Another fawn soon appeared, watching from a safe distance beneath a tree. The two began conversing in soft little maas. I longed for a camera, as the first one walked within fifteen feet of me. It then went over and joined its companion under the tree. After a few minutes they both lay down and I rode off to find the cattle, which had wandered off in opposite directions. It took me an extra thirty minutes to locate and head them home, but that didn’t matter. It was worth it, to have an experience like that.

I don’t know how many fawns were raised in the area this summer, but on one trip down the creek I saw four, including a set of twins which ran off with their mother. I do know however, that several fawns saw more of me during the summer than they would have liked. No long term harm came to them from our meetings though, and I thank the Lord for making my path cross those of one of his cutest creatures—the spotted fawn.

The following summer, I had the opportunity to take the pics of this fawn under similar circumstances. Memories of this sort make me anticipate the upcoming summer more than ever. If all goes as planned, I’ll be splitting summertime work hours between my current job at Northwest Hospital, and being a rancher. In the meantime, life’s good, and only getting better. Until next time, so long Partner(s)!

NWTH S.I.C.U.

NWTH S.I.C.U. ??? That's right, I've just started my first job in a field where communication seems to be by abbreviation. A few weeks back I accepted a nursing position in the Northwest Texas Hospital Surgical Intensive Care Unit. This week was my first on the job and it has consisted entirely of orientation class...a necessary but not so exciting start. Over the next couple of weeks I'm supposed to be mostly orienting on the unit. I know it will be challenging, but I'm looking forward to it. I'll try to tell more about how its going sometime comming up.

NWTH isn't close to home. In fact, its about 90 miles away. So, I now have me a second "home" in Amarillo at the Huntington Pointe apartments. Mama and Anna and Angela happened to be in town for an appointment this afternoon so I got to show them my new place and then go out for supper. It made for a fun evening.

That's my door on the third floor...If you're ever in town, pay me a visit!

The "move in" view. I'll probably make at least some attempt at lessening the blank look...but don't get your hopes too high.