Memorial Day Weekend

It was quite cold and rainy all weekend, which made for a perfect weekend for work.  And that's exactly what I did.  Friday through Monday, just about 50 hours in all.  And I wasn't even sad about it because my job is awesome.  It is living up to every good expectation and hope I had.  I can't believe how fast paced it is and the kind of variety we see every day.  It is so exciting and the time FLIES by!  Things are probably going to be changing here in a little bit because they are planning on hiring a couple new PA's for the ER, starting maybe around July.  So who knows what my schedule will be like then.  For now I just work whenever I can.  I saw my first patient suffering from severe alcohol withdrawal this weekend.  He came in talking about how he was in a shootout and he barely made it out alive and there were bullets flying everywhere.  And he would have come in by ambulance except he had to talk to the National Guard.  And all manner of other entertaining hallucinations.  Dr. Beachy, one of the locums guys who worked this weekend, played right along with him and it was pretty funny, actually.  Saw a guy who had chopped off his finger with a hatchet while getting kindling for a fire - most likely living in a van or RV and trying to boil some water or something.  His finger sat in an ice bag on the counter for a good part of that shift. 

There was a guy that had gotten hit by a wood beam or something at work and had a HUGE laceration on the back of his head.  It was open to his skull basically.  When we were numbing him up, Dr. Beachy was tapping on his skull with the needle.  Wowsers.  So much blood all over the place.  He helped me put in a few absorbable sutures under the skin and then we put 20 staples on top.  Totally gnarly.  We talked a ton in school about diabetes and the wounds you can get etc.  Saw my first good diabetic wound this weekend too.  This guy had a huge ulcer/blister on the bottom of his big toe.  It's crazy to me...the kind of guys that are up here.  They make tons and tons of money and almost 100% of them have no insurance and the worst health ever and complain about money or not having jobs (this guy worked in the oil fields for like 4 plus years and then was homeless and has no job right now, etc) and it just baffles me.  What the heck do they do with their money?  We never cease to be amazed by the kinds of people here and their different lifestyles.  Also a first for this weekend was my first time to give someone bad news.  I had to tell a darling older lady and her husband that there was a possible stroke or tumor on her CT scan.  I've been around a lot of people having to give the bad news but this was my first time and it was harder than I expected.

 So not to make this whole post about work stuff - I will stop.  Besides I start to forget all the crazy stuff we see because we see so much.  I'll have to take notes and just post about the most exciting!  Tanner didn't have to work this weekend so he was left to his own devices.  He enjoyed himself some exciting Indy and Nascaar races and had a little visitor. 

This little mangy thing has been hanging around the last couple of days.  Tanner sent that top picture and asked if we could keep him.  I almost said yes.  Well, I did say yes...I was almost serious.  He's a cutey.  And probably would be super adorable all cleaned up.  He's a spaz though.  Had some fun with the doggies, but we haven't seen him much this afternoon. Hopefully found his way home. 

And the last exciting thing of the weekend...except that it happened today so technically it wasn't part of the real weekend - but we got our furniture.  The last of the unpacking is D-O-N-E.  It's all clean and there are no cardboard boxes out in the living area ("neatly" tucked away in the back rooms) and all our books are on the shelves. 

But now all the trinkets, etc that I had on these shelves over the counter are on our bookshelves, and so I'm not quite sure what people do with shelves like these.  Thought about putting dishes there, but it gets to dusty in here, that would be a bad idea.  Any ideas of what looks good and what I should try?  I'm not a professional make-my-house-look-cool person, and I am still unsure of how I feel about the bookshelf arrangements and such.  If anyone has good ideas or suggestions...I'll take them! 

Hope everyone else had a wonderful weekend as well!  We missed all our family!  Especially my favorite family reunion ever up City Creek!  Hope it's not too long before we get to be there again...