Farewell fair weather

Holy moly I can't believe we haven't blogged for 3 weeks.  We are slackers.  It kind of has been a wild month but also I'm starting to wonder if we're actually getting used to the chaos and crazy that is Williston - so things don't strike us as "blog-worthy" as much anymore.  That's a terrible excuse and it won't happen again.  I honestly don't think too much new and exciting has happened.  I did get to go home to Utah for a week which was a quick trip and pretty busy.  Got to do a lot of fun stuff with both families which was great - only bad part was the other half of MY family was stuck working in North Dakota.  Next trip home we'll all be together, 3 &4-legged kids and all!  So excited!  And just less than 9 weeks to go :)

I took a few pictures awhile ago that I've been meaning to put on here.  

One afternoon I took some lunch (and medicine - he was a sicky) out to Tanner on one of the locates jobs he was doing.  It was a rather lovely field he was out in and I'd never really seen him and his fancy gear in action - so I snapped a few photos.  We enjoyed lunch together on the back of his work truck and it was a pleasant little 20 minute break.

I spent a lot of the lovely fall afternoons at the park with the dogs - and sometimes when the weather was just right - I pulled out my summer blanket and did a little reading.  Glory.  Oh how we are going to miss those days.  Williston was quite pleasant in the summer and fall and Tanner and I are both wondering just how miserably cold it's going to get and mostly I'm just wondering if I'll survive.  He got to experience some nice 60 mph winds last week.  I fortunately was getting the tail end of beautiful fall in Utah so I have yet to have that pleasure.  I'm sure I'll get my chances.

Tanner has been wanting me to post some pics and updates about work.  Things have really slowed down there in the last couple of months.  Maybe a lot of the summer workers have gone back home or something.  I'm not really sure why we've had such a decrease in patients.  It's nice to be able to sit down occasionally and breathe.  I seem to miss some of the "best" trauma's though.  Rather unfortunate.  Take this for example - I guess last week some guy got his foot caught in an auger and it popped it clean off just about.  Well - the x-ray looks clean.  The actual pic of his foot didn't!  I'll spare you weak-stomached folks that picture.

It doesn't really look that bad at all.  I felt pretty bummed that I missed that one. Also bummed for the guy that lost his foot but if it's gonna happen anyway - I'd like to be there.  I guess wherever he was at called a few hours later saying they had found his foot and wondered if we wanted them to bring it in.  I think it just got sent to the pathologist. 

A couple weekend's ago was actually one of the busiest I can remember.  It was NON stop action - and not just like a bunch of people with colds or sore throats - like all day legitimate emergencies and patients stacked to the brim constantly to be seen.  It was exhausting.  There was a gal who stepped off a truck accidentally while loading straw and feel on her leg and absolutely crushed her tibia and broke her fibula...

It was in so many pieces.  I don't even know how that could have happened but apparently it's one of the worst fractures you can have by way of length of recovery, complications and amount of surgeries.  That was sad.

Ok this picture might gross people out - but it was an interesting case.  A lady was outside cutting some plants up maybe - I still am unsure of what exactly the tool was and what she was "composting" - but it was some automatic slicing thing and somehow she got her hand caught in it and it just exploded the tips of her fingers.  When I took the dressings off she had a couple arterial bleeds that gushed all over my shirt and pants and stethoscope (an aside: that was the first time I ever got blood on myself - as gross as it was - I felt kind of like it was a rite of passage or initiation into ER medicine that I had finally completed).  Anyway - that's the ortho guy taking care of her.  He had to tie off the bleeding arteries - which was a difficulty and then try to piece back together as much of the skin as he could - which wasn't much.  She had some broken fingertips as well...

And with all the construction and building we have going on, we have our fair share of nail injuries.  The first pic is from awhile ago but I just never got around to posting it.  A guy somehow shot his foot with a nail gun, just missing his protective steel toe :(
Went right through the bone...

And last but not least - this genius did this without the aid of a nail gun.  Just his own two hands...brilliant:

Luckily that one didn't go through the bone and I was able to numb up his whole finger and slide the nail right out.  That was kind of a fun patient.  That was just last night even.  So - even if it has slowed down there's still a lot of good times.  For me.  Not the patients.  And I'm sure there's tons more but I can't get pics of everything and it's just not as fun to tell about it unless there's good photos to supplement with, ya know?

Stay tuned for more scenes from the ER.  I'll try to take better mental or literal notes as well about the cool and stupid stuff we see :)

That will be all for now.  Happy Halloween!  Don't do stupid things...