Dr Aunt Liz

Me: Okay, sit right here so the doctor can fix it.

Nephew: Are you Doctor Aunt Liz?

Me: Yes I am. 

Officially a Doctor of Nursing (and none too soon, I might add!)

This is not a sneaky reference to anything in my personal life, it's just something I wish I would have said before he did.

 Also, it's 8 seconds long, so it's totally worth watching. 

Baby Birds

A little bird couple built their home in my parents' barbecue grill,

and now Los Padres are raising little baby Voldemorts.

You Know You're A Nurse When (Part 16)

You wake up on a tired morning to pray and you accidentally ask God to help you be "alert and oriented."

On Paralysis

I.
At ATLS we learned about spinal cord trauma. How to manage a patient in the trauma bay after a recent paralysis. Usually the patient is so panicked about not being able to move his or her arms and/or legs that he or she is screaming, yelling and in shock. It can be distracting, but there are often other seriously life threatening issues occurring so you always have to go back to the ABCs. Treat the biggest threat to life first.

II.
He jumped off of something and landed on his head. Broke his neck. Immediately yelled to his friends, "Guys! I can't move my arms or legs." After he recovered, he had a tiny bit of movement of his biceps. Nothing below the nipple line. Every time we’d go into his room, it was just so solemn. A lot of tears as the realization that everything he’d dreamed about his life was no longer real.

My friend met a guy who broke his back in an accident. Was paralyzed from the waist down. The neurosurgeon came in to talk about the surgery he’d need to do in order to stabilize the fracture. “Will I be able to walk again after the surgery?” “No.” And the realization that he’d never be able to walk again. His family told him they still wanted him around as he wondered if he’d rather have died.

III.
I woke up late and stretched my arms overhead. Realized for the first time how miraculous it is that I can do that. I can stretch from fingers to toes and walk for hours in the nighttime air and ride my bike and move myself to place to place. I should wake up every morning with a profound sense of gratitude for the amazing life I am living and the body I’ve been given.

IV.
Please don’t jump or dive into things when you don’t know their depth or off of things that are too tall to be jumped from, wear a seat belt with a lap and a shoulder belt, keep your kids safe in a car seat, don’t text while driving, don’t drive drowsy, don’t keep a loaded gun where it can hurt someone innocent, don’t ever point a gun at someone even in jest, and please oh please be grateful for every day in your blessed, moving body.

I spent the day at ATLS.

Here is what I learned:

People in the trauma bay should always have a lower heart rate than the patient, unless [the patient is] coding. 

Kids are just little adults, but they have big heads, rubber bones, and they heal like ET. 

Thank You, Urban Dictionary For Providing This Moment

Remember that time in like 2008 that it was really cool to look your name up on urban dictionary? 

Well, maybe I did that today maybe. 

Nailed it. Especially the part about being close to perfect, oh, and also delusional. Oh wait...

Reflections on the Past: May 13

I am twenty three

things are not
yet as they will be

we are sitting on 

the library perch

in bare feet

and I am either 

crying or sad

while he is affirming

fleeting contentment
like napping
in the late afternoon

and waking
just as the sun
is setting

The thing about baseball

is that when I watch it I want to be like my dad.

And when I think about baseball I think about that time
S-- and I finally went to a game and
it started to rain
I don't even think we got to watch an inning
it started pouring
so we took ourselves,
that blue plaid blanket and
went up under the white canvas
probably sang some neil diamond and
talked about the romance of baseball
the classiness of pinstripes and clean-shaven faces
redemption and home runs

1.11.13

So, I got a new job.
You probably already heard,
but if you didn't,

it's in trauma


I have to say it quiet because I still can't believe it's real life.