Superstitians & Scary Halloween

Do you have a people job? Say, you work for the police or in a hospital. The following things make people crazy, scary, and make you eerily busy:

1. Full moon
2. Friday the 13th
3. If you drop something and don't pick it up
4. Saying, "Quiet."

Merry Christmas Hospital Style

It's nice to simply spend a day at home with the family. For the first time in 10 years I actually get both Christmas and Christmas Eve off this year.

Yet, lo and behold, one of my coworkers got kicked in the neck by a patient with a CO2 of 133, and I was called in a panic to come in and help out. My daughter was sad that I had to leave just before she was to open her gifts from the in-laws, yet I wasn't going to leave my coworkers stranded. I suppose, in a way, sacrificing my family Christmas time was my Christmas gift to Shoreline Medical. I was told I might as well plan on staying the night. My daughter frowned when I told her this news.

My coworker said she was kicked in the neck with a knee as she inserted the needle, and as she flipped the syringe under the bed, she was kicked on the other side of the neck with the other knee. Now she's in the ER while I take care of that crashing patient, and another, and another. And the other RT was in the ER taking care of yet another crashing patient. Merry Christmas indeed.

Of course as soon as I blessed the hospital with my presence all was well. My coworker was cleared of any neck ailments, and will be sore a few days and nothing more. The patient who kicked her was out of his gourd at the time, and is now on BiPAP and slowly coming to his senses. Yet I hope God's Christmas present to him is that he learn to quit being a MODEST COPDer. You know the type: they wait, and wait, and wait, and wait, thinking they will eventually get better. Yet it rarely ever happens. So they come to the ER by ambulance and become our problem.

It seems like every Christmas we get our share of MODEST lungers. Another Christmas gift we get from the community are Lonely-DEPRESSED lungers. These are the folks who are lonely around the season and come to the hospital for their annual dose of PAL-buterol. They just yearn for the company of your humble RTs.

Then you also have your dose of Break-lungers. These are they folks who's family needs a vacation from them, and they somehow -- coincidentally -- end up with fake pneumonia just in time for the holidays.

Of course we also get our share of post Christmas dinner heart attacks. Thankfully our hospital doesn't keep these folks anymore, and ships them to the cardiac hospital down state . Although if that heart attack is massive enough, our services come in handy.

It's neat how things work out this time of year. It's also neat that we have such a great team where I work, and we have good folks like you nd me who put our own selfish desires aside for the benefit of the community and spend time working.

Christmas is a time for sharing. It's a time for giving. It's a time for family. Yet, thankfully, the medical community does not close shop come Holiday time. We are available 24-7 to provide whatever services we offer. We help those who help themselves, and we help those who do not help themselves. We help the needy, and we help the fakers. That's what we do.

Thankfully we staved off the need for any intubations, and all those patients mentioned above are now fine. That, I imagine, was Gods gift to them. Within an hour after I clocked in I clocked out. My daughter smiled big time when I came through the door. She told me in less than 30 seconds all the neat little toys she got from her uncles, aunts and grandparents.

Thank you soldiers for protecting my right to blog

It's a great day to take off blogging so we can appreciate the fact that we can blog. It's a great day to step back, enjoy life, spend time with your family, and to smell the roses that we so often fail to even notice.

I bet --no, I know -- there are millions of Americans who will go camping this weekend, or have family gatherings, or other social events, or even piece and quiet evenings outside in the warm sun reading a good book, who will take for granted that they can do that very thing.

Believe it or not, life wasn't always this simple for people. Our ancestors had to work long hours on the farm, and then they came in at sunset, ate, kissed the kids, and went to bed. Most people weren't even aloud to choose the religion they wanted, or to criticize the King.

That all changed with the American Revolution. That all changed with the U.S. Constitution.

Many people like to think it was the Bill of Rights that gave us the freedom of speech and other rights that allow this to be the greatest nation in the world.

The truth to the matter is, every human being ever born was born with the right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness; the right to free speech, to defend oneself, to choose the religion of choice, etc. God gave us these basic freedoms.

And, as was the case with many nations including Britain, it was the government that took these rights away. In that regard, the United States Constitution was the first document ever written that guaranteed to protect these rights for its citizens -- us.

And while we quite often take our God given freedoms for granted, the young men and women who sit in a pit in Iraq, the military, NEVER stop thinking about how fragile this freedom is. While most of us never think of it, these young men and women NEVER turn a blind eye to the dangerous people of the world who hate us and want to destroy what we take for granted.

So, that said, we all need to do more than just have fun this weekend: we need to appreciate.

A perfect example of this occurred in church this morning. First God Bless America played, and then the priest stood up to give his weekly announcements. As a final gesture, he said, "I saw men in uniform as we were handing out the body of Christ. Will you two young men please stand."

They did. We gave a standing ovation that lasted for several minutes. And then, just as the clapping was about to end, one man stood up and started clapping, and then we all stood, applauding twice as loud and twice as long as the first time.

While I had no clue who these men were, I couldn't help to feel a sense of American Pride. I felt pride not just that these men protect our freedom that most of us take for granted, but the freedom of millions of people around the world.

This must have had a similar effect on my son, who reminded me of a famous quote from the WWII as we were headed to the car: "Dad," he said, "Never had so many had a reason to thank so few."

Many people sacrifice time with their families so we can spend time with ours. Many people sacrificed their lives so that we may enjoy ours. And we must always have moments of pride like this where we stop and think: "Yes, I am an American. I am proud."

And for those who gave us this opportunity we say: THANKS! Even if that thanks comes in the form of simple goose flesh during a simple standing ovation, or a sense of pride during a simple rendition of "God Bless America."