Nick's Crusade and Superdude Comics

The great thing about being a blogger is I get to meet some really neat people.  I've met fellow respiratory therapists like me, fellow asthmatics, and even some really cool people with other lung conditions.  Today I met another neat blogger by the name of Nick Dupree.

He introduced himself to me by making a comment on one of my older posts.  This is one of the methods we bloggers use to introduce ourselves to each other.  We do this for a couple reasons: 1) we bloggers tend to be alike, and we're generally passionate about what we do, 2) we get the word out about our various blogs. 

So I checked out Nick's blog and he seems to have an equal passion for writing as I do.  He's written quite a bit about disability rights, and to make sure politicians work to protect the so called inalienable rights. You can agree or disagree with what he writes, although you have to love the passion. 

And you have to check out these cool comics.  Man, this guy is an impeccable writer and artist. I checked out a few of these and I'm very impressed. One thing I've considered doing lately is quitting writing so I can pick up the hobby of painting instead, yet this guy seems to have time for art and writing.  

And did I mention that he's vent dependent.  He said, "Sometimes RTs are relieved to see me, giving me a look like OMG finally something RT-necessary!"  Sad to say, he's right.  

RT cave made a top 50 therapist blog list

It's neat to know there are people in the blogosphere other than chronic lungers and RTs who are interested in the writings of your humble respiratory therapist.

In fact, there have been occasions over the year and a half I've been doing this that I've received emails from random people who write things like this:

"I don't have asthma, nor COPD, nor any respiratory disease ever, and I'm not a respiratory therapist, and I still find your blog extremely interesting."

I think those emails are my favorite. You know if you are writing respiratory stuff for respiratory people and someone not in your target audience is interested you are doing something right -- right?

That's what I'm "Assuming" anyway.

So, the reason I brought this up is because I received an email today letting me know I have been included in a list of top 50 therapists -- on a physical therapy blog. I consider this an honor.

To check out this list and see who else might be on it, click here and I will morph you there.

A source of Inspiration coming soon

I just want to remind my fellow bloggers that the first issue of A Source of Inspiration -- an all new blog carnival just for respiratory therapy issues -- will be coming out next week, February, 13, 2009.

It's still not to late to write a post for this first issue. The theme for this issue is "Surviving RT School." However, I'm sure anything related would suffice.

If you have written an article, or are planning to do so, you can click here and submit it.

Top 12 "living with lung disease" blogs of 2008

I think it's great for people with chronic illnesses to get online and blog about their illnesses because it shows other people suffering from the same disease that they are not alone. The same can be said for those taking care of chronically ill people, such as caregivers and moms.

The following are great sources of information for people seeking wisdom about respiratory diseases. To qualify a blog has to have been updated within the past three months, and have at least ten entries:

1. Life with a rare lung child: This is the humble perspective of a mom who is raising a daughter with a rare lung disease called children's interstitial lung disease. She keeps you up to date on the day to day life of being 7 and living with a disease, and of being a mom and taking care of a sick child. You can learn more and help her in her quest to help her daughter, and to find a cure, by clicking here.

2. A chronic dose: This is the blog of a published writer with bronchiectasis and a variety of other chronic diseases, and her story as she wades through life with it. It is definitely a very informative blog.

3. COPD Rehabilitation and after: You can learn a lot about COPD from an RT, a nurse or a doctor, but you can learn a heck of a lot more about this disease from those who are living with it.

4. Spit Happens: Here's the home of a digital artist who battles bronchiectasis and "a rare form" of cystic fibrosis.

5. The Asthma mom: Here you not only get the perspective of a mom with a child asthmatic, but you get all the latest asthma wisdom set forth in a pithy manner. This is a very, very informative asthma website, and a must read for any asthmatic or parent of an asthmatic.

6. The AngryAsthma mom: This mom has her hands full with three asthmatic children. She provides a great perspective and up to date wisdom.

7. COPD caregiving is not for wimps: What is it like taking care of a spouse with a chronic respiratory disease? This blog provides the humble perspective of a wife and her quest to take care of her husband with COPD.

8. COPD news of the day: Karen has COPD, and now she has this blog to share with other COPDers the wisdom that she has learned. This is a very, very informative COPD webside, and a must read for any person with COPD. Your humble RT has even had a guest post submitted to this blog on the RT perspective of COPD. A great blog.

9. Breathin Stephen: Stephen has asthma about as bad as you can get it, yet he continues to walk as much as he can. His blog is an inspiration to all asthmatics. Stephen has spent way too much time on ventilators, is a true bronchodilatoraholic, and yet he continues to walk on. Speaking of bronchodilatoraholism, I thought I held the record for most Ventolin inhalers used in a lifetime until I happened upon his blog.

10. Is my cape fluttering: This is the blog of a lady who developed adult onset asthma.

11. All roads lead to oneself: She's the only blogger I know of who took the time to write a letter to the Asthma Beast. I commend her for that. That beast has a tough skin, as we humans have been fighting it since before the Ancient Egyptians ruled the earth. This blog is the story of another person who has been fighting the asthma beast her entire life. There is some very cool stuff here, so you best check it out. This is another true reminder that if you have asthma, you are not alone.

12. Rick Frea's Asthma Blog: I have to toot my own horn here. Once a week I write a post from the asthmatic/RT perspective for MyAsthmaCentral.com. Many of my posts have been turned into comics, and you can check those out by clickng here.

I'm sure there are more, but this is the list as I am aware of it. If you are blogging about your respiratory illness, or the illness of someone you know, let me know and I'll get it on this list.

In the meantime, keep sharing your experiences.

Top 23 Respiratory Therapy blogs of 2008

Last year I paid tribute to the 13 Respiratory Therapy (RT) blogss I was aware of at that time, and today I will provide an updated list.

What follows are all RT blogs of 2008. To qualify for my list a blogger has to have posted a minimum ten posts and have updated in the past three months.

In no particular order, here is this years list:

1. Respiratory Therapy 101: The anonymous RT has a very interesting, often humorous and non-politically correct perspective of RT life in a larger hospital down South. Long time RTs will relate with him, and new RTs can get a good feel of what it's like to be an RT from the advantages to the annoying.

2. Respiratory Therapy Up North: This is a relatively new blog from an RT who works at a large hospital as a critical care transport RT. The frozen Rt provides an honest perspective of life as an RT, but also poses ideas for interesting discussion, such as: would you pay $400 to know what bad genes you have, and what diseases you are likely to get as you age?

3. G's spot: Glenna has one of the most optimistic views on life of any blogger out there, and she provides a great perspective on the job for all up and coming and current RTs to enjoy. The best part for me is she works in the NICU and is currently training in peds. Working for a small hospital we stabilize and ship all our sick kids to a hospital like hers, so it's neat to read what life is like on that side of the RT spectrum.

4. Surviving RT School: This is the daily perspective of an RT in training. He's the Trauma Junkie because he enjoys the rush that is often a part of the job, particularly in larger trauma centers. He is a must read for any student looking to get a feel for what lies ahead in RT School. He's also gone out of his way to interview RTs -- including me -- so he and his readers can get an idea of what long timer RTs think of the profession.

5. Intubate Em!! : This RT blog provides a pithy and accurate perspective of life as an RT. Another good read for RTs, RT students and anyone (politicians anyone?) who wants to learn what it's really like to work in the medical field.

6. RTT with ADD: This is the fast paced perspective of an RT with ADD who is currently on a course to move on from her RT job to pre med. I always thought the job of RT would make a better stepping stone to a greater job than a career, and the ADD RT sets to prove me right.

7. The RT Graduate: The RT Grad writes a blog for Advance for RTs, and therefore you're bound to get an honest perspective of the job here. Sure, he usually has an optimistic view of the job, but he's still made the same observations that all RTs make somewhere along the line: Why aren't there more protocols? Why would a patient with an spo2 of 72% refuse oxygen? Or, my favorite: "The 50 previous albuterol treatments haven't healed your broken leg yet, but maybe the 51st one will."

8. Snotjockey's Revisited: She has been writing less often lately, but the things she has written are brilliant and must be read. So go ahead, click on her blog, read and scroll down and read some more. She has a very interesting perspective on the philosophical and political perspective of being an RT, RT boss and other medical ideas.

9. RT Student Blog: I always say you can learn more from RT Students than seasoned doctors mainly because students have all the up to date wisdom while seasoned doctors still go by the wisdom of the day they graduated, which is often wisdom that is antediluvian. This blogger puts a student spin on current RT wisdom.

10. The Happenings of Heidi: Here's a real life perspective of an RT. Isn't it funny how all RTs seem to develop the same type of humor. Another great RT read.

11. Sometimes I breathe: He's a student at this point, and he writes an interesting to read journal of his journey. He actually writes in such a way that it's interesting even for a long time RT

12. RT Scribe: It seems a lot of RTs started out in another field, and the same holds true with this blogger. He provides an RT student angle from across the Northern border of the U.S.

13. Consciously Breathing: What's it like to go through an RT checkoff? If you're a wanna be RT this is another great blog for you. It's the California perspective of the RT program.

14. Sleep deprived RT Student: The sleep deprived (aren't we all) RT/Medic will be finishing RT school soon. It will be neat to read how his perspective of the job changes in the days to come. But, then again, he has greater ambitions than myself.

15. The harmonous way of breath: The Tengu is a new RT student from the Detroit area. He's just started the journey to RT School with this relatively new blog.

16. Respiratory Therapy e-blog: Do you ever think why we chose the career we did? Why so many RTs wait until they are older to pursue this profession? This blogger wrote a very interesting post on this topic, so I will link you directly to it.

17. A spoonfull of Sarah: She's an RT too, and deserves to be part of the party.

18. The Respiratory Report: I should have posted this blog higher, but there's an old saying that we save the best for last. This RT has a higher calling, as he has made a gallant effort to help a little girl with a lung disease accomplish a humble goal. To learn more click here.

19. Beautifully Bittersweet: The perspectie of a Pediatric RT.

The following are not necessarilly blogs, but I will include them here anyway:

20. Jeff Whitnack's RT Page: You need to check this page out from time to time to remind yourself of the importance oxygenating COPD patients regardless of that antediluvian Hypoxic Drive Theory.

21. RT Corner: For all the up to date RT wisdom this is the ideal web site.

22. RT Space: This is a community for respiratory therapists.

23. Vent World: This is a community to ask and receive information on ventilator and other respiratory therapy topics.

So that concludes my list for this year. I'm sure there are many more RT bloggers out and about in the blogosphere that I'm unaware of. If you have an RT blog, or know of one you think should be listed here, let me know.

RT Cave Reaches another milestone.

The RT Cave has reached another milestone today, as reader # 50,000 has clicked on to my blog. When I started this blog a year ago I never imagined I'd pick up regular readers the way I have. I suppose I must be doing something right.

To show my respect for all those who have tuned me on and off over the past 13 months, I am going to pay tribute to all the bloggers out there -- you included -- who have made the RT Cave what it is.

Between Thanksgiving and New Years Day I will try to give a brief description of all the blogs I find interesting. Now I may not have time to read everything written, as I don't expect that you guys read everything I write, but still there's some pretty good stuff out there.

I did this last year, and I think at that point I only knew about 20 bloggers. That list has grown immensely over the past year.

I don't want to over state the influence of this blog in the medical community as it is merely a place for me to communicate my humor and wisdom from the RT world. Still, if nothing else, this is a place -- the blogosphere -- for us lowly and humble "professional" and NOT ancillary staff RTs to have a voice.

It's been a great run and I hope to continue this for many more months to come. And, likewise, I hope the clickers keep on clacking on my blog -- whether they actually read it or not. It's been a fun journey.

I received my first hate email

When I was a journalist, and more particularly a columnist for a newspaper, there was a general consensus among us writers that you did not achieve success until you had created a hate list. Not people that you hate, but people who hate you.

That's right. When you write a column, there is no hope that you will not infuriate someone.

Of course we really didn't LIKE hate email, or hate letters to the editor, it was just something we had to learn to accept.

And just because people hate you for your opinion is not reason to stop writing your opinion.

As the Great philosopher Ben Franklin once wrote, "no two people agree on any one issue." He was right there. And for that matter, even when you are the nicest writer in the world as I am, you still generate a hate list.

That in mind, I have written a post almost daily on this blog for a year, and I may have irritated a few by my opinions, but never enough so that someone outright wrote me a hate email. But, to my delightment, that streak has come to an end. It took me a year, but I finally frustrated somone into sending me a hate email.

The email said (name deleted to protect my hater):

"Because of this post I am no longer reading your blog."

The post he was referring to was the one I wrote about how I don't think the fed should make it mandatory that people should get vaccinated.

It's my opinion. Everything on this blog is basically my opinion. It's my blog. This is what I do for entertainment. While I try to fill this blog with facts, many of the facts are as I see it -- that's my opinion.

And thus I have finally infuriated someone enough that they now hate my blog and will never read it again. How cool is that? Sure I made an effort to keep him as a reader because that's just how I am.

But I also don't think people come to my blog thinking you are going to hear things that you read in the newspaper every day. People don't read my blog because I'm going to agree with everything doctor's say and do. They don't come here to get the same ole politics you get from hospital administrations.

What you get here is the humble perspective from the RT Cave. Sure, some doctors might be offended by some of what I write, but isn't my humble honesty a good thing in the end?

If a doctor does something that every person thinks is idiotic, stupid and useless, don't you think they should be able to read about it someplace, even though no one will ever tell it to her face. Hence my RT humor section.

But any doctor who reads my blog with an open heart and an open mind would come away a better doctor regardless of whether he heeds my Dr. wisdom.

Yet the guy or gal who wrote me this hate email was not a doctor, nor an administrator. In fact, I have no clue who he was (lol).

But come on guys and gals, this is a blog. Read my disclaimer please if you are afraid you are going to be offended by something I write. This blog is intended to be all in good humor. It's self entertainment -- as are most blogs. This is supposed to be for fun.

When I told my coworker about my hate email, she said, "If someone is that offended by what you write, why does she read opinions anyway. That person doesn't deserve to be reading your blog."

I suppose there is some truth to that, but I like people who disagree with me to read my blog. I like to get as many people reading my blog as possible, whether they agree with me or not. Isn't that what people read blogs for anyway, to hear the opinions of the author.

I don't intend on ticking people off, but if that happens that's just a part of life. And for a former journalist, it actually brings about some joy.

Blogging from work: the Unwritten Internet Code

The Internet is so amazing. All the information that's on here has probably doubled my wealth of knowledge, and places a world of resources right at my fingertips. So when I learned eight years ago that some computers here at work had access to it, I begged the RT Boss to put it on one of our computers. He obliged.

It's neat, because every time we have a patient with a disease we are not familiar with, or we simply want to do a review of a disease we already know about, the information is right here. It's also nice to use this World Wide Web as a resource of staying up to date on all the most recent respiratory therapy information.

It was right here that my co-workers and I did much of our research when we were putting together our protocols. And the information we didn't get off the world wide web we obtained through emails and even a few respiratory related chat lines. I've also used this to put together hospital policy among other things.

So, by far, this Internet has benefited this particular department a great deal.

Yet, there are times when it gets slow around here, and during these times some of us RTs like to get on the Internet and play around. I think that I'm the only one who blogs, but I know some RTs here check their emails, shop or read the news or latest sports scores. It's simply a great resource.

Now I have seen notes up in other departments that say something like: "NO DOWNLOADING GAMES," or "NO WATCHING VIDEOS ONLINE." But we all ignore those notes and do those things anyway. We do so even though we know the powers that be can watch every one of our moves on the mainframe in the basement if they so chose to do so.

I know this has been done before. In fact, I know one tech who worked in ER was fired because the powers that be learned he was watching porn. That was an isolated incident I am certain. However, I know in doing RT searches on Google, porn sites have popped up on this screen on rare occasion. I click off as fast as I can. That's one of the side effects of using Google, you can't control what might come up on a search.

There have been problems on occasion that have come up. For instance, this computer got bogged down about five years ago, and I was blamed for it. The RT Boss told me that I was downloading stuff onto this computer. So, for about two years, we lost the RT Cave Internet.

I never said a word. I let the boss blame me for the computer jamming up, even though I knew one of the new RTs was the one who was downloading non-respiratory related stuff. In fact, I watched my friend do it and told him not to. But he was arrogant and told me it wouldn't matter. Well, it did. And, soon enough, I had to go down to the computer lab to play on the Internet instead of doing it here where it is convenient. Like the old saying goes, where there's a will there's a way.

Since then we have our Internet back. And there have been a few problems here at work on occasion, but for the most part we all play on the Internet, including the bosses, so we all usually keep our mouths shut, including the bosses. Lord knows they play on the Internet too.

Now, the reason I bring this up is that before we had the Internet I used to read books when it was slow. I still do sometimes, but most of my free time now is spent right here reading the news, sports, or blogging. It's not like I'm on here playing games or looking at porn, or doing this in lieu of taking care of my patients. No, because the patients always come first.

I don't like to waste my time playing games, however, I would imagine that probably most of the time the net is used by other bees it's for this purpose. Personally, I think playing games is a waste of time. But that's just me. Still, so long as your work is done, and that you follow the unwritten rules that I will list below, I see no problem with using the Internet to play games.

I like to think of it this way, if I wasn't on here reading the newspaper for free on the net, I would be reading the newspaper I bought. If I were not on here reading a short story, I would be reading a book I bought. If I were not on here watching an NCAA tournament game I would be watching the TV in the waiting room. And none of those things are trackable.

There are some unwritten rules that we Internet users tend to follow:

1. No playing on the Internet for non medical purposes in site of patients. This makes us look like we are not respecting the patient. It simply looks bad.
2. No downloading, unless it is absolutely medical related. Or unless you are absolutely burned out and figure the hospital owes you this time.
3. No going online when there is other work to do, particularly work that involves the patient.
4. Get up and tour the hospital every hour and check up on all your patients. This is particularly important on those days when it's REALLY slow
5. If you are paged, get going right away, don't worry about finishing up what you are doing on the net. This is the same for those who read books: if you are paged, stop reading and take care of business.
6. Don't go on the Internet when there is someone around you don't trust. If they happen to be a spy for the bosses, you will find yourself in a predicament. And you all know who I'm talking about.
7. Don't go online when the bosses are around, even though you think you can trust them. You certainly don't want to provide them with an opportunity to cause trouble.
8. Do not check your emails unless it is from someone you trust. This is perhaps one of the most important rules.
9. If you print something, do not leave it on the printer or in the office.

I had to add #9 to this list for personal reasons. I had a really good freind who downloaded offensive jokes and left them on the printer. Someone on the day shift found them and put them in the bosses mailbox. The worst part about it was his name was on each page, and he was fired.

Personally, I think there is nothing wrong with reading the news and sports or even checking on your fantasy baseball team or even your email, so long as you follow these unwritten rules. If nothing else, this makes you smarter, and provides you with information you can use in a conversation with your patients.

Most RTs, however, probably don't have time to blog at work. The day shift RTs here certainly can't surf the Internet while the dragons and doctors are around. And RTs who work in large big-city hospitals probably don't have time either.

They have to wait till they get home. But some of us don't have time when we are home, so we'd prefer to blog at work. Yet, sometimes, bosses can be stingy, as was the case with Djanvk over at RT Driven. And he works in a small town RT Cave just like Shoreline, so he should have plenty of time to blog.

He wrote a post for the first time in a couple months yesterday, and explained his absence this way:

"My hospital started blocking personal (BLOGS) sites from viewing on the Internet so I wasn't able to log onto Blogger here and post anything because I usually did it from work. Home has been a bit busy and there just wasn't enough hours in the day to do much posting."

Why would a hospital go through the effort to block blogs? How rude?

In fact, one of the reasons I started my RT blog was because since I needed something to do during down times at work, this would allow me to spend my time actually reading medical stuff. And there is a lot I have learned from reading medical blogs. So why would the RT Bosses want to stop me from learning RT stuff.

So, that in mind, I see nothing bad about Djanvk working on his medical blog while spending time in his RT Cave, so long as he follows the Unwritten Internet Code.

If one of my readers is an RT Boss, or if you happen to see something here that I'm missing, please feel free to let me know via comment or email.

A little remodeling of the RT Cave

Slowly but surely I'm going to make some changes here at the RT Cave that should make this a more organized blog and, at the same time, make things a little easier for me.

I see that some bloggers have certain things they write about on certain days. What's the word for this? A feature?

For example, I started a couple weeks ago a Monday feature where I respond to some of the web search queries that link people to my blog. This is nice because I know exactly I'm going to focus in on every Monday.

Initially I started doing this because I never work on Monday, and it's one of those days I have trouble revving up the creative writing juices, and if I can just focus in on answering questions that make my blogging day easier -- plus it's fun.

A case in point was yesterday. While most days I can think of 100 things to write, and have to force myself to hone in on one subject, and make it pithy and interesting, yesterday I couldn't think of a dog gone thing to write about. So I simply linked you to someone else's blog.

Then I'm lying in bed in the middle of the night thinking, "Wait a minute! I did have something to write about. I completely forgot about my Monday feature." Oops.

So I'm going to publish that today -- Tuesday.

That in mind, Tuesday is another day I usually struggle to hone in my creativity, so I've decided to start a feature on Tuesdays, and I'm going to cater it to something along the lines of: "Everything RTs need to know about..."

It will be something along the lines of these three articles.

Liikewise, sometimes I might do a review of something I learned in RT school but forgot, such as the oxyhemoglobin disassociation curve, the a-A ratio and how it can be used to help determine whether hypoxia is caused by a shunt or a VQ mismatch, and things like that.

On Wednesdays I'm going to do a third feature, and I'm going to cater this to my other audience: patients and their families. I will cater this day to writing about asthma and other diseases.

It will be something along the lines of these articles.

The reason I have avoided doing this to this point is that for the most part I like to write about whatever is on my mind for that particular day. For example, if I experience an interesting situation at work I blog about it as soon as I get the chance. If I come up with some good RT humor, I blog about it right away.

I'll still be able to do this, as I will save the rest of the week for these so called extemperaneous posts. How's that for a big word.

Plus you might see a few guest bloggers from time to time, as you can see I've already registered my sagacious co-worker Jane Sage. Not only is she the god of RT wisdom, she's extremely funny, and has helped me come up with quite a few 'olins.

My goal from the day I started this was to create a nice banner for up on top of this page, but that still hasn't come to fruition. One of these days I'll have one of my artist friends whip me up something and figure out how to get it up there.

As far as my 'olin list, I don't know if anyone of you other Blogger Bloggers have experienced this, but I don't seem to have access to the ability to edit the bottom half of my page, and that's why I haven't updated my list of 'olins in the past few months.

Plus the spell check here doesn't work for half the time, so if you see a spelling error you know why. I rely on that thing.

One of these days I might just give up on Blogger and change web servers. However, I have no clue how I would do this, nor if it would be worth the effort. The grass isn't always greener on the other side of the fence, they always say.

We'll see how this goes. Since this is my blog, I have a right to skip a week or give up on these ideas all together.

You can learn a lot on the Internet

"You can't believe all that junk you read on the Internet," a friend of mine said.

I thought about that a while, and decided that statement is only true if you believe everything you read in the media -- and I don't

Me, I get 80% of my news off the Internet, and from veritable news outlets.

• My local papers are online, so I save myself the $80 plus subscription fee


• Almost all the BIG newspapers are online (NY Times, LA times, Freep)


• Many opinion journals are online, saving the cost of magazine subscriptions


• Blogs are free

You could read the Detroit Free Press and still miss out on half the news. You could read the BBC (this person lives in Britain), and not get all the news.

Most people, whether they try not to or not, tend to be at least somewhat bias in whatever they write, no matter what their political affiliation is. Which is why, in my opinion, it's important to get your news from various outlets.

And I read blogs to find out what other people like me think about things. Or, better yet, to find out what people that are not like me think. I don't care if the authors are liberal, conservative or believe in tooth ferry politics, especially when you're talking about a medical blog. Medicine is medicine.

There are obviously different opinions even in medicine, which is evident on these RT blogs where we discuss how doctors think Ventolin is a cure for all diseases, and RTs believe otherwise.

Every person has a a different opinion on everything, which is why, as our founding fathers learned, it's so important to compromise. And that's exactly why us RTs do what the doctors order even though we might disagree. Who knows, maybe we RTs are wrong sometimes. (gulp)

Blogs give the inside scoop that would never get out if it were not for us bloggers. That's good as far as I'm concerned. It keeps everybody square.

Yes, we change our names and the names of the people we write about, and we may even change events that occur slightly to protect people, but still our point comes across just the same. And, besides, the fact that we make these changes is the fault of the people who love to sue, and others who make laws. It's not our fault.

What better way to get the inside knowledge than on the Internet. Sure, you may get your occasional wacko, and there are definitely wacko blogs and Internet sites out there, but most people are good honest people who honestly have something good to offer.

Perhaps by people reading these RT blogs the profession may some day be revolutionized. Perhaps some day I will get my bronchodilator reform via protocols. Perhaps we will have improved RT respect because of this. Perhaps, and this is most important, this and other blogs will get people thinking.

The information age started with the Gutenberg printing press, and before that time only the noble class had access to knowledge.

Things have changed a great deal since then. Imagine how much untapped potential is out there in the world. We may never find it unless we stop to think. And what better place to start than right here on this blog, on the Internet.

My friend was wrong. You can learn a lot on the Internet.

Happy new year with the best RT humor of 2007

"Row, row, row, your boat...," Dr. Sam whistled calmly as he felt for the femeral pulse of the limp patient on the ER cot. "Gently down the stream..."

I handed him a bad copy of an EKG fresh off the press. "This is just a rough draft," I said.

He laughed, looked down at the EKG. "Good enough," he said, and returned his equanimitous gaze back upon the patient, and continued humming his happy tune.

Someone laid out a one-liner, and we all laughed. I set my EKG machine to the side and grabbed an ABG kit. "You want one of these I'm sure," I said, looking at the doc.

"Yepper," he said.

Obviously we wouldn't do this if the family were around, and probably not if it were a young person either. And if you were an outsider observing us, you might think we had an odd sence of humor. Truth is, we do. After you work in a hospital a while, you can't help to develop an odd sense of humor.

It is true, that despite what we do for a living, we medical workers still have to live, and we still have to maintain our senses of humor.

So, while the rest of the world is gearing up to watch the rest of the year wind down, I'm sitting here looking up RT humor, some of which I'm printing off. I think I'll post some of these on the bulleton board above where doctors interpret EKGs, and see how long it takes for them to be taken down.

Anyway, I just thought I'd end the new year highlighting some of the greatest medical humor of 2007 that I've found on the Internet. Consider, however, that I've only been doing this since October, so if I missed your brilliant post forgive me.

The following is medical humor at its best, or, since I've only been blogging since October, some brilliant observations I'll throw in here too. These are in no particular order:

1. The seven dwarves of the ICU: It's funny sometimes how unique our patients can be at times. I thought this was a spectacularly funny observation about working in the ICU.

2. Ativan nebs: I put this post up on the board over where the doctors read EKGs in our department, and it is still there 2 months later. Either that means they are avoiding it, or have read it and soon we'll be giving Ativan nebs just because instead of Albuterol just because. Our patients will love us for it, and we'll love the doctors for it, as all those troubled patients will be subdued.

3. The frequent flyer club: This is an absolute must read. Any medical person who has spent time in the ER has made the observation, "Why is he here?" Or, better yet, "The ER seems to be the hangout club of the scum of the earth." This article describes in detail the many different types of frequent flyers.

4. Stereotypical patient: Sometimes when you are working in the hospital you can't help but feel deja vu while walking from room to room. This author paints a humorous picture of the "stereotypical patient."

5. RTs -vs- RNs : This is a serious differentiation between RTs and RNs. After reading this, I spun off the humorous version: What RTs can do that RNs can't.

6. The naked, the fat and the dead: This may not have been meant to be funny, but it cracked me up none-the-less. Don't take offense at this please. I see it as a simple observation.

8. Musants: Doctor humor can sometimes be as bad as RT humor.

9. Physician's Creed: How to take care of pesky RTs : Just so I don't sound like I'm tooting my own horn, I'll quote a comment to this article: "That's possibly the best post EVAHHhhhh."

10. Ways RNs can iritate RTs: I'm sorry, but you can't keep your sanity as an RT if you don't develop a sense of humor. I compiled this and the above Physician's Creed with the help of my cohorts in the RT cave.

11. RCP, RRT, Mr. Bean: This is medical related, well sort of.

12. Weeding out the garden: This is a great analogy about respiratory therapy school.

13. Clinitian resistance to adapting new practices: Not necessarily humor, but a great observation of why RTs are so resistant to change, despite how many of us complain about frivolous orders.

14. Because I could: Here's a little Christmas poem that only a medical person could find humor in.

15. A funny story occured to me...: This is why I became an RT and not an RN.

16. The 11 Rules of Operating Room Etiquette for staff and patients: This is educational and humorous at the same time. It's seems we med workors find humor in just about everything we do.

17. Video of the week: Who thinks of this stuff anyway. Here is a video that is very educational... no, it's not educational, but it's hillarious. If you don't like spiders, you might want to not watch this one.

18. Dr's come in all shapes and sizes: Do you know what kind of doc you have tonight?


19. The dirty, dirty on ER nursing: What does it take to be a nurse? Well, you know I wouldn't be able to handle it, and this article explains why.

20. I heart pulmonologists: There must be something about working with lungs that makes people humorous and fun to work with. Well, you do know all us RTs are... Oh, never mind.

21. I could go on, but I'll stop here. This spot is reserved for all the humor or brilliant ideas not mentioned on this post. Some bloggers write so much funny stuff I couldn't possibly post it all.

Have a great new year.

2007 great year for respiratory therapy blogs

The RT cave has been around for three months now, and it seems to me to be a pretty good success, especially considering when I started doing this I thought I'd be writing to myself. I'm impressed at how big the medblog community is.

I would like to thank all of you who have responded to one or more of my posts by writing a comment, sending an email, or simply using up some of your valuable time here at the RT Cave. You guys provide me the incentive to keep writing.

To end the year, I would like to pay tribute to all respiratory related medblogs I have discovered to date. I see that 2007 was a great year for the RT world as most of these sites were started just this year. We are the beginning of a revolution.\

The following is in no particular order.

1. Respiratory Therapy 101: I was doing research on protocols when I came upon this website. I thought the Anonymous RT did an excellent job of describing what we do "at the head of the bed." He works at a larger, busier hospital than mine, and it's great to read about what I'm missing by working at a small town hospital -- and what I'm not missing.

2. Respiratory Therapy Driven: Djanvk is in the same boat as me, as he has been doing this for 10+ years and works at a small town hospital. It is a challenge to keep finding things to write about when business is slow, but this guy does a wonderful job of it. He provides an excellent feel for what it's like to be an RT, and he also has a great sense of humor, as do most of us RTs.

3. Snotjockeys: A perfect name for a respiratory therapy blog, and an excellent place to get insightful information about respiratory therapy. Julia has written some excellent posts about the challenges facing RTs, and does the medblog world a great service by her medblog reviews.

4. G's spot. I wish every RT was as pleasant as this blogger, because she's written on more than one occasion how much she loves her job. She works nights as I do, and has to struggle with getting adequate sleep, and I can relate to her that way. And yet she doesn't let the lack of sleep effect her job. She gives an excellent feel of the RT job.

5. respiratory therapy student blog: How cool it would have been to have have had the ability to blog when I was in school. We all remember the struggles of working as an RT, doing clinicals, studying late into the night, fitting in some social gatherings, attending classes, and taking tests. And when vacation time came along, we really appreciated them. Great blog from a student perspective. Soon he'll have to change the name of his blog to RTblog.com.

6. Sleepy RT medic: How cool it would have been to have had experience as a medic before going to RT school. That's what this blogger is doing. This blogger also provides an excellent reminder of how difficult it is to hold a job and go to school. Like #5, he provides some good information on things we RTs take for granted once we finish school.

7. Sometimes I breathe: The same can be said of this blogger as the last two, as he provides a good reminder of how hard it is to become an RT. Since these student RT bloggers are still in school, they have access to all the latest information and can provide us older RTs with links to some cool RT related websites.

8. Breathing through school: Another RT student blogger who has recently decided to brave the blogger world. I think this was a good idea for her, because she's provided some neat incite. In one post she describes RT school as "weeding out the garden." While many aspiring RTs will enter, only a few will leave.

9. RTT with ADD: Despite her ADD, this blogger provides more cool incite into being an RT. She once described reading blogs, "as though I'm intruding...intruding into their personal thoughts, feelings, emotions and most of all, their personal space..." That's very true. And one reason why we bloggers should make money for what we do, say $30 a word.

10. Pulmonary Roundtable: Great place to read about, learn from and discuss RT case studies.

11. Respiratory Therapy Blog: He hasn't written in a while, but when you read what he has written you can't help but to learn something. Here's hoping he writes more soon.

12. The Respiratory Terrorist: Ditto. Here's hoping he writes again soon.

13. Any more RT bloggers out there? If I left your RT blog off this list it's only because I haven't found it yet. Leave me a comment and I'll plug your blog in the new year.

Here's a toast (raises glass) to a happy new year.