Another new respiratory therapy website

I have found a very interesting and informative respiratory therapy website that you guys and gals may wish to check out.  It's a site dedicated to respiratory therapy wisdom.  The site postulates respiratory therapy related questions, allowing readers to test their knowledge to see if they can come up with the correct answer.  I have read over quite a few of the question and answer sections, and it was, in all cases, either very educational or a great review.

The site has actually been around for a couple years, so I'm surprised I didn't know it existed until today. However, in my defense, I have little kids.  But, now that I know about it, you can be sure I'll be checking it out from time to time, as I do other RT related sites, blogs, and magazines.  So, go ahead and click on over to respiratorylearning.com and test your wisdom today.

RT Cave #7 on list of top RT Twitter users

I received an email today informing me of this list that shows the top 8 RT bloggers who also use Twitter.

I think it's neat that I even made this list considering I do this as a hobby to entertain myself and have no alterior motives. I also think it's neat that I am the only blogger on this list not affiliated with a major RT magazine.

This I think is significant, because I'm the only blogger who does not get paid for his efforts, and does not have the backing of anyone else.

I now have 138 followers of my twitter account, and all of those folks (you perhaps) found me, I did not do any recruiting. I guess this means I'm doing something right. It's a neat little nitch I've found.

It's also neat because I pretty much use Twitter as a means to save my favoirite posts I would like to reference in later posts I plan to write. Yet readers -- like you -- have found the articles I put on Twitter useful. So I guess in this way we use Twitter to help each other out.

It's been really busy lately at my work, and I also have an 8 month old who is crawling all over the place, and a two year old who likes to sit on my 8 month old, and I also have a 12 year old who loves to play catch, and a 7 year old demanding attention. So you can see time to sit here at this computer is limited. It's simply a hobby. I do it for fun.

And any success I have here, however minimal, is through hard work and passion on my part. Yet more important, it's because of you.

On a side note, my blog has also hit the 500,000 page click mark. While this is small considering some bloggers get this in a day, it's significant to me considering I'm just a solo RT having a little fun.

Again, I owe all my thanks to you guys.

Thanks.

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The best Respiratory Therapy Blogs for 2010

The following are all the Respiratory Therapy Blogs and Websites I'm presently aware of, and in no particular order:

1. Respiratory Therapy Cave
2. Jeff Whitnack's RT Page
3. RT Corner
4. Ventworld
5. wildwynd
6. Becoming an RT
7. RT Care: KISS
8. asthmadaytoday
9. Breathing your best
10. In My Opinion
11. breath harmony way
12. Consciously breathing
13. Respiratory Graduate
14. RT e-blog
15. Respiratory Links
16. Sputum happens
17. RT Scribe
18. Trauma Junkie
19. Heidi's happenings
20. Intubate Em!
21. Alpha Trauma
22. Five of Peep (Pediatric RRT)
23. RT Student Blog
24. Respiratory Report
25. Rhonchi
26. Sleepy RT medic
27. Breathing through school
28. Snot jockeys
29. RRT with ADD
30. Respitatory Therapy 101
31. Respiratory Therapy Driven
32. G's spot
33. Sometimes I Breathe
34. RT student
35. Respiratory Terrorist
36. Pulmonary Roundtable
37. Respiratory Therapy Blog
38. Respiratory Report
39. RT Magazine
40. Advance for RTs
41. AARC Resources
42. EKG similator

If you know of one I'm missing, or you have one of your own (new or old), please let me know and I will add it to this list.

Blog problems? the solution is always "simple"

Blog problems? The solution is always simple -- or so they say. It's not simple, though, until you figure out what the problem is. Then you hit yourself alongside the head and say, "duh!"

If you viewed my blog yesterday, my right sidebar was sitting below my posts. It was an irritating problem that vexed me for nearly 24 hours. Then, as what usually happens, the solution is something simple. Yep -- simple -- that's what "they" said in every blogger help blog I read about "the disappearing sidebar."

I was about ready to pull my hair out. My wife was getting irritated by me for my obstinate desire to fix the problem. "You need to get off that computer and spend some time with your family," she kept wailing at me. "And stop dinking with your html. You keep getting your blog just the way you want it, and then you play around."

And I agreed with her. But I was unable to pull myself from the problem. And no matter what I did I couldn't get it to work. Hell, I even changed templates -- twice, and the problem didn't go away. Even with a new Minima template, no tabs, no third column, that right hand sidebar was sitting down below where I didn't' want it. I could have screamed. Maybe I did scream at one point. When you work nights and you are chronically deprived of sleep, irritation sometimes seems one missing sidebar away.

About a week ago I had a similar problem. While my blog was functioning fine, and my html template was visible, my "page elements" page was gone. No matter what I did I couldn't get it to come back. Then, by some miracle by my guardian angel perhaps, I decided on a whim to delete something I put into my template the day before, and wham! The problem was resolved. Now, with my right sidebar missing, I was hoping for a similar "guardian angel" moment. But it wasn't happening -- until just now.

I woke due to allergies. I decided I had better sit on the couch sniffling and sneezing and blowing until the antihistamine kicked in. Then I noticed my wife never shut the computer off when she went to bed. It was calling me: "Rick, come to me! Rick!" You know the feeling. That Internet was-a-calling. So I clicked the mouse. The computer woke. It said hi! Well, not really.

So I clicked on my blog hoping the problem would be gone. It wasn't. I changed templates on a whim. The dog gone right sidebar was still hanging below the posts. Knowing this wouldn't solve my problem, I googled "Why is my sidebar missing?" for the 200th time, and I came across this post.

It turns out, the problem was as "they" say "simple to solve." I don't know why it didn't click earlier. I had added an element to the bottom of my post that was too wide. I deleted it a moment ago, and the right sidebar came back. Turns out the "element" I deleted somehow made the post too wide. I never had that problem before. I'll never have it again. And, I suppose, neither will you since your reading this post.

It's interesting -- isn't it? -- how blog problems seem so vexing to solve until you find the solution. Then you realize that all the help blogs you read that said "the solution is simple" or "I hit myself in the head and said "duh!" when I figured out what the problem was were right -- the solution was simple

Well, now that this problem is resolved, I'm going back to bed. I have to work tonight and I need my beauty sleep.

The 100,000 click milestone has been reached

Well, ladies and gentlemen, the RT cave has met yet another milestone. It took all of 21 months, and the RT cave has finally been clicked on 100,000 times. Again I think this is pretty cool since when I initially started this I figured I'd be writing to myself.

It seems things have progressed quite a bit here. At first I'd sit down each day wondering what I would write about, and many times I'd be scrapping just to keep up. Now the list of ideas is so deep I can't even see the bottom. It's like an endless pit.

As other bloggers can attest, we write about whatever is on the tip of our minds, which can vary from day to day. So long as I can keep myself entertained and you interested, perhaps we'll be around for another 100,000 clicks (even if some of them are only for a couple seconds, each is an ego boost for me).

So, I would like to take this moment to once again thank all of my faithful readers and clickerers for finding my blog and finding at least a partial interest in the amalgamate of respiratory minded wit and wisdom of your humble RT.

Thanks.

Disclaimer #3

Today I'd like to list the rules of the RT Cave:

1. I have nothing to do with the ads that appear on my blog, so if you see something that offends you keep this in mind.

2. The #1 purpose for this blog is to share RT ideas, facts, opinions and humor so we can all learn in a pithy and/or entertaining manner.

3. This blog is published, edited and written by one lone night shift respiratory therapist who works full time, has three kids, and whose main mission on this planet is not as a writer, but as a husband and a dad.

4. If the author ignored his priorities (as mentioned above in #3), he would be able to delve deeper into a broader array of topics. This would be great for you guys and I'd love to do it, but it would come at the expense of time with my family, and that wouldn't be good, nor wise.

5. Due to #3 above, on occasion an error, typo, or inaccuracy may slip through the cracks. Keep in mind the editor (who's also the author) reads, re-reads, re-reads again, and again most posts. Although due to time factors, this sometimes does not occur.

6. While this isn't ideal, on occasion the publisher (who's also the writer) decides getting an idea out is more important than having an error less publication.

7. The editor has a minor in English, and therefore knows the difference between their and there. Yet, his publisher insists that he not edit while writing. Since the editor often shows up during kid time, he sometimes misses the boat at the expense of #6 above.

8. Due to #2 above, on occasion my political views become as obvious as a neon sign in a small town. While the editor makes a gallant attempt to limit this, on occasion it is necessary to make a point.

9. Besides, this is a blog, which (according to Dictionary.com) is "an online diary; a personal chronological log of thoughts published on a Web page."

10. I invite comments, and this includes criticism, praise, opinions, ideas, praise, ideas, praise, thoughts, praise...

11. The editor is committed to deleting any personal attacks. Thankfully these come seldom.

12. The publisher (who's also the writer and editor) tries to maintain a schedule for what gets posted what day, although he often violates this policy for the sake of sharing ideas that are seeping from the writer's pores and dying to get on this screen.

12. The authors writings often reflect his mood for the day. For example, if he's working he's often inclined to write about work related things. If he is on vacation he's more likely to write about something like asthma or other.

13. The frequency and length of posts often reflects upon how busy the author is. If he is burned out from working, his writings won't be as involved as when he is working and has no patients to take care of.

14. The publisher, writer and author (otherwise known as me, myself and I) try to cater to all his audiences on a regular basis, although sometimes he gets on a roll. A perfect example is last week the writer (me) didn't feel like writing about asthma, and today he doesn't feel like writing the next installment of his asthma story (that should come tomorrow).

15. I imagine these rules are true for most blogger.

I think it's important to remind my readers of this once in a while.

Changes to RT Cave

Well, faithful readers, as you can see I've made some changes to my blog -- for better or for worse. Believe it or not, less than 24 hours ago I had no clue how to make any of the changes I did. And, to be honest, it was actually quite easy.

Back in 1993 I was computer literate. In fact, I had taken enough computer programming classes where I could actually write a few programs. Flash forward 15 years and I'm completely computer illiterate again -- sort of.

So, anyway, in case you have ambitions for your blog and are computer illiterate and cheap like me, I'll provide links to the places I found help:

Here is how to create a third column. It was pretty easy, but I had to spend a couple hours working out a few kinks.

Here is how to change the color of your background .

Here is how to create a new domain. I still haven't done this, but will probably do it in the next few weeks. So, stay tuned for some more changes.

Here is how to create a new header in blogger. I actually did this before I made the third column, but my "new" header no longer fit once I had widened my blog page. So my next task is to work on creating a header that fits and matches the color scheme of my blog.

I think my ego went up a notch when I succeeded at making these changes.

Ego +1

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.

Respiratory Blog Carnival: A Source of Inspiration

The Trauma Junkie over at Surviving RT School is working on starting a respiratory therapy carnival that he will aptly title: A source of Inspiration.

So, what the heck is a blog carnival. According to Wikipedia, "Carnivals provide an aggregation of recent posts by (a blog) community on a given topic, and the host provides a level of editing and annotation that helps readers find posts they are interested in. Writers who submit their articles to blog carnivals are rewarded with traffic (if the host decides to give them a link and, perhaps, a positive review)."

Perhaps you've heard of Grand Rounds or Change of Shift.

To learn how you can participate in this carnival, and to find out more information about "A Source of Inspiration," click here and I will morph you over to Surviving RT School.

Keep in mind that anyone can contribute: RTs, RNs, doctors, patients and anyone else.

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.

The doors to the RT cave are still open

The Respiratory Therapy Cave opened its doors to the blogging world just over three months ago, and we have reached our first milestone: 10,000 page impressions.

This technically speaking is not a big deal, except for when I started this blog I figured I'd just be writing to myself. I never expected to pick up regular readers, let alone have 10,000 page impressions three months later.

When I started this I had no clue what a blog even was. By looking at statistics a few days ago, I know now that I was not in the minority, as 92% of Americans that have access to the Internet do not blog. Or, if they do blog, they don't know they are doing it.

In three months I've learned quite a bit about the blogging world, and still have a lot more to learn. I'm still not quite sure what RSS feed is, but I know I use it. I thought I was simply out of the loop, but yesterday I asked my brother, who creates web sites, what RSS feed was and he said he had no clue either.

As far as I know, I'm the only person in Shoreline County who blogs. Not one person I've asked at work blogs.

My brother said people who blog are nerds. I thought that was kind of ironic considering he spends 12 hours a day in front of a computer. If anyone is a nerd, it's him. Hear that Lucky, you're a nerd.

I think it was some character on the Simpson's who defined nerd on a recent episode. NERD: Not Even Relatively Dorky.

So I digress, As far as I know, I am the only person in Shoreline who blogs. That's why I'm not too worried about my boss finding out I'm writing about her on this site. Well, I haven't written anything bad about her yet, but I could.

When I started this I figured I would write something, oh, maybe once a week if not every two weeks. Somehow, to this point, I've managed to find something to write once a day. On days I'm tired I think the writing tank will run dry, but when I'm wide awake ideas flow form my pen like balls on a billiards table.

Am I interesting? Is my writing unique? Is my writing any good? I don't care.

That's the neat thing about having my own blog: I can write about whatever I want.

As a former marketing and journalism student I know I could better target my writing to one specific audience and gain more readers, but that's not the point of this blog.

The point of this blog is to have fun writing about things I'm passionate about. If people are entertained, or learn something in the process, that's a bonus. If I wrote for any other reason than to entertain myself this would cease to be a hobby, and would become another job.

That I definitely don't want.

So I had no clue I'd be here three months later. I thought I'd write a few weeks and then move on to something else. So, for the fact that I'm still here, I have to thank all of you who have clicked on my blog.

Honestly, I didn't have a clue what would happen when I opened the door to the RT Cave to the blogging world. So far, it's been a cool ride.

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.