Respiratory Therapy 101 Just Keep BreathingRespiratory Therapy 101 Just Keep BreathingRespiratory Therapy 101 is a blog about my life in the world of medicine. I am a respiratory therapist, and my job is to make sure that people keep breathing. It is an important job because if they are not breathing, they are not doing anything else. Articles
Scenes from the Floor
2008-03-17 18:58:00 “I think that the man in 513 needs a breathing treatment,” the nurse said to me over the telephone. “I just gave him one a couple of hours ago and he was fine. Is he in distress or do you just want him to have a treatment?” This has become a standard question when someone calls ... More About: Scenes , Floor
The sad demise of the hangdog patient
2008-03-17 05:22:00 The first time I saw this patient was a few days ago. He was totally hangdog in appearance, the sort of guy who you felt had probably been down on his luck for a really long time. His eyes drooped, his shoulders slumped, his sickly gray pallor suggested a state of near-death. The poor guy ... More About: Patient
A Winner
2008-03-15 22:46:00 Stingray over at Atomic Nerds wins the Bizarre Entertainment Recognition Award. Go forth and admire! Go! More About: Winner
A taste for the bizarre
2008-03-15 05:37:00 I have a taste for the bizarre. On my days off I tend to spend my time either reading bizarre things or watching bizarre things. Some of my favorite bizarre things to watch include forgotten or under-appreciated cartoons. There are the classic shorts, such as Don Hertzefeldt’s classic Rejected Cartoons (possibly NSFW, and quite…bizarre, but ... More About: Bizarre , Taste
The Good, The Bad, and the Oh S**t
2008-03-13 02:29:00 Good: Patient meets parameters for extubation. Termination of mechanical ventilation and removal of the ET tube commences. Bad: Patient immediately develops audible stridor. Accessory muscle use noted. Worse: Administration of two back-to-back racemic epinephrine nebs does not improve the stridor. Patient begins paradoxical respiration at a rate of almost forty. Stridor worsens. Physician is called but is ... More About: Good , The Good
Funny
2008-03-11 01:41:00 Not related to RT or medicine at all, but funny as all get-out: this presentation of the subprime mortgage crisis and how it occurred. It might be the only presentation of the subprime crisis to include the phrase “my frigid Norwiegan ass.” And that alone means you should look at it. ... More About: Funny
Sundowning
2008-03-11 01:21:00 I was asked to stay late to help out nights the other day. I did so grudgingly, not out of any disrespect for my comrades on the graveyard shift but simply because staying at the hospital for 16 hours seemed unappealing to me. Of course, instead of keeping me in the unit I had been in ...
Today, I made a difference
2008-03-09 04:10:00 I feel good about today. Usually work leaves me tired, numb, or indifferent; on a really bad day I come home and regret the things I did. Today …was not one of those days. Today was a special day. I actually made a difference today. Today, the average age of my patients was a heartbreakingly low 23. One ... More About: Made , Difference
Real Life Diagnoses
2008-03-07 17:31:00 There are a lot of patients who suffer from problems that are difficult to label in an appropriate manner. As part of our shift report at the hospital, I am expected to give a diagnosis with each patient that I am reporting off on. Since I am not a physician and I do not have ... More About: Life , Doctors , Real , Real Life
Thanks
2008-03-06 04:55:00 Today, for the first time in a long time, a patient said “thank you” to me. I happened to be walking past his room as he was being wheeled out of the ICU up to the medical floor. I smiled at him as he left and he stopped me and stuck out his hand. “Thanks for ...
*applause*
2008-03-04 19:24:00 Markie, over at Mark On The World, has been thinking. He asks a question that I have been asking myself for ages: Seriously, if a patient continues to behave in an unhealthy manner despite all evidence and advice to the contrary, when is it okay to stop treating? People with psychological conditions are forcibly treated, making ... More About: Blogroll , Applause
Criticism from a Californian
2008-03-04 17:54:00 Recently I was accused by a Californian of not being compassionate enough for my ER patients. This individual points out that she, a chronically ill person on social security disability and medicare, has apparently used the ER twice in the last five years for asthma attacks. To that I say, good for you! You’ve learned to ... More About: Criticism
A word on staffing and workload
2008-03-03 04:51:00 There are days when I feel like a rat on a sinking ship. Today was one of them. I was floated to the floors again today. Normally I don’t mind, but this is my fourth different assignment in five straight days and some consistency would be nice. Adding to my woes, I went out the gate this ... More About: Business , Word , Workload , Staffing
Order of the Day:
2008-03-02 01:58:00 The Patient: 80 years old, renal failure, CHF but no pulmonary history. Completely demented in a hostile manner. Repeatedly screaming obscenities and blasphemies at healthcare providers. Coughing and raising yellow sputum between bouts of screaming, but spitting said sputum aggressively on the floor and walls. The Diagnosis: Pneumonia, possibly aspiration. Of note the patient has no ... More About: Order
Geography is not your forte, is it.
2008-03-01 04:54:00 We had a foreign patient in our ICU recently. They had come from a great distance to visit the United States but had fallen ill once they arrived here. They will be okay, but the mere presence of someone from far away from an uncommon land has created a stir, with the less-traveled staff asking ... More About: Geography , Forte
Ah, the ER
2008-02-28 04:54:00 Ah, the ER. Home of the genuine medical emergency. And of late, the whiny, ignorant, unhygienic and entitled. “Sure,” the attitude goes, “I may be unemployed. I may be undereducated. I may be living off of your tax dollars in my trailer home while sucking down Marlboros and Miller Lite like there’s no tomorrow. But no ...
Horoscope:
2008-02-26 04:42:00 My return to work this week should be interesting. I’ve had a full seven days off. The re-entry from non-work to work after seven days of blissful slackitude will be trying, for sure. To ease my anxiety, I checked my Onion Horoscope for this week: Gemini May 21 - June 21 Friction in the workplace continues this Thursday, ...
Career Advice: Q&A with a Real Respiratory Therapist!
2008-02-25 20:25:00 About a month ago, I got an e-mail from a student who was doing some research on different healthcare-related careers. Originally she had wanted to do nursing, but for a variety of reasons she opted to do some research on other opportunities. As part of that she e-mailed me some questions. They were thoughtful and ... More About: Advice , Career , Real , Therapist
Career Choices
2008-02-24 03:12:00 You know, I always wanted to be a pilot. Being an RT sort of just happened to me. And I like it. Just like any other job it has its ups and downs, but on the whole? It’s not too bad. Pretty much I spend my days wandering around in the ICU managing ventilators and ... More About: Blogroll , Career , Choices
Contrast:
2008-02-20 02:06:00 “Mr. D came in last night, somethin’ wrong with his bowels or somethin’. He was a DNR but the ER doc talked the family into trying to resuscitate him and now he’s intubated. He’s septic or somethin’ cuz he’s breathing fast.” I nodded and looked at Mr. D, who was breathing a phenomenal fifty times ... More About: Contrast
Thank you: chapter two
2008-02-19 02:43:00 I’ve thanked other bloggers on here before when they make especially good or amusing points. Today, I will be thanking Panda Bear MD. He has summed up most of what I do for a living in one delightful paragraph (bold emphasis added): …So let me just state that In the United States, we are terrifically over-doctored. ... More About: Blogroll , Doctors , Chapter
Moo
2008-02-17 02:30:00 So we implemented our new computerized charting system and joined the 21st century this week at Sunny Flats. It has been an interesting week to be sure. Reactions seem to be split between two basic camps: adaptable people who realize that this is the way of the future whether we like it or not, and cave ...
And Now: Music!
2008-02-15 02:22:00 Happy Valentines Day, everyone! Because I love you all, here is an excellent parody of a song. The song: DNR, sung to the tune of Nickelback’s “Rockstar.” A friend of mine sent me this and I loved it so much I had to share. Thanks man! More About: Music
Mad COW Disease
2008-02-14 05:00:00 The COW implementation at work has arrived. It has been an interesting couple of days, but I am too tired to write more at this time, so it’ll have to wait. So I leave you with two things: first, the promise of an excellent music video that relates to the ICU will be here tomorrow. ... More About: Disease
Delicious
2008-02-11 22:48:00 ERDoc85 has an excellent post about his take on the “healthcare crisis” up at M.D.O.D. Go check it out. More About: Delicious
Sick
2008-02-11 05:46:00 The fact that anybody would believe that a large, sharp object designed to cut the heck out of shrubbery was an appropriate tool for solving a domestic conflict demonstrates that there is something seriously the matter with people. Every now and then a patient or their circumstances gets my attention and makes me think, makes ... More About: Sick
Weighing In
2008-02-08 20:49:00 I’ve been able to avoid hecklers and internet controversy for some time, which is just fine with me because I really don’t want to spend time on internet drama. But I think I’m going to tempt the fates and weigh in on some point/counterpoint going on elsewhere in the land of medical blogs. It all begins ...
Therapist-driven protocols: as useful as the therapists who drive them
2008-02-06 04:45:00 So, the other day I was griping about my brief rotation on the floors, more specifically about how our treatment load vastly exceeds safe workload levels. A couple of you asked me about protocols in the comments: why, at a hospital as large and advanced as Sunny Flats, are there no RT protocols? This is ... More About: Business , Drive , Therapist , Protocols
RT Activism and some insight
More articles from this author:2008-02-04 17:23:00 Good post up at Snotjockeys Revisited about some newfangled RT activism. It also contains some good insight. Clicky clicky. More About: Activism , Insight 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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