Season's Greetings

This is my favorite time of year - for many reasons, the food, the fun, the family, the festivities... the long runs. Christmas has so many different meanings to individuals. To me, Christmas means selling my soul to the hospital gods to get a day or two off (meaning, switching Dec 25 for Dec 31 - every year!), it means an exceptional amount of food that tastes wonderful and it means a bit of extra time and energy to be spent with family and friends (.... and longer runs). As much as getting presents is a nice thing, I thoroughly enjoy shopping and giving presents, in fact, my equally competitive sister and I have a long standing competition to give "present of the year". I've never lost (obviously), I doubt this year will be any different.

I like to keep this blog lighthearted and primarily running related (A. Because I am shallow, B. Because there are few other things than running worth talking about, C. Who really cares about the boring details of my life - other than my Boston training - I don't even care about the details). But I am going to subject my readers (all two of you - Mom, Alison...) to a very temporary and short emotional moment:

Christmas time can be very diffucult for some people, whether its due to tragedy, lonliness, stress, poor health, etc. It just seems like negative things stare us in the face so much more obnoxiously during the month of December. I've really noticed it working in the hospital, for obvious reasons. And of course, I feel a great deal of sympathy for people who are walking thru these struggles, if I could offer up any advice or support I would (however, I am highly under qualified in this area - I can however provide you with smoking cessation education). Personally, I am not faced with these tragedies, nor am I bothered with lonliness or various other negativities that surround us. In fact, I am abundantly reminded of how truly wonderful my life is. Looking back on this year - I got to spend another year (count - 2.5 years) waking up every morning (that I didn't work nights) to the man of my dreams (including his morning breath). I successfully talked to Alison (and subsequently Leon, because Alison refuses to answer) on the phone 365 days (regardless if I saw her or not) since last Christmas, and I would have it no other way. My parents showed me for the 27th year in a row what it means to be a humble, generous and kind person. I watched my oldest neice turn in to a little girl (that. doesn't. stop. talking. ever. But is next in line for brilliant-child-of-the-year-award - awaiting discovery by Ellen) and my youngest neice find joy in anything edible (after my own heart). My closest friends continue to be an extension of my family. My job continues to be my dream job. My in-laws have extended my immediate family, which is only a good thing (and oddly enough - I must be the only one in the world who doesn't have a crazy mother in law). My aunts and uncles and cousins have defined to me that distance truly does make the heart grow fonder.

In my family, we celebrate the true meaning of Christmas. And although I love a rum and eggnog, while listening to "up on the roof top" in my elf pajamas awaiting ol' St. Nick with a fresh batch of pilsbury-ready-made-chocolate-chip-cookies (cause that's as good as it gets for me) - That speaks far less to me about Christmas than something like this:

"For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the healvenly host praising God and saying: Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"

Well, I could go on, but the emotion has exhausted me for one more year. On to equally as important details - 116 days till the best day of the year. I ran 28 km today in 2 hours 25 minutes, about 5:15 min/km. It was bloody cold - but I didn't actually notice till I got home and my frozen fingers couldn't unlock my front door (on the 1st 3 attempts). I work tomorrow night, then I have 2 (thats an entire 48 hours!) off until I return to work Boxing day for a day shift (and holiday pay - yes, it will be worth it!).

Season's greetings to the blog world. I hope that your Christmas is filled with as much joy as my Christmas is.

Learned Something New This Week

I've been working quite a few shifts in the ER lately. I love it (mostly) and I hate it. I like the excitement and adrenalin, the Forest Gump box of chocolates theory works well to explain my days, I hate giving puffers. On the wards, puffers are a nursing job (or for competent patients, an independant job), of course, I'm happy to share all the workload with the nurses, I have a special place in my heart for nurses (they work SO hard!)... but seriously - puffers??? There are one million (at least 30) RN's working in the ER and 2 RT's.



I was called to a bed in Bblock of ER (aka "bad" block - for the sick patients - but better than Fblock for the "f***'d patients - I didn't make that up, but it explains it well - padded rooms, need I say more?). They needed me to run a venous gas (probably means nothing to the majority of those reading this). When I got there, the patient looked completely emaciated, basically on death's doorstep, and quite young (30's maybe). The results of the gas were this: pH6.8, PaCO2 9mmHg, PaO2 90 mmHg, HCO3- unmearsurable. Again, what this probably means to you is nothing. What this means to me is a not compatible with life metabolic acidosis. Turns out this poor soul had DKA (diabetic Ketoacidosis), which in nonmedical terms sucks. A few hours later "patient raging acidosis" was turning around thanks to rapid fluid rescusitation, however nurses were unable to get venous blood so I was called for an arterial poke. These pokes hurt. A lot. The follow up arterial gas was still dangerously acidotic, however "patient skin and bones" had reached capacity to sustain life, so things were looking up. While chatting over me jamming an 18 gauge syringe in to the radial artery and awaiting my 1 ML of blood that was perfusing way slower than I wanted thanks to basically no blood pressure, we had a nice chat. I was wondering how a young healthy individual gets a massive DKA attack (not that I asked), but apparently the patient was wondering the same thing. HOWEVER - what I did learn from "patient-I-have-been-in-your-room-entirely-way-too-long" is that it is completely normal (in fact, common) for people training for a 10 km race to lose 30 lbs in one month and pee about 15 liters a day. Are you serious? Umm... what kind of running do you do?



On a totally seperate note: Today's run was 32 km, 2hr 48min, 5:25 min/km, -17 degreesC, fresh snow and ice followed by a 15:00-23:30 shift. Gearing up for a much needed cutback of hours over Christmas (cut back from 60 hours to about 30 for 3 weeks) and planning to get some quality time in with my new running shoes.

In honor of my favorite nurse: If you ever need a puffer - I will give it to you with the best MDI and Spacer technique that I know! In return, if I ever have urine retention, you are the only one who can place a catheter in my urethra.