Spartan No More

It's with heavy heart I type these words. Here's my story (I know nobody asked, but I'm not sleeping and I have a computer, so why not?) Hope you enjoy my pics, they are all in 2019 in order of me completing the races.

In Summer of 2018 I ran a Spartan Sprint with my brothers. Something I thought would be fun to do with my siblings and an excuse to get back into shape.

If you've never heard of a Spartan race, it's essentially a 5K race with obstacles (ranging in difficulty from jumping over a hay bale to climbing up a rope). You can skip around the obstacles if you want. It's a lot more physically challenging than running/walking a 5k due to those obstacles.

Leading up to the race I was overwhelmed and never did end up exercising properly. I did end up losing about 10 pounds, but there was little to no training going on leading up to the Sprint.  I completed the race (there was little to no running), 4 miles in 2 hours.

Driving to my first Spartan race in June 2019

Life continued, I ended up gaining all that weight back and more.  By Fall of 2018 I was over 230 pounds and felt like shit. Every time I rolled over my belly stayed behind, any it was the first to make it to the other side. I was always tired and hated the way I felt.

Finished the Spartan Sprint, 4 miles 1.5 hours (.5 hours faster than 2018)

Met some Street Fighters walking around after my race

I decided I was not only going to run the Spartan Sprint (5k), but I was also going to earn the Spartan Trifecta. That would be completing 3 races in a calendar year, one Sprint (3-5 miles), one Super (7-10 miles) and one Beast (13-15 miles).

There was a lot of excitement each time I registered and walked to the event. Walking around you could see everyone's excitement as well (and dread of what was to come). Every event had different places to sit, hang around, and prepare/cool down.  The excitement was clearly there.

Beautiful sights walking around the Spartan Beast in WV, August 2019. 

This is Oscar, he joined me for all my runs since my family couldn't be there

Taking a quick selfie while resting (this mountain was one of many nightmare peaks we needed to climb)

Finished the 14ish mile Beast after 7 hours (and had to do CPR on the side of a mountain, I hope that Spartan made it)

I won't bore you with all the details from here on.  I earned my Trifecta in November 2019.  I couldn't stop smiling when I crossed the finish line.  It was a terrific achievement.  I fought long and hard to get to that point. 

Walking around the events area, always something fun to see

Finished my 8 mile Spartan Super, completing my Trifecta. Couldn't stop smiling

The Spartan races will always have a special place in my heart.  This is why I hate that I will no longer be participating in the Spartan races.  I continued to train, paid to attend all three races again, then the damn Covid 19.  My races were cancelled and now they have changed everything. 

They have changed it with good reason. They are doing their best to keep everyone healthy.  They are doing their best to prevent the spread of the Rona and keep their races going.  I don't blame them at all for anything they have done.

Though these changes are for the best in the current situation, I feel that it is no longer for me.  I will forever hold the Spartan Races in high regard. I will encourage anyone to participate if they have the chance.

Throwing Your Weight Around

One thing that always bothers me is people who throw their weight around.

A patient came in with his daughter. First thing she said after explaining their visit was "I work in the ICU and I need to be with him in the room".

Due to the current pandemic, no visitors allowed except for minors and patients with altered mental status.

Her: "He doesn't know what's going on so I need to be there to explain things to him".

Me to the patient: "Are you confused, are you able to sign for yourself if needed?

Him: "I'm not confused, I can sign."

Her: "I want you to talk to your charge nurse and get me permission. If she doesn't I will call the house supervisor and talk to her."

Unless you are directly responsible for my evaluation or my check (or can influence it in any way), I honestly don't give a crap who you are or where you work. But since I can be diplomatic so I say I'll explain the situation to the charge nurse and ask her to wait in the lobby, knowing that the answer will be no.  Before going back I make sure both have phones so they can communicate with each other if she was not allowed back.

I officially confirm that she is not allowed back and return to the lobby.  I again explain to her that she is not allowed at this time and if she felt it necessary to call the house supervisor she was welcome to do so. 

Guess it didn't go her way cause she wasn't allowed back. She was even asked to exit the lobby (nobody in the lobby who isn't a patient). It was very pleasing to see that she, with all her weight she thought she had to sway our decision, was asked to leave the ER.

On a lighter note:

We rolled the patient off the backboard, doc informed him that he was going to get on something hard, but only for a minute.

It was really hard not to say it....

Rambling

Fair warning, I'm bored and just rambling here.

The other day I was the lead nurse on a trauma that will forever be ingrained in my mind. Though HIPAA laws prevent me from giving details I can provide some information.

A motorcycle was speeding around a corner and hit an SUV going the opposite direction. Though he was wearing a helmet, that did not do much to save him. He succumbed to the extensive injuries while under my care.

Everything that happened during the trauma, injured, procedures, and his eventual passing, didn't really affect me or my other coworkers as far as I know (having spoken to them after, we all seem to be OK). There was only one thing that bothered me, his legs and feet below the knees. 

The extent of the injured allowed both feet to lay flat and pointing in the same direction. He didn't fit in the body bag because of his stature.  Those same injuries allowed me to fold his legs/feet into the body bag. That was what bothered me the most.

I had a chance to talk with my boss, she wanted to make sure I was mentally doing OK or if I needed to talk with anyone.  Honestly I'm fine, minus that one thing.  

Trip

I'll be going to Corpus Christi later this month. I grew up visiting family there almost every weekend until I was in high school and after that it was usually once a month.

The area of Corpus Christi I knew was not the safest in the world. After dark you didn't keep your head above the window line in the off chance there were stray bullets.

It wasn't until I was in high school that I realized Corpus Christi was a tourist town.  I had no clue and I was honestly baffled why people wanted to go there.

Now that I have an opportunity to go back, I'm checking out a few tourist things including the Selena statue and a turtle sanctuary.

Though I'll be extremely tired by the end of the trip, I think it'll be a good visit.

Well, that's all that's truly on my mind. Watching some cheesy 70s horror movies while typing. Entertaining.

Favorite Villain Songs

It's been a while since I've written anything. I'm going to start trying again, if anything to keep my mind occupied while I'm waiting to be tired enough to sleep.

Today I've decided to write about my Favorite Villain songs. A good villain makes for a good movie, and their song tells the world quickly what they are about.  These are my current favorites, in no particular order. 

There are other villain songs that I didn't put on the list. It's not cause I don't like them, I'm just getting tired (I wrote this part after I was done with the post).

Shiny

The Moana soundtrack is fantastic, as are many other Disney movie soundtracks. Though the big song was How Far I'll Go, I personally think this song was the star of the show. It's fantastic. I love the beat, the lyrics are hilarious, and honestly, I really like Tamatoa. What's not to like? 

Friends on the Other Side

Dr. Facilier is smooth. It's no wonder he was able to dupe two people into believing him. This song proves it. The animation, colors, and music are fun to listen to. Though he isn't the worst Disney villain, he only managed to kill a bug (still more than other Disney villains), he is definitely one of the creepiest. I definitely wouldn't want to cross paths with him.

Dentist

Everyone hates the dentist (except Bill Murray in this movie). Everyone loves Elvis. What's not to love a bout a sadistic Elvis dentist? This song is hilarious. I've made a post about it earlier.  Steve Martin does a fantastic job. You can listen to the song but watching the entire move puts it in much better context (just like many other songs on the list).

I Put a Spell on You

What's not to love about this rendition? They were fantastic. Very entertaining to watch and listen to. I hope they succeed in completing Hocus Pocus 2, would be fun to watch the Sanderson Sisters.

Pretty Bird

The Rio soundtrack is phenomenal. The entire movie is great, it's like 20th Century Fox pulled a Disney. And this is the second song on here by Jermaine Clement. This bird is evil, he poops on people and he blames it on seagulls.

I'm Hispanic, NOT Caucasian

One thing that has bothered me and gets worse as time goes on is this: When I'm filling out paperwork and it asks for race, there is nothing there for me.

Going to my background: I'm first and foremost American of Mexican descent. I believe it was my great grandfather who came to the States from Mexico. and I honestly have no clue where from.

It basically boils down to this: I'm not Caucasian.

My only options for race, I'm none of these

Trying to read up on it and as far as I can tell the US Census Bureau was too lazy (I'm sorry, too confusing) to figure out an acceptable way to group people Hispanic descent so they tack on the ethnicity question.  There are basically too many sub categories of Hispanics/Latinos to make this a determination.

But if this is the case, why are they able to generalize African Americans, Asians, Native Americans, and Pacific Islanders?  There are just as many sub categories with them as well.

Once again, I'm left out

I suppose I could start selecting the "Other" category and start doing it that route but that still means my race/background isn't properly represented.

I did read that the census bureau is going to discuss it again next year, in 2020.  Here's hoping that they will officially add the Latino group as a race and not just an ethnicity.

Here is a link to one of the articles I read. I felt it broke the reasons down well in terms of why it's Hispanic is an Ethnicity and not a race.  And for the record, I'm completely opposed to the Latinx. Part of my Hispanic heritage is the use of gender identifiers.  Or are we supposed to start putting an X in place of those o/a at the end of words (tortillx, mamacitx)?  It's absurd and people just need to get over themselves.

Anyway, I'm done with my ranting session.  Night peeps!

Trump Card (and other stuff)

Up front, this isn't a political post.

Several situations at work today, I'll start with the amusing (in the dark kinda way):

First story:

*Paramedic report to their station*
Paramedic: We're not taking him in, he's dead dead.
Doctor's scribe in ER overhears report: Is there a difference between dead and dead dead?
Me: Of course there is. One is Mostly dead, they still might be alive. The other is all dead, nothing left in them
*Scribe stares blankly at me*
Me: Guess you've never seen the Princess Bride....

Second story:

I introduced myself to my almost 80 year old patient. After a couple of attempts she still couldn't figure out my name.
Me: I'm Ernesto, I'm your nurse
Pt: What's your name?
Me: Ernesto
Pt: How do you pronounce it?
Me: Ernest

It reminded me of a time when my coworker couldn't remember my name for over a year and she called me Lorenzo (and I answered cause I knew she was talking to me).

Final story:

A coworker created a problem that I spent almost an hour fixing. Long story my patient called out using the call bell and she answered. They requested pain medication, she called and told me but I was not on the floor. They called a second time and she cut them off. A third time and she didn't even let them talk before hanging up on them. I was back on the floor at this time and my patient called out to inform us they were leaving to another hospital.

I walk in the room to talk to them and they were gone.  I found them in the hall and the patient's IVs were still in.  I politely asked them to come to the room for me to remove them before they left the hospital.

They refused stating I could not touch the patient without permission or consent and they were not giving me their consent.  They obviously thought they had the upper hand in the situation. 

I agreed with them that I could not touch the patient without consent. I then explained that I could not allow them to leave the premises with the IVs in because that would be negligent on my part. I then dropped my trump card: if they left with the IVs in the patient's arm I would have to call the police to have them check on the patient and make sure they got removed.

They agreed to return to the room.

Now that the story is done I just want to thank my lovely coworker for doing her job so professionally. Her courtesy was so helpful in this situation....yes this statement is dripping with sarcasm.

Tired

I'm tired.

I'm tired of exercising. I'm tired of cleaning. I'm tired of running errands. The list goes on and on.

Problem is I've worked hard to lose over 30lbs. I'm afraid I'll quickly drop back into my old habits that caused me to get up to over 230lbs.

I'll probably take a week off after my next Spartan run but I can't fall into those habits again. I felt like crap when I was that big. I hated that my belly was so big it would stay behind when I rolled over.  At least that's what I felt anyway.

I don't think I have enough time to run tomorrow morning and I don't want to wake up early.

I need to sleep now.

Processing events

The last four days I've worked have been rough.  My shift ended on Friday with a guy arriving to the ED in cardiac arrest. Saturday was a double shooting that kept me late. Sunday overall wasn't too bad other than working with a slowpoke in triage (I would triage 2-3 people to her one) but she did triage all the screaming pediatric patients.

Today things finally got to me (to an extent). Though I helped care for more, I only had three official patients over eight hours. 

First patient was a stroke and due to administering TPA that patient was 1:1 for almost two hours. I was able to sneak a lunch break in after I got her to the ICU (her symptoms had resolved within the first 15 minutes of TPA).

After finishing my lunch break I get paged for an unresponsive patient. He was dropped off by his "girlfriend" and was told his name was Gary. After a little Vitamin Narcan he became responsive and we discovered his name was Larry (close enough, right?). He was discharged.

Here's where it got rough. Triage was backed up and one of their nurses went to lunch. I went out to help, the other RN out front said it was my call.  I felt I should stick around and triage a few people.

While out there a woman asked for help getting her husband out of the car, he was having a heart attack (we hear this frequently so they can be seen quicker). Rolling my eyes I grabbed gloves and a wheelchair to help the man out of the car. He reported palpitations and being sweaty earlier. 

Checked him in and took him to the back for triage. Before I could start the official triage he started posturing and became unresponsive.

Fuck. I thought he was just trying to get back sooner.  Called a code blue, got him on a stretcher and to our trauma bay.  After 45 minutes we decided to call it, he was not coming back.

Talking with the other triage nurse we both came to the realization that if I had not felt inclined to help, this person would have literally died in the lobby in front of everybody because the other triage nurse was already tied up and didn't get back to the triage bay until after he had coded.

I'm grateful I was able to follow my impression today. I'm thankful for a good team that worked well during the 45 minute code. Even though communication wasn't 100% the extra hands were great and everything was completed as it should have been done. 

DC Day Trip

I had to drop a friend off at the Reagan airport in DC this morning. Decided to take advantage of the day and visit a few sites I probably won't get to do again (for a while anyway). Up front, I found a lot of these places to visit with the Atlas Obscura website. Also, the first two places on the list are very short in terms of visiting, depending on how many pictures you take and if you get lost (I used the GPS on my phone while walking between the first two places so I wouldn't get lost).

First stop: Georgetown's Haunted Halcyon House. Built in 1786 by Benjamin Stoddert. It's supposedly one of the most haunted houses in DC, used to have a tunnel to the Potomac that was used as part of the underground railroad.  I found the links to a few ghost stories, unfortunately I couldn't fine any information on how to get a tour. It appears to be a private residence. Maybe make friends with one to get a tour?

Next stop: The Exorcist Stairs. Parking at the bottom of the stairs is atrocious but if you don't mind walking a block or two you can park near the Halcyon House. Admittedly, it's a long set of stairs but I had a fun few minutes wandering around. I also survived where Father Karras couldn't (I also wasn't fighting a demon). This would be a much more entertaining place to visit at night, unfortunately time wouldn't allow. If someone is walking/jogging up the stairs and you don't want anyone else in your pic, wait a few, it won't take long to clear out.

Third Stop: National Cathedral. The grounds are beautiful and the architecture is gorgeous. But the real reason I came: Darth Vader Gargoyle. You need binoculars or a really good zoom Vader, he's really high up and impossible to see without assistance (I couldn't see it from the ground). The National Cathedral opens at 10am but the grounds can be accessed whenever (as far as I can tell). I got there at 9am and spent half an hour looking for him.  I'm sure there is more to see if you take the tour, I didn't have time to wait around.

Look it's Rocket Raccoon next to Darth Vader

Final stop of the day: DC Catacombs. Located at the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in America, the tours of the Catacombs are free. The tour is very informative and the grounds are beautiful. The tour guides are friendly. The Catacombs of DC are replicas of the Catacombs of Rome and while touring underground they have paintings, statues, and even the remains of Saint Innocent, an 8 year old martyr that was killed in the second century (not adding the pictures I took out of respect). The tour lasts about an hour, stop by if you have time. 

DC Catacombs

Heaven and Purgatory

St Cecilia, apparently the executioner couldn't chop off her head after three attempts and ran off. She died of her wounds three days later.

Hope you get a chance to visit some of these places.

Know the Difference

I spent 8 hours in triage with only the help of a tech (and we rocked it, couldn't have done it without her).  Had some patient's come in today that were struggling to know the difference between a few terms, thought I'd point them out (most of these come from one patient).

First: When you eat something spicy you get hot and sweaty, heart rate increases, and you start breathing faster to cool your mouth down. If you add salsa to something, chances are it's spicy (apparently it's not common knowledge, I've had two patients in the last week eat salsa not knowing it was spicy). Remedy: drink some milk, eat some bread, and suck it up.

Allergic reactions are slightly different and vary in severity depending on how your body reacts. You can experience itching, wheezing, shortness of breath, swelling, nausea, vomiting or tingling in the mouth. This requires immediate medical attention. Take benadryl if it's available, otherwise get to the ED ASAP (don't do urgent care, they'll send you to the ED after taking your money).

Second: There is a slight difference between 9 months pregnant and 9 weeks pregnant. If you can't tell the difference, PLEASE don't breed.

You can't do this if you're 9 weeks pregnant (and probably shouldn't do it if you're 9 months pregnant)

Third: A person is not unresponsive if they're napping in the car. Want to know a simple trick to make sure they're responsive? Take your knuckles and push and rub the center of their chest as hard as you can. If they wake up, they're napping. If not, they're unresponsive.

This will also work but you might get accused of domestic abuse (or fired if working in the healthcare field)

Fourth: If you haven't been able to eat or drink anything in the last six days, your body will tell me. Your heart rate would be elevated, your blood pressure tanking, and your respirations will increase.

Lastly: If you exaggerate your symptoms to get a room faster than other people and I don't have a reason to take you back (as in your vitals check out and you have no symptoms you claim to have), get your ass to the end of the line and wait.

Also, if I tell you to wait in the lobby, don't look at your boyfriend and say "I don't know what to do."  I just told you. Get to the end of the fucking line and wait. (After my patient said this, I literally unlocked her wheelchair and said, you find a spot in the lobby where you want to wait and we'll get you a room when it's available).

Ozark Review (spoiler for Season 2: Episode 3)

One of my guilty pleasures (along with many Netflix subscribers) is watching some of their new content.  One show that started off fantastic was Ozark. 

The premise of the show is a financial planner, played by Jason Bateman, that gets entangled with a drug cartel. He has a wife and two kids and they all need to move to the Ozarks to stay alive.

While there he needs to embezzle $8 million for the drug cartel.

Season 1 is fun and I would recommend it.

I can't proceed past season two.

SPOILER ALERT in case you want to continue.

Halfway through Season 2 Episode 3 Bateman's kids in the show, a 15 year old daughter and 13 year old son, are able to dupe a bank into a $5,000 loan. They were able to do this without any parents around. The boy walked into a bank, showed the paperwork to the loan officer and got the loan.  The story he told was his mom was running errands and could only be reached by phone. He called his mom (sister on the other line) and they allowed the loan.

WTF? How stupid is that bank teller? Apparently there are only a handful of intelligent people in this show and they all break the law in one form or another. The rest of the town must be stupid, that's the only way they could allow this to happen.

I know, it's a show and I should be able to see past that but I can't. The entire town in the show must be delayed to allow two teenagers get a loan.

I've given up on the show and I'm moving on to something else.

Been another long while

It's been a long while since I've done any blogging. Admittedly I've been distracted doing other things.

I know what I write here doesn't matter to most people (as the title of my blog implies). This is more for me than anyone. 

That being said I'll write my unsolicited opinions about things here. As with most bloggers, I write what I think. Difference is I'm no professional, not even close to it. 

Oh well. Maybe I'll start doing it more frequently again, we'll see.

Choking Hazard

After taking a patient off the bedside commode (apparently it's not as cut and dry how to properly put a bedpan under the patient, the tech put it under her backwards. At least it wasn't upside down) I started walking the stool specimen to the lab.

On my way to the lab some people shouted at me that someone was choking in the bathroom.

Damn.

I put the stool specimen in my pocket (fortunately I had double bagged it and had clean gloves on) and walk in the bathroom.

First thing I see in the bathroom was a tall thin man with glasses.  He reported "I did the Heimlich Maneuver and she's still choking!"

I push the door open the rest of the way and I see a tall lady standing next to the sink who then tells me she is still choking. I make eye contact with both of them and inform them both the Heimlich maneuver  only works if the airway is completely obstructed.

I then offer to help her check in to get treatment. She refused and then returned to the sink and induced vomiting.

Seriously, what's wrong with people?

Disillusioned at Disney

Went to Disney recently and although I had a great time, I think it'll be a while before I return to the parks (still planning a cruise in a few years, we'll see how that goes).  There are a few reasons to why I feel this way. I'll write another post on the awesomeness that was had.

1) Lines. I know it's Disney, and I know to expect waits for popular rides but damn.  It's October, how many parents took their kids out of school for this trip? Obviously I did, but more than I had anticipated.  Wait times for most of the thrill rides were over an hour. One ride, one of the Avatar rides in Animal Kingdom got up to a 300+ minute wait.

And it wasn't even the good ride (Navi River Journey)

We essentially only rode each ride once on the day we were in the park, seldom did we get to two (though a lot of that was also because our kids wanted to see as much of the park as possible and did a lot of walking because of it).

2) Their fast pass system SUCKS.  You're allowed 3 fast passes per day to start. After you use/cancel your fast passes you can then try to get another one. Problem is there are so many people even the shitty fast pass rides are gone quickly. 

3) All their meal prices have gone up. Even at their "quick service" meals (burgers, nuggets, etc) I was spending $13/adult (3 adults cause 10 year olds count as adults) and $8/kid. I spent $15 for 4 bottles of water one day (probably more,

4) So many parents that let their kids do whatever they want. No discipline. Though that is a problem with society in general.

5) Motorized scooters. Holy crap they're everywhere. I'm not just talking about one or two rolling around with a family. I'm talking groups of 10. I would literally walk the opposite direction each time I found a group with more than 1.

I swear anyone can rent them, I saw several young kids riding in them (granted they were obese and probably couldn't handle the walk in the park all day).  And, in case you don't know, anyone in a wheelchair or motorized scooter gets to cut in line. I don't know the entire process but every day, every ride, someone in a wheelchair/scooter would cut to the front of the line and their entire group would go with them. There seemed to be no wait time for them.

Please don't get me wrong, I used to work for people with disabilities. I was a program coordinator for the adult socialization program and the summer camps. I understand why it is done. But it seems like everyone is taking advantage of this. After waiting for 45 minutes to get on a ride 2 different groups came in and went straight to the front. It became tiresome after seeing this happen all week long.

So long story short, it'll be a while before I enter a Disney park again.  I do love the experience but I need some time away.

Horror Movie Reviews: Stephanie

I've seen a few horror movies recently and I figured what better way to spend a sleepless few hours reviewing them (without spoilers).  Once again I know there are other platforms to review movies, but I'd rather do it here.

Stephanie

Stephanie is living at home alone. There is something stalking her, an unseen and unknown entity.  

I really enjoyed this movie.  The first few minutes had me holding my breath at some parts.  There were several other parts that had me creeped out.  It takes a lot to get me to that point (I've seen more than a few horror movies). 

If you like a good supernatural horror movie (that's my category), you should watch this one.

Triage Hell

Spent the last 12 hours in Triage. Definitely one of the worst days I've had out there. 

I clock in at 11a and we're holding 10 admitted patients because there are no beds upstairs, 3 transfer patients, rapidly transfusing blood on another, with several overdoses. We have a really high acuity going on (unusual that we have this many at one time).

We get word of an OD needs help out of a car.  We drag his strung out ass into a wheelchair with the help of security. As we take him to a room, security disappears.  The patient becomes combative and we end up calling a code gray (violent patient). Everyone shows up who is supposed to respond (security, maintenance, basically everyone available), and NOBODY helps. They stand outside the room listening to the patient ramble on about being raped by the person living in his head (I think that's called masturbation) and how he's travelling at the speed of light.  Homey is tripping on something.

As we deal with all this in the back, people continue to come in to the department, obviously we can't exactly close.  I end up with 23 people in the lobby with a 5 hour wait time just to get to a room.

One person waiting tries talking to me about how he doesn't understand how this hospital can handle an emergency when we can't even get patient's in the back to be seen.  This is the same fucker that eloped with his wife because they had been there 4 hours (she had an ulcer on her ass with an abscess starting to tunnel to another location, and it appeared necrotic) without an answer. 

I told him they had to wait because of the large number of traumas/overdoses/unresponsive patients. He didn't seem to happy but it shut him up.

After triaging a few other people, I marked 2 for the rapid medical side of the department.  One of the RNs working that unit called me to ask if we could bring them back.  Mind you, I'm still 20 deep and trying to get protocol orders completed and still triage the rest. She had 4 patients, one of whom was being admitted and the others nearing the end of their treatment.

I asked her to come out and grab the 2 extra patients.  She starts bitching about patient abandonment and how she is the ONLY one in that section (not true) and how she is leaving the provider without help (maybe true, but they don't need us to wipe their ass while working).  Instead of calling her out on her bullshit I decide to ignore her and hang up the phone.  A couple of minutes later she comes out and is still bitching about all the work she had to drop so she could get more patients for herself.  Again, instead of calling her out on her bullshit I ignore her (and so does the other triage nurse).

Basically she needs to get off her high horse and take one for the team. It's not like we have a lot of options.

The other triage nurse gets a call from home and her grandma is sick and she has to leave.  I'm then left alone for over 30 minutes trying to get everyone triaged (yes, still 20 deep, people still coming in).

I'm then told by the charge nurse to take a lunch break whenever because people are going to keep coming in.  I'm not the kind of guy to leave my coworker alone to triage 8 people in 30 minutes.  I opt to not take a lunch break unless someone comes to cover for me and help triage (never happened).

Towards the end of the night it FINALLY starts to slow down.  I'm finally in the single digits for people needing to be roomed/triaged.  Rooms are becoming more available. Someone checks in and reports leg pain. She is making such a big scene that her boyfriend goes up to the registration desk and asks for the patient to go back twice in 5 minutes.  I opt to triage another person in front of her (had been waiting for almost half an hour for the triage and palpitations come before leg pain anyway). She's making such a big stink about her pain that everyone in the waiting room was happy to see her go back to a room (turns out she was just drug seeking and she was escorted out by security. I'm SO shocked by this outcome).

Overall there were a lot of variables I couldn't control in the ED. I thank my coworkers for helping us all get through this without any real incidents.  Over the course of the 12 hours I had more people leave without being seen than I have in the 5 years I've worked in the department.  I don't blame them (other than they probably didn't need to be seen if they left).

At one point someone asked if I hated my job.  Honestly, even through all this shit today, I still like my job.

Chilean Adventure: Cementerio General

The Cementerio General is an estimated 210 acres of graveyard. It has an estimated 2 million graves and 237 sculptures located throughout. Unfortunately there isn't a lot of information regarding some of the burial sites, at least not the way I entered. Chile doesn't mind the tourists but they don't cater to English speaking people. You're basically SOL when it comes to most "tourist" areas of Chile unless you're fluent.

Larger mausoleums have statues and stained glass windows

A stone angel has come to life! Beware the weeping angels!

One of the more beautiful statues I found

A giant mausoleum, hundreds located on the grounds. Wealthy families purchase their own

My Chilean friend informed me if your family doesn't pay you will get evicted to make room for a new tenant. I couldn't find official documentation on this, the Socialist country probably wouldn't advertise this to everyone.

More beautiful artwork on another above ground tomb.

Several of the mausoleums are overgrown. It's unique and beautiful.

More ornate stained glass in a tomb.

Found this empty grave. Anyone want to pitch in and buy it? We could decorate it how we want.

Guardians to the tombs in this mosque

This is where the poor people are buried.

No information surrounded this mound with plaques. One can assume this is where the "evicted" people live

One of the many earthquakes that hit Chile opened this tomb from the late 1800s. Yes I poked my head in. Yes I found multiple skeletons from when they were entombed. Spines, skulls, leg bones still attached to the shoes. It was awesome.

This wall goes for half a mile, maybe more. It was spectacular to see.

This was found outside the crematorium. Another beautiful sculpture with some creepiness going along with it.

This one isn't as well kept as some of the others. It adds a great creepy factor to it.