E·MER·GEN·CY. -A definition based on perspective.

Hey everybody.

First off I'm really sorry I haven't even touched this for months.  I'm in the process of my last semester of the hell they call nursing school. In fact, right at this moment, I have a list of about 7 different things I'm supposed to be doing instead of this.  In all honesty, that's probably why I'm doing this.  My goal is to get through the rest of this semester and then I'll probably pick this back up again. I've applied to different hospitals, some here, and some in Nashville.  We will see where the Lord wants me, and once that goes down, I'll probably be recording my thoughts as a new nurse..wherever I end up. 

The definition of Emergency according to Merriam-Webster:  

1: an unforeseen combination of circumstances or the resulting state that calls for immediate action

2

: an urgent need for assistance or relief

Both of these are applicable to healthcare: 1) Trauma, 2) Medical Emergencies.

But I thought I'd let y'all know how frustrating life can be here, where it seems like half the population is on welfare or medicaid.  Let me give you a list of things people come into the ER for most often here.  Then you tell me if things aren't getting flat out stupid.  Repeat to yourself, the definition of "emergency" while reading these.  

((**Note: There are obvious exceptions both ways.  You're not allowed to get offended.  I mean it. It's not allowed. I'll slap you.))

1) Pregnancy test:  A dipstick test at your local dollar store costs between 1-2 dollars.  Our dipstick test (yes, we use the same freaking stick) costs $136.00.  So, mam, if you're wondering why I'm glaring at you, refusing to answer your call light, or hesitant to give you that warm blanket you're asking for, it's because you're stealing from me.  Oh, and this is the ER where we save dying people, not entertain irresponsible teens with no money.  Seriously. I still can't get over it.  SINCE WHEN IS THIS AN EMERGENCY.

2) Rash: Not anaphylactic, not life threatening, not a flesh-eating bacteria, and it's most certainly not Ebola.  It's a diaper rash.  A diaper rash, or a slight fungal rash that could have waited until your doctor appointment next week.  Who's your primary care doctor? Oh? No one? Let me see... yup. You've been here 15 times this month.  We are your primary care.  Well, just so you know, we're an EMERGENCY department.  Unless your skin is on fire (I mean that in the most literal sense), go to the doctor's office.  Can't afford it? Try getting a job.

3) Cough/Sore Throat: Really.  I mean.. really? Unless your child is coughing so hard they are throwing up, sound like a whooping crane, or turn blue, go to the doctors office.  If you, the adult, come in for this reason, I'm going to slap you.  Go to Prompt Care. Go to the doctors office.  Use common sense.  Unless you just coughed up thick, bloody, frothy sputum for a week or two, go see your doctor.  Bronchitis typically isn't going to kill you at age 23.  Last time I checked, we weren't intubating the guy that came in with bronchitis.  You're fine. Go to the doctor. Not the EMERGENCY department.

4) Drug seekers: Please refer to this.  I'm serious. Read it.

5) Pain:  It's subjective. We're taught to believe everyone.  Only the patient knows. But seriously.  Let me run through what a typical 'pain' complaint looks like here.  "What brings you in today?"  "well.. I'm having really bad side pain." "What would you rate this pain at on a scale of 1-10?"  "A 13."  First rule.  Don't ever go above 10, you'll just piss us off.  Us nurses take the 10 scale seriously.  If you tell me your pain is a 13 you better be running on a treadmill that was set on fire with your chest cavity gaping open and a rabid dog chewing your arm off while someone is pulling your intestines out.  If you can calmly speak to me, your pain is not a 10.  If your pain is a 10, I can see it without you saying anything.  Normally those people are writhing everywhere groaning or crying.  If you're staring at me silently, it's a 5 at best.  If that's the pain you're used to, if you just have a high pain tolerance, your pain is still a 5, because you can 'tolerate' it.  Argue with me all day on that.  But you'll always here me say "scale of 1-10, 10 being the worse pain you've ever felt in your entire life."  If you tell me 10, get ready for a whole helluva lotta invasive procedures.  If you're actually in that much pain, you won't care either way.

6) Fever: Tylenol is a beautiful thing.  If you have a fever, it doesn't necessarily mean you're dying.  It's the body's natural defense.  It always makes me so happy when people bring in their kiddos with a 101.2 temp (which by the way, no one actually takes temperatures anymore, they just say "he felt warm") and we ask "have you given them anything?" "no.."  We give them Tylenol, all of the sudden, they are playing around and...can you believe it? THEY ARE CURED!!!  HALLELUJAH!!! If you can be cured with Tylenol, it's not an emergency. Just saying.

7) "I don't feel good": I'm sorry but this means nothing to me but a warm blanket, a cup of hot tea, and a pat on the back.  Come on people.

8) Chronic Problems:  *deep breath*  When we ask you when your back pain started and you tell me you've had it for years, I'll proceed to ask you "What is it that made you come in for this now?"  And you will proceed to tell me, "I just got sick of it."  Well sweetheart, if you've been dealing with this for years, you can deal with it long enough to get a doctors appointment a couple weeks from now.  You most certainly did not need to call an ambulance, let alone come into the Emergency Department.  On the same note, if you stubbed your toe last week and just now you are deciding that it kinda hurts a little and you want an x-ray... go to your local prompt care.  

If you want to go to your doctors office for all of the above, GO FOR IT. That's fine!  But when I have a lady having a miscarriage in the waiting room, 2 full arrests coming in with no where to go, and the man with a CHF exacerbation who is in tripod position gasping for air, and then you've got 4 rooms caught up with a cough, a pregnancy test, removal of stitches (You can do that with fingernail clippers and a pair of tweezers. Yeah. Now you know.), and someone who wants a work note.

I'm probably going to think of more after I close this and if I do, I'll add them.  But I figured I'd include SOME (obviously not even close to all) the reasons why you should have come into the ER:

1) Chest pain.  If your'e having chest pain, come in.  I don't care.  I will never scoff at someone who came in for chest pain, even if it did end up being anxiety.

2) Grandpa.  If grandpa is starting to act weird, or just stared at the wall for 5 minutes slightly unresponsive and then came back slightly confused, only able to move half his face, please, by all means, SPEED to the hospital.  We can save their life.  TPA is a beautiful thing, but we only have 3 hours to bust that clot in their brain before they are toast.  My least favorite thing to hear after they are asked when they noticed: Oh I noticed him acting off yesterday morning.  Well, we could have saved him yesterday morning. Now we can't.

3) Worst headache of your life.  Meningitis kills people.  If you want a spinal tap, for any reason at all, just for fun, whatever it may be say these words in this order: "This is the worst headache I've ever had in my life."  You may as well hand the order over to the nurse directly.

4) Overdose: If you just took your morning pills twice, if you're trying to kill yourself, if you accidently got the wrong heroine from the wrong guy, come in.  Narcan is my favorite drug on earth.  I've seen men laying lifeless one second and then up swinging and cussing the next because you just killed their high.

5) Trauma: If you just got in a horrendous car accident, or broke a bone which is obviously broken, please come in.  I've gone into shock from breaking a bone before.  You don't really chose when your blood pressure will take a dive.

So, incidents kinda like those, please, by all means come visit me at work.  And there are a hundred other reasons people should come in, its just...those select few who decide to not think before they step underneath the large red letters that read: "EMERGENCY"

A List of Things That Waste My Time.

There was this one time, when I spent about 2 hours trying to write a post about old people and basically how they are living too long and blah blah blah and frankly, the more I wrote, the more it sounded really crappy and fickle and I really hate fickle.  So I'm going to pick a topic that I by no means can be fickle about.


Some things that waste my time:


1) Facebook: I recently reactivated it.  Deactivating it was the best thing that's ever happened to me because now I really couldn't care less if it's there or not.  It wasted hours of my time which is just sad and pathetic.  Hopefully, this hypocrite doesn't go right back to where she was before and use it constantly.  Because honestly, it's a waste of your time.

^^^Meet Kayba. Trying to teach her anything is a waste of time.
I think she was oxygen deprived as a puppy; dumber than
a box of rocks.  A really large, lovable, happy box of rocks.

2) Celebrity news.  Please look at this.  I'm not kidding. Look at it.  I don't even have to say anything else. I don't think I've ever felt so compelled to shoot a writer so much in my entire life.  I've never wanted to destroy an entire website so badly. Ever. I wish I could convey the sheer stupidity, the amount of anger this induces.  I'm not kidding. I'm going to punch someone. Oh my gosh I looked past this article.  I literally think my blood pressure just went through the roof.


3) Saving already dead people.  I'm not saying don't save dying people.  I'm all for getting someone with no pulse back.  Its wonderful.  But sometimes, I have to wonder.  You're 96 years old, miserable, half conscious, and you eat, sleep, poop, and breathe out of a tube.  I'm currently breaking half your ribs while the doctor is intubating and the nurses are faithfully shoving in the epinephrine and the atropine.  Your children don't care enough to get a DNR. I mean I hate to just say oh saving lives is a waste of my time. It's not. At all. But saving really elderly already completely dead people and putting them on life support is incredibly sad.  For crying out loud it's flat out unethical.


4) Stupid people.  I'm serious.  Stupid people are just a waste of time in general.  Like I've said, a trillion times, you come in to the ER and we ask you what your EMERGENCY is and you say "I need a pregnancy test."  You waste my time, we're going to waste yours.  Plan on spending 4 hours in the ER chica.  Think I'm kidding? I'm not.  It's called an EMERGENCY department for a reason. Do NOT waste my time.  And no, I will not get you your 7th little thing of orange juice.  I love taking care of sick people, people that really need my help.  I will clean up any mess you make, I will make your bed, I will get you whatever you need. But if you're going to be that selfish and stupid. No.


5) Beating around the bush.  PEOPLE.  BE BLUNT. For crying out loud.  I could go on forever about this.  All this does is put off the inevitable.  Things aren't going to magically disappear or tell themselves.  Save yourself some time, save other people some time, and just SAY it.  Let's take relationships for example.  If you are a man, and you like a girl, tell her.  If you don't like her anymore, tell her.  If you've been talking with said girl for awhile, but then you meet someone else you like more, tell her.  No big deal, it happens.  If you stop talking to a girl, cold turkey without blatantly stating why, she will think she did something horrifically wrong.  Why don't you spare her the pain and over thinking by telling her exactly what you're thinking. Much, much, much easier.  Same goes vice versa.  Tell the man what you're thinking because frankly women are so emotional and flighty its impossible for a guy to tell when a woman is infatuated and when she really wants to date you.  Don't lead 'em on and then beat 'em upside the head with a sack of truth bricks later.  Life is too short to beat around the bush. It sucks telling people stuff they really don't want to hear.  But ya know what?  That's life. Life isn't fair. Don't make it any more unfair than it has to be.  People can't read minds; SPEAK YOURS.


6) Deer tags.  Seriously? I mean.. seriously? They are so overpopulated I don't think not having a tag for these people-killing-car-crushing creatures is going to hurt anybody.  Let the hunters hunt.  When the deer population gets dangerously low, go ahead and throw in the tags.  But when a deer is running through the middle of a busy city and smashes into the ER waiting room windows like a bird, there's a problem.  Don't give me that 'we're in their territory' crap.  God put us above animals.  God owns the Earth, he put us in charge of it, not the deer.  Don't get me wrong. I love wildlife.  I hate the city with a passion.  I would rather my backyard be filled with a dozen deer than not.  But we've shot all the cougars, all the wolves, and frankly there are no longer any natural predators for deer. The only natural predator is humans.  Does the government regulate how many mice cats eat? Do they tell them they can only hunt those mice during this month for this long?  I can understand not having open season all year for human safety, I mean lets face it, some people are idiots with guns.  But at the same time.. seriously...let us shoot the freaking deer.


7) Writer's block.  Seriously.  You would think my severe ADHD would help with that.  It doesn't.  Instead, I sit at the computer for 4 hours typing something and then deleting it. And then typing it. And then deleting it.  Repeat x24 until I get fed up with it and walk away.


8) Taylor Swift.  The woman is ridiculous.  I've loathed her from the second I heard her on the radio.  She's not country. Get out of my genre.  She sings songs for tweenies and grade school relationships, as well as..wait. nope. That is literally all she writes about.  I have the pleasure of hearing "Oh. my. gosh. You look exactly like Taylor Swift." at least twice every shift I work, which most people would take as a complement. Yeah...no. She looks like she's just sucked on a bad lemon and is trying to look through closed blinds.  I have long, blonde curly hair. That does not mean I look like Taylor Swift. She's arrogant. She's writes songs about people being "Mean" because they wrote a bad review.  Hey sweetheart, that's life. Constructive criticism.  Take it, use it, don't sit and cry like the 15 year olds you write to.  Also, they say you can't sing because..uhm. You can't. At all.


9) My inability to focus.  My semester is thankfully over as of today.  Worst semester I have ever had as long as I've been in school.  However let me run through my typical day of studying.  I wake up at 11am and look around my room to see my textbooks laying on the floor.  Oh geez, my room is dirty.  Let's get all the clothes up off the floor and put them in the..oh geez.. I need to do an entire load of laundry.  I go to put the dish soap in the washer and see that it's getting low so I then think to myself, I should probably make a shopping list.  I go to the fridge and look through it and think..man..I really need to eat healthier.  I'm going to go to Walmart.  So off to Walmart I go, look through most of the aisles just in case I need something.  I check out about 80 dollars worth of groceries, but forget to get the ONE thing I went in there for to begin with.  *shrugs* Oh well, gotta get home to study! 3:00pm??? Where does that time go. Silly time.  Get home, put the groceries away.. Look there's dishes. I should probably do those.  Welp. Off to my computer to, you know, get the study guide off of it.  Well I deleted Facebook, but wait, there's the Drudge Report. Let's check out what's.. .OH my gosh Obama is RETARDED.  I need to write a blog about this.  I need music.  Open up Pandora.  I 'm going to make this station perfect. Who is this artist? I'm going to read the bio. Very interesting. I want to buy this song.  Amazon.  Oh shoot that reminds me I needed to look for a space heater. But this price isn't exactly what I want so I'm going to go Google space heaters.  Glance at the clock.. oh goodness. It's 7pm.  Ha.. oh time. Alright. We're focusing now.  I get up to get my book bag and see that I have a pile of papers and shoot. I better sort those.  I find my binder and open it up.   I look at my study guide and I just don't feel like reading.  Oh I'm hungry. I better make dinner... I'll make some hamburger helper. I better not get too focused while it's cooking so I don't forget about it.  You know what, I'm going to go get an energy drink. Off to the gas station I go.  I may as well get gas while I'm here.  Get back home, eat my hamburger helper, then get back to my computer.  OH I was going to write that blog. RIGHT. Shoot. 9pm.  I really need to study.  Ugh.. I dunno.  I'm tired. I think I'm just going to go to bed. Oh my friend is texting me. I'm going to tell them about this one time at band camp.  Well cheese and crackers its 11pm. I better just go to sleep and wake up in the morning and do it.  Hello 4am. Ahem.
 Most of the time, I get about 2 hours of studying in. If I'm lucky.

10) One way streets. Just. Stop. I mean really. I CAN SEE my destination. It's right there and yet I must drive a mile in a circle to reach my destination, which is, right in front of me.  Waste of gas. Waste of time.  As my dad said while he was driving up a short one way street: "One way = My way." <---Use with caution.


11) Graduation ceremonies.  No one is listening. No one really cares to see you grab a piece of paper and have your name read. HOLD THE APPLAUSE; save for the families that decide to yell anyway.  Not only do I have to sit through a 3 hour ceremony to have something given to me that could have just been MAILED, I have to listen to a bunch of stupid sappy speeches and a song or two.  I worked through this school, let me leave. I really, really don't care. Oh, I want to see my friends one last time!  Okay. Let's get realistic here: if they are your friends, they have your phone number.  They have your email.  The rest of your classmates, I mean seriously, seeing them one more time isn't going to make a darn bit of difference.  Don't act like these 4 years were super fun.  They sucked.  You know it, I know it.  School is NOT fun unless you're avoiding it.  Don't give me that "you're going to miss this" crap.  I left the second high school graduation was over.  Do I miss high school 4 years later? NO.  Not even SLIGHTLY.  Also, Jostens, your monopolizing school graduation crap needs to stop.  Whoever decided it was necessary to wear a stupid solid colored bathrobe and a cardboard hat needs to be shot.  Pointless. Waste. of. Time. and. Money.


12) This Entire Post.
In fact I'm cutting myself short. I could make a book. I'll just stop. 

Concealed Weapons: Yet another reason to loathe Illinois

First off, I work at a Level 1 Trauma Center, an Emergency Dept in a city that has a crime rate that is by ratio, higher than Chicago.  I know what guns do. Actually, I know what PEOPLE do with guns.  At first, I admit.  I wasn't really 100% for concealed weapons. I wasn't against them by any means, but I figured the more people with guns, the more problems. I did some research, and I'm glad I did.  Here's my two cents.


I love shooting as a hobby.  I go deer hunting every year and shoot targets whenever I get a chance.  I'm not a gun expert, I'm not an ammo expert.  I shoot a .243, .357/.38 special, .22, and if I want to dislocate my shoulder, I'll shoot the 12 gauge.  I love the power, the thrill of hitting a bulls-eye, and if I could hunt every weekend, I would...so long as I am using what I'm shooting...I'm not for killing for nothing but sport.  Unless, of course, it's a legitimate population control problem.  I've never had to use a gun for anything but targets or hunting, and I hope that remains to be true throughout my life.


At first glance, most people are going to shy away from citizens being allowed to carry a concealed weapon.  I can say part of me agrees with this.  I unfortunately have witnessed the village idiot who thinks he knows everything and anything about guns, and ended up shooting himself in the leg while showing off his 'skills,' or rather lack-there-of.  Some people should never hold a firearm. However, some doctors should never have held a diploma or carried an MD at the end of their name.  A doctor who is clueless about his practice is just as dangerous as a know-it-all with a gun (I've also witnessed this).  One is just more physically apparent than the other; both equally lethal.  You don't see laws in place keeping normal people from getting doctorates because of the occasional idiot that gets through medical school.  However, you see a LOT of laws keeping normal, level-headed citizens from keeping firearms for defensive purposes.  Especially in the no good rotten Liberal ridden flat state of Illinois. (To further assess my endless hatred for Illinois, please see this post.)


More guns circulating means more crime? Right? WRONG. It makes little to no difference, in fact, most of the statistic point the opposite way.  Let's see here.  The violent crime rate in the state of Illinois is 243% greater than the national average.  Now, lets look at Tennessee.  The violent crime rate there is 223% greater than the national average.  And Texas.  In Arlington, Texas, the violent crime rate is 83% above the national average. 


James Q Wilson, Ph.D Professor of Political Science at Boston college was quoted saying: 
"States that passed these laws experienced sharp drops in murder, rape, robbery, and assault, even after allowing for the effects of poverty, unemployment, police arrest rates, and the like. States that did not pass these laws did not show comparable declines. And these declines were not trivial – he is writing about as many as 1,000 fewer murders and rapes and 10,000 few robberies. Carrying concealed guns reduces – it does not increase – the rate of serious crime, and that reduction is vastly greater than the generally trivial effect of gun-carrying on accidental shootings."


If a criminal wants a gun, he's going to get it, regardless of whether its legal or not.  Legality of the firearm makes absolutely no difference.  All you're doing is taking the firearm away from the person that is ACTUALLY going to use it for defense.  It is proven, and common sense, that a criminal is less likely to attack if someone has the chance of being armed.  In this wonderful hate-crime ridden city, I can't even intervene if I were to witness anything just from the stand point that if I do, I am dead. Guaranteed.  I'm better off calling the police, and praying for whomever is being victimized.  There's being a hero, and there is being an idiot, and in a state that has no concealed weapon permits, the hero option is completely eradicated.



John Lott, PhD, Visiting Senior Research Scientist at the University of Maryland at College Park wrote in his book More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun-Control Laws::
"It is a fact that in communities where citizens have been granted licenses to carry concealed weapons and are not restricted from keeping loaded guns in their homes, crime rates drop. Such conditions have proven to be a deterrent to crimes such as home invasions, burglaries, muggings and car-jackings because criminals will not risk being confronted by a victim's firearm. Tightening laws restricting the use and possession of firearms does not protect average law-abiding citizens; it only puts them at greater risk. Enforcing licensing restrictions, trigger locks, and waiting periods makes it more difficult for law-abiding citizens to defend themselves and as a result encourages criminal activity. Only criminals benefit when ordinary citizens are deprived of their right to own a firearm and protect themselves, their homes, and their families."


Let's take this for example.  This sheriff has the right idea here.  Our justice system sucks.  It just does.  I just saw another article about a man who loured a woman to his house and then tried to make her his sex slave.  He had been to jail three times.  Had hundreds of films and thousands of pictures of violent child pornography.  After this rape, they decided he deserved a life sentence (wow, really? you think so?) but he's up for parole in 5 years.  You know what would have happened if she would have had a gun? He'd be dead. And I guarantee you the next person he's going to rape/kill in 6 years, probably would have appreciated that gesture.


Illinois is flat out unconstitutional.  We have the right to BEAR arms.  Not just own them.  Not just to let them sit and look pretty in our gun safes.  This is how they call Illinois gun laws constitutional.  We are allowed to keep the guns in our closets, which is pretty much bearing arms.  No. We have the right to bear them for traditionally lawful purposes, outside of militia and police.  Not everyone is going to go run for their concealed weapons permit.  Most people want nothing to do with that responsibility, and that is fine.  But like I said before, keeping law-abiding citizens from bearing arms will not keep the criminals from bearing them.  In fact, now, more criminals bear arms in Illinois than level headed citizens.  Wrong? Just a little bit.  I see the outcome to this quite often in the ER, far too often, and frankly, I'm sick of it.


The vague idea of everyone being able to conceal a weapon is terrifying, but when you look at the facts, and truly consider WHO is carrying those firearms, the initial thought is misleading.  You're more likely to die in a car accident tomorrow than to get shot accidentally, or even purposely, by a law abiding citizen who is carrying a concealed weapon.  I may be speaking just for myself, but I'd rather die from an accidental misfire from a concealed weapon, than a thug who wanted nothing but my ATM card.  Just saying.

All-hallows Eve

Halloween.

Bad, good? Neither?


It's a night that we all dress up in costumes, dress our children up, and go from door to door saying "trick or treat" and getting free candy.  We scare the daylights out of ourselves for fun, and adults use the holiday as an excuse to dress in a scantily clad fashion in public.  Where did this 'holiday' even come from?


Well I tried looking it up.  I was going to write my own blog on it.  I look at site after site and reading something a little different on every single one.  Most of it hear-say, most of it just guesses.  Some of it waaay off base.  I can't write about something that I don't know squat about.


So. I'm going to triple post here.


Over at Gorges' Grouse he posted a link to a woman's blog who was once a witch (or neo-Wiccan) but is now a Christian. It is her account of Halloween, where it comes from, and her thoughts on it.  I feel like its an unbiased, as she had celebrated it for years, and being a Christian, now knows both sides of it.  It is fascinating and really opens your eyes to a lot of things.


Here is her account.  There are three posts, each worth reading, and a link to the next at the end.


Thank you, Emily for posting those!

Don't read this. I'm serious. Don't. It will waste at least 2 minutes of your life. I promise.

1 month later.

*deep breath*

This post is not intelligent.  It has no point.  It's not a conservative rambling. It is rather a small implosion related to my sanity slowly leaking down the toilet. In fact, I will probably end up deleting it.

I think it deserves a nursing diagnosis, which may I add, are the DUMBEST invention I have EVER encountered in my 21 years of life.

"Altered mental status related to nursing school secondary to copious amounts of ridiculously pointless work for ridiculously long amounts of time as evidenced by a completely pointless blog posting one month after the last."

There. Doesn't that just make it so much clearer. Wait? No? It doesn't? You're confused? Oh. I must have forgotten that nursing diagnosis can only be read by nurses and are only used by nurses. In nursing school.  And they wonder why I have no motivation to come up with a fancy way to say this man is constipated.

"Constipation related to lack of activity secondary to open reduction internal fixation of posterior fracture of the right acetabulum as evidence by lack of bowel movement within 3 days."

Eureka.

This past month, has been hell, if I may be so bold to say.  Nursing school, is NOT my best friend, nor is it collectively contributing to my sanity, rather it is taking it away with alarming fervor.  Why am I writing like this? Because I can. Damn it.  I just wrote a 50 page paper on something that is completely unrelated to the profession of nursing, and I think I deserve to write however the heck I want.  And you know what?  I just decided that the rest of this isn't going to make a damn bit of sense.

Facebook.

I've not reactivated it, but twice, for no longer than 10 minutes.  And you know what? I have been no more productive than when I had it...well okay maybe a little more productive.  Just from the stand point that I kept getting the urge to look at it.  Instead, I started looking at the Drudge Report literally every 5 minutes and reading either Hack's blog, or someone else's , who if they looked at their stats, would probably think I lived on their website.  Well that's because blogger replaced Facebook. Two weeks later I finally stopped looking at blogger and instead took to running away from things.  Literally. ANYWAY.

May I point out something obvious.  When a student is given 12 hours to finish paperwork that includes a write up of intricate pathophysiology, a medication write up for approximately 20 medications, a nursing care plan, diagnosis, list of interventions/assessments, past medical history, laboratory values (including the reason why the values are or are not normal), for TWO patients, I would assume you would realize that some people would end up losing some sleep.  No, instead, they expect that you get a full nights sleep, and then you get punished, with more paperwork, if you do not.  Because that makes sense.

Also. Women. Oh dear women. Stop being fake. You're driving me up the freaking wall.  When you go to take your make up off at night, and you have to use a chisel, or a shovel to do so, there's a problem.  Also, if you tan one more time, I think your skin will probably match my leather car seats.  Not color. Texture.   I asked one of these the other day if she liked taxidermy.  Expecting to hear "eeww no" I was somehow shocked to hear "what's taxidermy."  Why did this surprise me? I dunno. I really don't. Also, may I point out that you need get a hold of that massive ball of emotions and stop being so stupid.  When a man rejects you in a bar, that does not mean you go buy him a drink and try to make up for the fact you just got rejected.  You do know that's exactly how they play you.  Oh wait, you don't. My bad. Well. Now you do. Please, reflect on yourself, get some self worth/confidence, which would be plainly evident if you would stop spending all your spare time IN the bar.

Men, don't even get me started with you guys. In fact. I'll just leave that one alone.

I would also like to say that honestly, I wouldn't cry if some sort of plague hit all of those "occupy."  They are absolutely barbaric and nothing short of selfish snobs in the disguise of being homeless.  I want to slap every single one of them into last week.

Another thing.  If you come to the ER, I would just like to let you know, sir, that you should not have anything planned for your morning.  No, we will not get you out of here by 10am to go to your appointment.  If you're able to go to your appointment after being in the Emergency Room, you shouldn't have been there to begin with.  Also, if you come in asking for a pregnancy test one more time I'm going to flip a shiznit.  I don't even know what that is. But I'm going to flip one.  

While I'm at it, drive the freaking speed limit. If you pull out in front of me and drive 5 miles under the speed limit I will rear end you so hard your spare tire is in your front seat.  And if you have a freaking corvette, DRIVE LIKE IT. I want to see those horses RUN.  I don't want to drive past them at 35 miles an hour. 

One more thing. Treat your nurse nicely, she controls what route you are to receive your medication.

I need a drink. Go Cardinals.

Facebook: Good, Evil, or Neither. I'm on a Mission.

I finally did it.

I deactivated my Facebook. My friends have my phone number. My e-mail address. My real address. I have no idea why it took me so freaking long to do that. It's almost liberating. I can have an actual social life, get my school work done, and figure out who's talking to me because they're just bored, and who's talking to me because they actually want to. Maybe I'll be on here more, actually learning something and taking part in real conversations. I'm by no means saying it's staying deactivated forever, but the goal is for at least a couple months. The Facebook addiction has to stop. I'm 21 years old, I'm in nursing school, I have a pretty good network of friends. I don't need this.

This whole Facebook phenomenon has bothered me from day one. The fact that literally, LITERALLY 50% of people have one, is ridiculous. I will admit, Mark Zuckerburg is brilliant on many levels, but he's created such an easy mask for everyone. People I know in person portray themselves on Facebook exactly how they want others to perceive them, that doesn't mirror how they actually are. It encourages the mask, when in other instances it can actually help people take the mask off. I've seen awesome things happen through Facebook... thousands of people coming together for one cause, praying for someone they don't even know, that they wouldn't have heard of unless Facebook was there. I've gotten to know acquaintances, friends that I 'knew,' but never would have truly gotten to know if it weren't for Facebook. And for that, I'm very grateful. I've obtained precious friendships that I would hate to lose.

On the other hand, I can't get anything done. I'm creeping on people I don't even care about, let alone am "friends" with, looking through their pictures for heaven knows why, wasting hours of my time doing absolutely nothing productive. People were not meant to know absolutely everything about each other's lives. Period. I don't need to know where everyone works, where everyone lives, when everyone is working, how everyone feels, who everyone is dating.  It's not healthy.  Especially in the girlfriend/boyfriend department. Ex-gf/bf's are not supposed to be able to creep the snot out of each other, having to see their next boyfriend or girlfriend, when in most circumstances, before MySpace/Facebook, you both move on with your life and go your separate ways, often not ever hearing about each other at all. It makes the drama that much more frequent, and the obsession that much worse.  Now there is "Facebook Official," a term that has pretty much been coined as "dating."  Your'e literally not dating until it's "Facebook Official."  Then once it's Facebook official it's out for everyone to see, then you end up realizing this person isn't all who they're cracked up to be, and you break up a month later.  Obviously, after you've both posted "I love you xoxoxo BABE" all over each others wall (which by the way, makes me want to vomit).  Doesn't that just look fantastic on your profile. Week long relationships followed by a solemn status that could be compared to something a Jr. High girl writes in her diary.  That's just slightly embarrassing. If you're not embarrassed by that, I'm embarrassed FOR you.

Then we get the point where Facebook changes something and people act like Mark Zuckerburg is a homewrecker. Oh, heaven forbid, he changed the layout of YOUR Facebook. It goes past opinions on the new layout. It goes to a point that is absolutely pathetic. Get over it people, change happens. It's human nature to like routine. Remember when you hated the last update 6 months ago? Yeah. You hated it until you adapted to it. Now they want to change the one you used to hate with one you'll hate for about 2 weeks. Then you'll get used to it, forget it was ever different, and we'll hear nothing more about it. Wow, grow up.

Facebook also makes it incredibly easy to see what kind of person someone is; almost too easy sometimes. Heck, all you have to do is look at their slideshow of profile pictures. It's almost comical how narcissistic some people are. A fine, shining example is the young adults sporting the stereotypical-teenager-half-naked-bathroom-mirror-pictures where the camera phone flash is bouncing off the glass next to their almost-kind-of-not-really-might-be-ribs-ripped-abs. You can also tell when a man has no guts at all, when instead of talking to you in person, regardless of seeing you every day, he sends you messages on Facebook instead, giving you his phone number and telling you to text him rather than asking for yours and having that chance of being declined. I can understand not asking face to face sometimes, even I will sometimes prefer that men do that, but there are better ways than handing her your phone number and saying "text me." I mean seriously. You're not 12. Which by the way, 12 year olds shouldn't have cell phones. But that's a different rant for a different day. Anyways.

Speaking of phones. People have their faces buried in their smart phones all freaking day (I am no exception by any means) and they miss what's going on around them. It's like living in The Sims world. I never knew the point of that game, yet it was addicting. It was like living without having to live. That's exactly what we're doing to ourselves. We're putting our entire life online; school, work, social, business, advertising, music, everything. On one end of the spectrum, its making us thrive, on the other its absolutely destroying us. Its a win-lose situation all in one, and obviously nothing is perfect. I've been on Facebook for a really long time, for years now. I want to see the other side of it.


My mission, that I will report back on in the coming months:

1) Find out really, how hard is it to stay off Facebook; really, how bad is my addiction to the social network?...more importantly..can I actually stay off of it?

2) Am I really missing out, being 21 years old, in college, and not being on Facebook, like EVERY single one of my friends/family?

3) Does getting rid of Facebook get my face out of my phone...or at least help get my face out of my phone.

4) Find out how much society relies on this one site for general communication.

5) Will my quality of life change even slightly if I do or do not have it?

6) Facebook: A terrible means of distraction and masked relationships, or just a harmless means of communication that brings society together? Or the answer that I hate the most, but I know I will most likely arrive at: Both.


I'm curious. So I'm going to try it.

I'm a procrastinator, and if I don't have the one thing that has helped me procrastinate for the last 4 years, who knows what I might accomplish.


I'll update in the next month or two on this, we shall see.


POST-EDIT: I wanted to share this with you as well, this guy has some great points!

"How Appropriate."

Oh, the irony:

Traffic jams stink.  Especially when they are caused by manure.

Howard County highway crews had to hold their breath while they hustled to clean up a manure spill that stretched 1.5 miles on Sunday.  The spill stretched from Main Street in Ellicot City to Frederick Road in Baltimore County.

Howard County Fire Battalion Chief Eric D. Proctor tells the BaltimoreSun that crews spent nearly three hours cleaning up the liquid manure. The spill prompted street closures while crews cleaned the pavement.

Investigators said they are still searching for the source of the manure.

A worker at an Ellicot City wine bar, Mark Bowman, called the smell "disgustingly epic."

___________________________________________________________

Now. The best part. The comments.

--Thought this was an article about Obama's new tax and spend plan.

             ----- Be careful, attackwatch is everywhere!

--Oh did Obama open his mouth again?

--This sounds like an Obama shovel ready job.

--"Obama drops his copy of the 'Jobs Bill' ".

--One and a half miles of Fresh Stimulus spills on Highway... How Appropriate.

--Isn't Joe Biden from md? I would check his head to see if its still full.

--Probably an overflow from the beltway.

--The Bama and his bunch of motorcade must of been going and doing a campain spread.

--Let me know when it hits the fan.



These people said it better than I could. Feel free to add.