{ P } is for palantine

1. A specimen I have run into on my recent travels are women (I’m sure there are men out there who do the same- bear with me) who would make any linguist pray for a swift end. I was stuck in a car for an hour with two of such specimens, and I realize I’d rather be stuck in a car with a beehive. In the spring. With the windows closed.
The issue involves mis/overuse of the following words : Hysterical, Obviously, Legitimate, Definitely, Absolutely, Best, Worst, Hilarious, “I’m not gonna lie”,Oh my Gawsh. The list is not conclusive.
Example:
” Oh my gawsh, you see those three people on the scooter? I’m not gonna lie, that’s HYS-TERICAL! ”
or:
“Did you taste that dish? That was obviously the most legitimate dish in Thailand. I’m not gonna lie.”

Someone definitely get me a Lexicon and an English teacher STAT. They must have slept through If-you-add-an-adjective-to-the-sentance,-it-doesnt-make-the-sentence-more-interesting class.

2. How lame is it to PRAY what you don’t have the guts to SAY? I think I’ll come up with a new Christianese dictionary called “How to be a good Christian and end a conflict.. without ever confronting the person!!” (Call 1-800-I PRAY call now and we’ll throw in a free Bible with referenced verses to really tell ‘em what you REALLY think!). I think it would be less obvious that way, and eliminate the need to be creative.
Here are a few starters

“Dear God, give us flexibility today” ==means===> I need you to be less stubborn.
“Dear God, help us be humble today” ===> I want you to submit to my authority
“Dear God, give us grace with each other” ===> Stop hating me.

This can also be delivered in the form of Bible verses but that may be volume II of the series.

2. People attracted to emergency/trauma medicine happen to be a different breed. Many of them I have met have a lot of issues with self-worth and insecurity and seem to feel the need to compensate in their work. Their insecurity is obvious, and the competitive nature of these people makes them really not fun to be around, or as a nurse ever get report from. I don’t know why I thought that relief & development work would be any different.
It seems that in the past 2 months we have really met alot of big… jerks! Insecure, competitive, cocky, agressive, foolish are a few adjectives that come to mind when I think of the development workers I’ve met in Thailand. Isn’t that sad? Not only that, it’s actually really exhausting to be around. Being an outsider I’ve been rarely esteemed as having anything to contribute, and even after being here for 2 months am told “welcome” by people I’ve never met before in my life.
Some of these folks we’ve noticed have a very hard time not being the FIRST to know about a restaurant, idea, culture when they’ve been there for a whole 2 years. Wooow. How non-impressive.
A conversation goes something like this:
-Oh how long have you been in Chiang Mai?
-2 months
-Oh.
-How about you?
- almost 2 years
-Pretty good pad Thai eh?
-Well the BEST pad Thai is at…..
-Wow this is spicy
-You should try the BLABLA it’s REALLY spicy, one time, I ..
-Oh shut up. (I wish I had the guts to say that part)

I think this is very unhealthy and makes me seriously consider ever working in relief again. I’m just not interested in playing the game because I feel like I really don’t have anything to prove. Hopefully I only have Christ to boast in.

Ok, I’m done. Phiew I needed that. hahaha.

sim one of those random moments

Synesthesia from Terri Timely on Vimeo.

sim one of those random moments

Had an interesting case at work yesterday - 49 year old guy was found passed out at 5am on his porch after mixing crack with xanax ( i guess people use the Xanax to curve the high) so he was shipped to our hospital for treatment for possible heart attack (the cocaine makes your coronary arteries spasm and gives lots of young people surprises- did you know cocaine is the most used drug in America??).
Turns out his arteries were fine - his problem was a massive blood clot in his lung arteries that was cutting off circulation to his lung- another risk of cocaine usage.. needless to say the guy is very sick, and for a while his head looked like a grape. I think he’ll pull through though.

sim one of those random moments

Heart transplants are tricky buisness, because in order to have good outcomes, the patient needs to not be too sick (poor organ perfusion over time will be problematic for organ rejection) - but sick enough to be elibible for a heart transplant. It’s not easy to decide and that is where the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) is involved.
An interesting excerpt from their website:

Social criteria such as celebrity status, wealth, or prison status, are excluded from medical criteria and therefore are not permitted in consideration of organ allocation. Federal law permits use of medical criteria, not social criteria in organ allocation policies.

(source)

Under the UNOS policy 3.7.3(d) (yes, i looked it up under policies) part of the criteria for being at the top of the list for receiving a heart is being on a continuous infusion of a medicine that will be benificial in heart failiure for example Milrinone.
My patient today is on Milrinone, but he is not on a high enough dose to be counted on the 1a list, so we are giving him another medication to make his numbers look worse so that he will require more Milrinone, and be bumped on the list.
Shady buisness? Absolutely.

I just got done talking to our transplant coordinator and asked “is this cheating ?” Well no! Since of course, it’s in our patients favor. But where the ethical dilemma is, is what bumping someone UP on the list does to the person who WAS on the top of the list.. she didn’t have as much to say about that.

sim one of those random moments

My patient is in the MRI machine, which means I get to sit back and relax for the next 1.5 hours.. nice. It’s pretty chaotic today, and I can’t believe it’s almost 5pm! Sweet, almost done.
7 weeks to go before we do some switching up.

Today is nurses day so don’t forget to tell a nurse they need to shape up.
i got a free shirt, bagels and ice cream today. Pretty nice.

sim one of those random moments