Friday the 13th, a good day.
Jan. 13th, 2012 10:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
midnightsjaneI'm happy to announce that nothing untoward happened to me today. Not that I have issues with the number 13, I'm really not a superstitious person. Still, always a good thing to keep options open, carry that lucky charm on a day like this, eh? LOL
I slept through the alarm clock, so I got a late start, and didn't get to the farm until almost eleven. Got straight to work and over the next four hours I cleaned all 10 stalls in the big barn, hauled water buckets from the small barn because the water in the big barn was frozen, moved horses around, fed horses, and then cleaned 6 paddocks. Not bad. It was really freezing cold this morning, but I warmed up in a hurry. By midafternoon it had warmed up enough that the water thawed out and we had running taps again. The worst part about winter is having the water freeze; we try to anticipate cold snaps and run the hose out into the field, but on occasion we get fooled. Then we have to bucket water and that's just a pain. Not as bad as the first winter on the farm when everything in both barns froze solid, and we had to haul water from the house...luckily we only had a few horses back then. I'd hate to have to do that now.
With the cold weather the horses are all a bit frisky, so we have to be extra careful handling them. Today Kelly came by to hold her horse for the farrier, and brought her two dogs, both Great Danes. The younger one is only nine months old, and is as big as a small pony; the old one is a bit bigger. She let them have a run in the field, and all the horses just went silly buggers because it was something new..Midnight was racing around his paddock, Florie was rearing and snorting, and it was all a bit much, especially when the dogs started barking. They have really deep voices and make more of a baying sound than a bark. Quiet finally came after Kelly and the dogs left. I think sometimes the horses are just looking for an excuse, any excuse, to act silly.
I've had a really busy week at work. ICU has been at almost full capacity, and the rest of the hospital has been jammed up with an outbreak of a Norwalk virus, so some of the wards have been closed to new admissions. That makes it hard to get patients out of ICU to the wards. I had two patients on Wednesday who both managed to get beds on the wards, so I had to key all that up. Thursday I had a patient who came down from the ward with an infection and very low blood pressure, on top of being extremely malnourished. She looked almost skeletal, she was so thin. Poor woman, I think she may have metastatic cancer; her XRays look suspicious, and she certainly has that look about her. I was kept busy all day trying to get her blood pressure up. When someone is septic, the blood vessels dilate, causing low blood pressure, so the treatment is to give lots of fluid in the initial phase of sepsis. Our ICU has been a leading research centre in Sepsis management, and we've developed a protocol for treating septic shock that is now in place in Emergency, and that has significantly decreased the numbers of people who have to be admitted to ICU with early sepsis. We're quite proud of that, actually.
When I got home from work last night, I made a pot of split pea soup, and a big pot of vegetarian chili so I have meals for the next couple of days. The last thing I really want to do when I get home cold and tired is decide what to make for dinner. I brought some out for Sue, too. Fridays are busy days, and having a good hot dinner is a real necessity.
We're bracing for some winter weather here; the forecast is for a cold arctic front to come our way, and a fair amount of snow is predicted for the beginning of the week. Winter is still here, folks. Brrrrrr.
I have had a nice relaxing evening. I baked some oatmeal soda bread to go with my chili, and watched TV: new episode of Nikita, and old episode of Star Trek: TNG
Speaking of Star Trek, one of the neat things I've seen this week is something straight out of the medical bay on the Enterprise: a cellphone sized ultrasound machine that looks kind of like a tricorder. One of our ICU Attendings did a scan of my patient's heart with it; it was really cool! It's amazing how equipment has changed over the years, getting smaller and smaller, yet more powerful. Ah,yes: Star Trek really has predicted a lot of technology. Or perhaps it's that the people inventing the technology have been inspired by what they watched on Star Trek. Either way, it's pretty damned neat.
On that note, I'm going to go check out the technology of the bath tub. Too bad it's not a jacuzzi. I could use one tonight, I'm a bit stiff from all the work today. Then I'm going to dive back into 11th Century England and the adventures of Robin Hood and Maid Marion. I'm rereading a retelling of that legend by Jennifer Roberson, Lady of Sherwood. It's more Marion's story than Robin Hood's, and really well done. Haven't read it in several years, and I'm enjoying it a lot. There's a sequel too, which I also have on my shelf.
Off I go now..
I slept through the alarm clock, so I got a late start, and didn't get to the farm until almost eleven. Got straight to work and over the next four hours I cleaned all 10 stalls in the big barn, hauled water buckets from the small barn because the water in the big barn was frozen, moved horses around, fed horses, and then cleaned 6 paddocks. Not bad. It was really freezing cold this morning, but I warmed up in a hurry. By midafternoon it had warmed up enough that the water thawed out and we had running taps again. The worst part about winter is having the water freeze; we try to anticipate cold snaps and run the hose out into the field, but on occasion we get fooled. Then we have to bucket water and that's just a pain. Not as bad as the first winter on the farm when everything in both barns froze solid, and we had to haul water from the house...luckily we only had a few horses back then. I'd hate to have to do that now.
With the cold weather the horses are all a bit frisky, so we have to be extra careful handling them. Today Kelly came by to hold her horse for the farrier, and brought her two dogs, both Great Danes. The younger one is only nine months old, and is as big as a small pony; the old one is a bit bigger. She let them have a run in the field, and all the horses just went silly buggers because it was something new..Midnight was racing around his paddock, Florie was rearing and snorting, and it was all a bit much, especially when the dogs started barking. They have really deep voices and make more of a baying sound than a bark. Quiet finally came after Kelly and the dogs left. I think sometimes the horses are just looking for an excuse, any excuse, to act silly.
I've had a really busy week at work. ICU has been at almost full capacity, and the rest of the hospital has been jammed up with an outbreak of a Norwalk virus, so some of the wards have been closed to new admissions. That makes it hard to get patients out of ICU to the wards. I had two patients on Wednesday who both managed to get beds on the wards, so I had to key all that up. Thursday I had a patient who came down from the ward with an infection and very low blood pressure, on top of being extremely malnourished. She looked almost skeletal, she was so thin. Poor woman, I think she may have metastatic cancer; her XRays look suspicious, and she certainly has that look about her. I was kept busy all day trying to get her blood pressure up. When someone is septic, the blood vessels dilate, causing low blood pressure, so the treatment is to give lots of fluid in the initial phase of sepsis. Our ICU has been a leading research centre in Sepsis management, and we've developed a protocol for treating septic shock that is now in place in Emergency, and that has significantly decreased the numbers of people who have to be admitted to ICU with early sepsis. We're quite proud of that, actually.
When I got home from work last night, I made a pot of split pea soup, and a big pot of vegetarian chili so I have meals for the next couple of days. The last thing I really want to do when I get home cold and tired is decide what to make for dinner. I brought some out for Sue, too. Fridays are busy days, and having a good hot dinner is a real necessity.
We're bracing for some winter weather here; the forecast is for a cold arctic front to come our way, and a fair amount of snow is predicted for the beginning of the week. Winter is still here, folks. Brrrrrr.
I have had a nice relaxing evening. I baked some oatmeal soda bread to go with my chili, and watched TV: new episode of Nikita, and old episode of Star Trek: TNG
Speaking of Star Trek, one of the neat things I've seen this week is something straight out of the medical bay on the Enterprise: a cellphone sized ultrasound machine that looks kind of like a tricorder. One of our ICU Attendings did a scan of my patient's heart with it; it was really cool! It's amazing how equipment has changed over the years, getting smaller and smaller, yet more powerful. Ah,yes: Star Trek really has predicted a lot of technology. Or perhaps it's that the people inventing the technology have been inspired by what they watched on Star Trek. Either way, it's pretty damned neat.
On that note, I'm going to go check out the technology of the bath tub. Too bad it's not a jacuzzi. I could use one tonight, I'm a bit stiff from all the work today. Then I'm going to dive back into 11th Century England and the adventures of Robin Hood and Maid Marion. I'm rereading a retelling of that legend by Jennifer Roberson, Lady of Sherwood. It's more Marion's story than Robin Hood's, and really well done. Haven't read it in several years, and I'm enjoying it a lot. There's a sequel too, which I also have on my shelf.
Off I go now..
