Time Machine Needed

This past month has had its ups and downs...a huge down a few days ago.

Brandi drove to NH on the 22nd of September and we got in my car shortly after and headed, with a pit stop at Lui Luis for lunch, to MA for Saras first birthday party. She spent the night at my place and we ate B&J's and did the necklace test; whose prediction proved to be accurate. Baby Boy (or James Gerard, rather) Tainter will be here early next year.

I took two weeks off from work which figured to be 20 glorious days off in a row. Staycations are the best. I wish with all my heart I could have been off this past week and I would have missed the worst day of my nursing career. It better remain the worst day because I cannot handle anything worse. I did lots of stuff to keep myself occupied while I was off work. I got my car detailed, went to a few functions (a baby shower, a clam bake, a house party, a family birthday dinner, a dinner cruise on Lake Sunapee, and the annual Minckler bonfire),worked on my running and did some 5ks (the chili-cook-off in Clamtown and Harpoon Oktoberfest), bought a new computer, caught up with some friends I hadn't seen in a while, checked out the new outlets in Merrimack, and slept...a lot. Oh, and my merm got elfed on her birthday. My vacation concluded with the entrance into the world of Charles Howard Goss early Monday morning. Ashley was induced Sunday night and it took a little longer than expected so we all were there all night, except for Lisa who had to leave at 330 in the morning to go home for her son. 559 am, 9 lbs 13 ozs, 20.5 in long....cute baby! I highly recommend long vacations.

Soooo...Friday was a terrible day. It helps the healing process to talk about it (not to mention the debriefing that inevitably follows a patient event like this) so here goes. I was assigned to a total joint room for the day and we were finishing up our first case. I was helping the resident roll the patient (a male of considerable body mass) towards up to get the slide board beneath him when, at that moment, the step stool the resident had one foot on kicked out from underneath her and the patient fell off the HANA table onto the floor. It was one of those things that happened so fast yet happened in slow motion and felt like a nightmare that I needed to wake up from. In fact, I've actually dreamt about a patient falling off the table and now it has actually happened to me. I never thought it would and now I can never say that it's never happened. I do so well with focusing on the negative so I'm going to say how thankful we are that this patient was not injured (no one involved in the transfer was), the ET tube and IVs remained in place so his oxygenation was not interrupted and anesthesia could keep him alseep while he got some xrays. I was very upset and depressed but I'm starting to feel better. I take things hard and this event will haunt me for a very long time. A time machine would be great so I could go back and prevent it from happening.

Anyways. Today was the CHAD Hero half marathon and 5k. Emilee, Amanda, Leah and I dressed up in homemade Mighty Mouse costumes and rocked it out. I think a good run for a good cause helped my soul feel better. A purring Xander helps, too. Em and I did the 5K and Amanda and Leah did the half marathon...maybe I'll shoot for that next year, maybe.

The 5Ks I've done so far this year:

Chili Cook-Off, Claremont, NH 10.6: 28:27 for 5k
Harpoon Oktoberfest, Windsor VT 10.7: 36:06 net time for 3.66 miles
CHAD Hero, Hanover, NH 10.21: 29:32 for 5k

Hopefully the Sunapee Turkey Trot and the Jingle Bell run will be added.