Well….sometime in the next 13 weeks, at
least. I’ve never been to DC in my
life. But now I’m within an hour by
train. Because, I took an assignment for
the summer. To a little hospital called
THE Johns Hopkins. Like, the actual one,
not a satellite somewhere in
Podunk. I will be in the actual Johns
Hopkins ER.
Now, as one of my fave ER docs ever, TRex, said, in the end, it’s just another ER. And this is so, of course. They have no magic there (here!) the medicine will be the same. However, I haven’t truly worked in trauma in at least 3 years. And, much as I love my FL ER, our docs are a bit resistaned to definitive IV access except for EJs and IOs. My previous experience in trauma (and with unstable patients at all) was that they got central lines. With central venous pressure monitoring. (If you don’t understand that part, it’s ok. It just means a lot of really hard core invasive stuff, but very helpful in making unstable patients more stable in a lot of cases).
I have a feeling I’ll be doing a lot more of this kind of thing at Hopkins, even though travel nurses don’t get to work actually IN trauma, generally. And I’m rusty. So, I’m a bit daunted. But, hell, a good healthy dose of humility can certainly not hurt. Eyes and ears open, mouth shut. Well, for a while anyway. My mouth stays shut too long and there’s likely to be a thermonuclear explosion.
So, I just drove from FL to Maryland. That was fun. No, really, it mostly was. The constant and sometimes torrential rain from Tampa to Gainesville was, perhaps, a little less enjoyable…but…
I made a detour through Atlanta and got to hang with my friend Nurse Poofy as well as Weeniece and Hagertha. Hagertha is the friend who tragically lost her young, vibrant husband a bit over a year ago. This was the first time I’ve seen her in person since and I hope she felt all the love I have for her in that hug. I gave her a big ole smackeroo on the face, too, forgetting that she just got braces. Ouch. Sorry. But, we had a really nice, quiet little lunch and then Poofy and I went to see Maleficent. (see it. Seriously)
I then hit the road at 3:30am as the apartment complex office closed at 5pm and I figured that the 11 hour estimate by Google maps would actually be more like 12 with pee and food breaks, construction, etc.
I was wrong.
It was more like 13 hours. And, no shit an hour of that was JUST in Baltimore.
However, I arrived and was greeted very cheerfully by the office staff of my amazing apartment complex (strong work, housing department at my agency!!). Only glitch…when they asked to make a copy of my ID, I realized…yeah, I don’t have it with me. As soon as I realized it truly wasn’t in my wallet, I knew exactly where it was. My giant Coach purse that I used when I flew to Cleveland. I had put it in easy reach in a side pocket of the purse for the lovely TSA peeps.
Thankfully, I wasn’t pulled over on the way here. And, thankfully I had digital copy of it that will suffice for the apartment and, hopefully, at work. And, hopefully I won’t get pulled over. I do have a copy in my purse now, and I suppose they can look me up if it came to that. But, damn. This whole dizty thing just isn’t working for me.
In the last year or so, I have worked on focusing on positives. I am no Pollyanna and this “look on the bright side” thing is absolutely NOT natural to me. But, the attempt has been successful to the point that I really didn’t get upset at all. I just knew that it would get sorted and I moved on.
I’ll blog separately about getting to know my temporary new town, but, y’all! Location, location, location. I’m right by a train station that will take me directly to the airport when the time comes (flying west in July) and? I can get on that same light rail train and take it to the Amtrak what will take me to DC. The general state of public transit is such that I will rarely have to drive. And thank the sweet baby Tebow for that. Did you see that it took me an hour – on a SATURDAY—to get to my apartment even once I was actually in Baltimore? All traffic. It’s insane.
Still.
Now, as one of my fave ER docs ever, TRex, said, in the end, it’s just another ER. And this is so, of course. They have no magic there (here!) the medicine will be the same. However, I haven’t truly worked in trauma in at least 3 years. And, much as I love my FL ER, our docs are a bit resistaned to definitive IV access except for EJs and IOs. My previous experience in trauma (and with unstable patients at all) was that they got central lines. With central venous pressure monitoring. (If you don’t understand that part, it’s ok. It just means a lot of really hard core invasive stuff, but very helpful in making unstable patients more stable in a lot of cases).
I have a feeling I’ll be doing a lot more of this kind of thing at Hopkins, even though travel nurses don’t get to work actually IN trauma, generally. And I’m rusty. So, I’m a bit daunted. But, hell, a good healthy dose of humility can certainly not hurt. Eyes and ears open, mouth shut. Well, for a while anyway. My mouth stays shut too long and there’s likely to be a thermonuclear explosion.
So, I just drove from FL to Maryland. That was fun. No, really, it mostly was. The constant and sometimes torrential rain from Tampa to Gainesville was, perhaps, a little less enjoyable…but…
I made a detour through Atlanta and got to hang with my friend Nurse Poofy as well as Weeniece and Hagertha. Hagertha is the friend who tragically lost her young, vibrant husband a bit over a year ago. This was the first time I’ve seen her in person since and I hope she felt all the love I have for her in that hug. I gave her a big ole smackeroo on the face, too, forgetting that she just got braces. Ouch. Sorry. But, we had a really nice, quiet little lunch and then Poofy and I went to see Maleficent. (see it. Seriously)
I then hit the road at 3:30am as the apartment complex office closed at 5pm and I figured that the 11 hour estimate by Google maps would actually be more like 12 with pee and food breaks, construction, etc.
I was wrong.
It was more like 13 hours. And, no shit an hour of that was JUST in Baltimore.
However, I arrived and was greeted very cheerfully by the office staff of my amazing apartment complex (strong work, housing department at my agency!!). Only glitch…when they asked to make a copy of my ID, I realized…yeah, I don’t have it with me. As soon as I realized it truly wasn’t in my wallet, I knew exactly where it was. My giant Coach purse that I used when I flew to Cleveland. I had put it in easy reach in a side pocket of the purse for the lovely TSA peeps.
Thankfully, I wasn’t pulled over on the way here. And, thankfully I had digital copy of it that will suffice for the apartment and, hopefully, at work. And, hopefully I won’t get pulled over. I do have a copy in my purse now, and I suppose they can look me up if it came to that. But, damn. This whole dizty thing just isn’t working for me.
In the last year or so, I have worked on focusing on positives. I am no Pollyanna and this “look on the bright side” thing is absolutely NOT natural to me. But, the attempt has been successful to the point that I really didn’t get upset at all. I just knew that it would get sorted and I moved on.
I’ll blog separately about getting to know my temporary new town, but, y’all! Location, location, location. I’m right by a train station that will take me directly to the airport when the time comes (flying west in July) and? I can get on that same light rail train and take it to the Amtrak what will take me to DC. The general state of public transit is such that I will rarely have to drive. And thank the sweet baby Tebow for that. Did you see that it took me an hour – on a SATURDAY—to get to my apartment even once I was actually in Baltimore? All traffic. It’s insane.
Still.
It’s going to be a great 13 weeks.
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