Yeah I know, get off my back

I know it's been almost forever. I've been busy give me a break.

I finally finished this semester. What a difficult one! Maybe the hardest of the last three and a half years. I doubt my grades will improve my overall GPA and hopefully I won't loose my scolarship because of it, but I am going into my last semester of my college days...what are they going to do throw me out (I dare them!)

Christmas is coming along nicely, especially now that I can truly concentrate on it. I am soooo excited that my sister, Val, and my mom and her hubby will be here to share the joy of the season with us. I'm sure they are also excited to spend Christmas in a state with cold and snow, exactly what makes Christmas feel just right.

We've had a few crazy situations at the hospital since last post.

Two weeks ago we had three heartattacks in 3o seconds (I kid you not). Since most diagnosing of an actual heart attack comes from the lab, I had an exciting night! The down side is one of them was a full code when she got to the hospital and we were unable to save her. Sadder still, one of the EMT's was her son and he watched her code in the back of the ambulance. What a horrible situation to find yourself in, I felt so sad for their family.

The last week of November my leukemia patient from the summer (see post from September) presented to the ER again. I was so happy to see her because I really didn't think she would survive this long. She is fighting the cancer courageously although her prognosis is grim. I was surprised to find out that in the past few months nobody has taken the time to explain to her what is going on inside her body. They've told her the name of what she has (Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia), but no additional information. She was relieved and thankful that I took the time to explain the ins and outs to her. I even showed her the blood smears we made of her blood the night she was diagnosed. She said the conversation we had really boosted her spirits and helped her feel like she could fight this to the end. She is currently waiting for a match to get a bone marrow transplant. I really hope she finds one.

The flu season has started full force. We could just about employ somebody full time to do nothing but flu and RSV tests. Currently we are seeing about three postive flu tests a day and by year end we will see closer to ten a day. Thankfully the strain we are seeing is the less severe of the two we are able to test for, so people won't be quite as ill.

Ok, gotta get back to catching up with my life now. Dang school really takes a bite out of personal time.