What a night! I went to bed at 19:00 or so, I don't know why I was so tard, but I was, and I took advantage of the fact that Karen was gone to just snooze... and I did, until about 02:00, when I awoke from a dream about an orgy. I decided to not go to the orgy, even though everybody that I know was there. So I was wandering around this old building with weird elevators, and I decided that well, yeah, I wanted to go to the orgy too. And I couldn't find it for the longest time, and when I did, everyone laughed at me, 'cause the orgy was over, I had missed it, wandering around being all lonely and lost and everything. Yeah, I do have some issues, I'll admit it. Anyway, I was up until about 03:30, when I decided to sleep some more. I then got up right at 05:30 with the alarm, feeling very well rested indeed. Work, as usual, was work. I was driving the console today, which is less physical work than anything else, and also less fun... well, really, you have to stay in the place where the phones are, and even answer them a lot. Which means that you have to pass on messages, and do stuff that other people want you to do, and answer questions... and answer questions, and answer questions. Lots of them are really stupid questions. One frequent question:"
M--- X---- just ate a little bit of his breakfast. How long do we have to wait?" Well, the prep sheet says six hours. "But he only ate half!" O'well, in that case, we only have to wait six hours.... Preps are a headache. Some of our patients are allergic to iodine, a principle ingredient in the IV contrast that we use. There are two types of allergic reactions: one that gives the patient a rash, and the other one that effectively kills them. Of course, they don't die, we're way too good for that, but, if sometime in the past, they have had this kind of reaction, we will never, *never* give them the IV contrast. If, on the other hand, they've suffered a rash, there is a likelihood that they will suffer an even worse rash if they're injected again without the protection of premedication. And that's no problem, usually, for us... 'cause we let the nurses handle that part. But we always question them on the gravity of their previous reaction anyway, just as a precaution. If they say that they died for a little while, it's nix on the IV contrast fer sure. And then there's the prep for people who have bad kidney function, but who aren't on dialysis. And there are two kinds of this one, one for same-day tests, the other given when the exam is going to be the next day. And although we aren't directly involved in either the decision to go this route or the dispensation of the medication, we *do* have to make sure that it's done. Many times we just simply can't use the contrast in situations where there isn't enough time to do the prep or if there are other contraindications or maybe another way to get similar information. One example of this is the pulmonary angiogram, where we demonstrate the pulmonary artery to see if there are any clots. This is obviously an emergent situation, and if we can't give them the contrast, there is an alternative test, a VQ lung scan, which will infer that there *may* be clots according to the distribution of a radioisotope in the lungs. Not nearly as precise or as quick or as pretty, but it's what they used before we had CTs capable of doing this work. OK, enough of shop talk. Karen got home today from Wichita about the time that I got off work, and she's enthusiastic about getting the living room done. That enthusiasm transferred itself to me, and after supper, we started ripping wallpaper off. Unfortunately, the top layer of the wallpaper came off, but the glue didn't, in most cases. But it does come off rather easily with the application of a water-soaked sponge, so that's what we'll do. It'll be a lot of work for a while, I'm afraid. After the paper is gone, I'll have a lot of spackling to do, then primer, then paint. I'll be glad when it's all done... but then there's the floor, which we've decided to take back to the original hardwood. So we need to rip the carpet out and re-finish them... they are really pretty oak, with few blemishes, so it will be rewarding as well as easy, I hope. That's what I like, good cheap rewards, heh. But y'know? It never works out that way for me. The rewards are all bought dearly. I guess that's what makes the world not a fair place, heh. I did get most of the chair rail and the cornice down, though, but there are some heavy pieces of furniture that have to be moved before I can get that completed. We made a fair start of it tonight, and I'm satisfied with that. And Karen finally got an ad in the paper for the sectional... and the divan and love seat will be delivered tomorrow. So we're about a month late in starting. Procrastionation drives me, it really does. Back and forth, back and forth....