Well, I have to call the Hartford Casualty again today. Our contract on the Impala is supposed to expire today. God, I'm so sick of this.

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I had another couple of new experiences at work. I went to help one of my co-workers draw a toddler, and she wanted to find out if the nurse was going to start an IV, to possibly reduce the number of times the little girl had to be stuck. I went to find the nurse, and as I was looking for her, I heard a child screaming behind an exam room door. The kind of scream that usually means someone could use an extra pair of hands.

I walked in to a little boy, probably about 4 or 5, getting his arm loaded up with a local anesthetic. Because his arm was, you know, GAPING OPEN, showing muscle, fat, and bone. I've never seen anything like it. Poor Dad was looking a little weak at the knees, so I took his position holding the boy's legs down so he could finally look away and catch his breath, and likely his stomach. Mom seemed to be holding up very well, amazingly! She was keeping her son's attention away from his arm, and talking to him very calmly, while holding down his uninjured arm.

My other new experience, well, I could just do without it. I was starting to draw a blood gas on a patient, had in fact just inserted the needle after locating her pulse, when her pulse suddenly stopped. Alarms started going off, and next thing I knew, a Code 99 (cardiac arrest) had been called, and people were piling into the room. She went into "code" 3 more times that night. I have no idea if she made it or not. It's sort of disturbing, just a little, that I'm starting to get used to people dying that I've had even limited conversations with only hours before.

the last trail...the next path