What I've Been Reading

At least this month I have a great reason for not reading hardly anything off of my TBR.  This weekend I take a two-day ACLS course that my boss has made mandatory, and let me tell ya...the book is fascinating.  *yawn*   Actually, I lie.  It's not been boring because I've been too busy stressing, cramming my poor brain full of information that I'll probably forget as soon as I walk out of it Sunday evening.  Barring that, I may be in the hospital due to a heart attack.

You see, as I've mentioned before, I'm a respiratory therapist and have been for 17 years.  I manage the airway, among other crucial duties, but airway/lungs - yep, that's my territory.  I do not, in my day-to-day job, push drugs through an IV and maintain IV drips, or what have you.  But to be successfully certified in ACLS, I have to memorize ALL of the drug pathways and algorithms that go along with the various life-threatening "code" situations that occur in a hospital.  Yeah, I'm at my wit's end...  Have I studied my ass off?  Oh hell yes.  I can even quote the algorithms for bradycardia, v-tach/v-fib, asystole/PEA, and stable tachycardia in my sleep.  There, did I hurt your head?  Now you know what I've gone through...heh.

I'll be so glad to return to normal come Sunday night, when I'll be free of this stress for two years.  Of course, now that I've studied so hard, I've gotten comfortable enough to consider signing up for the ACLS instructor course, which would be huge.  And insane.  But huge.

And FYI, that's ventricular fibrillation -- treated with CPR, defib, epi, amiodarone, possibly lidocaine, and a lot more defib. 

Did I geek all over anyone?