Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you. -- Lao Tzu

I love Lao Tzu; there's a person who always seems to have the right view on things.

Moving right along, last night was like any other shift for me until about 430 this morning when one of my patients complained of severe chest pain. Of course, the first thought in my mind was, "Shit, she might be having a heart attack." So, I called a rapid response (which is a team of experienced and trained doctors and nurses). The on-call rapid response resident and an ICU nurse showed up and we did an EKG (print out of live heart rhythms/patterns) and drew blood for the lab to test cardiac enzymes. The reason for that is some cardiac enzymes will be elevated in a heart attack, either immediately or for several days after heart damage has occurred. The resident also ordered a portable chest xray, which at the surface appeared to be normal. The EKG also showed normal readings, which was another good sign. I gave her Dilaudid (a very potent pain medicine) and three nitroglycerine tablets (specifically for chest pain), and she was stable by 6am. We all breathed a sigh of relief.

That experience made me realize, yet again, what a great team of nurses I work with. One of my coworkers gave my three patients their 5am,6am, and 7am meds for me since I was in my patient's room with her (you obviously can't leave your patient when they're that unstable). Another helped me do the EKG, and yet another put the STAT (aka, right-fucking-now) orders into the computer. The support that the nurses I work with give each other is humbling and is a major reward of the job. I don't know what I would have done without them!

Anyway, that's the biggest thing that has happened since I last posted, other than Alicia and Mike's wedding this past weekend, which was a blast! I'll post more about that later. Suffice it to say that it was a grand ceremony, filled with good times and even better people to spend it with.

Bean, my "baby" sister, is graduating this coming weekend, from COLLEGE. Jaysus, where has the time gone? I got her a lotus copper and sterling silver pendant with a silver chain and on the back of the pendant I had it engraved "Wherever you go, there we are." Too trite? Whatevs, biznatch. I liked it.

Picture! Never forget how beautiful the world is.