Stayin' Alive

So I'm not a frequent blogger but today was an experience. As part of my residency, I work with Life Flight. There is a 3 person crew comprosed of the Pilot, a Flight Nurse and the Flight Physician. We transport critical patients from one hospital to another, or from accident scenes to a trauma center. It's a lot of fun (not necessarily for the patients, though). It is pretty cramped quarters. Then, depending on the size of the patient, space gets even tighter.

Well, we got called out to transport a woman having a heart attack. When we arrived at the ER, she was no longer responding. I put a breathing tube in her and we got her ready to transport. When we left, she was on an IV to keep her blood pressure and pulse up as they were both low. As we were loading her into the helecopter her pulse began to drop in spite of the IV. We increased the medication and her pulse improved. About 1-2 minutes into a 15 minute flight, we lost her pulses.

I was sitting in the co-pilot seat with the seat turned around at the patient's head managing her breathing. The flight nurse started CPR but due to the pathent's size and stiff chest, she was not able to generate anough force to do good compressions. So, she took over the ventilations and I did CPR WWE style, with an elbow from the front of the aircraft. I did it for the remainder of the flight. Once we landed, there was another group to help out however, no one was doing CPR, so I climbed on top and did it while the rolled the gurney into the hospital and to the ER. Yes, It was like on TV.

After we got to the ER, the ER folks took over. I was quite winded. If you've done CPR before, you know 2-3 minutes is a long time to do it. I got to do it for about 15-20. Then it got interesting.....

I noticed that I was breathing kind of hard. Then I started feeling a warm buzzing in my ears. I thought, "I should sit down," so I did. But the buzzing got denser. People were commenting that I did not look too good. I just smiled and said, "I'm going down". The next thing I knew, I was waking up with someone holding my feet up and a crowd around me. One of our kind residents apparently supported my head when I went out to keep me from falling out of my chair and becoming a trauma. When I came to, I was saying, "I'm OK," but they weren't convinced. They registered me and plugged me into an IV. My EKG was fine. Just overheated. I recovered and went back to work in about an hour. I actually had to file it as a workman's comp claim.

It was kind of nice to be doted on by the nurses. I received much attention and wellwishes. Everyone was very concerned and I received excellent care. One of the attendings even reminded me that there was an age limit on flyers for this very reason. It's great to be respected by your peers......

By the way, CPR should be approximately 100 beats per minute which is the same beats per minute as a particular BeeGee's song......

Now You Know

I hope you like news, 'cuz that's what you're going to read today! This summer brought many changes to our family. In our case, change is good. It is very, very good.

Family NEWS

The headline story is that our family is staying in Perrysburg permanently. We won't return to Arizona after Rick's graduation in 10 months. We've labored with this decision for quite awhile and it feels right. Perrysburg is home and our love for it has been well documented. We love our house, our ward, our schools, our town. If we could just get our parents and siblings to move to Ohio, it would be perfect.

Rick's NEWS

Rick received some great personal news in June. He's been made a chief resident this year, which means a lot of extra responsibility but more control over scheduling. He's also spent quite a bit of time working Life Flight and moonlighting in various outlying communities (cha ching).

On the 24th of August Rick celebrated his 37th birthday. To commemorate the occasion, the kids and I got him a kitten of his very own since we no longer have to worry about a big move. Ricky loves his darling kitty and calls her Chloe (with the dots over the "e"). Chloe Kitten is a fun addition to our family, though Shelby doesn't care a fig about her. Rick will post pictures of her soon. She's getting fat.

Birthday Dinner at Biagi's

Audrey's NEWS

I quit my job teaching aerobics classes at the YMCA and I've taken up running. I've also started volunteering at the Toledo Area Humane Society walking the shelter doggies. It's the perfect combination of my favorite things: fitness, animals, and the great outdoors.

I've got a list of projects I want to tackle around the house now that we're NOT moving. The storage room and garage got the Audrey treatment last week - I'm trying to make room for the Chevy Traverse we're purchasing through Costco (more on that later). Jake has moved into the guest room and Emma is moving into Jake's old room. I have much painting and redecorating ahead of me. I also want to get to work on a vegetable garden for next spring...heaven help my poor husband.

In addition to my church responsibilities as an organist and substitute seminary teacher, I got called to be the 1st counselor in the Young Women's Organization today. I am over the moon about this new calling and I can't wait to get busy! Emma will be joining us in just 4 months!

Emma's NEWS

Speaking of Emma, did you know she's now certified to babysit children? She recently took a course at St. Luke's hospital to start her on a career in childcare. I know she'll be a responsible and careful sitter. She's been practicing her baby blanket burrito techniques on the kitten. Chloe purrs every time.

Emma's Graduation Ceremony at St. Luke's

Emmy receiving her diploma

Emma started Junior High School on Wednesday, and she was happy about it! She got up early, made herself a sensible breakfast, and made her bed without being asked. My fears about having to drag her from the comfort of her blankies kicking and screaming were put to rest. We might be able to manage this schedule after all...

The kids' first day of school 2011

Emma continues on her treatment of steroids and methaltrexate (sp?) injections. She's doing well, though the skin on her hands are given her a bit of trouble. We're hoping the sores on her fingertips won't prevent her from playing cello and piano this year. She also joined the 6th grade choir, but her voice hasn't fully returned yet. Maybe she's going through a voice change like her brother?

Jake's NEWS

Jake is our renaissance man. He sings, he plays the piano, he mows grass, and he plays football. So far, he's avoided serious injury. We hope that he'll get to play his first game this year - ha! The training has been rigorous, but he's stuck with it. He's learning that it's okay to be part of a team even if you're not a superstar player.

Jake has big plans to earn his Eagle this year. At a recent Court of Honor he received several merit badges that he earned on his own this summer. He missed Scout Camp because of our trek west, but he made up for it. Next up: the personal fitness merit badge. Can you guess who the counselor is?

Jake and Brother Paxton (a.k.a. "Beast")

Atta boy!

There's more to tell, but I've reached my 1 am curfew. I'll have to post about our trip to Chicago another day. Let me know you're still reading and I might be motivated to share tales from Kalahari water park too. There's a story involving poo.

Toodles!

Birthdays, Blessings, and Bruises

Rick "celebrated" the big 3-6 today (although we're using the term loosely). When the clock struck midnight, turning Monday into Tuesday, Dr. Saunders was still at work dealing with crazy, drug-seeking patients. He didn't get ready for bed until 2:30ish. When he went to climb in, he had to wrestle our geriatric dog out of his spot. Poor guy.

After snoozing his alarm clock 10 times (and missing a meeting), he rolled out of bed at 10:30. He spent some quality time with the sick computer until we forced him to open his birthday gift.

As always, we labored over what to get for him. We knew we couldn't go wrong with a purchase from Costco, so we bought him a cache cooker. Now to find the time to go camping...

Jacob and Emma have their first day of school tomorrow (Wednesday). Rick seized the opportunity to give the kids a father's blessing. It's always such a neat thing to see the Priesthood in action! Since Rick had to go to work at 1:00, we hurried over to a little Mexican restaurant for a birthday brunch. We ate like it was our last meal. Miraculously we could still take down the fried ice cream dessert they gave him for his special day.

You may not know that Jacob is a big 7th grader playing on the football team this year. He's been in training for a few weeks now, and really enjoys it. Now that the boys are in pads though, things have gotten kind of rough. Check out this kid's bruises!

Isn't he such a tough guy?

Next post: A report on the first day of school!

What's Rick up to?

So many of our posts talk about the kids, but what about Rick? He's been keeping VERY busy...
...finishing our basement,




saving lives,

camping with the Scouts,



teaching boys to swing an ax,

and cooking for the hungry masses. Whew! I'm tired just thinking about it!

I can't hide it. I love my guy. He can do anything.