February: A time for Holidays and Celebrations

February has rolled around and we are well into the Festivities! We kicked off with Groundhog's day. I worked that day and didn't celebrate in any special way, which is fine. The following day was Chinese new year. I also recently discovered that I was born in the year of the Rabbit, not in the year of the dragon. Most of '88 is dragon but the Chinese new year fell after my birthday in '88. Who knew? So that means that it is my Chinese Year this year! On the 5th we went to Chinatown (I believe it is the only Chinatown in the U.S. that was actually designed to be Chinatown-the others just kind of happened. This is because they built the current Union Station in what used to be Chinatown thus they re-created. Better, Faster, Stronger.) There were all sorts of activities, vendors, food trucks, a really, really long parade and some awesome performers. There was one guy who essentially tossed around a big ceramic pot...and then later a bigger pot. He'd balance it on his head, toss it in the air, catch it on his fist. It was epic. Perhaps the most epic was this:


Yeah, that's a woman held in the air by an apparatus which is supported by three other women's mouths. She is spinning those red cloth discs. She was awesome! She was doing one-handed flips and all sorts of epic acrobatics!

I led Community night on the 3rd. We had homemade blackbean burgers, sweet potato fries and milkshakes. It was awesome!

The Packers won the Super Bowl Sunday. Some of the housemates went to Westwood to a SB party with some of former volunteers. I declined. I kept updated on the game, but had a ton of things I needed to get done.

Holly's Birthday was the 7th. I worked that day, as did everyone but Holly. She made dinner and dessert that night. Thai Chicken Salad, Rice Medley and Homemade Chocolate Cake with Homemade Chocolate Frosting. It was awesome. She and I both got packages from Kathie and Sr. Camille (Our program directors) with a board game and other goodies for each of us. It was awesome.

The next day was my birthday. I didn't work that day. I went downstairs to discover a wall of boxes and some birthday messages in the dining room, which the housemates set up. I went to the clinic, post office, grocery store and bank that day to get a ton of errands done. I made dinner that night: Spanikopita, Roasted Veggies and Nutella Semifreddo with homemade cinnamon whipped cream. It was pretty good. I was exhausted after the day and went to bed pretty early.



Wednesday was a usual day at work until about 12:30 when Liz, the charge nurse, came to me and pretty much dragged me to the conference room with Holly. The staff prepared us a party. There was pizza, pancit, chicken, soda. It was so nice! We ate food and talked a bit. It was really cool. Lately, I've felt like I am really becoming a part of the 8th floor and SFMC 'family'. Everybody at that hospital is very well connected and I love it. I also got a basket of goodies from Emily, one of the nursing assistants, and Sonya and Maria, a couple of the LVNs we work with got us In & Out burger. How cool is that?!

I picked up an extra shift on Friday because there were 2 LVNs to cover. I had a good gig with Sonya. We transferred a patient to ICU right off the bat for extra monitoring. Thank goodness Mayra, who is truly awesome in every way, was charge and helped me with the transfer! She made sure everything was in order. I got to see the ICU there, it is laid out very well. I'm glad I got to see it.

Later that day, I was covering for Jen M for her break. Right as she was coming back and I was filling her in on what happened while she was at lunch, a family member from bed 16 rushes out and calls us into the room. The patient, a 92 year old man, was in his chair and non-responsive with some drool on his face. Jen says "Call a code!" I respond "He's still breathing, call a rapid response" She runs to call the Rapid and I'm checking the pulse of the patient. The next few minutes tons of staff rush into the room. We get him into the bed, the crash cart arrives, vital signs are taken. Apparently, he has had syncopal episodes before, but none of the staff knew it. The monitor showed his heart rate was slow. Esther, the resource nurse, who is excellent, pushed some atropine. He had some irregular heart rhythms so Jen transferred him to ICU while I kept an eye on her other patients.

It was my first Rapid Response that I was a part of at SFMC. I could have done better, but overall I am happy with how it went as well as the outcome. Friday night I got home and crashed. I was exhausted.

Late Saturday morning we went to Griffith park and hiked up to the Hollywood sign. It was a beautiful day. We had a picnic and then meandered back down and back to The Medal. Later that night, we had a party to celebrate the may occasions of the month. Ann, Connor and Darby, volunteers from last year, came out as did Becca and Emily-two volunteers from the other house. Great fun. Today is a day to catch up on mail, e-mail, laundry and more...like blogging!


We did get closer to the sign, but you can't get right up to it, which was fine. We had quite the hike regardless. Yeah, we're wearing that in February. 80s. Holla.