Amy W’s blog

Share a song you listened to in 6th grade.

I LOVED this song back in the day...and still do.  I remember going to my first junior high dance and this was played and dancing with some cute boy (can't remember who at this point) with my arms around his neck and his arms around my waist old school style...how sweet.  Those were definitely the days!

Show us the very last picture you took. No cheating!

Well I didn't take it, but it's the last photo taken on my camera. 

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Show us something unlucky.

 

I'd say this is more than just a little unlucky.  Utter devastation in my homestate.  And my college town of Iowa City is expected to be devastated as well. 

So I had to work 12 hours last night.  About 2300 my phone rings in the ER and it's the Health Alert Network informing that a large hospital in Cedar Rapids is evacuating and to be ready for a radio request for bed availability.  I inform my ER doc and Nursing Supervisor and she tells me how many beds we have.  Sure enough about an hour later the radio in dispatch starts calling all these other hospitals in an extremely wide radius.  I inform Iowa Department of Public Health we can take 8 patients.  Other hospitals answered with anywhere from 2-12 available beds.  So about 2 hours after that they start calling all of us hospitals again on the IDPH radio and ask each one if they can take so many patients.  It was utterly fascinating to hear each hospital respond.  "This is Mary Greely, we can take 4 skilled, 2 pulmonary.  This is Mercy Des Moines, we can take 2 psych and 6 Med/Surg.  This is Marshalltown, affirmed we can take 5 skilled and 3 neuro."  When a hospital was unable to take the number asked another hospital would jump on and say they could absorb those.  It really was amazing to see the effort put in not only by IDPH, but also all the surrounding hospitals, some which were well over 100 miles away from the evacuating hospital.  So 176 patients needed to be evacuated and in only 2 hours they had placement for 119 of them.  I assume the other 57 patients were too critical and OB/newborn patients that were transferred closer the the hospital.  My hat goes off to the Iowa Department of Public Health, Mercy Hospital in Cedar Rapids, and all hospitals, including my own that were so willing to help in what is certain to be an event that will go down in history books.  We received the first patient right before I was leaving work and I must tell you the ambulance crew and nurse from the evacuated hospital looked physicallly and mentally broken.  I cannot imagine the task they were given and the speed in which they accomplished it.  It's times like these where I am proud to say that I'm a midwesterner and part of the Iowa health care system. 

So we received 2.5 inches of rain here again last night.  This is starting to get a little old.  I wanted to post a couple pictures my sister emailed me of downtown Cedar Rapids.  These photos just shocked me. 

Crflood

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Well we knew it was inevitable, flooding has now taken over almost the entire state of Iowa.  I must admit it's pretty fascinating to watch all of the coverage on the news.  Gradually watching all of the rivers rise over the hours, watching the forecast for even more heavy rain tonight and tomorrow morning, and seeing all of the flooding already happening and it's devastation has kept me glued to the tv.  What's bad is that they say it's only going to get worse, especially with all of the rain forecasted.  Luckily for me, my home is not in any immediate danger.  The only way out of town is to the west and south.  Even then, you really can't go too far.  Rivers are crossing many state highways making travel anywhere virutally impossible.  My husbands job is putting up the employees in a hotel so that they will be able to make it to work.  The highway my husband takes to work will probably be closed here shortly as the river is about to cover it.  All other routes are already closed, so apparently it will only be Presley and me here the next couple nights.  I tell ya, between the severe thunderstorms, tornado warnings, and flooding, this spring has been one catastrophic one for Iowa. 

So I've been missing in action now for a long, long time.  Guess I just got too busy with family, school and work to get on here and give my 2 cents every so often.  Anyway, I guess staying off here and studying really did pay off my first term of nursing school.  I did manage all A's, with a lot of hard work.  I did realize that even though you may be a good student, nursing school is much more demanding and tougher than expected.  There's much more critical thinking involved and less memorization of information.  Enough about school, my daughter is getting so big.  She's such a ham and I cherish every day with her.  She really has been a blessing to my life.  She had some recent pics taken, one of which I just posted here.  Getting the urge to have another one soon, but gotta get through school first.  On to work, I've only been working 2 nights a week, but shortly I am going to cut down to call-in.  Not having to work at all for the remainder of the year is going to be nice.  I certainly can't wait for that, given just about every weekend this summer is filling up fast.  So that's what's been going on the last few months.  More to come I'm sure...

p.s.

I just mowed my lawn and it's damn hot outside!  Time for an ice cold beer!

Show us a smile.

 

Nothing better than my daughter's smiles & giggles.

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Who helped make you the cool person you are today?
Submitted by Amy - Sister Brown Hair Surprise.

the magnificance that is me was all my own doing...i'm cool as hell thanks to myself ;)

Two baby codes in a week...I need a new fucking job.  Things like that used to bother me a little bit, but now that I have a child I really can't take that stuff like I used to.  I can handle anything...blood, guts, crazy bastards, death...except the death of a child.  I've been around for some pretty gruesome, intense, and sad situations including death of children before, but 2 in a week at our somewhat small hospital has really taken it's toll on me...so yes, new job needed...anyone hiring?