Why Heidi Loves Her Job...

This is what I did yesterday at work and this is why I love my job:

Hung 10 L of NS

Gave 6 units of packed red cells on the rapid infuser

Put in one IV

Placed a gastric tube

Assisted with an intubation

"Played" with (technically the word is TITRATED) a dopamine drip to stabilize my patients BP

Pariticipated in ROUNDS

Did two minutes of CPR

"Shocked" a patient twice

(technically the word is DEFIBRILATED)

Hung 3 more Liters of NS

Drew 3 sets of Labs and one Blood Gas

Watched Team USA score 4 goals against Finland during my 15 minute lunch

Administered 4 Liters of GoLitely and 1 Fleets Enema

Dealt with the aftermath of the GoLitely and fleets

Got 6 warm blankets for patients

Bused 2 "Tables"

(technically bedside trays)

Changed 4 sets of sheets

Helped my 2 patients bath

Turned my patient 6 times

Assisted with an Endoscopy

Bladder scanned my patient, who had over 1 Liter of urine in his bladder

(YIKES can you imagine?)

Put in a Foley Catheter

and did it ALL while SMILING and keeping my white top SPOTLESS!

P.S. Last week I put in an IO, meaning I drilled into a bone so we could infuse fluids and vasopressors. . .which is about the coolest thing EVER!

Heidi and Jentry have a Happy Valentines

Jentry brought home some beautiful flowers for me, he knows daisys are my favorite!
We hung out, watched the Olympics, and had delicious crab legs and home made potatoe chips for dinner. We also exchanged gifts. Jentry got me a bike pump and a case for my netbook and I got Jentry a new pillow. Yes I know, we spoil eachother! (More like Jentry spoils me. I got a new pillow too because I thought it would be stupid to just buy one pillow!)

We LOVE being in LOVE!

Hope you had a Happy Valentines Day Too!

Heidi and Jentry Host the Opening Ceremonies...Party

Yay! The Olympics are here again. I love the Olympics, they make me so happy! Jentry and I hosted a little viewing party of the Opening Ceremonies the other night. It was really fun. If you weren't able to watch it, its totally worth it to find some clips on YouTube, they did an amazing job!

Our party was pretty amazing too complete with our own Torch...

Gold medals


Vintage Olympics posters, which are pretty darn cool...

And Olympic enthusiasts. . . at least one anyway.

Oh and don't forget the Canadian and American flag Brownies, delicious!

GO TEAM USA! WE WILL BE ROOTING FOR YOU!

PS Did you see the hats the Americans were wearing and the Canadian's Mittens? So So So cute!

Jentry Gets a Secret Admirer

Yesterday Jentry came home to find that his computer had been completely covered in Post its. Not only that, but each Post It had a LOVE NOTE written on it! Neither of us knows how this happened. He must have a secret admirer. The only thing I can't figure out is, if I was home all day, how did she get in here without me noticing?

Heidi and Jentry go to Gautemala

This is the home of Byan Buchanan, the founder of Jungle Medic Missions, where Jentry and I along with 10 other team members from utah stayed during our medical mission to guatemala.

This is the one room ER on the first floor of the house where Bryan does anything and everything from delivering babies, suturing cuts and preforming minor surgery.

This is Bryan's ambulance. Jentry and I had the opportunity to go with Bryan on a call to a motorcycle accident. It was crazy! It is amazing to see the things that Bryan can do with such limited resources. Everything he uses from the high tech computer communication system right down to every strip of gauze has to be donated from somewhere.

Did I metnion that Guatemala is BeautifuL?

In the mornings we would hop on Bryan's school bus with all our medical equipment and travel to some of the most remote villages in Gautemala.

Here is the bus at a village all set up and ready for clinic.

Over 3 days of clinic our team saw and treated 700 people who otherwise would have NO medical care at all. To us it may not seem like a big deal to get some vitamins, have some skin cream applied, and recieve some tylenol, cough medicine, or tums but to people who live in the remote villages of Guatemala, it is a huge blessing.

This is a typical house in a jungle village. Thatched roof, plank walls, dirt floors, and just one room for a family of anywhere from 4 to 10 people.

They cook sleep and eat all in the same room. The girl here is making corn tortillas. The typical diet of a villager is three corn tortillas and black coffee for every meal. They do not know how to grow anything but corn and are not educated enough to know that the lack of variety in their diet is causing them to be malnourished.

Jentry had fun playing with the kids, he even taught them how to play paper rock siccors.

They also loved to have their picture taken and then be able to look at themselves on the camera. We had a lot of fun with them.

Now I know you are starting to feel a little sorry for us, but before you do just know we did a little more than work work work!

We also

Visisted a hot springs and jumped off a hot waterfall

Visited some ancient Mayan ruins (Tikal aka the "forset moon Endor")

And flew through the jungle canopy on a zip line tour!

We had a lot of fun but also worked very hard. Guatemala is an exteremly poor nation and the remote villages like the ones we visited are even poorer than the general population. If you would like to learn more about what you can do to help, or if you just want to see a little more about what we did please visit www.junglemedicmissions.org