Work - It's the same but different

A lot of people have asked about my job so this to update everyone. But for the non medical people it might be kind of boring or difficult to follow.
I oriented to two surgery centers, both part of USPI - so it's a transfer. Both only do orthopedic and pain management, for one group of ortho surgeons - the same group so some of the docs work at both places. Resurgens in located next to St. Joseph's Hospital, in a medical building on the 8th floor. Roswell is in a small strip of offices.
The work is a lot like tempe but also different in several ways. One thing they do is tell the patients they can bring athletic shorts (no metal) to wear into surgery. They are pretty strick about having someone stay but they don't have coffee or anything in the waiting room. Also, they pre-treat every patient for nausea. Resurgens gives everyone a Zantac tablet and Roswell gives everyone a Zantac tablet, a Reglan tablet and IV Zofran. Its ortho so everyone get antibiotic and scrub. Everyone also get IV versed - after the MD marks the site.
Things I like about both places
- They have preadmission nurse calling or seeing every patient. She gathers labs and EKG or has the patient come in to get them. Also gets H&P and MD office consent .
- Every chart has the H&P and a consent from the MD office - much easier to write your OR consent and they must ALL match. (One place calls it a near miss for wrong site if the wording is not exact)
- They have an anesthesiologist in the pre-op/pacu area. The cases are done by CRNA and he goes back to get started but they are there to see the patients pre-op and post op. Also available for the preadmission nurse to get orders. They also do blocks in pre-op, both places have ultrasound machine for blocks. Very few patients need pain meds in pacu.
- The charts are organized with dividers for each area (pre-op, OR, consents etc) At Roswell they are on a clipboard. At Resurgens they three hole punch and put it all in a small 3 ring binder.  They also have one spot you place the chart when the patient can be seen by OR or anesthesia. After anesthesia see the patient the chart goes in another spot to show that the patient is ready to go back when the surgeon gets there. The charts are broken down and put into the manila folder for storage. No more shuffling through papers to find what you want. Love this!
- Also I really like the staff, they are all helpful and friendly, of course - no place can be like my dear friends I'm missing at Tempe! Love you guys!

Fathers Day and Canoe

We had a great time over Fathers Day. Both the kids were home. Leah made a road trip from Arizona with her friend Dania. They had a long but fun trip stopping over in San Antonio for a night then New Orleans for two nights. And they were happy to get here Saturday evening. Leah will be here until June 9th.

Leah and Dania working in the kitchen.

Eric also drove up from his base in Florida for the weekend to spend time with Jim on Fathers day and of course see Leah. It was nice to have them here. I think it was the first time since 2005 they have both been with us on Fathers day.

Eric working on a book shelf.

We got a few things for the house, Eric put together a nice ladder book shelf.
I wanted to take pictures of both of them with Jim and totally forgot!! So, these aren't that great but it's all I have for now.

We wanted to treat Dania to a night out as a thank you for making the drive with Leah, so Monday we went out for dinner at Canoe. Jim had been there for a business dinner and enjoyed the food and atmosphere. It is along the Chatahoochee River and inside you can see a mark - about seven feet high- where it flooded in 2009. The service was great, food tasty and the atmosphere was awesome. The flowers so bright and the river was right there.

Isn't that a beautiful picture!!

We were sitting on the second level. It was an glass indoor patio so the view of the river and flowers was right there.

We have weather!

The last few days we have had afternoon thunder showers. On Wednesday we had losts of lightening strikes in the area and hail. It makes for a nice cool down in the evening. On Thursday morning it was still 75 degrees when I went for my run.
 I have a new favorite running route. From our house go down North River Parkway - it's hilly but mostly down hill, go over the river to Riverside park. There they have pathways, both paved and rock. It was nice after the storm, lots of twigs and pinecones but not muddy. I did see a large tree down that must have been struck by lightening. Some of the paths are close to the river with lots of trees and shade. After running the park I head home but walk up North River Parkway - I need to work on hills but ... a little at a time.
I thought I'd add a few pictures of our neightborhood. It's really quite lovely.

This is the house across the street. It makes for a lovely view from our bay window.
Paul and Cindy live there. Paul spends a lot of time working on the yard.

Each of these contains two homes, like ours. I guess you call it a duplex but it looks like one big home.

They have a sign in the front - it must be from the HOA stating "May Yard of the Month" I guess that is what Paul - my neighbor is shooting for.

I love the flowers on this one.

This is the sign we have posted from the gals that live in the other side of our duplex. It says Private Property, Absolutely no foot or vehicle traffic, violators will be prosecuted.  Nice!  This is posted on our joint mailbox. I walk on their sidewalk to get my mail. Next time I post it could be from jail! :-)

Our trip

So here are a few more details about our cross country trip. We left on Sunday May 29th after a having breakfast with Leah at Waffle House in Apache Junction. (We met her there because she stayed out in florence after the wedding reception on Sat.) Nothing says the south like eating at Waffle House!
We took of through the Salt River Canyon. The traffic was slow but it was nice to see one of the beautiful areas of Arizona one more time.
That day was very windy the entire trip. There was alot of dust and strong wind gust. It made pass those big rigs a little scary. We landed in Shamrock TX for the night.
The next day was much more interesting. We went through Oklahoma City first then Little Rock AR. Arkansas is a very beautiful state escecially the area of the Ozarks - many rolling hill, big trees and green meadows. Our next city was Memphis, TN - it has a beautiful skyline. We took a little angle through Mississippi and then went through Birmingham, AL. We were driving when I noticed several trees looked damaged. I said to Jim it looked like tornado damage. The next thing you now looking left was a 2 block wide path of destruction. It went on as far as we could see. I've never seen tornado damage close up like that and it was like looking at a movie set. You can't imagine how it looks until you see it, I can't believe what that night felt like for those hiding in the basement. Only the grace of God prevented so many more from being hurt or killed.
After Birmingham, we headed to Atlanta. We went past Talladega - famous spot for all NASCAR fans - and found out it is also the name of a national forest. We hope to visit both someday.
We arrived home around 11pm on May30th. Emptied the car and went to sleep, well if you can call it that. All we had was an air mattress, so with two people if one moves the other wakes up. We were both pretty wiped from the trip so it didn't go too bad.
We are getting settled in, getting food and furniture. The POD came and went - our stuff in here but still working on organizing some areas.  The cable/Internet installation took two trips and numerous phone calls. The first guy came close to getting seriously hurt - but he was bigger than me so I just had to keep telling myself- "It's not a good idea to punch this guy, you really don't want to do it"....repeat... The second guy was coughing and hacking so I asked it he had allergies - he said "no, bronchitis"  Oh, thanks for sharing!
Enough for one day, I'll add more later and include some pictures of our neighborhood.
Also I start working tomorrow and I can share the scoop on that!

We are here!

I just wanted to add a quick note. After two long days of driving we arrived at our new home. After stocking the frig, buying some furnishings and cleaning, today friday our POD arrived. First priority is getting our mattress set up - enough sleeping on the air mattress! So it has been busy and will be for a couple weeks, I'll add more details about the move when we gat Internet and our desktop computer is working. So far, like the area, hate the traffic, weather is hot but not that bad. More later.....