OT Questions about CAT scans

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Choose the profession that attracts YOU. When my two older sisters were in nursing school (early 1970s) well meaning people were constantly asking them why they didn't "just keep going to become a doctor". When I was in the veterinary technician program, I got the similar: "why don't you just keep going and be a vet?". Lots of people have no clue of the differences between various professions and don't realize that many of us CHOOSE our professions because of the job descriptions of those professions. My sisters were not Dr. wannabes - they went into nursing because they LIKED nursing and I knew in high school that it was the "assistant's" job that I loved and that I didn't really want to be a veterinarian. :-) Some well meaning people just don't understand that concept and it's not always worth trying to explain it to them. If you choose to, you can continue on to become a Nurse Practitioner, but ONLY if it's what you want to do.

I have to admit a illogical prejudice against nurse practitioners since the first one I ever saw made a terrible impression on me. I was explaining that I couldn't ask my dad about his allergy history since he had Alzheimer's Disease and had virtually no memory of things like that. She gave me a skeptical look & asked: "Are you SURE he's not an alcoholic?" Granted, it was the late 1970s & Alzheimer's wasn't the Disease de Jour that it is now, but her attitude left me hoping that someone she loved would someday be touched by Alzheimer's and that she would remember that callous remark she had made to an 18 year old college student (who's dad had maybe two drinks a month & went to sleep an hour later). Sorry for running on. I'm going to bed now - it's past my bedtime & I might turn into a pumpkin at any time now. Liz from Humbug

Ouch! I hope your father wasn't offended or wasn't aware. I probably would have retorted, "Are you sure YOU'RE not an alcoholic?" before storming out. I can understand the prejudice.

Huh? I went to a religious school. If you wanted to see Jesus, you went and sat in the chapel for a while.

What's a Purple Jesus?

I ran into one who wouldn't listen. According to her, the fact that I was going to drink a glass of milk at 8 AM is why I got sick at 6 AM. I can understand that if you're allergic to something, you'd have problems

She kept telling me different diets to try and arguing that I couldn't possibly know the results before I tried them. Ah, but I *do* know the results, because when I first got sick in 1987, we tried every elimination diet around, and what we found out was that I'm allergic to what we already knew I'm allergic to, but other than that, what I eat does not affect my digestion.

Eventually, she got around to her real goal, telling me to eat 100% vegetarian, using radical veggie slogans. Once again, she didn't listen to what I said: I can't get enough protein eating veggie -- I'm allergic to soy, plus my disease requires extra protein.

Anyway, at that point, getting to and from the Farmers Market for ultra-fresh veggies was enough to send me to bed for several days. By the time I finally felt well enough to do the required peeling and slicing to prepare what I'd bought, my purchases had to be thrown away because I hadn't had the energy to get them all the way to the kitchen and into the fridge after exhausting myself just getting home from Farmers Market. Tried explaining to her that over the last couple weeks I had tried to eat more fresh veggies instead of canned/frozen, and therefore I knew for a fact how badly the trip to Farmers Market exhausted me, and she completely tuned me out that I had bigger problems than a week of non-stop digestive distress and kept telling me that I simply had to go to Farmers Market every week, and fix those veggies as soon as I got home so that they'd be more convenient to serve the rest of the week; never mind that I was coming in and collapsing on the floor in the front hallway, and might eventually make it the few feet to the couch, and by bedtime might manage the dozen or so steps to collapse on the bed.

I understand exactly what you're saying. Believe me, if you knew me, you'd know that I'm not likely to do what doesn't attract me. Life does eventually put some limits into your reality. I can totally understand liking the "assistant" part of the job. When I first stopped working at my agency, and did something totally different - it was almost a relief. Very busy, but I didn't have the same kind of stress responsibility. That said - I'm a pretty strong personality, and I don't do the blindly follow the leader, automatically salute them kind of thing, nor do I take kindly to condescension from colleagues. That said, at least so far my experience in the hospital has been good - depending on who, where -it seems like at least there is more respect happening from the docs towards the rest of the staff

- on the broad plain - not that there isn't still plenty of arrogance and problems from that. Which is why I think DH shakes his head a bit. But, he also knows that there are tons of things that I find interesting, so it's hard to just make choices sometimes. Being a vet tech is totally cool. Of course our vet is always kidding me - "you're not too old - you could go to vet school" . Plus, she has a couple of really older ladies that are awesome vet techs (2nd careers for them).

That's a horrid thing for someone to say. Thankfully in the more recent decades, medical education has put some emphasis on patient-healthcare provider relations & communicationss. The fist NP that I interacted with, some years back, at our regular doc's practice - was kind of lost - IMHO. And asked some pretty stupid questions - but she was new. And didn't listen. The senior NP, OTOH, is really good, and helpful. There seems to be more emphasis on specializing for the NP programs now - either geriatrics, or cardiology, or family practice, are common. I think there are some in the OB area. I'll see - there's time.

Don't apologize - it's fine. From someone that babbles frequently ;^) Hope you had a good rest.

ellice

I think it's a southern half of the Eastern US kind of thing. PJ is punch. Wicked stuff - generally some kind of purple fruit juice mixed with grain alcohol. Different recipes can include all of your finer wines - MD 20/20, ripple, yago sangria, boone's farm - or even some bourbon or Southern Comfort - to go with the Everclear. And a variation of the red-purple juices. Kind of like Electric Kool-aid (but no acid). Very potent.

ellice

We called it Pirate Punch - grape or cherry Kool Aid with whatever alcohol was around.

What will you call the poll?

Cheryl

What year (grade-level) of school was the worst in your opinion? Was it because of the teachers, the curriculum, the social climate, extra-curricular activities, your perception of yourself, family events, or something else? "All of the above" is an acceptable answer!

Okay, this will be the last unless something completely unexpected happens, I promise! Mom's appointment with the surgeon was really great news. Yes, she has an anuerysm (we'd established that), but he doesn't feel that it's quite large enough to require immediate surgery. In fact, he doesn't really want to see her again for about four months. He has detected a murmur that it seems every other Doctor Mom has seen has virtually ignored. He's really more concerned about that, it seems. We have an appointment with a Cardiologist in a couple of weeks, stress tests and all that. Her BP was a remarkable 146/68. I freaked abit over the lower number, but apparently the ideas of what's acceptable have changed quite a bit over the years. He's reasonably sure if surgery is eventually required, it will be the less invasive type, involving stents (sp?) rather than what ever the other method is. (My mind conjures up the image of him literally sewing the good tissue closed and removing the stretched part)

Surprisingly, she's actually moving better, seems to have better motor control on the side that has the most nerve damage and her right foot hasn't done it's weird little cramp dance (you'd have to see it to understand it, as I'm not sure I could explain it at all!). Her right knee is still bothering her some, but apparently not nearly as much as it was. Amazing what proper circulation can do for the body! And after driving her car for several days, I think I know why her hip is hurting! She's driving an '97 Saturn that sits lower to the ground than the old wagon she had before. After driving her in her car for a few days, MY right hip is hurting a bit! I'm so used to basically falling out of my Ranger, and the car she had before sat a bit higher off the ground than the Saturn does. Crawling out of and into her car has been giving me hip trouble as well!

So, thank you all for all your support, explanations and just plain good wishes! I've appreciated it more than you can ever know. Tegan

" snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com" ,in rec.crafts.textiles.needleworkwrote: and entertained us with

Good news Tegan, here's hoping her path is smooth from now on.

On 9/18/06 10:54 PM, " snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com" wrote:

Great news that he's expecting to not see her for a few months. The cardiologist will be able to get the details of the murmur. Basically, it's leaking of some fluid thru the closed valve. When murmurs become quite pronounced they can affect circulation by changing how much blood the ventricles pump out because of how much gets into the chamber before the ventricles contract and eject. So you may hear the term "ejection volume or fraction" which is what they're talking about. How much gets pumped out into the circulation. Sometimes a murmur can just be some noisy clicking of the valves, some are really minor, and just the way that heart is plumbed. Anyhow - the cardiologist will probably do an echo-cardiogram. This is a sonogram of the heart, and will let him/her see the pumping action and id the murmur even better. And they'll no doubt do another 12 lead EKG, which has lots of information as to how the heart is functioning. The echo is very non-invasive, and you'll be fascinated to watch.

FWIW - Puckster - the springer spaniel, has a slight murmur which his vet & I heard. Because of the fiasco with his eye injury, we ended up at the doggy cardiologist yesterday - what fun. Great guy. They did an echo of the Puckster, who was very well behaved, though getting the goo (it's like KY jelly but for transmitting the signal) off his fur - yuck. Very interesting, in that doggy hearts are similar to people but the orientation and some proportions are a bit different. His regular vet had done a chest xray and thought the right side was enlarged (athlete, human & animal, sometimes have larger hearts than the norm), and couldn't tell the details, so we went to this cardiologist (he was awesome). Turns out that it was just the position/rotation in the dogs chest. But, he definitely has a tiny murmur in the mitral valve and slightly less in the tricuspid - which the vet said is an age thing, although Puckster is only 5. And he said that as it's not a genetic thing, nothing in his breeding lines, he'd sign off for us to breed him 1 time to a totally normal female. This dog is actually the best dog I've evern had - though there are a couple of others that come really close. And he's evidently a really good-looking springer (he's the field type, not so chunky as the show ones, he's got patches & ticking like the kind you see in old paintings of bird dogs). I'm not a long-time springer person - but it's weird -every dog place, or vet that he goes to tells us what a handsome boy he is (not too jowly). So, we really want a pup of his - for us, and his company. Promised to breed 1 time only, and then he's out of business.

A stent is essentially not far from what you imagine. They can re-route through some synthetic material for the vessel.

Well, aside from deciding that you're not good in mom's car, things sound good. Glad to hear it. Maybe try getting an extra cushion on the car seats.

Just keep your positive attitude, and doing what you're doing! And try to get some nice relaxing stitching in there!

ellice

ellice wrote: > For laughing - my crew of crazed techies - we tend to laugh at tech stuff.

Sounds like DH watching movies about computers or music, his two areas of expertise. I remember going to see Rob Roy, and DH spoiled the lovely fireside scene with Davy Spillane playing the pipes, saying, "They wouldn't have had UILLEANN pipes then!" Aargh!

And computer/techie movies - oy veh! He can always blow the plot wide open with, "That wouldn't happen in a million years. Computers can't do that (yet)."

He's not too good with "the willing suspension of disbelief," LOL!

Sue