Yep yep yep yep yep, cow. Mooooo!

I really should be studying or sleeping right now, but a friend posted up some links to Sesame Street bits on YouTube. Man that site is a timesucker.

I got tears in my eyes from laughing at this Yep Yep aliens sketch. My sister used to talk like them all the time. I think I know what I'm going as for Halloween.

Having trouble peeing? Yeah, we got something for that.

Thursday's skill lab was devoted to learning how to insert urinary catheters. Wheee. Doing it on the mannequin was fairly simple. Of course, they don't wince when you shove a tube up their urethra. And unlike some real women, the mannequin's urethral opening is easy to find. I did learn a trick though. When cleansing the inner labia with the betadine swabs, the urethral opening often winks when stroked. So there's that.



The demonstration video we watched to prep for the day had live models in it. Some friends and I were wondering how much they got paid for it. First, there's the irritation factor, and second, your junk is out there preserved on video for posterity.



We took home foley kits to practice on our own and I briefly considered trying it out on myself, just to see how much it hurt. I didn't do it, but the next day I told a small group of students that I had. No one batted an eye, and a few people said that they had considered it as well. I fessed up to the lie, but was somewhat concerned that my fellow students so readily believed me.

Someone told a story about a female student who was assisting a nurse with a catheterization on a male patient. The student was holding the penis and the nurse was just about to insert the catheter when she was called out of the room. So the student is left holding this guy, who is 17 years old. Annnnnd he gets an unintentional hard-on. She drops it and hastily exits the room. Embarrassment all around.

Cigarettes or fingers, your choice

I'm in my adult health lecture class right now learning about peripheral vascular disease. My instructor just went over the danger of tobacco use when patients have other predisposing factors to obstructions in their blood vessels. Tobacco use causes vasoconstriction (arterial muscles constrict the vessels), increased platelet aggregation (and therefore blood clot formation), increased levels of epinephrine & norepinephrine which cause further vasoconstriction and increased heart rate, and the introduction of carbon monoxide which interferes with oxygenation.

Severe peripheral vascular disease can result in tissue death and may require amputation of the affected extremity (arms and legs). All of that is just background to what the instructor said next:

"Physicians will often tell their patients, 'You can choose cigarettes, or your extremities, but not both.'"

To which I added, "And remember, it’s hard to smoke without hands, so..."

Rather nasty experience

*Not for the squeamish*

Turn back now if you know what's good for you.

I'm in a confessional mood, so I'll share. When I got home tonight, I ate some mint chocolate ice cream while watching Arrested Development episodes. I'd finished my ice cream and was washing it down with some water when some funny bit happened on the show. As everyone knows, swallowing and laughing at the same time is not well-tolerated in the body. It's pretty much a war between the two. In my case the battle was settled thusly:

1) Swallowed water went into my trachea instead of esophagus
2) Coughing ensued
3) A small quantity of mint chocolate ice cream came back up my esophagus
4) Regurgitated ice cream entered my mouth (still mostly full of water) and nose
5) Watery ice cream fell out of my mouth into my glass
6) Into a paper towel, I blew a mixture of ice cream and mucous out of my nose
7) Coughing continued while I contemplated how vile it all was

Calexico at Emo's

I saw Calexico play a free show acoustic show tonight. It was pretty good. I've seen them play better, but you can't argue with a free show. I was surprised that they didn't play more songs from their new album as this and the scattering of other US dates they're playing are to promote Garden Ruin.

More out of focus pics here. I didn't squeeze up front because I was with someone, and where we were standing was not conducive to picture-taking.

Day surgery

Once during our first semester of upper-division classwork, every nursing student at UT has a chance to observe day surgery.

I saw:

1) Three colonoscopies

The first was routine. The doctor was cool and pointed out anatomy like the entrance to the appendix, the liver (blue patch on the colon wall), and the prostate. The second one was interesting because the patient chose not to be sedated. He was a trooper, breathed well through the painful parts, and didn't make a peep. The third guy was well-sedated and yet still groaned loudly throughout it. Poor guy, it was a rough go for him. Thankfully we won't remember it because of the amnesiac effects of the sedation.

2) Uterine and cervical tissue sampling

Just what it says. It requires a lot of prep for a procedure that's over quickly. Sterile drapes all over the place.

3) Two hand surgeries

First was removal of a benign tumor from a woman's hand. The surgeon specializes in hands and was happy to tell me all about what she was doing and why. The second surgery wasn't as cool, but still interesting. I got to fetch the nurse a sterile finger nail cleaner and open up a sterile gown for the doctor.

So nothing too bloody for me. A fellow student got to see a nose job where they pulled out a guy's middle nasal turbinate.



That was really bloody as the tissue is well-perfused by capillaries which you'd expect because one of the functions of the turbinates is to warm inhaled air.

I'd never been interested in surgery before, but after this experience, I can see myself possibly working in day surgery at some point. The high turnover and variety would keep it interesting.

Of honkers, hoo-hoos, and hornpipes

Today in class we learned assessment of the breasts and genitalia. Usually we assess each other, but since assessment includes inspection and palpation, today we just watched videos and looked at medical models. Even that made some people anxious.

The breast exam video played without controversy. During the male genital asessment video though, there was a bit of an uproar. The "patient" in the video was uncircumcised and the narrator explained that with such patients, the examiner asks them to retract their foreskin. The guy in the video did and you'd think there was mouse in there or something. Gasps and actual muffled screams from the ladies in the audience (I didn't hear any of the five other guys, but maybe they freaked too). I'm not sure exactly why they were so surprised and/or horrified. Once he pulled it back it looked like a circumsized penis, something I assume they'd seen before. Maybe they were shocked by the amount of foreskin? Cause he did have a lot. Whatever the reason, it cracked me up to see and hear such an extreme reaction.

Later, our instructor asked the teaching assistant to start handing out medical models so that the students could palpate the testicles for lumps. What she said, in a completely casual tone, was "S____ is handing out the testicles as we speak." Priceless.

On the the subject of infants' level of cool

From last Wednesday to Sunday, I was at the National Student Nursing Association convention in Baltimore. I’ll write more about that later, but I just remembered something.

One of my guy nursing student friends calls things “gay” all the time, like in the 5th grade sense. “That test was gay,” and so forth. He used to apologize to me when he did it, until I convinced him that I knew what he meant, it didn’t offend me, and that it actually made me laugh because it was so childish.

During the convention we were at dinner one night and someone started talking about her experience on the maternity floor at the hospital. Several other people joined in, cooing about how precious the babies can be. In a lull in the conversation, both as a rebuke to all the goo-goo talk and a crack at my guy friend, I said in my most contemptuous surfer dude voice, “Babies are gay.”

What happens in skills lab, stays in skills lab

I had an assessment performance exam yesterday. In front of our instructor, my lab partner and I had to assess each other’s skin, gastrointestinal, and neuromuscular systems. In the real world, we wouldn’t be doing large parts of the exam, but it’s useful to learn. While we perform the exam, we talked out loud so the instructor knew that we knew what we were doing.

It was my turn and I was about to assess my partner for sensation in the face and extremities (arms and legs). To do this, you have the patient close their eyes and tell them that you will lightly brush their skin with different stimuli (in this case either a cotton wisp, the blunt end of a tongue depressor, or the end of a unwound paperclip). The patient is to tell the examiner where they feel the sensation and whether is was the soft, blunt, or sharp stimulus.

I never practiced exactly how I was going to say it out loud. What came out was, “OK, close you eyes and I’m going to touch you in various places.”

There was a pause in the exam as my instructor and lab partner laughed heartily. Yeah, that was fairly inappropriate.

The pointy end is the patient end

I gave my first injection today, and I wasn’t nervous at all. I think I was so focused on proper technique, that anxiety couldn’t take hold. It was a subcutaneous injection (into the layer of fat between skin and muscle) of insulin into the back of the patient’s upper arm, which is a preferred site for insulin. The patient’s been getting insulin injections for a long time now, I don’t think I hurt him.

I didn’t tell him it was my first time with a real person, but he didn’t really need to know that. Why create unnecessary anxiety? Or have him flat turn me down? When we practice injections in lab, our teachers actually address this. The hypothetical conversation between student nurse and patient would go something like this (with the parts said only in our heads in brackets):

Student nurse: OK, time for your medication.
Patient: Nursing student huh. Have you done this before?
SN: Yes [on a mannequin].
Patient: Who?
SN: I just gave an injection to Mr. O’Dell [which is the name of our mannequin].

I didn't have that conversation with my patient. He seemed at ease with me and I was ready to go. Prep site, dart in, stabilize, inject slowly, withdraw. No problem.

The Go-gos at Stubb’s

I had hemmed and hawed about going to this show. What decided it for me was so many of my friend decided to go. I’m very glad that I did. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of it coming out, they played the Beauty & the Beat album all the way through. Rock on. I never thought I’d ever hear them play “This Town”. So very happy. After that they played a bunch more songs from all over their career, the hits sure, but also more obscure stuff. I can’t recall what exactly those songs were, but it was cool. They were tight and Belinda and Jane’s vocals were strong and clear. Great show to see in the open air. It I hadn’t been sick, I would have been dancing up a storm. All I managed was some shimmy and shake during “Head Over Heels.”

What really amused me about this show was the audience. There were tons of people who clearly have been fans since the band was in their heyday. I saw at least five original tour t-shirts and lots of mouthing of lyrics. I noticed that local TV meteorologist Mark Murray was there as well. After seeing him at so many shows over the years, I’m convinced that he’s a big music geek and probably lived at clubs when he was younger. The next time I see him at a show I think I’m going to go talk to him.

Sickity Suckity

Being sick sucks. Being sick when I have lots of schoolwork supersucks. It hyper-sucks. It vacuum-of-space sucks. Friday morning I had a dry cough. Saturday morning I woke up feeling achy, feverish, dazed, and coughing. Ditto Sunday. I called my clinical teacher and gave her the heads up. Even a slight fever precludes us going to the hospital. The patients are already ill in some way, best to not expose them to any more germs. Plus, with an already taxed immune system, we could very well get something from the patients.

Thankfully my clinical instructor is cool and recognized that I’ve been doing a great job this semester so I didn’t have to make it up by going another day.

The other symptoms were pretty much resolved by Wednesday morning when I had a test, but the chest congestion and cough held on for days costing me lots of sleep. Friday night, my friend Chad gave me generic Musinex and that worked where everything else had failed to break up the chest congestion. Thanks Chad!

I gave a pill today

I gave my first medication today.

Before we students are allowed to dispense meds, we have to pass a test on basic math, unit conversions, and medical abbreviations. The math is pretty easy. The most difficult concept is when the prescription for an injected medication is for 15 mg and the vial that you have is 5 mg/mL. So, you do the math and draw up 3 mL. Sometimes it’s a little more complicated than that, but it’s just multiplication and division.

Unit conversions are more difficult because it’s just brute memorization. 1 ounce is 30 mL. 1 teaspoon is 5 mL. 1 grain is 15 mg. What’s a grain? It’s a unit of measure from the apothecary system, it doesn’t actually mean a grain as in rice, it’s anachronistic, and we’re all a little miffed that we have to learn it because some older doctors are fond of it for whatever reason.

Medical abbreviations also require memorization. Many of them make sense, especially if you know Latin, like s/p is status post (status after a procedure or some such) and PO is per oralis (by mouth). Others are less clear, like PRN (as needed). I did okay on that part, except for when I defined ac as before breakfast when it really means before before meals. No duh stoopid.

The last requirement for us to give meds is to review the medications with our clinical instructors before giving them. Mostly without prompting, we’re supposed to be able to name the drug, its functional class, indications (why it’s prescribed for this particular patient), common and life-threatening side effects, significant drug interactions, and nursing implications (checking blood pressure or lab values before administering, teaching patients about precautions, etc.). It’s really not that difficult and I feel much more socially useful learning that stuff than being able to say, break down a film script or convincingly dub in sound effects.

Anyway, I gave my patient a pain pill today. Some of my fellow students who gave meds said they felt like real nurses for the first time today. I didn't feel that way, but it was still damn cool.

SXSW: Wrap-up

So I’m waaaay behind on blogging and am trying to catch up. Just to preserve the timeline, I’m backdating entries.

After the high of Thursday, Friday was a big let-down over all. It started well with The Bats in-store at End of an Ear. They were fun and it was great seeing a band I never thought I would see live. Also, I got Robert Scott as part of my 6ths autograph collection. It was a little odd because it was like he’d expected me to be there for that purpose. When I gave him the liner notes, he immediately took it and commented that it was fun song to sing. It’s rather funny to think about this older, seemingly reserved, straight Kiwi singing about a crush on an anonymous leather-jacketed fellow.

After that, I ran over to Spider House to see The Hidden Cameras again. I do love that band. After a few songs, Joel asked, "Where's CC?" referring to the back of my head. I stuck my hand up and he called me up saying I was their Texas tambourine player. So frickin' cool that I got to be on stage with a band I love twice. Afterwards I was all smiles. And they were so nice. Yay.

That night I got a late start and didn't catch any 8 or 9 o'clock show. As it happens, I ran into Mybloody and Spitting Tacks on Red River and we talked for a while. After that I waited in line way too long to get into the Sub Pop showcase. It was only after I got in that I found out it was running about 45 minutes behind. I suffered through The National for several songs before deciding it just wasn’t worth sticking around to see Rogue Wave, so I went home.

Saturday was better. Saw Rogue Wave do an acoustic show at the Convention Center. Beautiful and stirring. It’s a testament to Zach Rogue’s songwriting that the songs held up well at lower volume and without guitar effects. I’m still kicking myself for not recording it on my camera. Normally, the mic gets blown out, but they were quiet enough so that it would have worked. Oh well.

The Flatstock poster show was great, as usual. I’m so glad that poster art had a resurgence starting around 2001, especially in Austin. I was disciplined and only bought one $5 poster.

Saturday I spent most of the night with Mybloody. He gives a nice recap here. Tullycraft were really amazing. Totally whipped the crowd up and I got T-shirt as a reward for dancing. After that I walked over to Stubb's to hear a little of The Pretenders, but mostly stood outside talking to my friend John about music and zombie movies before heading home.

Sunday is usually my chill day before going back to the real world. Now that I have to go to the hospital on Sunday to prep for patient care on Monday morning, not so much. The annual softball games were rained out and they moved the BBQ across town. I stopped by for the free BBQ, scarfed it down, went to the hospital, and then camped out at the library typing up my client database.

And so ended SXSW 2006. One more year to volunteer before I leave Austin.

SXSW: Smiths turned down $5 mil to reunite

A Billboard story quotes Morrissey (at his SXSW interview) on the former members of The Smiths being offered $5 million to reunite for Coachella. Full story here.

Also, at a warm-up gig in Tulsa, he played "Stop Me (If You Heard This One Before)". I'm not complaining per se, we got "How Soon is Now?", but dang. I love "Stop Me".

SXSW: pictures

Some pictures I've taken so far of SXSW 2006 music.

SXSW: No time for details

I'm in the thick of SXSW music. No time to write extensively about all the greatness I've experienced the last few days. Suffice to say that yesterday was one of the best days of music IN MY LIFE. No joke.

A quick enumeration:

1) Hidden Cameras at Emo's

A day show by a band that didn't make it across the Canadian border when they were supposed to play SXSW 2004. Just amazing. The best part was that I got to play tambourine with them on stage. Incredibly cool.

2) Richard Hawley at Emo's

Mr. Hawley played the same day show. Never heard of him before and he blew me away. I love getting blind-sided by music. Listen to him.

3) Echo & the Bunnymen at Town Lake

Free outdoor show. New stuff was decent. They delivered on the old stuff: Never Stop, Bring On the Dancing Horses, The Cutter, The Killing Moon, Rescue. Wheee!

4) Morrissey at Austin Music Hall

Played what seemed like his entire new album with a couple songs from his last one. Oh yeah, and some Smiths songs: Still Ill, Girlfriend in a Coma, How Soon is Now?, Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me. HOLY FUCK! I heard How Soon is Now? actually coming out of Morrissey mouth. I'm not ashamed to admit that I cried a little bit. How could this night get any better?

5) Hidden Cameras at Molotov

After eating and getting a bit of caffeine in me, I was ready to dance up a storm at their regular showcase. When we (Jen K and mybloody) got to the venue, we were worried. It was a "classy" bar with a make-shift stage crammed under a staircase. And there wasn't anybody there. Thankfully a crowd gathered as the band struggled with guitar problems. Joel borrowed a guitar from the next band (all hail Pong!) and, being left-handed, played it upside-down. They turned in a blistering set of glorious sound. The audience was over the moon and the band was clearly having a fantastic time. Stumbled out sweaty, spent, and raving over what an incredible day we were having.

6) Figurines at Karma

Jen K was kind of enough to indulge me in seeing a bit of this band's set before me went home. I've become entranced by one of their songs lately and wanted to see them play it. It was a little weird to arrive at the club, sit in the back room as they played their first song, run out and dance furiously to "The Wonder" while mouthing the words, then just leave right after. Whatever. I was a tired puppy.

Great great great great day.

SXSW Film: Bondage

Just walked out of this film. At an event like this, when there's always something else to do, there's just no point in watching a poorly made movie. From the description, I was expecting a gritty, documentary-style feature about an Orange County kid who fucks up once and gets put through the ringer of the juvenile justive system. No such luck.

Bondage doesn't know what it wants to be. Consistent only its tonal inconsistency, it veers from juvenile delinquency played for comedy to the serious consequences of this behavior, from the zany antics of Andy Dick (?!) to the threat of prison rape. I wanted to like the actors, among them Illeana Douglas (To Die For, Six Feet Under), Michael K. Williams (The Wire), and Michael Angaran (Will and Grace), but it's like they were acting in different movies; almost always a failing of the director.

So I left.

SXSW Film: loudQUIETloud: A Film about the Pixies

I'm a big Pixies fan, have been since high school when they were still together. I never saw them live back then. Having heard how bad they sounded on the tour, I didn't want to see them open for U2. So it broke my heart when I heard that they had broken up. Not wanting to be disappointed again, I was wary of the reunion rumors until the shows were actually booked. I finally saw them at Austin City Limits Festival 2004 and it was pretty fuckin' amazing. In that post, I left out how I cried when they played "Velouria", though I'm not sure why as that song's not even in my top ten of Pixies songs. Music does funny things to you. I saw them two more time in Houston and Austin on their next go-round and it was better each time.

Anyway, I saw the world premiere of loudQUIETloud last night and it was fantastic. When directors Steven Cantor and Matthew Galkin (Devil's Playground) heard the reunion rumors, they pitched the idea of filming it, along with many other suitors. They got the nod and so their cameras were present from the first rehearsal all the way through to the end of the first tour. Along the way they capture it all, the hesitant comradery, the disconcerting silences, the humor, the grief, and the blistering performances that made the band's reputation. loudQUIETloud is The Pixies, warts and all. It's an odd thing to see a band that barely communicates with each other offstage deliver so powerfully onstage. And they're not even mad at each other, they just don't seem to have a lot in common besides the music.



Equally as strange is that this band, who was never that popular when they releasing albums, have continued to attract new fans. Every show filmed has a mix of fans from 16 to 40-years-old. I'd ascribe at least part of this continued legacy to the many bands that The Pixies inspired. loudQUIETloud opens with the quote from Kurt Cobain about "Smells Like Teen Spirit" being his attempt to write a Pixies song. One young fan in particular is featured, returning during the credits for a great payoff.

For any Pixies fan, the film is a must. It's a great document, just try to keep from twitching in your seat when they rip into "Something Against You" or "Cactus" or "UMass". For everyone else, it's hard to say. I can't really put myself in the mindset of someone who doesn't know of them.



Joey and David were at the screening and answered questions afterward. Nothing too thrilling. As expected, they were mum on any future recording plans.

Finally, shoutout to my high school classmate Miles who is a roadie for the band and appears twice briefly. Too fucking cool.

SXSW Film: Summercamp!

Documentary director Bradley Beesley is what you would call a friend of the festival. His films Okie Noodling and the Flaming Lips doc Fearless Freaks both showed at SXSW in years past. He returns this year with Summercamp!, co-directed by Sarah Price (American Movie).

It's a fairly simple idea, follow the kids at a nature-focused summer camp as they experience the fun and not-so-fun of being away from home. I won't give anything away, but the stories they focus on are uniformly good. One in particular knocked the audience for a loop. You can't write plot points like that, one of the reasons I prefer docs to narrative films at festivals. High praise to editor JoLyn Garnes who does a masterful job of putting together well-constructed chapters that are complete in themselves while also forwarding the main stories. From the Q&A after the screening, I got the impression that Beesley and Price shot separately. If so, they did a great job of communicating to stay on the same page. It never felt like two movies.

Though Summercamp! is not a sublime work of art or one-of-a-kind documetary, it is a enjoyable film that deserves to be seen by a wider audience. Catch it at SXSW if you can, at the first screening two of the camp counselors lead the audience in a camp song and answered questions about the experience from their perspective.