Worst blogger ever! Where have I been? Ortho!

Yes I know! Last blog? I probably should just give this up as you have probably given up on reading! But today Mat and I have been in Roanoke for officially 6 months! We've made it. I feel like I should catch you up or atleast tell you about the exciting parts (and I have lots of time on this car ride)! 

I can't even begin to tell you all my stories but I will try to catch you up without terribly boring you.

May was a month of orthopedics! Two weeks straight baby...of fractures, dislocations, wash outs and OR time. Orthopedics is not my expertise or my favorite...but I really enjoyed the relocations and the splinting. And learned how much I don't know about orthopedics! I completed two very long 24 hour shifts. Well one 25 hour shift and one 24.My fellow colleagues learned Alissa gets pretty cranky at hour 16, very cranky at hour 20, and has a foul mouth at hour 25! At hour 24...I was holding the 300 lbs man's leg, for the third time as we were relocating the ankle for the 3rd time and splinting it for the third time as the man was drunk off ketamine and kept hitting on me as I was leaning against his sweaty belly, holding his 100llb thigh, dripping sweat myself and then the resident forgot some splint material! Really? He heard words I never knew I could say! I didn't understand why I was holding the thigh instead of yanking on the ankle as he got it wrong the first 2 times and 2 hours later. And if you can imagine I told him how I felt. Needless to say the man ended up in surgery and I finally got some sleep and a shower. I relocated a hip, a couple of shoulders, washed out some open fractures, reduced many distal radius, hematoma blocks, met a lot of cute old ladies with hip fractures, and learned to love to work with plaster. Nothing is more satisfying the reducing a blue ankle that then turns pink again. 

2 weeks was plenty long on that rotation. Lots of floor calls, lots of dilaudid, and my favorite consult from a floor nurse who stated  "he feels like he wants to vomit but can't" at 4am! Give him some white chocolate pudding for crying out loud!!