Everything really IS bigger in Texas

So last year when I left Texas I drove to Arizona.  I discovered that everything is bigger in Texas, including nothing!  Last week I learned that even the hail is bigger in Texas.  I know hail exists in the baseball to softball size but I have never witnessed such an event.  I hope I never do again.

Last Thursday while I was at work the hospital was beset with hail that ranged from golf ball to grapefruit in size.  It was not pretty, at all.  My car was totaled, as were many other cars of employees and patient families.  I used garbage bags and gorilla tape to patch the Journey up to get back and forth to work until I could get a replacement.  Today I flew home to Des Moines and tomorrow I will drive my new Journey back to Texas.  

On the plus side some pretty funny stuff happened at work.  I had a student notice that a patient was charted as pregnant and lactating.  Not the biggest deal except they were an octogenarian.  I told the student to call the Guinness Book of World Records!  Turns out the admitting nurse had trouble with the admission profile scrolling and clicked those options on accident.  She and the patient had already had a good laugh about it.


Another funny thing was catching a patient trying to make a break for it.  I had seen the patient in a wheelchair being pushed by the unit clerk from a neighboring unit.  As I went to check on one of my patients I saw the same wheelchair patient alone, wheeling casually through the waiting room.  I watched as the patient turned the corner towards some offices and immediately increased their speed.  I quickly caught the patient and asked where they thought they were going.  I returned the patient to their unit, which I think did not make that patient happy.

And finally.  I had a patient on a breathing machine with a mask.  It is very difficult to understand what anyone says into the call light when they wear that mask, so I went to see what this patient needed.  They told me they could chew the pill in their mouth and needed to spit it out.  This concerned me as I had not given them a pill.  So I took off the mask and the patient spit out their lower dentures.  They looked a bit surprised by this, because they had been certain they had a pill in their mouth.

If you haven't seen pictures of the car, here is the link.  I included a picture of my new one.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/35077813@N03/sets/72157645263630951/