Even more work and more $ for school?

I just found out that someone at work, is looking for another job. If he leaves, I will be able to work more and save lots of money in the next 4 months. I wouldn't mind working 40-60 hours a week until school starts. I'm currently only working about 25 hours a week. The free time is great, but having more money for school would be greatly appreciated.

Malignant Hyperthermia

I was talking to someone today about my plan to become a Respiratory Therapist. After explaining that one of the roles of a Respiratory Therapist can be to assist Anaesthesiologists in the operating room, she mentioned that she has a rare genetic disorder that makes her susceptible to Malignant Hyperthermia. Apparently she's quite a celebrity when she goes in for surgery. She mentioned that there seem to be a lot of Medical Students around, whenever she goes in for surgery. It's a fairly rare disorder that can have catastrophic health consequences when an affected person undergoes anaesthesia.

There's a good description of Malignant Hyperthermia at the Malignant Hyperthermia Association of the United States web site:
http://www.mhaus.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/OnlineBrochures.Display/BrochurePK/8AABF3FB-13B0-430F-BE20FB32516B02D6.cfm

Need to be sensible and get more sleep!

Why do I keep on staying up so late! When I don't get enough sleep, I tend to become a cranky angry asshole. I caught myself at work today not so silently cursing at my computer, because I was having trouble getting something done. That type of behaviour isn't something that makes for a pleasant work environment for my coworkers and really should be avoided.

I really need to learn how to bite my tongue, when I'm in a bad mood and things aren't going my way, especially if I'm going to be doing a fairly stressfull job in a hospital some day.

A big thank you to my sister!

My sister was the one who suggested that I buy a condo. I was pretty apprehensive about buying a condo just before starting RT School. At one point I actually changed my mind and gave up on the whole idea. If it wasn't for her handholding and encouragement, during the whole process, I wouldn't have gone through with it.

A new place to live

Well it's done. I'm buying a one bedroom condo. The seller and I agreed on a price, on Saturday, and we both signed four copies of the paper work. My financing has been approved and my lawyer is looking over all of the paper work. I can't believe how easy the whole process was. My banker and real estate agent made the whole experience rather pleasant and unstressfull. I can move in, any time after July 16th. I'm still getting used to the idea that I will have such a nice place to live in, while I am in school.

I took a bunch of pictures before I signed all of the paper work. I'm not going to post all of the pictures because some of them have visible framed photographs in them, belonging to the person currently living in the condo. I did ask for permission to take the photograps but I don't think that images of the current tenants family and friends should be posted on my blog.

This is the Kitchen.













This is the bedroom.














This is the living room.













This is a shot of the dining room. That same kind of floor tile is used in the washroom, kitchen and dining room.













This is foyer buy the front door.













This is the insuite washer and dryer, with a water heater tucked in the back corner. No more going to the laundry room for me! Damn. I never thought that I would be proud of the fact that I will be the owner of my very own water heater!



















Unfortunately I don't have much furniture and the furniture I do have, isn't nearly as nice as the stuff shown in the photographs. I'm going to have to spend a few thousand dollars to get the place decently furnished.

Buying a condo

I looked at a one bedroom condo on Friday that I really like. I'm putting in an offer on the condo this afternoon. If the offer isn't accepted I'm going to be really disappointed. I'm really glad that I saved all of that money when I was working in IT! The prospect of going to school, not working and living in a nice condo has gotten me really excited.

The condo is less than 10 minutes away from school, by bus.

Laryngeal Mask Airway insertion

This is an interesting video that shows the insertion of a Laryngeal Mask Airway. http://www.ispub.com/ostia/index.php?xmlFilePath=journals/ija/vol5n3/video.xml

To remain anonymous

There has been a disturbing trend in the blogosphere. People are getting into trouble for their blogging. In many cases they aren't actually doing anything wrong. Take a look at Baby Medic's Sunday, March 18, 2007 post at http://rockymountainmedic.blogspot.com/ and http://pdxemt.blogspot.com/ to see what I'm talking about. These bloggers have run into problems even though they don't seem to have done anything wrong.

There are certain things that I shouldn't be blogging about. Posting anything that violates patient confidentiality is obviously something that shouldn't be done. I can even understand why I shouldn't be posting anything as a "disgruntled employee" or "disgruntled student".

What concerns me is that someone may take issue with something that I post and I will have defend my right to blog or stop blogging all together. If no one knows who I am, I won't have to defend anything I do. I should only have to worry about blogging and doing so in an ethical manner.

I have occasionally been tempted to tell some friends about my blog. I think I'm going to keep this blog "my little secret", so that I don't ever feel that my blogging is a threat to my career aspirations and eventual employment as a Respiratory Therapist.

I think that in time, this blog will be of great value for me as a travel down the road towards becoming a Respiratory Therapist. As an added benefit, this blog will also give people who are interested in the Respiratory Therapy profession some information about what it's like to be a Respiratory Therapy student.

For now I shall remain anonymous.

Latex Allergy

Yes, apparently some people are allergic to latex. I wasn't really aware of latex allergies until I started looking around at allied heatlh programs. I even saw warnings about latex posted on lab doors at Conestoga, when I was there last Wednesday. I think that most people with a latex allergies get a horrible rash when their skin comes in contact with it. Some medical professionals have developed a life threatening allergy to it. Being a health care worker is considered a risk factor for developing a latex allergy! The amount of exposure to latex seems to be related to the developement of the allergy. What can make the situation worse is the use of powdered latex gloves.

Powder is added to latex gloves so that they are easier to put on and take off. The allergic response is actually caused by latex proteins. Latex proteins can become attached to the aforementioned powder and become airborne, which means that in certain environments people are actually breathing in the allergin. There is now a move towards using non powdered low protein gloves, in the medical field.

Working more (and saving $ for school)

It looks like I'll be putting in some more hours at my IT job in the coming months, which should allow me to increase my savings. I was working yesterday from 9AM until 10:30PM. The last 5 hours of that time was spent trying to bring up a VPN connection from another city.

Condo hunting

I started hunting for a condo apartment last week. The financing for a condo purchase was approved yesterday. It has taken me a while to get comfortable with the idea of being a full time RT student that has to pay a mortgage! I'm now looking forward to living in a place that's "mine", while I'm in RT school.

I hope that my real estate agent can get me in to look at a few more condos this week.

New blog name and URL

I couldn't use http://rtstudent.blogspot.com because it does not seem to be available. The new URL is now http://rtscribe.blogspot.com. I'm an avid reader of http://medicscribe.blogspot.com so I thought that doing a variation of that URL would be cool.

Changing the name of this blog

I'm starting to dislike the name of this blog. I'm having trouble thinking of myself as a "Cubicle Rat" these days. So far the best name I can think of is Respiratory Therapy Student. I think that I may also change the URL for the blog to http://rtstudent.blogspot.com.