Routine? How hard can it be.

Below, un-edited, is the bed-time routine for my daughter, as typed by my wife who is going out for the night. It'd likely be easier to defuse a car bomb...

Sadie’s Bedtime Routine 6/05

She pees and brushes teeth in bathroom (she can use Fairly Oddparents toothpaste, but make sure she spits!);

While she’s doing these things, I put juice cup and lambies on the floor next to her Spongebob towel;

She lies down on towel in bedroom, I put her diaper on (and switch her into PJ’s if she’s going to wear them);

We lie on floor and read the three books next to the rocking chair (she picks the order. For Mr. Bumble book, she says the answers and turns the page).

She puts her pillow on the rocking chair, then turns on the humidifier. Then I carry her to the dresser, where she turns on the music. Then, I put her down and she turns off the overhead light and turns on the ceiling fan.

After this, I hold her in the rocking chair and sing two songs to her:

Hush Little Sadie, don’t say a word,
Daddy’s gonna buy you a mockingbird,
If that mockingbird won’t sing,
Daddy’s gonna buy you a diamond ring.
If that diamond ring won’t shine,
Daddy’s gonna buy you a Clementine.
If that Clementine tastes like oak,
Daddy’s gonna buy you a billy goat.
If that billy goat’s milk turns sour,
Daddy’s gonna buy you a pretty flower.
I love you and you love me,
And that’s the way it’s always going to be.


Hey, look me over, lend me an ear,
Fresh out of clover, mortgaged up to here.
But don’t pass the plate, folks, don’t pass the cup,
I figure whenever you’re down and out the only way is up
And I’ll be up like a rosebud, high on the vine,
Don’t thumb your nose, bud, take a tip from mine.
I’m a little bit short of the elbow room, but let me get me some,
And look out world, here I come.



After this, we put pillow and juice cup in crib, she holds lambies. I stand by the crib and hold her and sing the “Happy Birthday” song to her. After I say …”dear SADIE…” she says, ”I didn’t hear you,” and I say “What?!” and then sing it again really fast while rocking her fast. Then we sing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” and I put her in the crib.

She likes to have her pink quilted teddy bear blanket (the one from Emily) on top of her inside the sleeping bag (which I zip up to about her armpits), with the Spongebob towel and other blanket on top of the sleeping bag.

When I leave the room, she says “Night night, bye bye,” and I repeat this and then close the door. She says “Night night, bye bye” again, and I open the door and say, “Last time.” She says it again and I close the door. She says it again and I open the door and say, “No more times after this.” She says it once more and I close the door – that should do it!

Two options at this point: 1) go downstairs and drink; 2) collapse on the bed. They are not mutually exclusive.

Secret Agent Man

I have been busy with purported plagiarism and cheating cases this week (we went from 1400 to 2330 on Monday, did four cases today and have five or six tomorrow). I guess the semester isn’t really over until all of the potential academic dishonesty cases have been heard.

Can't give too many details here at this point, but we had an expert witness who is an ex-FBI agent and is now working as a private detective. Honor board hearings are not supposed to be adversarial, and this is the first time in my history where we have had "hired guns" come in to testify on the behalf of a student. It was just ODD.

Someday I'll write more about honor hearings, and include abstracted information from this week’s and other hearings. Right now it is too time-locked with what just happened and I do not want to risk violating anyone's privacy rights or the oath that what happens in the hearings is private (I wouldn't, but am worried that it would seem like I did).

All quiet on the EMS front.

DJ

Two Long Rides

Things had been very quiet – Days without a call of any kind. Then yesterday…

Two calls I couldn’t go on: a difficulty breathing followed by a full arrest.

Third call of the day – Call comes in as nausea and vomiting. I’m in the middle of something, but the call is close by, the other medic worked a 12 hour shift at his job followed by working the full arrest, and I figure it will be an hour for the call, tops, so off I go. When I get to the station the crew informs me that they got a phone call and that this patient would be going to a hospital about an hour away. They figure they can handle the call BLS (Basic Life Support), but ask if I’ll go to the scene just to be sure. No problem. Upon arrival we find a dialysis patient with altered mental status. Not BLS in my book, so out to the car to turn it off and lock it up. Fairly un-eventful ride to the hospital (it took two sticks to get the IV), but I don’t really know what her problem was (her blood sugar was fine, no stroke symptoms, normal sinus on the monitor, etc.). Between the before and after, I’m out of town for almost three hours…

When I finally get home I am tired and ready to spend some time drooling on myself with my son at my side (my daughter is already on her way to bed). Pager goes off: “ X rescue, DJs ambulance, EMS call in X, two adults with burns from an exploding propane grill”. My first thought: YOUCH. My second thought: Maybe when I fire up the grill I really should follow the directions (on mine you are to light it with the lid up, but it makes such a nice WHOOSH when you light it with the lid down – no more…). Third thought: Maybe I ought to be thinking about driving instead of pain and propane grills. Our first rig goes out of service BLS while I’m on my way to the station. Second rig is me and a driver. We get on scene and there are indeed two pts, one with his head bandaged, face completely covered with gauze. Rescue is pouring sterile saline over his bandages, much to the relief of the patient. The second patient is clearly a BLS patient, and I leave her to the EMTs on scene. A medic with the rescue tells me my patient has second degree burns on this forehead, nose, cheeks and lips. We shuffle crews a bit, and switch to the new ambulance, and we get the patient loaded. Based on the location and severity of his burns, we are off to the nearest burn center, again about an hour away. Upon assessing the patient in the rig, I really think his burns were first degree, but given it was his face, I felt the ride to the burn center was worth it as if he had airway burns and we kept him local his prognosis would have been worse. IV, monitor and an uneventful LONG ride there and back (home hours past my bedtime).

The above serves me right for wishing we’d get a call :-). Be careful with your propane grill…