Early Birds #5: The Official Race

Category: 5
Teammate: Josh
Place: 4th

My mind was elsewhere today. Woke up late (thanks to Audry's text for waking me up lol) and rushed over to the course. Then forgot to put on my bib number. Ran back to the car to get it and pinned it upside down. Doh!

Then met my new teammate Josh and waited for our race to start. It was delayed and we stood around for 45 minutes due to an accident in the women's race which required the arrival of paramedics. I could have been watching super bowl commercials! Luckily, I got some doped up Gu from Brian (thanks man) which really amped me up. I decided since this was a real race, today is the day to be fearless and put the hurt on.

The race started and it seemed really slow. I was coasting a lot and I got bored. Went to the back to draft off mentors where it was safe. Tried to get behind Larry Nolan but he said "don't follow me" lol. Somehow, I must have zoned out and lost track of time. I came to the line and looked up thinking lap cards were up. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw 1 to go and they were ringing the bell! Uh oh. I went on the outside and motored up to the front. At turn one, I see a rider slip and his momentum was carrying him towards me fast. Whoa, almost pissed my pants! I swerve to the left barely missing him. I continue my way motoring up and grabbed a wheel before turn 2. By then, I was in the top 5 and some dude decides to break away. The guys in front of him let him pass because they were too tired to chase. I "threaded the needle" and grabbed the attacker's wheel :)

He attacks his butt off thinking he's going to win and does a good job forming a big gap in the field. He turns his head, is surprised to see me, and signals for help. I shook my head and gave him a firm "no". Sorry, I don't wanna be an asshole but it's too early and I need to recover :) He gets mad and swerves to the right to shake me off his wheel. I follow him anyway and we get out of turn 3 in the lead when I hear a bunch of bikes sliding across the asphalt and guys screaming. The rider I was following begins to fade and someone attacks on the inside. I bridge the gap and suck his wheel. I see the fire hydrant and get out of the saddle to sprint. I gain some on the dude and lose some. My quads are screaming bloody murder at this point and when I see 2 wheels passing me with no one behind, I said screw it, it makes no difference, so I sat lol.

Afterward, it was very unfortunate for me to find Josh on a backboard and on his way to the ER via ambulance :( Hope he's alright.

GM

Early Birds #2

This Early Bird was interesting. For me, this was much easier physically than last week even though today's average speed was 1 mph faster (25.0 mph). Early on in the race, the guy in front of me flatted his rear wheel so badly that I could feel the air blow into my face before he brakes and pulls off sharply to the left without warning. Luckily, I was able to go around him in time and nobody was next to him or it would have been ugly.

The most nerve-racking part of the race was when I took out a rider. I was making my way up to the front through the middle when I see someone on my left merge towards me as I am passing him. He wasn't looking as he was shifting right so I tell him to watch out because I'm next to him. He turns his head and sees me so I continue past him. All a sudden I felt like someone took a hammer and gave a hard smack to the left side of my rear wheel. I was like WTF? In the corner of my eye I see the guy fly 90 degrees to the right on his bike
and crash perpendicular to the sidewalk. Probably endoed over the sidewalk as it sounded like it. Then I was like oh $#!+ did I do that? I hope he's okay. Tried not to think of it too much as I had
to concentrate on the task at hand or that would be me. I finish the race 13 or 14th and go to check my rear wheel. I was going to $#!+ my pants if the rear wheel I handbuilt myself was still true. Turns out I wasn't that lucky and spent half the race riding a rear wheel that was rubbing against my brake pads. What a waste of my energy :)

Early Birds Criterium #1

I had trouble getting out of bed in the morning. I haven't been riding since my accident in October. In fact, my new bike had only 60 miles on it since it's establishment. I was expecting to be annihilated shortly or suffer great pain to keep up. Turned out the only pain was during the last lap and it was a good hurt. At 3 laps to go, the pack sped up and the resulting wind and cold air increase folded my contact lens up against my eyelids. Consequently, I couldn't see a darn thing but blurry colors. Felt like swimming with goggles full of water. I just followed the guy immediately in front of me hoping he would safely lead the way around obstacles. It was good to be on the bike and feel the rush of racing again. Even better to see everyone and watch Jeff take 2nd in his race after mine.

A Day in Highland Hospital's Emergency/Trauma Department

All I can say is WOW! I can't thank my clinical instructor enough for hooking me up with a day at Highland Hospital. She is the best! Only 2-3 students were selected and I was one of the lucky ones. That hospital is one crazy building that is sized and shaped like the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Only this is in the middle of the ghetto in East Oakland. It has a level 2 trauma unit and is a county hospital. Thus, medical care is presumably free for everyone so we get all sorts of visitors. That explains why the waiting room was full of people when I got there. People had been waiting for more than 3 hours to be seen.

After a brief tour of the ED, I had to repark my car. When I got back, within 15 minutes we have a level 2 trauma code. Some dude had fallen 20 feet off a forklift and landed on his side. The only thing exciting about that was he had a gnarly slingshot in his pocket with 3 rocks for shooting rats LOL. Then I went back to the nurse I was shadowing and she was pretty cool. Highland is a teaching hospital and all the nurses love students unlike other hospitals. They make us do everything because they are so overwhelmed. All I got to do with her though was a saline flush into an IV. It was pretty uneventful in the beginning with nothing to do. Then there were two other level 2 traumas coming in. Just some guys that got drunk and heavily beat up. Got to help hold down the second dude and search his clothes. The funniest thing about these trauma calls is one of the resident doctors (and it's always the same guy even when there are 3 other doctors next to him) has to stick his finger up the patient's asshole and report to the reporter about rectal tone. He's probably the lowest doctor in the food chain.

After finishing with that, my first nurse had to go to the meeting so I was assigned to shadow another guy in the isolation rooms. One patient was under police custody for messing with a girl he thought was 19 but was really 14. He was complaining of a "headache". The other patients, I got to start my first IVs in and draw blood!

When the nurse asked me if I wanted to start it I was like, "uhhh haven't checked off on it yet but sure...I'll give it a shot." He was nice enough to talk me through it and I was able to get it on the first try. Drew about 15 mL of blood and gave him a PPD intradermal injection. The IV into the second patient was even smoother as the classic pop confirmed my needle getting into the vein. The third IV was to be done by my partner. But here's where trouble came...

We went in to access the patient. Turns out she has a swollen left shoulder that spread to her breast. It is hot and excruiatingly painful to the touch. She said she was a shooter and shot there last night. The nurse said he had to get an IV into her immediately. Too bad she had no veins to do it in! We went running off to find the doctor. Apparently, the triage nurse must've thought this swelling was harmless cellulitis and low-priority. Her symptoms actually indicated necrotizing fasciitis. A rare and rapid flesh-eating bacteria. A bump on your hand can spread to your shoulder within 4 hours. Most nurses miss it and the reason my nurse caught it was because he said one of his patients died once because nobody recognized it. It requires urgent surgical debridement and anitbiotics. Otherwise, you end up like this in a matter of hours...

So we found the doctor. She came in and was worried. We took her to the trauma side where 4-5 other doctors came to consult and verify. They busted out the ultrasound and took a look at it. Not good. The doctor then got a kit to start a central line through her jugular vein in her neck using an ultrasound to guide the needle. She needs antibiotics fast so I helped the doctor with the procedure, mask, caps, and everything.

Once we finished there was a level 1 trauma code and it was already 8:00pm. We were supposed to be out of there by 7:30pm. Gary and I decided to stay and watch. It was a woman who had a massive stroke while riding her bicycle and crashed into a house. They intubated her and we got to the point where the "proctologist" stuck his finger up her asshole again with a disgusted look. I don't know if it was Gary who had his mouth open or was laughing, but the doctor looked at us and told the nurses to close the curtain in our face. He was probably just embarassed ;) It was 8:30pm and time to go home.

Crashes Suck Big Time!

Fricking eh! This crash is turning out to be a stinkin disaster. I probably lost all my fitness in the 3 weeks I was out. The pain on my left hip (hip pointer is my only differential diagnosis I still haven't ruled out) is still lingering. The bike build is delayed longer than expected thanks to school and a defective stripped bolt on the front derailleur. In the meantime, I've finally built my first set of wheels. Thirty-two double butted spokes laced to a Shimano Ultegra 6600 hub. Finally put the tools to work after dusting them off. Truing a wheel perfectly is a pain. Now I gotta wait for my new tires and front derailleur.

Guess I gotta resort to my cyclocross/commuter bike in the meantime.

Pediatric Rotation Initiation at Oakland Children's Hospital

Yay! I didn't get shot or mugged even though I parked on the street. Finally got my employee/parking card but they screwed it up! haha jk. Our teacher is going to be off the hook! She has connections all over the place and it turns out she got us a deal where two people will be able to shadow the RNs of Highland Hospital in the trauma unit for an 8-hour shift. I got selected along with another Gary. Gary squared :)

Last Day of Geriatrics Rotation...Hurray!

Well it's my last day and as a graduation and Halloween present, I get to help insert a straight single-lumen catheter into a female to get a urine sample. Tortured to the last day. FUN! Took 3 students including me and 1 teacher. I had to hold the flashlight and spread the lips LOL. Turns out the patient had some congenital defect and had an anomaly of the external genitalia. I knew something didn't look right! Nothing like a Halloween scare! Didn't stop us from finding the right hole and inserting the straw on the first try though.

Goodbye geriatrics and hello to pediatrics.