city livin'

0630 up an' at 'em--breakfast of granola
0700 out the door and on the bike with pack:
uniform, lunch, and ubiquitous three binders
0730 arrive Rural/Metro Buffalo. Shower. Shave. Assume uniform.
0800 Documentation training: why exhaustive documentation ensures important things:
successful billing
liability avoidance
more successful billing
more security from trial lawyers and TV-miseducated juries
because patient care is the bottom line
1000 HIPAA: the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
(why you don't talk about confidential stuff to anyone. ever.)
(except, under certain occasions, the cops)
(or, of course, those directly involved in patient care)
1200 lunch. an apple. two. i have decided to go back to string budgeting.
(everyone else is eating out....)
1230 Map Reading 101: welcome to Buffalo. the map is usually right when it
indicates a one way street. except, of course, when the street is one way
in the other direction. in the winter, half of them are impassable.
(now i long for home. in Detroit, there is a grid of mile roads.
the east-west ones are handily labeled, 5 through 27 mile
the south-north ones are sometimes tricky--they change names
but NEVER directions. and they rarely just dead-end.
Buffalo, on the other hand, has no such reliability. or common sense.
this could be fun.
1400 Epinepherin Auto-Injector protocol/skills training. Albuterol "peace pipe"
preparation and protocol. Mass-Casualty Triage, with chipper, black tags
with "dead" in big white letters for those we give up on after a thirty-
second assessment. we are cheerily told that after arriving on-scene and
triaging twenty patients (going through an entire SMART tagging hit) we
will be not assist in patient care because we will probably need
counseling. or at least a coffee break.
1530 Confirm schedule with Chief Field Training Officer: a month of 12 hr. shifts,
four days on, four days off.
1600 embark on semi-intentional bicycle tour of Buffalo, including two major
hospitals (ECMC--D-Zone, Level 1 Trauma Unit, Burn and Psych Ward; Buffalo
General--E-Zone, General Emergency with Cardiac Center and Psych Ward).
tires on bike need repeated pumping--need new tires. scratch. need new bike.
1900 "home"--Becca's apartment. T minus three days 'til Robin gets back and i have
no bed. humidity awful-shirt soaked-shower necessary.
2000 Mac 'n Cheese for dinner. Email. Read homework. Write piteously to friends
hoping for solution to housing dilemma. ponder fiduciary limits and weigh
the convenience of car ownership verse ever paying off my college debts.
2100 Read more homework. Documentation and billing and Medicare requirements and the
fine line between...
2300 Test finished. At least it's open-book. Bedtime.

No wonder I feel so satisfied, so fulfilled, so stinkin' tired. looking forward to: Thursday, 0800, driving an ambulance. :)