Happy Lungs

The Many Shades of Red

2010-01-26T15:44:00.001-08:00

I recently had a student ask me if I had ever done anything embarrassing as a student myself. “Well, of course not,” was my indignant response. I quickly followed with, “well maybe.” A sigh, then, “okay, okay! I had more than my fair share of such moments.” After having him sign several forms promising he wouldn’t publicize my accounts, I launched into my narrative.

“There was this time, one of the first times I had ever talked to a real patient. All I had to do was go in, administer a nebulizer treatment, listen to their lung sounds, and then go on my merry way. I was nervous, but I was also something else! I mean, I was entering the world of the medical professional. I was important; hear me roar!

“After verifying my order, I marched into the room with gusto, and said, 'Hi, Mr. Michaels, I am here to give you a treatment'. The bald, frail person sitting on the side of their bed glanced up at me, shook their head, and said, 'Mr. Michaels isn’t here. But I’m Ms. Michaels'. Gulp. In my moment of triumph, I had called a woman a man! This simply couldn’t be happening to me.”

The student, at this point was sufficiently attentive to what I was saying. I could see his current smile was at my expense.

“Sufficiently red-faced, I obediently squirted some antibacterial gel into my hands, took a deep breath (what else is an aspiring Respiratory Therapist supposed to do!), and continued. I listened to breath sounds and administered the medication without further incident. I walked behind Ms. Michaels, and proceeded to prepare to listen to breath sounds before leaving, stating, 'Okay, Ms. Michaels, I just need to listen to your breath sounds, and then I’ll get out of your hair.' Without a pause, she stated, 'I don’t have any hair.'

“I believe at that moment I invented a new, very dark shade of red. I was horrified. She laughed and continued laughing for what seemed like an eternity. She then thanked me, telling me that she needed a good laugh. My watchful instructor at the time exited the room quickly, barely containing bouts of laughter.

“I learned a valuable lesson that day. Not about administering medication. Or even verifying gender in a chart. But about laughter . . . about people who are gracious, even in sickness. I also discovered that day that there are multiple shades of red, and I’ve seen each of them on my own face.”

Pulmopassion . . . You Got It?

2009-11-29T21:01:00.000-08:00

A recent study found that we waste up to 40% of the food we buy. That's right, 4 out of every 12 eggs will never become an omelet, puff to maturity in a quiche, or blossom handsomely into a deviled egg. It got me to thinking. . . how much of our potential as Respiratory Therapists do we waste?

Are you living to your fullest? Do you count the minutes between treatments, with visions of the breakroom dancing in your head? Or do you find your mind focusing on the hair growing out of Doctor Whosawheez's facial mole during a lecture on COPD instead of connecting with the material itself?

Or . . . Or!!! Are you yearning to learn? Do you find yourself hiding your latest copy of Respiratory Care inside your beach-read, strangely tantalized by statistics and new techniques? Are you mesmerized with all things Respiratory, like the young in love? The novelty of respiratory medicine will one day wear off, but pulmonary passion should burn strong forever! Simply rhetoric sillyness? I think not! If Respiratory is your calling, pulmopassion will burn strongly within you. If Respiratory is simply a job, do yourself a favor and go find something else to do. Life is too precious to waste it making money at the expense of failing to tap into your potential.

40% of all food is wasted! How much of your talent is wasted? Are you only utilizing 60% of your talent? How can you tap into what's there? Attend conferences, read journals, articles, blogs (cough, cough!). Seek opportunities all around you. Don't just do your job; challenge yourself to give everything you have to each patient, teach what you know to students of all disciplines, and remind yourself that what you do is the coolest job in the world. Gather up your pulmopassion, wear it proudly, practice it loudly.

Late-night, Head-bobbing, Asleep-on the Keyboard Marathons

2009-11-18T18:17:00.000-08:00

We are hard at work on several projects right now. For business purposes, we can't disclose too many details, but wanted to share a little with you. But first a note about the process.

Writing a book is controlled chaos. There are hundreds (sometimes thousands) of hours researching and writing. Hundreds of cups of caffeinated coffee (what's the use of drinking coffee sans caffeine?). Several late-night, head-bobbing, asleep-on-the-keyboard marathons. Painstaking editing. And re-editing. And re-editing again. And . . . well, you get the picture. All this to say that writing a book (or even updating a book) is an incredible amount of work.

So why keep writing? Because Respiratory is our passion. Writing a book is controlled chaos. NOT writing is simply painful. When writing is who you are, denying that is denying your innermost cravings. It doesn't work, at least not for long. But it also takes a village to write a really good book.

Phew. That brings us to our latest project. We are in the midst of the chaos as we are working hard on a new title. It is a Ventilator Management Instructional Guide. It is designed to teach the material in our Ventilator Management book, but with a MAJOR emphasis on critically applying what you learn. We are nearing completion of the first draft, and will be in need of people who want to be a part of this project.

We need people who are willing to write scenarios. One scenario. A hundred scenarios. It's up to you. This is your chance to be part of it all. The trick? Make sure the answer is included, and is thorough (that's where the teaching occurs, after all).
We need editors. While we have based our information on evidence-based medicine, mostly what is in our book, we want everyone's opinion. Our goal is for this to be comprehensive, accurate, and diverse. You can help by volunteering to review our material.

My head just hit the keyboard again. Time to sign off.

Blogging in the post-Flintstone Era

2009-11-09T19:18:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the first official blog of RespiratoryBooks.com. This is the official publishing company of Dana Oakes, author of several best-selling books in the respiratory field (feel free to visit us at RespiratoryBooks.com). First, an admission. We are behind. We apologize. We have a Facebook fan page, and thought we had arrived. That's just not so. You may as well be the Flintstones if you don't blog today. We like to write. We have a topic to write about. So, welcome to our blog.

What are we going to publish here? Who knows! We are in hopes that we can inform, inspire, and amuse you . . . but you'll have to be the judge of that. We do invite your comments. Help us grow as a blog that fills some need in your professional life. Please do note . . . we write and publish our own books. We are passionate about our books. Do expect some outright advertising - we love what we do; there's no sense in hiding that.

How often will we publish? Our goal is for regular posts (how's that for vague?). At times you may find multiple posts within a period of days, of varying lengths, and there may be periods when we don't quite blog as much (after all, writing books is what we do first and foremost).

Questions about anything? Let us know . . . we'll answer them here. Happily. Oh, and bookmark us. Vist. Comment. Make this a fabulous journey. We look forward to getting to know you.