Big. Green. Flat. Friendly. Proud. TEXAS.

From the moment I set foot foot in Austin I realized that Texas had several defining characteristics: it is big, green, flat, and friendly. 

Oh and covered in water towers. Seriously, driving through the country side I couldn't stop taking pictures of them. I've never seen anything like it.

And the Texan flags and stars are EVERYWHERE. I haven't seen a people who loves their land this much since ISREAL. (On a side note, I learned that Texas was briefly it's own country in the 1800's, they then entered into the union on a treaty that made several stipulations... and that's why they can fly their flag at the same height as the American flag.) 

{Greg and Sarah and Delicious food}

Anyway, Dan had a three day pass from FT Hood for Easter Weekend so I flew out to Austin. We had a really awesome weekend meeting up with one of Dan's good friends that he meet back in his initial army training, Greg, and his cute wife Sarah. They're both native Texans and definitely showed us some wonderful southern hospitality. 

They took us to awesome restaurants where I ate my body weight in fried food and blue bell ice cream. 

They got us tickets to an Old 97's show (a classic alternative country band), in a really sweet outdoor amphitheater. 

{Here we are in our easter finest before leaving the hotel. Dan got extra electric toothbrush heads from the Easter Bunny, hence the toothbrushes presence}

{This picture of the dessert table is the only picture I took while with Sarah's family A) because I really love dessert and B) I thought it might be creepy to snap pictures of people I just met while they try to enjoy easter}

And best of all, Sarah shared her family with us. We got to go to their family's weekly happy hour at her sisters gorgeous home and then on Easter Sunday they took us with them to their big celebration at a family winery. It was so beautiful, and every one of her 50 family members welcomed us with a hug, which I'm learning to appreciate (Bensons don't hug, ever, under any circumstances). 

On the way back from Sarah's sisters house we got pulled over in our rental car, Dan was driving and admittedly going to fast on a farm road. The cop went back to his car, wrote us up a ticket, then asked for a good phone number from Dan. Dan gave him his phone number but warned him it would only work for the next few days. "Where are you going, son?" The officer asked. "I'm going to be in Afghanistan." The officer suddenly seemed super sad, "Are you in the service?" He asked. Dan replied that yes, he is in the army. "Oh man, I wish would have told me that earlier and this whole thing would've gone different. Now that I've written the ticket, I can't take it back, but I wish I could." Dan assured him it was okay, that the ticket was justified, we were in the wrong - no worries, I'd pay the ticket by mail in 5 days for him. We went on our merry way when 30 minutes later Dan's phone rings. He was driving so I answered it. "Ma'am, this is the officer who pulled your husband over earlier. I got it worked out and I need you to rip up that ticket. Do not attempt to pay it, it does not exist. Ya'll have a good Easter and thank your husband for his service." I mean, if I wasn't already head over heels for Texas, that sealed the deal. 

Additionally, our hotel (which I booked for a steal on Hotwire) was gorgeous and modern and a 5 min drive from my mall nirvana: a Lululemon, Nordstrom, Madewell, J crew, and Sephora all in one spot!!!! Things could not get any better. 

It was hard dropping dan back off at ft hood, many a tear was shed. But driving back to Austin, surrounded by big sky and water towers I felt nothing but love toward and from the Lone Star State. Everything is bigger and better in TEXAS. 

You're a what? A scribe. Yes, that's a thing.

I'm a Scribe. That is literally my job title. I thought "scribing" had gone out when people stopped writing on stone tablets, but apparently its not so. In the ER, the doctors hire mostly young pre-med guys to be their scribes. Basically we follow our doctor around and do charting during the exam, put in lab/radiology orders, write up prescriptions, discharge orders, etc. Basically we do whatever the doctor wants us to do. To this point, my dad, who I scribe for, refers to me as "minion." I've only been at this for 2 months, but I've already come to some interesting conclusions:

1) People cannot use a pain scale
When presenting in the ER, I'm supposed to ask patients to rate their pain on a scale of 1-10. This is a total joke. A patient who we later found to have absolutely nothing wrong with, other than being whinny, rated her pain at "at least 1000! I mean on a scale of 1-10, I'm at a 1,000 right now!" A 20 year old young man whose wife had mysterious abrasions on her face that appeared out of nowhere (alien abduction?) rated his wife's present level of consciousness at a "definitely a -2, on a scale of 1-10." A patient that we found had a kidney stone blocking his ureter for so long that it basically blew up his kidney, he rated his pain at a 3. A lady who broke her freaking femur in half, she said it was "probably a 6, well maybe thats too high, how about a 5?" You can see why its very important I have them use this scale.

2) Don't come in to the ER already knowing what you want
There are many red flags on a chart that signal that this patient is going to be a nightmare. The best diagnostic tool i've found however, for determining how awful someone is going to be, is if they come in knowing what they want. Perhaps my least favorite patient of all time came in demanding "I'm going to need 4mg Dilaudid (narcotic pain killer, basically morphine on steroids) and then you are going to take my gallbladder out. I'm not leaving until you do!" Seriously, if you already know how much Dilaudid you want, please go away, now.

3) Colorado City is a case study in how wrong things can go
I think most people who grew up and St. George can tell you how wrong things are in Colorado City. Besides being polygamists, the culture seems to give rise to a society of abuse. The abuse is really really sad and leads to many awful neglect cases in the ER, but there's another interesting phenomena that comes from our wayward fundamentalist cousins: genetic disorders. Apparently if you keep marrying your first cousins, strange things happen. I've worked in the ER for 8 weeks and already have seen some of the rarest genetic disorders in the world. Its super sad, but for my morbid fascination, super interesting. If I was smarter than I am, I would be a geneticist. One little tweak of one little genome and all hell breaks lose... Anyway.

4) You have to have thick skin
You have to have thick skin to work in the ER and not get your feelings hurt. Not by patients, (they save their hate for the nurses I think) but by your co-workers. I don't know if this is a phenomenon unique to the ER, or just to our ER, but seriously, people go for the jugular:

"So you're 25 and living with your parents? That must be AWFUL!"
"Are you living back in your same room from high school? Hahahaha."
"Does your mom do your laundry?"
"You must be literally bored out for your mind every weekend, must suck to be alone like that."
This is but a small sampling, but you get the gist. Or the time I wore this rather bright blouse to work:

I swear, every doctor, surgeon, nurse, phlebotomist, tech, patient, EMT, or police officer who saw it had something to say:
"Oh my gosh! I'm blind! I'm blind!"
"You know, you don't have to glow in the dark to work the night shift."
"Are you so fluorescent so your dad can find you, even from miles away?"


5) I love my job
I've highlighted some of the less attractive aspects, but overall, I seriously love my job. It is by far the best I've ever had. I get to work with my dad, which is awesome, since I've always though he was the coolest guy ever. He's really great at teaching me why he does what he does, points out thing for me to learn on EKGs or MRI's, and answers all my probably annoying questions. I've learned so much about medicine that will hopefully help me out in the future. And though they can be mean, there are a lot of fun people we work with. I'm sure I will soon have more awesome stories to add in the future. My scribing has just begun!