A day in the life of...

A pictorial glimpse into a day in the life of a flight nurse...

a YOURS TRULY selfie :)

helmets with dual drop down screens complete
with headset so we can talk to each other during the flight..

an Intra-Aortic Balloon pump...for those in need of a little cardiac support!!
(mechanically reduces native afterload / increases native diastole)

Flying in over the Harbor / Bay Bridge - Nice aerial view of the "rigs"

"the other seat" lol :), note the convenient location of the "sick bag"

performing a blind , ILS only approach !!
practice for the pilot, nice view for the medical crew

"the gear"

bright moon over Mercy Hospital - kinda' cool !!

View towards the Inner Harbor / Downtown city...closing in on sunset

the tunnel down under !!

VIDEO of a full, VFR landing, I think we scared the seagulls a little!!

A good friend sent this to me...I thought it was pretty good. LOL

Until the next time...

BLOGSPOT...where have u been??

Yo heyyyyy!! I feel that every time I sit down to write a blog post, I need to apologize for the lack of posting...but then I realized that hey, its just a blog...lol; relax, post when you can, its no big deal, nobody probably reads this anyway...lol; After coddling myself with these reassurances, I then proceed directly to writing...

I was able to spend this past weekend (Saturday only...lol) with some friends down near Alexandria, WV; activities included wandering around National Harbor, which is totally beautiful.  There will definitely be more trips down that way soon... It was great to see some local friends but also some of my hometown (CT) peeps.  There was a lot of thoughtful conversation, hearty laughter, awesome food and good company; life can't get much better than that... My friends from CT were staying at the Gaylord National (Resort and Convention Center); they were here for a national cheerleading competition...allow me to say that the facility is quite a place - amazing architecture and such, however I have never been surrounded by sooo many glitterful, screaming, dramatic adolescents (and parents).  This was the national standoff between like a million teams; and being the creampuff that I can be - was coerced by my friend to attend the 2 minute performance of her daughter's team...and it was like, completely, like, totally, like caaaraaazzzyyy...like oh my goodness, did u like c that, like, tumble, like that was like totally ammazzzingg... I feel that my hearing has been permanently reduced by 70% and I can, with a measure of sincere satisfaction, check this (nonexistent) item off of my life's bucket list.

In all reality, I learned more about cheerleading than I had ever imagined was possible to know.  Its actually is a pretty dangerous sport and more than one aspiring cheerperson was horizontally carted off the disco layered stage.  The amount of practice and dedication that these young people go through is, as reported, fairly rigorous. And kudos, to them, because after the competition was over, I jumped the stage and made it halfway through one tumble before twisting my ankle and landing squarely on my face, much to the roaring excitement of the crowd....After I left, they texted me the results...THEIR TEAM TOOK #1 for the NATION!!! GOOO USA INFAMOUS WILDCATS!

Atrium of the Gaylord...at night

Atrium of the Gaylord...daytime

National Harbor - "The Awakening" sculpture
Man Buried in the Sand

Earlier this month, I was able to spend sometime down on Culebra, a remote island off the coast of mainland Puerto Rico...It was awesome.  It was great to be away from the hustle and bustle of daily living and just chill...island style! We managed to squeak in a few scuba trips - seeing everything from brilliantly colorful coral, fish and sharks to turtles, lobsters and eel.  The rest of the time was spent relaxing on the beaches, napping on the hammock, riding the waves, eating out and simply enjoying the natural beauty that is Culebra.

Departing Culebra...do we have toooo???!!!

Our ride back to the mainland...San Juan, PR

Sunrise from the house, CULEBRA - AMAZING!!!

Paper writing...while on vacay...LAME!!

ZONI BEACH, CULEBRA

BEDROOM - Wall O' Books - Culebra style "PRIVACY"

Flamenco Beach - Old Army Tank...kinda' cool

Flamenco Beach - #stayingforever

Our scuba guide...WALTER - smoking...uh, right next to the air tanks...#kaboom

SCUBA TIME...amazing sea / marine life
This island is off the coast of Tamarindo Beach!!

da' boys...headed out for our first dive

LIME GREEN JEEP!!! (and Jennnnnn...)

Several weeks ago, Hopkins Lifeline (critical care transport team) sponsored a "Hell's Kitchen" event at a nearby catering facility.  The 24ish participants were split up in to four teams who were then charged with a specific task.  I was selected for the table decorations, bread baking and desert table team!! TEAM SUCCESSFUL went right to work (under the dedicated and watchful eye of King Faisal..our fearless manager -OK..he's really not a king, but we thought that plain old Faisal was just so boring, soooo) and we ended up taking 1st place...well, actually everybody kind of won first place...but regardless; the point is that... the event was actually a tremendous amount of fun; and really helped to "break the ice" for both new and old employees!

TEAM FABULOUS!!; at your service...

the MENU...grey poupon with that??

the tables, set to a four season's theme;
Vivaldi would have been so proud..??!

A little appetizer...if you don't mind; it was the endive that made it...lol
who on earth even eats endive; #vegetablegagathon

Warren and Bonnie Zahner were recently down in Baltimore / DC and stopped by for a visit.  Bonnie was able to capture the Inner Harbor cityscape by camera!!

Until the next time...!

Thoughts (and pics) for the week..

Some thoughts and pictures to compliment the week so far...!!

"our ride back home" - YORK, PA

an amazing sun, setting on the western edge of this crazy town!!

the inspiration behind this weeks academic discussion

 KEEP ON KEEPIN' ON...!!!

WADDDD UPPPPPP!!! its been a while, almost tooo long; but lo and behold, here I am again!...; its always a bit difficult to start a new blog post, but a recent visit to another fellow blogger's site tipped me off to ask the perfect, opening question: "what has become clear since we last met?"...i have few thoughts on how to answer this; so here goes....

1). the weather! finally..; for the majority of the recent past, the Inner Harbor has been shrouded in this dense cloudy fog cover, bringing massive amounts of freezing rain and snow to the existent, nearly flooded harbor.  Good news - perfect sleeping weather; Bad news - our helicopters don't fly in fog, meaning time to ROCK the AMBULANCE...bring it on Hopkins; lets do it!

2). my head! i can, with a measure of poised confidence, report that I am largely symptom free of whatever sick bug has been flying around...well, me.  GAG! It is nice to be able to have my baseline vocal tonation back, so I can talk on the phone without sounding like my Aunt Mildred (for those of you who don't know, I actually had an Aunt Mil....ahhhh, almost gotcha).  After consuming several thousand grams of diphenhydramine and joyfully pounding back a few hot whiskey slings...a Luella favorite, I have finally landed, sniffle free, on the Island of Relief; not only to my extreme happiness but also to the peaceful satisfaction of my co-laborers.

3). my understanding of Arterial Line wave-forms! OK, they a say a picture is worth thousand words, so here it is.  If you look at the two pictures below, the one on the top is a normal arterial line waveform (correlating to the patient's ECG), the one on the bottom is a picture a patient's waveform I recently cared for...it had me completely stumped; however I was swiftly reminded that the art of medicine is not in knowing all the answers, but more importantly, knowing how to find the right answer...phewwww!  Just recently, like as in last night, my fellow team mates and I had a calculated epiphany, enabling us to finally put this perplexing puzzle to rest...i've never slept sooo soundly! lol :)

NORMAL

NOT AS..NORMAL

4). the love for my family (especially my crazy nephews and nieces)...as the collage below represents, these little goobers never fail to create new and exciting ways to humiliate (and put a giant smile on the face of) their uncle!!..love you guys more and more!!! 

can you tell whats real and whats not???  : )

5). my homesickness for CT..! I miss my hometown, especially during this season...love the snow, crisp frigid nights, clear skies; oh and most of all - people that can actually drive in the snow... and don't spazz when there's 1/8" of flakes on the road; good grief...come on, Baltimore you may have a champion team in the superbowl this year (oh snap), but this says nothing about your ability to navigate the snow dusted asphalt...!!

home, sweet home!

6). the fact that our family is growing...literally, in both number and girth (for at least the next 9 months or sooo)!! After several weeks of mysterious nausea, vomiting and general malaise (worse in the morning...duhhhh), my sister DEB has finally revealed her diagnosis...she has a parasite, which has been growing for about six weeks now!! For those of you who still haven't caught on...she is pregnant. This marks a pretty significant day in the history of mankind - the creation of a being who is subject and open to equal selection of both the Hoffman and Lipton gene pools...sure wish the little one all my very best...!! 

But for real, on a more serious note, I am super psyched and can hardly wait for its appearing; my sister on the other hand may beg to differ - for the recent past, she has been in bed, bored out of her mind, nauseated, dry heaving and craving all the goodness that the food world can offer, but can't keep it down to save her life...ring the joyous bells of parenting; the only consolation I could provide, was...well its probably not the last time you'll be sick over your kid, followed by OUCH...she just hit me over the head with a frying pan...!!

can hardly to wait to meet you !! get growing... :)

Until the very next time...