How it Started

This is the start of many entries into our blog. I have accepted a position at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC) working with the trauma program. Many of you may say, WHOA!, how do you go from working in downtown Los Angeles to Landstuhl, Germany.

Well it all started at the Society of Trauma Nurses conference in New Orleans on April 10 2008. No, I think it actually started when we touched down in London this past winter for vacation... but anyways, my mom and I were eating lunch while listening to the annual awards being given out. An award was presented to a Kathie Martin who happened to be at the table next to us. While she was walking up to the podium my mom and I decided she looked like a genuinely nice person and was obviously admired by her table-mates/colleagues. After lunch, there was a choice of lectures; Trauma through the Eyes of Children (important but I wasn't that interested), Telemedicine (not interested), Blast injury (high possibility), Advocacy 101 (needed but I try to avoid politics at every chance), and Oral Abstracts (very appealing considering I have an idea for a case study article). I debated for a few minutes but three reasons drove my choice. One, California Hospital Medical Center (my current home) has a catchment area that includes South Central LA and we continue to have the second highest amount of penetrating trauma in the county, about 30% of our trauma volume. Second, Kathie Martin was the speaker. Third, every other talk about Military trauma has intrigued and inspired me as well as made me shed a few tears.

As soon as the talk started I was one of an extremely captivated audience. As Kathie spoke with such confidence but compassion I thought to myself, "What can I do to help these soldiers and how can I learn more from this inspiring teacher?" Well someone must have read my mind and after the presentation was concluded, they asked if there were any open positions. All I heard was "yes" and I was in day dreaming mode for the rest of the day. I wanted to call my husband, Jake and just start discussing my wild idea. But I forced my mind to remain there at the conference. After all, I was there to be learning, not day dreaming and I already had an awesome job at a great hospital with loving people. Over the next day I thought about approaching Kathie to discuss open positions at her hospital but I didn't. I really wanted to discuss it with Jake first on account of me being a dreamer and a little impulsive.

The conference finished and I flew back to Los Angeles trying to forget about Germany and be thankful for our wonderful house and the job that made me get up out of bed every morning. After Jake picked me up at the airport, I had to consciously suppress the urge to blurt out my crazy idea and suggest we start packing that night. I was actually successful for a few minutes, when I just couldn't hold it in another second. To my surprise, Jake was ready to start packing as well. By the end of the week I had typed my first email and sent it to Kathie Martin in Landstuhl Germany.

The bathroom is finished!

Check out some of the great new photos of the bathroom!

The bathroom is gone!

We tore our bathroom up! Check out the video and a few photos!

Rome, Italy Day 6

2/22/08
Today we did the Vatican. It was much, much larger than I thought it would be. I could not believe it’s enormity. And built in the 1500’s… it’s just amazing. It took 120 years just to build the basilica that is the main gather place. Designed by numerous people including Rafael, Michelangelo and Bernini. Bernini did most of the sculptures. Bernini is my favorite sculpter so far. His work is great and so amazingly detailed. I’ve really enjoyed seeing all of the Caravagio paintings as well. They both have made me excited again about art. Anyways, our docent Tim, gave us a very nice tour of the Vatican. He gave us just enough history to not be overwhelming but very informative. 5 hours blew by quickly. I learned how important Julius II was. We saw the sisteen chapel which blew me away. Taking nearly 12 years to complete, Michelangelo has such amazing abilities to tell a story through one huge image. I was flattered by the enormity and the richness of the colors of that ceiling. What an honor to get to see that. Definitely amazing in it’s vastness.
After the Vatican, we had lunch with Tim and we all had pizza. Pam, Jan and I walked from there to do a bit of shopping. We picked up some brown boots for Jan and some candies and gifts for others. We headed back to the Visconti Palace Hotel and dropped off our things and were on to piazza del pompello. This is a large square that has multiple fountains and lots of people. We wanted to make sure we got to see 2 additional Carravaggio paintings before we left Rome. We’ve seen so many of them and I would love to get to see ALL of them. The two we saw at St. Maria’s Basilica were the one of Peter being crucified upside down and the one of Saul, falling from his horse and God’s light shining down on him. Now we’re headed to dinner with Diane and Dave.

Rome, Italy Day 5

2/21/08
Villa Borghese was a great place to see some Bernini sculptures. This was the only real tour we did without a guide. We did rent audio guides that we listened to throughout the walk. It was nice to see some of Caravaggio's paintings. This is probably one of their largest representations of his paintings as they had an entire room of them. We were not allowed to take photos, but I got a few anyways in secret.

Rome, Italy Day 4 - Pompeii

2/20/08
Today was our big day in Napoli (Naples) and Pompeii. This has been the piece of our trip I’ve been looking forward to the most. Not only did we get to walk in Pompeii, but we got to see Napoli and some of the amazing artifacts from the great explosion. We had first class tickets on the train from Rome to Naples. It was about a 2 hour ride through the countryside. When we got to Naples we were shocked to see how dirty the city was. Lots of garbage and not a lot had been cleaned very well. We met our docents and headed toward Pompeii. The short van ride gave us a good overview of a lot of the city. Quite modern in parts and very close to the water.

After getting onto the grounds, we got our tickets and were on our way. We really enjoyed the walk around the grounds. We got to see their amphitheatre, the homes, business’s and brothel houses of Pompeii. It was interesting. The mosaics and craftsmanship were outstanding. Not only did they have a system of catching rain water right in their courtyard, but they had ways of draining waste, walkable sidewalks, cobblestone streets and marble floors. Pompeii was huge. Too vast to just walk in one day. We saw only parts of this huge place. Our docent wanted to make sure that we got to see all of the highlights and we sure did. We saw where a palace was and the casts of the bodies they found. They even found a dog that could not get away from the blast because he was tied up by a chain.

After leaving this great historical place, we headed to the downtown part of Naples. We had pizza with our docent at her favorite pizza place. It was really nice to have a traditional napolian meal. Great buffalo mozzerella cheese that Pam and I both loved.
From here we wandered around the dirty city of Naples and ended up at the Museum dedicated to Pompeii. It was great to see some of the artifacts and mosaics that we saw represented in Pompeii. They were so advanced 2000 years ago. Even dentist tools that still look the same as they do today. After this, we said our goodbye’s… promised to come back some day and see everything else, and headed back on our 2 hour train ride.

Rome, Italy Day 3

2/19/08
We got up early this morning to go on a food tour of Italy. We met up with our Docent after a little trouble with our Taxi going the wrong way. We walked into a typical market in which had everything like an American market and much more. We viewed things we'd never seen before including peeling an artichoke with a knife, horse meat people could buy and zuccini flowers. It was a fun experience because she did all of the buying and we got to have lunch after our tour. We had cheese, salad, meats and drink.

I wish I could type more, but I don't have the time. Off to the Vatican this morning.