Cape Perpetua

It can be hard to find good internet on the road.  That is why I am going to try to do a post today about our adventure yesterday.  Or, if the junkie wifi at today's park doesn't let this happen, then it was an adventure from a couple of days ago.  Yeah, I'm looking at you Blue Ox RV park in Albany, OR and Woodland Shores RV park in Woodland, WA.  Your internet is substandard, feel my wrath.

Whatever.

Cape Perpetua is a large prominence on the Oregon coast.  It is reported to be the highest viewpoint on the Oregon coast.  It is also beautiful.

We drove out west and then south through Yachats.  While we were pulling off the road onto a small turnout to take a picture and another car pulled in behind us.

Tiny little shack there.

The guy got out and approached.  "I know this is probably weird."  Always a great conversation starter.  "But, I noticed your license plate is from Texas.  I saw you pull out to get a look and I wanted to tell you guys about a road that takes you up to the top of the cape for the best view on the coast."  So, a local guy saw some out of towner types stop for a picture and drove up to tell them about a better spot.

How cool is that?

So, we drove up.

At the top was a parking lot, bathrooms, trailheads and more. 

Let's go take a look.

It certainly is up there.

Somebody found a cool spot.

Yep, beautiful view.

Michael, not quite a brooding teenager.

The view from up top was nice, really nice, but that isn't what drew me to this place.  I like taking pictures and I'm an internet addict.  Yeah, I needed to get a picture of Thor's Well.

Me and all these other people.

But first, some rest.

And maybe enough time for another picture or two.

It's out there somewhere.

And there it is, Thor's Well. 

 I know, it's nothing big, right.  It really is just a blowhole.  The wave crashes under a rock shelf and then shoots out the top when it reaches the hole.  But...

Every once in a while...

It does this (<---click and="" camera="" catch="" down="" for="" i="" in="" just="" link="" managed="" nbsp="" p="" shut="" switch="" the="" this.="" time="" to="" video="">

I couldn't believe it.  Right after I got set up, I got the picture I wanted.  I figured I would hang around and get some more great shots, but it tamed right down for a while after that.  You see, it isn't safe to be out there at high tide when the water is furious, but when it is low tide, the blowhole doesn't erupt all that much.  So, most of the pictures look like this...

Water level goes up.

Water level goes doooown.

 So, I shifted position to attempt to get a better angle of the water draining back down.

Just as I get set up, this happens.

I giggled like a schoolgirl as I backed away.  Too little, too late.  I managed to get a picture of the water rushing back in though.  You can see the drops of spray on the lens in the pictures after this.

About this time, I ran into a woman standing behind me watching all of this.  We chatted for a moment between waves while Michael made his way down to us.  Her name is Anna and she was from Seattle.  You meet cool people in cool places.

Michael making his way across the moonscape

Another angle.  Going in for a closer look.

Water level goes dooooown.

Anna going in for a look. 

Michael the Conqueror.

We wandered about the area looking at some tide pools and checking out the other rock formations.  It was really pretty cool.

Love the lime green guys. 

I wish I could have captured the sound the waves made when they crashed below this shelf.  You could feel it.

Some drift wood on the rocks.

Then we hiked back to the car and went to the visitor's center.  Closed.  Oh well, more time for hiking about the area.  Got to wash my lens filter off in the sink though.  Whew.

The opening of the Devil's Churn.  We didn't have time for seeing it in depth.

We were busy on trails

And finding secret little spots.

Sarah and Michael went off searching tide pools for more wonderful nature.

Max and I wandered around and checked out the scenery. 

Looking back toward Thor's Well.

Whooosh.

It was a beautiful day outside.   We tried to make the most of it.  If you ever get the chance, it is worth the drive out to see.  We could have driven a few miles further and seen the sea lion caves, but we were running short on time.  Almost to Washington.  We drove the next day to Woodland to re-visit some cool places from our Vancouver contract, but that will be a post for another day.

The pain scale.

Here I am contemplating at least, my last few shifts as an ER nurse.

Of course, all of this could fall through and I could have years and years of ER nursing ahead of me.  Hey, there are worse things.  But, if this is to be my last stint of ER duty, even for a while, I want to get a few things down and thought I would share.  For those of you here only for adventures and pretty pictures, come back soon.  They will return. 

Now...sit down with any ER nurse and ask them about the pain scale.  At the very least you will get a groan and an eye roll.  Some, like myself, will go off on a passionate rant about the misuse and abuse of the standard 1-10 pain scale.  This sounds like it isn't a big deal, but it might be more so than you think.

Let me tell you why.

First off, when you come in complaining of pain, we take you seriously.  You took the time out of your busy day to come all the way down to the ER and probably waited a pretty good amount of time in the waiting room to boot.  Obviously this is more than just a minor boo boo.  (Except when it isn't, but that is another rant.) I get that you are trying to convey to me the serious and urgent nature of your pain.  Again, you are here, that tells me something.  Telling me you have level 10 pain because your ankle hurts, or even your stomach hurts, doesn't do that.  The first thing that does, is prevent that pain from ever getting worse.

You see, the scale only goes to 10.  Yes, even if you insist your pain is 25.  So, when your migraine gets worse, or your back starts hurting from lying on the junky ER stretcher mattress for a couple of hours, there is no way to document that.  The computer will only allow an entry up to 10. 

Your pain got worse?  No it didn't.  10.

One guy I worked with, definitely of the ranting variety, would ask people who rated their pain a 10, "So, if I set you on fire right now, you wouldn't notice?"

It gets irritating.

Especially when you arrive and are texting your friend about OMG you are at the hospital and eating the bag of chips from the vending machine in the lobby while you tell me your belly pain is a 10 out of 10.  Look, if you won't take this seriously, why should I?  I have a guy next door with 6 out of 10 chest pain for the past hour.  Who do you think is getting my time?

But, the real reason is different.

The real reason is that I have seen people in level 10 pain.  Most ER personnel have and it can be quite the profound experience.  You see someone who is gravely hurt and fading in and out of consciousness.  Every moment they manage to stay awake they are crying and begging for medications maybe you can't give them because their blood pressure is too low from all the blood they lost.  Frequently, the pain overwhelms them and they fall into animal screams before they lose consciousness again. 

So, what was your pain level again?  Let me give you a clue, if you can tell me it is a 10, it isn't.

Please, respect the pain scale.  It can be useful if used properly.

For a good example of what I am talking about, look here:  Pain Scale

The ER kicked my butt.

I doesn't happen often. 

Yesterday, the ER won. 

I am good at my job.  Much of that arises from a time when I wasn't very good at my job.  Not being very good at your job when someone's life or health depends on your proficiency is a very stressful situation.  That stress leads you to work hard on getting better or it burns you out.  I worked hard and got better and my stress level at work decreased to an acceptable level. 

But. 

And that is the nature of the emergency room.  You never know what is going to happen. 

Yesterday started off well enough.  I was busy, but nothing too bad.  Then a DKA arrived.  For those who don't know, these are somewhat personal for me.  These are possibly life threatening emergencies and they deserve as much of your attention as you can spare if you are the nurse.  While I was getting that all settled in, my sepsis arrived.  Systemic infection that can be life threatening.  Good times.  Dehydrated to the point that I couldn't find an IV site.  Luckily, my co-worker came to my aid with an ultrasound, just in time for them to tell me about the STEMI that was arriving into my other room.  Everything else stops for the STEMI.  This is an evolving heart attack.  Time is tissue.  We had a lot of work to do to get this guy to the cath lab within the window.  Again, without a couple of co-workers, this could have gone badly.  Even with all the help, I was starting to get a bit overwhelmed. 

We get the STEMI out and up.  I walk back over to my sepsis, to try to get back up to speed with where I was and what needed to done.  They tell me there is now a code stroke coming into the room where the STEMI just left.  It isn't even clean yet.  Oh yeah, I have another room with another patient I haven't even mentioned. 

This is the point where I realized something has to give. 

Mind you, this happened on a good day, in a good hospital.  At the morning meeting they informed us that we were 'upstaffed' today.  And even though we had an extra nurse, my charge wasn't going to send anyone home  just in case. 

So, working in my favor was an extra ED nurse, a charge nurse that was good at recognizing and fixing problems as they crop up, and a pretty well run hospital.  Without any one of these things, this could have been a lot worse.  It reminded me of other places and other times when I was not so fortunate.  Sometimes these things happen when you are down a nurse, with a green charge in a place that cares more about saving money.  I've been there too. 

I'm tired.  I need a break from all of this.  Is it weird that I am looking for a more sane work environment in a prison?  Probably.

I am pretty sure though, that I won't have to do urinary catheters on 2 year old kids and CPR on 90 year old people.  I guess I will see. 

Yesterday, everything worked out thanks largely to my coworkers.  We got everything settled and I even got sent of to lunch.  Then I returned to the new patient that wouldn't stop pooping on himself.  Some days.

And on this day I broke a little.  As I have before.  When I got home my family put me back together again, like they do.  I will go back again later in the week and try again. 

It's time for a change.

I'm ready.

Return to Point Reyes.

To cap what has been an amazing stretch of visits with people I don't get to see as often as I would like, we have family in town.  My dad and step mother Julia are up visiting and it has been very nice.

If this were the Silverdale contract it would have inevitably been Murhut Falls.  Our standby destination here though is Point Reyes.  It is close and pretty.

Remember Point Reyes?

It looked like this.

And this...

No brainer, right.







So, after a late lunch/breakfast, we were off.  They got a rental car for the week and followed behind us along the way.  I tried to be good, I really did, but I just had to stop and get a picture or two along the way.  Sarah eventually got used to me swerving off the road at inopportune moments to catch some potential picture. I told them as I passed their car that this was just one of the occupational hazards of traveling with the Adventure Nickel.  Julia got out of the car and thanked me for stopping so she could get her camera out of the trunk.  She had been mentally framing pictures the whole way and cursing for leaving the camera out of reach.  Ahhh, fellow shutterbug.

Ahhh, the light is perfect.

Then...suddenly, this happened.

Hey!  Wait a minute.  But, if there is fog all over the place, I can't see anything!  The pictures are going to be terrible.

You're going to have to trust me, there is an ocean out there.

Well, the scenic vista isn't what it should be.  How about the wild life?  Last time there were deer and hawks and cows and stuff everywhere.  What about this time?

Seriously deer?  Really?

Did that deer just call me a pervert?

Oh well, I guess we should just drive back.  Nothing to see here unless you want all of your pictures to look the same.

At least the hawk cooperated.  Thanks for not pooping!

Cows of the Mist.

We decided to head back to North Beach.  At least we could get a good sound of the crashing waves.

We were able to watch a tremendous rip current. 

OK, I tried to replicate this as closely as possible in the conditions.

This is the last trip here.

Beautiful.

 This time.

Bleh.

Oh well, make the best of it.  Be goofy and get back into some sunshine.

I take picture of you taking picture of me.

Pretty ice plant flower.

Still in the fog, I had to stop and take this picture.  Someone on the Google + photography page put one of these up and I recognized it.  So, I STOLE it.

BWAH HA HA HAAAA!

Eventually we got back out of the fog.  It was a thick and pretty fast moving bank of fog.  So we had to stop and take some pictures.

 Often, the best light, and pictures, can be found by turning around.

Works for sunrises and sunsets too.

So, we decided we would just have fun stopping to photograph everything of interest as we drove home.  They don't all work out like you plan, but they usually work out.

Not Das Boat!

Birds circling in a thermal