Autumn Harvest

Ryskless Talks

My favorite month, October, is the calm before the storm. Unfortunately for some, this month may be the storm before the calm.

The tilted world sends chilled windy breeze to the back of our necks down the spine between the joints. Notice, the environment slows down and cools into crisp breathable refreshing air. Days get shorter, trees grasp all the nutrients they can find knowing that cold white winter is around the corner. Leaves that have spent their entire life collecting and storing energy give it all away to their host through a harvesting process. Beautiful colors of autumn are created to see right before they fall, adding their remaining energy to the smell of soil below our feet.

Harvesting is what our very own farmers are focusing on. Tractors, trailers, and other heavy agriculture equipment are out on the roads between and in fields. Tractors aren’t very fast, have patience, focus on the triangular reflective triangles. If you choose to pass one, do so with extra care. Like a semi tractor, farm tractors take wide turns, but have attachments that can slice, dice, puncture, mince.

With all the dried combustible vegetation and other ignitable fuels, ignition sources are more critically pertinent this month. Heat, even from cigarettes thrown out the window into a freshly harvested field has the potential of raising heat levels that can create more work for sparky the dog and smokey the bear. Fire, do you know what to do when you hear the fire alarm? I hope so, the more prepared you are, the more you can help others. Which alarm means fire. Is it two air horn blows, or a constant beep with a flashy light.?

Parking lot Talk:

Where the heck did needles come from. Mosquitoes are reservoirs for infectious diseases. Anywho.

Ivan walked into the birth chamber. He rolled a sterile gun metal cart in with him. The cart had all sorts of needles, vials and plugs on it. We (Ivan and I) finally made eye contact, had short, small talk and smiled a couple times at our own silly sarcastic jokes (helping keep her mind off the epidural). I was then instructed, “when this starts, you cannot not walk around the room, sit up or even make sudden movements.” Oh my, my heart thought.

After a couple practice rounds and a contraction, it started. Ivan instantly turned hyper focus mode on and without hesitation started his practiced art. First was the numbing process of 2-4 different syringes and needles, Ivan injects, removes previous needle adds a new needle, depletes the syringe, caps it, grabs another syringe and repeats the process. "I’m just watching his hyper focused eyes and movements." He grabs a bigger syringe, uses multiple needles with it as he pushes it into her spinal cord. "Wow this guy is impressive." Finally, he gets what looks like a transformer auto bot metal spine and pushes it into her spine through a needle of some sort. He finishes the process right before she has another contraction (as this point contractions were 2-4 minutes apart). I finally realize and understand that Ivan (the best anesthesiologist) had unmatched focus, with flawless precision and accuracy, all while under a very short, unpredictable time frame. For me to use the above words to describe someone’s actions, it would truly have to be one of the most impressive things I’ve seen in my life.

Back to safety safely, what is a needlestick incident? Are they recordable? What are potential hazards with needlestick incident or sharps? What are some preventatives measure we can take to avoid incidents and hazards associated with needlestick incidents?