Hell Week Part Deux: Birthday Edition

I have been delaying writing this blog because a lot of not-so-fun-stuff has happened and I just did not want to relive it while writing about it.

As you all know, my birthday was on Thursday. I spent my birthday working at our other location, sicker than a dog. It was my goal to take my lunch break and go to a walk in clinic to get looked at. Did that happen? Yes, but not when I wanted it to.

I had to spend my morning trying to contact my insurance provider because I haven't been home to pick up my ID cards. I called my mom and pretty much immediately started crying because A) I am really sick and B) I am extremely home sick right now. Eventually I got all of that taken care of, and was finally able to just got home at 3. I never got over to our main location, which is where my birthday cake was that I had baked on Tuesday.

So I go to the Walgreens Walk In Clinic and get looked at, basically it was a sinus infection that was beginning to spread to my ears, so the nurse practitioner prescribed me some antibiotics.Then I went to Target to pick them up (because they were ironically cheaper than Walgreens). By this point, I was so sick, miserable and upset that I just went home, ate some store bought cake, and went to bed. Seriously not a great birthday.

Friday was a crazy busy day with two funeral services and an evening visitation. In the afternoon I was going downtown to pick up some death certificates and right as I was on my way to city hall I got into a car accident. Cue major freak out. I just wreaked the company car. My career, my life, my everything is now officially over. This is how it ends. I just turned 24, and I can't fucking drive a car.

It was totally my fault too, I was in an unfamiliar intersection with the way the sun was hitting the stoplights I couldn't see that my light had just turned red...boom, impact. Good news is that no one was hurt. My wrist where I was holding onto the steering wheel is a bit sore but nothing is broken. I immediately called work and talked to Jack, who sent Jim down. After doing that I called 911. Did you know that Milwaukee is apparently so freaking busy that its 911 service has a call waiting service? Basically it's like, "Please hold until the next operator can get to you". That is a bit scary when it comes to life threatening situations.

So I eventually got through and the operator told me to exchange information with the other driver and that she would try to dispatch an officer, but if one didn't show we were to go to our local district and file the report. Guess who didn't have her drivers license on her because she was running which is normally a 30 minute errand! I had to call Jim to make sure that he grabbed my wallet.

Thankfully the other driver, who was driving a company construction van, wasn't horribly upset with me. Out of everyone, including my bosses, I was the most upset. So the officer finally arrives and takes our insurance information, Jim gets there and we get everything sorted out with enough time for us to run to City Hall so I can finish picking up death certificates.

The whole car ride back I am sitting there, trying to keep my shit together, just waiting for him to ream me out. What does he do? He hands me his phone and asks me to look up the Milwaukee Bucks Ticket office so she can exchange his tickets for Saturday's game! ...Seriously...is this how normal people react in these kinds of situations?

We get back and David asks if I'm okay, I nod my head trying to keep it together and he asks me if I want a bottle of water. I again nod my head and he grabs me one and tells me to go sit down for a while. I end up going into the bathroom and just sobbing over everything. Over my horrible birthday, over the fact that I just wreaked this car...over the fact that David was so kind to me. It was just a horrible, rotten, no good, very bad day.

But wait, it gets better. Then Dani asks if Caleb is still taking over for me that night, because we had switched from last week. I said yes, if that was still okay, and Caleb said he "forgot". Well isn't that just fucking convenient! I showed Dani and Caleb both the text that Caleb had sent me asking to take over on the 23rd for him to take over for me on the 30th. That fucker. Never switching with him, ever again!

So I'm waiting in the back because Michelle wants to come with me to get her nails done, because even though I just had the two worst days of my life I still had to get my nails did...mmhmm....gurrrrllll! Right before I was about to leave, Jim calls for me, and asks me to go down to where we left the car, because hey, it had to get towed but the tow guy couldn't get down there for a few hours, and drop off the key and a check. So I run downtown, while Michelle heads off to where we usually go to get our nails done.

I get to where the tow guy is and and hand him the check. It's written for $96.10, and apparently it was suppose to be $96.96...I ask if he wants me to throw him a couple of quarters because I have this check written for this amount and I'm not going all the way back to fucking Bay View. He finally takes it and I bust my shit getting over to Southridge so I can meet up with Michelle.

We finally get our nails done and decide to go to dinner at one of the restraunts inside the mall. A really nice Italian place, and we end up shooting the shit and chatting. Michelle grabs the tab as a birthday gift to me, and I am just so thankful to have someone to talk to, and to just be able to decompress after such a stressful week.

So that was Thursday and Friday...

And here is Saturday. (I'm sorry this blog is so long, but bare with me!)

Today Kevin and I came in at 8:30 to get going on the funeral from last nights evening visitation. This woman had so many floral pieces that we had to take both vans to church! The procession alone, was over 30 cars, and there were almost 100 people going to lunch...I can't remember the last time I worked such a huge service. Probably back in October when Jim and Jack's mother passed away.

The service goes pretty well, the procession not so much. One guy was apparently on the struggle bus trying to get his car to start, and we had about 5 other cars who wanted to get in on the procession. I was so happy when we were finally done with that and back at our main location.

Shortly after 2 we all went home and I was actually doing some homework when my phone went off saying I got a text. There was a thought in the back of my mind, about how Jack would never text me about a first call...but I was wrong. I checked my phone and he sure as shit texted me to call Kevin, have us both come in, because he was still on the phone.

So Kevin and I get there, and apparently there was someone who was waiting to drop off clothes for their deceased family member, Kevin took care of that. When he called Jack back and got the information, he told me that the deceased was at a motel, and that it was urgent that we get him into our care.

A motel...we were going to do a removal from a motel...WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS GOING ON HERE!!! We finally arrive to the motel, which is on this long stretch of highway and it's just littered with fast food joins and other skeezy looking motels. There is an officer there along with quite a few family members. I take a look at the body and see that it's an older gentleman of normal height and weight who was still in his clothes.

We finally begin to move him, and I felt how cold his skin was, this guy had been dead for days. There was some pretty extensive staining and blackening of the fingertips. I told Kevin to be careful with his head because he died with his mouth wide open, so purge was a very real possiblity...did he listen. hell no! So I had to steal a towel from the motel and wrap it around his head.

Ironic little side note: Sean and Caleb had a house call late Tuesday night where they were informed that the deceased was face down on the ground purging. So Caleb grabbed some forceps, the angled ones we use for draining blood, and ended up fucking losing them!...I would also like to mention that this person was close to 300lbs, on the third floor of an old house, and had been dead for days...why the fuck he wasn't taken in by the M.E. and autopsied is beyond me.

Anywho, so we get back to The Home and Kevin and I are doing inventory on the guy. All of a sudden I see him throw the towel on the ground and start stomping on it. I ask him what the hell is up, and he said that there is some insect activity going on...That means this guy is already in some advance stages of decomp to the point where flies are beginning to harvest on his fleshy bits!...Please tell me again why the M.E. didn't take this case?

Seriously, the M.E. has been disappointing me this week with the lack of 'concern' I feel they should have in some of the bodies that we have transferred into our care. So Dani texts me saying that she is coming in because our next call is an embalming. Jack had called the hospital to see if the body had been released and it was still laying in bed up on some floor...this person had died right before 3, and it was now 5.

So Kevin, Dani and I, along with Dani's kids because hello, she had to drop them off at her ex husband's, were all sitting around, picking our ass, watching the Goonies because Dani brought it so the two little twinkies would be entertained as Mommy went behinds closed doors to do some pretty hard core shit to some dead lady.

But did that happen? No, because by 7 o'clock the body still was not released. They had not even gotten a freaking cart for the lady!

To all my friends who work in the hospital setting that have to deal with wheeling dead people down to the morgue, let me just say, I love you, what you do is amazing work, but seriously as someone who has to wait fucking hours in order to pick up a body so I can begin my job, it is super freaking annoying. And yes, I know you have to wait and do a million other things like actually keeping people alive, but still, us 'death professionals' shouldn't have to wait 4+ hours to pick a body up from the morgue.

And to top it all off, this lady also needs to be taken down to the M.E. to get viewed because apparently she had a brain bleed.

Now I have to come in tomorrow morning at 9 so I we can finish what was never really started in the first place. Oh and did I mention that Milwaukee is under a winter storm warning until Sunday at 3am? So that means I will not only have to drive, but work in a freaking blizzard.

Winter can end any day now. Seriously. Fuck off winter.

So that is my week from hell part deux: birthday edition! I apologize for how long the post was, and for the use of a lot of profanity, but as I'm sure you can all tell this was a really shitty week for me.

Thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday, and/or acknowledged that I had achieved a new level in my life. I really hope that the rest of my 363 days of being 24 are smoother sailing than these last two days.

Until next time.

MRSA Meltdown

This week I seem to just be all up in the gross and horrible ways people can die. Today is no exception, so bare with me folks, if you are not a fan of the gross detailed blogs, then walk away now.




Now I want to say right now, most, and I say most dead bodies are not harmful. Most viruses will die within a few days after their host has died. However there are a few diseases, viruses, and infections out there that give a mortician pause and proceed with extra caution.




Today I encountered one of those infections and saw the disgusting side of death, today I encountered MRSA aka Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus a form of staph bacteria that has become immune to antibiotics that would typically clear up a staph infection. MRSA can start off looking like small boils or pimples that can quickly turn into deep painful abscesses that require surgical draining. The ironic thing is that it is totally possible to contract MRSA from a hospital. If you get MRSA in the hospital you will be put into isolation...that is how serious this infection is. You really need to be careful with the skin-to-skin contact, needle pokes, and open sores. I was going to post a picture of what MRSA can do, but decided against it. If you are brave enough, feel free to Google Image Search MRSA.


To be honest, I have had already encountered a few MRSA infected people who have come into our care. Hell I remember transferring a woman who had MRSA and VRSA (Vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus) into our care. None of those cases were as severe as the gentleman I had the pleasure of working on today.


This guy, who was well over 300 pounds, was, I'm assuming, in the process of getting his right lower leg amputated when he died on the operating table. (I am assuming all of this from what I saw on the paper work we received).


As Mitch and I got him on the prep table, I began to unwrap his right leg, and immediately saw that something was wrong. He was missing a HUGE chunk of his calf muscle. As I got over the initial shock of what I was about to uncover, Dani came in and sported a pure look of disgust and told us to spray what was left of his leg with straight bleach. That is how serious we were taking this MRSA case. (not that we don't take every MRSA or communicable disease case seriously, but most of the time they are never this horrendous).


When I was done unwrapping this horrible package of mutilated skin, what I saw was astonishing. The top layer of skin was peeling away from his foot, and the calf muscle was all but eaten away. I could see where the doctors had begun their incisions and where they had planned to amputate his leg. There was nothing but a flap of skin where muscle once was by his inner lower thigh. I dare say, this was more horrible than the homicide victim I worked on this past Sunday.


As we began the embalming process, I wrapped his leg with a sheet of plastic because of the smell of rotting flesh. We drenched the festering wound with embalming fluid and Mitch slathered it with a special formaldehyde gel so that it would 'cure'. Other than that, the embalming went pretty straight forward.


Let that be a lesson to you kids, always wash your hands. There is a scary amount of stuff that you can catch by just touching people.


And here is a cliffnote about what has been going on in my 'love life' or lack there of. Saturday I went on a date with this guy, it went more or less fairly well and on Monday I was talking to Dani and Michelle about it. Something I said must have raised a red flag for Dani because she decided to CCAP him. (For those of you who do not know what CCAP is, it's a data base where you can look up someone and see if they have any court records in the state of Wisconsin). What Dani found was not good, I won't go into details, but I will say this: I have a zero tolerance policy about domestic abuse.

I mean, for shit's sake, the homicide victim was killed as a result of domestic abuse. So Bye Felicia, I won't be seeing you again!


So I have been striking out as far as the dating game goes, but I won't let that get me down. I am just very thankful that I work with people who care enough to do look into this kind of stuff and who have my best interest at heart.


If there is anything you learn from this blog, I hope it's:

1) Always wash your hands

2) Trust no one, and do a background check


Until next time.




__**UPDATE**

So I asked Dani what the deal was with MRSA Man and apparently he was a cognitively disabled individual who had extremely bad diabetes. He had gotten a cut on his leg and instead of telling anyone about it, it became so infected and horrible that he had to be taken to the hospital (which was last Friday) and he had died on Sunday because the infection; MRSA; was so deeply into his blood stream. So there you have it folks, Diabetes is one horrible disease, and you should always take infectious cuts seriously.

Murder She Wrote

I am going to preface this blog by saying it is going to be heavy on the graphic details. So if you're not a fan of those posts feel free to turn back now while you still can!

...Are the weaklings gone? Good...

Today I worked on my first homicide case. Now, I can't let the cat out of the bag (insert rim shot) about the case) It's still an open investigation and 2) my boss expressly told Steve and I not to really talk about it....so I'm going to write about it instead! Bazinga!

But seriously, even though this case made the local news, and I know more personal details about it, I'm not going to give those out.

I remember hearing about this story on the news, and was totally shocked when I was called in today (because I'm covering for Caleb) that we were going to be receiving one of the bodies from the double homicide.

Just a little bit of background, the reason this person died was because they were trying to protect a mother and her child, and unfortunately they didn't live (nor did the child, but I hear that the mother will pull through).

Now normally when we have to embalm an autopsy it will take about 90 minutes to two hours. This embalming took almost 4 hours to complete, and the main reason why, was because of all the stab wounds.

Most of the wounds were to the chest and face, and then we saw the horrible dead trauma and lacerations to the back. The fight that this person put up trying to save these people, must have been extraordinary.

As we were working on the body, trying to sew up all the lacerations, we all kept saying, "Jesus Christ" over and over. Along with "what an animal, who would do this to another human, let alone a child". Our funeral home did not receive the child into our care, I'm not quiet sure who did, but I pray that the morticians who work on the baby will have strength and courage to deal with the trauma.

The biggest lesson we all can learn from this, is that if you or someone you know is suffering from domestic abuse or think that there is a domestic abuse issue at hand, do not hesitate for one second to call 911 and get help.

So please hold your loved ones close tonight and always and remember that nothing is certain.

Until next time.

Putting Some 'Social' Back Into My Life

Where to begin...

I just got back from the Seether and Papa Roach concert at The Rave, and let me just say, in my humble opinion, one of the best ways to feel alive and validate your life is by going to rock shows. The crowd was intense, the performances were amazing; and my ears are still ringing. And it was all worth it.

This past week, I have been more social than I have in a long time. It all started with the Brewcity Brusiers season home opener last Saturday. I ran into a very good friend of mine (who also happens to work at the Rave) and he gave me a ticket for the Less Than Jake/Reel Big Fish concert that was on Tuesday. ...it is amazing having friends who do random acts of awesome like that.

I was suppose to be on call Tuesday, but thankfully Caleb was nice enough to take it for me so I could go to the concert. It had been a long time since I've been to a concert, and this was the first time that I had been to The Rave. It was amazing. The first time I saw Less Than Jake was back when they were playing at Project Revolution in 2004. I have a special place in my heart for ska and punk bands.

When I was really young, my amazing cousin Tara, would take me to local punk shows. Because of her willingness to let me tag along, she really opened my eyes to not only the fun of going to local shows and supporting the scene, but the wonderful world of music beyond pop radio. I am internally grateful and blessed with those memories we had.

In two weeks I will be going to the Marilyn Manson concert at The Rave. 3 shows in the matter of two weeks seems excessive but The Rave has an amazing line up this winter, and I just now am finding out how cheap the tickets are. Plus my birthday is next week so I decided to treat myself.

I have been trying to convince people to go to these shows with me, but realized that I am fully capable to go out and about in this great (and sometimes scary) city and do things by myself. Although, it does make it easier missing home, when I am with friends doing something fun.

I can honestly say, I do not know when I will be able to go home next, just because the next few weekends I will be busy working and going to shows. I feel like I am growing more and more into an actual adult,...I'm pretty scared, but I think I'm walking on solid ground. Granted it'll be more scary once I have my own place and will need to be in charge of paying for rent and utilities.

Oh, and the dating game seems to be looking up. I won't mention any names specifically to protect identities, but I have met a few nice guys, and a few dirt bags, but at last I am out there meeting people. It's all about taking risks people, it really is. Life is too damn short to be lonely and wondering, 'what if' all the time.

So as my last week of being 23 wraps up, I must say that it has been filled with awesome people doing some pretty awesome stuff. I am excited to see what awaits me during my 24th year of life, and pray that God will give me strength and courage to take it on and achieve all my goals and dreams that He has for me.


Thank you, by the way, to everyone who mentioned that they enjoy reading my blog. I apologize that I have not been posting very regularly, but I will mention right now that I have two blog ideas in the works and hope to outline them, and gather all my information so I can get them typed up and posted for your reading enjoyment.

,Until next time.

Death And The Dating Game

I feel like I am long over due for a blog. I know that there is a handful of you out there in cyber land who actually read my blogs, and I thank you from the bottom of my black little heart.

Let me see, what has happened since New Years...

Well a few things:

My little (sorority) sister, Amanda came down from Black River Falls to celebrate the new year with me. (Thank you so much Amanda!) It was a fun evening, even though I was out like a light well before the ball dropped. On New Years Day we went to go see the movie Birdman, which I thought was pretty interesting and well shot.

Over the course of the last few weeks I worked full time at The Home. Next week classes will be starting back up again, and the only thing I am looking forward to is seeing my death buddy from chemistry.

There was a sad and strange occurrence about a week ago, where we had an ambulance drop off someone into our care...usually they don't do that. When someone dies en-route in the back of a medical unit they are typically taken to the medical examiner's office (because hello, hospitals don't usually see dead people). We were able to receive her right away, although we had to tell them to come to our main location because our second location is not equip for care and preparation.

Later that same day, I had to go down to the medical examiner's office to transfer a woman into our care. We had just had the funeral for this woman's husband the week prior, and had just committed his remains the previous day...so this was not only a horrible tragedy for this family, but completely surreal to everyone at The Home.

Now I am usually not one to talk about my personal life on my blog (other than work and death), but recently I have been trying to get back into the dating scene. I have notice a reoccurring theme however with the guys that I have been chatting with; we will talk for a while and maybe even exchange numbers, and then all of a sudden they drop off on the face of the earth. I have no idea why this happens...are they intimidated by me? By my job? ...Seriously, someone throw me a freaking bone here and give me the 411 on guys and how they work.

I'm not one to play games and I am also not one to wait around for some guy to call and ask me out. I am under the impression that if someone wanted to see me, they would make the effort and see me. Like if they told me, "Hey, I'm really sick so I can't hang out, but would love to see you as soon as I am better." At least I know what is going on, and that they are still interested in seeing me...none of this "I'm sick. I'm going to bed"....bull shit.

Guys, if you want to really piss off your lady friend, respond to all their texts with just one word. It annoys the shit out of us, oh and be sure to not give us any context, like you're driving, you're busy, or you're at dinner. Just respond to everything we say with one word answers.

Every time a guy does this to me, it makes me want to reach through my phone and punch them in the throat.

As difficult as my job is with it's long and sometimes unpredictable hours, at least I know my schedule enough to plan time to spend with people! So I am truly at a loss right now, for why this one guy keeps yanking my chain. Dani says I should move on and forget the guy...and I would have to agree with her if it wasn't for the fact that this guy has something of mine that I really want back.

As much as it pains me to say this, I really need to have some sort of social life outside of work where I get to interact with living people. And if that means I need to deal with some adolescent bullshit for a little while then so be it...school is just around the corner....I can at least interact with those humans.

And in gross death related news...I successfully raised the femoral artery on a person....only to have Mitch lose it because he removed the aneurysm hook that I was using to keep it in place. Then the next day I was working on a heavy set woman and could not for the life of me find her femoral due to all the fat...it was like trying to find a rubber band in a soapy hole full of gross. Eventually David had to help me and when he found it, I had shredded it with my aneurysm hooks...not a very high point of my day. But at least he was able to show me how to hypo-inject down the leg using a special trocar!...so y'know...I got that going for me.

I guess that is all there is to write about for right now...still riding the lonely train, with death keeping me company. All aboard! Choo Choo!

Until next time.