The last few weeks have been exhausting....and now I feel bad because it feels like the last few blogs that I have done have just been me complaining about work and how exhausted I am all the time. Which in all honesty makes sense because being an apprentice is really freaking exhausting.
This week I have been really moody and emotional, like I am on the break of having a horrible crying jag at the worst possible moment. I can just see it now, I will be in the back ironing a flag and Dani will come in, critiquing me, and then I will just start crying....yeah I hate those days. Even when I was an acting major and did exorcises that would help us emote, or cry on command I hated it. I am honestly not sure why. I mean there is nothing wrong with crying, it doesn't show a sign of weakness, in fact it is a healthy way to release stress and emotions. I just hate crying in front of anyone, perhaps this is my Aquarius side talking, trying to keep my facade of being a strong and independent person intact. ..whatever, I need to fucking cathart and get over this jumble of emotion that I am feeling.
So some components that set this wheel into motion were from last week. The week was fairly slow, not a whole lot of removals or services, generally a fairly decent week, plus the weather was absolutely gorgeous with highs in the upper 50's and low 60's...then comes Sunday. You know I wish that Death would have taken a spring break to just enjoy the weather, but no...He went into over time.
That Sunday morning, Kevin and I responded to a 6:00 am first call and from there it just did not stop. Kevin was stuck doing back to back embalmings while I went out to our other location to get it ready for an incoming arrangement from a removal that we did on Saturday night in Racine County...and just a little note about that one; cat piss is hard to get out of fabric and the smell is almost worse than a corpse who has shitted themselves.
We had 7 death calls that day, and did 6 removals. We held off on one of the removals because the family had a concern about being able to afford the funeral costs, but on Monday we were able to bring their loved one into our care after we were able to see if they qualified for state and county aid.
Six removals in one day is a new record for Kevin and I. Two of those removals were from the M.E. both suicides. And for some reason those cases are hitting me the hardest. Maybe it's because my mom is a therapist, and it just breaks my heart that these two people just felt so trapped in their lives that they felt that the only way out was to take themselves out. I can' even begin to imagine what kind of hell these families are going through right now. I'm trying to think back to the first suicide case that I worked on...I know that I had an emotional reaction to it, but it just doesn't compare to what I am feeling now towards these two people. Maybe it is the fact that we have two of them back to back, and now we need to put these broken bodies and hearts back together so that the families can say their goodbyes.
This is what makes my job so emotionally exhausting, having to deal with these kinds of cases. Also it feels like Kevin and I have done the majority of removals lately, and that Steve and Caleb haven't gotten Jack shit, which is really frustrating.
So while I am going through all this emotional bullshit that I would rather much ignore, I am also experiencing a higher level of stress because Anatomy is a huge struggle for me and I am getting really frustrated with it. For a kid who excelled in most subjects throughout school and during my undergrad, taking a class where I have to work twice as hard as everyone else just to get a fucking C, B at best on my exams makes me want to scream. This is a class where I need to get a B- as a final grade in order to pass it for my mortuary science program...so say a prayer for me everyone that I can pass the first time around.
While I am on the struggle bus, I am also in need of some housing for when my lease with UWM is up in May, so I have been looking into apartments. But fuck if I know what to look for, or know what I can afford...I do have a general idea, but it is hard to find something affordable close to where I work and something that isn't in the ghetto. Oh and I also will be needing a new car within a few months because Betty White (my White Neon) is getting up there and I don't think that she can last through another winter.
So yeah, I am just going through a ringer of emotions topped with a layer of stress and decked out with some cranky, "I don't give a FUCK about you or what you do"...and I really just want to scream and bitch slap everyone. ...when did I become so up tight and cranky all the time? Sometimes I feel like a stick in the mud. But I honestly think that a majority of these feelings stems from my current housing situation, even though it has improved greatly since first semester (and my current roommates are on spring break) I find it really draining being around teenagers at the moment. You wouldn't think that a 5 year age gap would be all that different but the maturity level and having to deal with all their shit, when I just went through it myself, is just exhausting.
I can not wait to be home with my mom and my friends, this weekend is very much needed.
Say a prayer for me that I can survive the rest of this week with my pride intact and without killing anyone...because that would just mean yet another body to take care of...
Until next time.
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Sunday, March 8, 2015
Friends, Family, and the Pursuit of Some R&R
This past weekend I was blessed with the ability to go home to Stevens Point and see my mom and some of my friends. It was a very much needed reprieve from the usual grind that I have been dealing with over the last few weeks.
Friday night when I got into town, my derby wife called me up asking if I wanted to go downtown for a drink -- of course I wanted a drink! I needed some social interaction with living people around my age. And boy am I glad that I went out. I had a BLAST! Got to see some old friends that I haven't seen in a very long time. Also had a lot of people come up to me saying that they read my blogs and really like them. So if you were one of those people who came up to me on Friday, thank you. Seriously thank you from the bottom of my heart. It was not only awesome getting a chance to see your friendly face, but it really made my night knowing that you take the time to read about my crazy and sometimes disturbing life.
Michelle and I ended up staying out until bar close, which is something that we typically do not do, but we were just having such a fun time with some new and old friends. We learned that neither one of us is particularly good at pool, but given the chance we can play a pretty decent game of Foosball.
Then on Saturday night Michelle and I went bowling, which was hysterical in the sense that neither one of us got a score above 100. Although Michelle was only one point away from reaching triple digits. It was also brought to my attention that I throw the bowling balls totally weird. When I tried throwing them the 'right' way they kept curving to the left and going into the gutter...regardless I suck a bowling, no matter how I throw the ball.
In regards to work, I know in my last blog I talked about a case where a construction worker was killed on site and that I was very nervous about how I would react to seeing the body. The day that we were to bring him into our care, I was told to go out to our other location and listen to the phones since we had no closing secretary out there. I figured that this was God's way of protecting me from seeing something that I could avoid until further along in my career...I wish I had been so lucky.
When someone is dismembered and their body is brought to the medical examiner, the ME typically will not re-attach the severed limbs. When the body is brought into the care of a funeral home, if there is a viewing (provided the body is view-able) the funeral director will take the time to reattach the limbs. Even though this person was to be directly cremated with no viewing, Mitch and David who worked on the body, thought it was important to make this individual whole again, and they did a very good job I must say. He was defiantly not in 'open casket' shape, but at least he was put back together and given a dignified cremation.
Later that week we had another call where someone died at work -- suffering some severe head trauma after falling from a great height. I had over heard Jim taking this call and apparently the Medical Examiner had told the family that the body had suffered significant damage and may not be view-able. After the call Jim explained to me that this can be some what of a pet peeve for funeral directors. Yes we are thankful that the ME tells the family the condition of the body, however they are not the ones trained to put the body back together for a viewing. So by them telling the family that a viewing may not be possible, they are giving them really no hope and the family comes in thinking that cremation with a memorial service may be one of their only options.
In this case I went to the ME with David to bring this person into our care and asked if we would open the body bag fully at the ME to view the damage. "Oh absolutely," said David. And I began to ready myself for the absolute worse case scenario. I remember that the ME's office was particularly ripe with the smell of death and decay that day, a smell that you really never get use to.
Once the examiner pulled out our body David opened up the bag. It had been a very long time since I had worked on an autopsy and almost forgot that in an autopsy the head is covered with a plastic bag due to the cranial cap being removed. So David pulled up the plastic bag so he could view the face. I gathered my strength to look and through all the blood I could see that this individuals nose had been crushed in and there was a pretty significant laceration from their accident going across their face below the cheek. Not horrible, but then again not very pretty.
I asked David on the way back, that if he was the director on this case and the family wanted to do an open casket what would he say? He told me that he would be open and honest with the family in regards to the damage done to the face; and that if they wanted an open casket, there would be a significant amount of cosmetics and reconstruction of the nose. He was confident in the skills of our staff to provide the family with the viewing and services that they wanted. When we got back David must have talked to Jim who was meeting with the family because this case became an open casket viewing meaning that the body would of course be embalmed.
I didn't get the opportunity to work on the body because it was not my night on, but the results of the embalming were fairly typical of that of an autopsy. I was surprised however that they did not do a full reconstruction of the nose that night. I asked why, and David said that they had wanted to body to set and basically dry out in the facial abrasions so that the reconstruction would adhere to the face properly. This reminded me of the homicide case that I had worked on a few months back. The lacerations in the persons face were left open to dry so that we could super glue them closed and apply facial wax.
I clearly have a lot to learn in regards to the fine art of reconstruction and cosmetics. But this is something that I look forward to greatly with hopes that one day I will be regarded as one of the best in the business.
Did I mention that this case was the third work related death that we brought in, in the last two weeks? Yeah scary stuff, so be sure to be extra cautious at work everybody, especially those of you who work around heavy machinery.
Well that was my weekend and the last week of work for me. I hope that everyone is adjusting to Daylight Savings and enjoying the warmer weather that we had today. Spring is right around the corner, huzzah! Here is hoping that these next two weeks of work will be low impact on my psyche and I will maintain a positive growth in my apprenticeship.
Thank you again to all my friends and family who read my blog and support what I do. You guys are all amazing and I treasure the time that I get to spend with you.
Until next time.
Friday night when I got into town, my derby wife called me up asking if I wanted to go downtown for a drink -- of course I wanted a drink! I needed some social interaction with living people around my age. And boy am I glad that I went out. I had a BLAST! Got to see some old friends that I haven't seen in a very long time. Also had a lot of people come up to me saying that they read my blogs and really like them. So if you were one of those people who came up to me on Friday, thank you. Seriously thank you from the bottom of my heart. It was not only awesome getting a chance to see your friendly face, but it really made my night knowing that you take the time to read about my crazy and sometimes disturbing life.
Michelle and I ended up staying out until bar close, which is something that we typically do not do, but we were just having such a fun time with some new and old friends. We learned that neither one of us is particularly good at pool, but given the chance we can play a pretty decent game of Foosball.
Then on Saturday night Michelle and I went bowling, which was hysterical in the sense that neither one of us got a score above 100. Although Michelle was only one point away from reaching triple digits. It was also brought to my attention that I throw the bowling balls totally weird. When I tried throwing them the 'right' way they kept curving to the left and going into the gutter...regardless I suck a bowling, no matter how I throw the ball.
In regards to work, I know in my last blog I talked about a case where a construction worker was killed on site and that I was very nervous about how I would react to seeing the body. The day that we were to bring him into our care, I was told to go out to our other location and listen to the phones since we had no closing secretary out there. I figured that this was God's way of protecting me from seeing something that I could avoid until further along in my career...I wish I had been so lucky.
When someone is dismembered and their body is brought to the medical examiner, the ME typically will not re-attach the severed limbs. When the body is brought into the care of a funeral home, if there is a viewing (provided the body is view-able) the funeral director will take the time to reattach the limbs. Even though this person was to be directly cremated with no viewing, Mitch and David who worked on the body, thought it was important to make this individual whole again, and they did a very good job I must say. He was defiantly not in 'open casket' shape, but at least he was put back together and given a dignified cremation.
Later that week we had another call where someone died at work -- suffering some severe head trauma after falling from a great height. I had over heard Jim taking this call and apparently the Medical Examiner had told the family that the body had suffered significant damage and may not be view-able. After the call Jim explained to me that this can be some what of a pet peeve for funeral directors. Yes we are thankful that the ME tells the family the condition of the body, however they are not the ones trained to put the body back together for a viewing. So by them telling the family that a viewing may not be possible, they are giving them really no hope and the family comes in thinking that cremation with a memorial service may be one of their only options.
In this case I went to the ME with David to bring this person into our care and asked if we would open the body bag fully at the ME to view the damage. "Oh absolutely," said David. And I began to ready myself for the absolute worse case scenario. I remember that the ME's office was particularly ripe with the smell of death and decay that day, a smell that you really never get use to.
Once the examiner pulled out our body David opened up the bag. It had been a very long time since I had worked on an autopsy and almost forgot that in an autopsy the head is covered with a plastic bag due to the cranial cap being removed. So David pulled up the plastic bag so he could view the face. I gathered my strength to look and through all the blood I could see that this individuals nose had been crushed in and there was a pretty significant laceration from their accident going across their face below the cheek. Not horrible, but then again not very pretty.
I asked David on the way back, that if he was the director on this case and the family wanted to do an open casket what would he say? He told me that he would be open and honest with the family in regards to the damage done to the face; and that if they wanted an open casket, there would be a significant amount of cosmetics and reconstruction of the nose. He was confident in the skills of our staff to provide the family with the viewing and services that they wanted. When we got back David must have talked to Jim who was meeting with the family because this case became an open casket viewing meaning that the body would of course be embalmed.
I didn't get the opportunity to work on the body because it was not my night on, but the results of the embalming were fairly typical of that of an autopsy. I was surprised however that they did not do a full reconstruction of the nose that night. I asked why, and David said that they had wanted to body to set and basically dry out in the facial abrasions so that the reconstruction would adhere to the face properly. This reminded me of the homicide case that I had worked on a few months back. The lacerations in the persons face were left open to dry so that we could super glue them closed and apply facial wax.
I clearly have a lot to learn in regards to the fine art of reconstruction and cosmetics. But this is something that I look forward to greatly with hopes that one day I will be regarded as one of the best in the business.
Did I mention that this case was the third work related death that we brought in, in the last two weeks? Yeah scary stuff, so be sure to be extra cautious at work everybody, especially those of you who work around heavy machinery.
Well that was my weekend and the last week of work for me. I hope that everyone is adjusting to Daylight Savings and enjoying the warmer weather that we had today. Spring is right around the corner, huzzah! Here is hoping that these next two weeks of work will be low impact on my psyche and I will maintain a positive growth in my apprenticeship.
Thank you again to all my friends and family who read my blog and support what I do. You guys are all amazing and I treasure the time that I get to spend with you.
Until next time.
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Earning Badges for the Death Scouts
As an apprentice in the funeral industry you encounter a lot of 'firsts' that you will always remember. Like doing your first removal of a dead body, working on your first autopsy, successfully closing the mouth for the first time while setting features. There are also a lot of horrible firsts that you encounter, like working on your first suicide, your first homicide, your first baby, first child, first burn victim, and first dismembered body. In a way it is a lot like getting badges as if you were still in Girl Scouts...except now you're a Death Scout and the more horrible things you can encounter and rise above and learn from, the more badges you get.
This past week I encountered a few 'firsts'. Last Thursday was my first all nighter doing 4 removals and staying up for 24 hours (only to be repeated again this past Wednesday, except I ended up sleeping at The Home for a few hours due to the snow storm). It had been a rough last couple of weeks to say the least; working extremely long hours and feeling over whelmed about everything. School. Life. Work. Dealing with car problems and trying to find an apartment to live in.
On Thursday I finally had the chance of getting into the embalming room and working on a body. January 27th was my last embalming that I had worked on (over a month). I was working with Michelle who was helping to coach me through making my first incision to raise the right carotid artery. Because of her coaching I was able to make the incision and raise the carotid all by myself. This is one of those firsts as an apprentice that not only sticks with you, but also boosts your spirit.
When I came into work today, Michelle was in even though it was her weekend off, because the family she was working with very closely was having their service today. Three weeks ago she had worked with this family when the son of the deceased passed. Seeing families again so soon is always hard, yes we have a building relationship with them, but it is just hard having to see them so soon.
Michelle told me of a person that we will be transferring into our care tomorrow from the Medical Examiner. She gave me the graphic details of the situation so that I would know and be prepared in dealing with sensitive nature of the situation.
Out of respect I will not go into detail of what happened, only that is is extremely tragic, and the cause of death was traumatizing -- before you start thinking of suicides and homicides, I will say that it was an industrial accident...think Six Feet Under's episode entitled "The Foot".
What makes this situation even more sensitive and hard is that Michelle's sister is good friends with the decease's wife, and Jim and Jake know the family fairly well. So this is not only a tragic loss, but also a very personal loss to a lot of people at work.
Thankfully cases like this are few and far between, but when they do happen they really make you think. For me, I am thinking of why God chose to call this man Home so early, and in such a tragic manner. What lesson can we learn from his death? In these horrible deaths it is so easy to get angry at God, so incredibly easy. I know that there are a lot of people out there who do not believe in God, or in Christianity or organized religion, and I can get that. But what do those people do in these kinds of situations? If I didn't have my faith in a higher power I feel like I would personally crumble under the weight of my job. I am suppose to act as a pillar of strength for the families that I service and have to fully rely on God every day to give me the strength to get through these difficult situations.
So I will continue to pray to God everyday to give me strength to help others and for Him to look over my friends and family, because Death has a funny way of sneaking up on you.
Until next time.
This past week I encountered a few 'firsts'. Last Thursday was my first all nighter doing 4 removals and staying up for 24 hours (only to be repeated again this past Wednesday, except I ended up sleeping at The Home for a few hours due to the snow storm). It had been a rough last couple of weeks to say the least; working extremely long hours and feeling over whelmed about everything. School. Life. Work. Dealing with car problems and trying to find an apartment to live in.
On Thursday I finally had the chance of getting into the embalming room and working on a body. January 27th was my last embalming that I had worked on (over a month). I was working with Michelle who was helping to coach me through making my first incision to raise the right carotid artery. Because of her coaching I was able to make the incision and raise the carotid all by myself. This is one of those firsts as an apprentice that not only sticks with you, but also boosts your spirit.
When I came into work today, Michelle was in even though it was her weekend off, because the family she was working with very closely was having their service today. Three weeks ago she had worked with this family when the son of the deceased passed. Seeing families again so soon is always hard, yes we have a building relationship with them, but it is just hard having to see them so soon.
Michelle told me of a person that we will be transferring into our care tomorrow from the Medical Examiner. She gave me the graphic details of the situation so that I would know and be prepared in dealing with sensitive nature of the situation.
Out of respect I will not go into detail of what happened, only that is is extremely tragic, and the cause of death was traumatizing -- before you start thinking of suicides and homicides, I will say that it was an industrial accident...think Six Feet Under's episode entitled "The Foot".
What makes this situation even more sensitive and hard is that Michelle's sister is good friends with the decease's wife, and Jim and Jake know the family fairly well. So this is not only a tragic loss, but also a very personal loss to a lot of people at work.
Thankfully cases like this are few and far between, but when they do happen they really make you think. For me, I am thinking of why God chose to call this man Home so early, and in such a tragic manner. What lesson can we learn from his death? In these horrible deaths it is so easy to get angry at God, so incredibly easy. I know that there are a lot of people out there who do not believe in God, or in Christianity or organized religion, and I can get that. But what do those people do in these kinds of situations? If I didn't have my faith in a higher power I feel like I would personally crumble under the weight of my job. I am suppose to act as a pillar of strength for the families that I service and have to fully rely on God every day to give me the strength to get through these difficult situations.
So I will continue to pray to God everyday to give me strength to help others and for Him to look over my friends and family, because Death has a funny way of sneaking up on you.
Until next time.
Saturday, January 31, 2015
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.
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.
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.
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
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.
Sunday, January 25, 2015
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.
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.
Saturday, January 24, 2015
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.
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.
Monday, January 12, 2015
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.
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.
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
A Year In Review
2014 has been a difficult and interesting year. I spent half of it working in retail before I decided to go back to school to become a funeral director. Now I am an apprentice working in a great Milwaukee based funeral home.
I had to spend both Thanksgiving and Christmas down here and now New Years, which has been a first, but the experience has taught me that time spent with family and loved ones is very important.
I have learned a lot, more so about death than love or life unfortunately, but I hope that that will even out in the new year.
I went on many great adventures with many wonderful people over this year. Traveled the farthest north that I have ever been in Wisconsin, and even got to walk across the Michigan boarder. Also got to go to Disneyworld for the first time ever and spend it with my wonderful sorority sisters.
My hope for 2015 is to break out of my comfort zone and get to meet new people, especially as I begin the process of moving down here in the spring.
Thank you to all my friends and family who have supported me through my crazy adventure of becoming a funeral director. I pray that none of you will be in need of my services this coming year, but if you should find yourself caught up in the turmoil of death know that I am here for you and wish to help you in anyway that I can.
May you all have a joyful and safe new year.
Until next time.
Saturday, December 6, 2014
Hell Week
If you remember from my previous blog, I had mention that with the holidays and winter comes our busy season in the death industry...or at least our funeral home. This week showed me just how busy and crazy it can get. So let's do a hell week recap!
Monday: We have an evening visitation at our main location and everything is going fairly well...until this one elderly gentleman starts to pass out and vomit black bile aka blood. We called 911 and they sent a fire truck over...and then they called for an ambulance once they realize his blood pressure was continuing to drop and after he reenacted a scene from The Exorcist only this time swapping out the pea soup with black bile. Guess who the lucky person was who had to clean that up! Thankfully he made it all into the blue recycling bin. Out of everything I do, and encounter on a daily basis, vomit will always be a gagging trigger for me. I don't believe we got any calls that night.
Tuesday: Caleb and I had to go on a call to a hospital which usually isn't a big deal. This time however proved to be such a pain in the ass because the entry into the morgue is by the loading docks and you need to take a lift up. Well there was a semi trailer not only blocking the lift but partially the stars as well. We had called security but they pretty much useless, so Caleb and I decided to drop the got and climb up the stairs. Once we got in we got the body and I was ready to put our ankle identification bracelet on her. When I opened up the body bag I saw that she was a double leg amputee and was fairly large, it is safe to say she was fairly spherical with her double amputation. Due to this our second leg strap was worthless which meant she was only locked in around the ribs, which really made me nervous about going down the stairs in case her weight shifted. After looking at how close the semi was parked to the wall, we decided to try to take the lift down but keep the gate in instead of locking in (because it swings out to open). This meant that we had to put the cot in at an angle an each hold on to its ends with dear life. We made it safely down and after dropping the cot only one level, were able to squeeze all the way down. It was truly a feat of daring, but we made it. Later that day we unfortunately had to pick up the body of Michelle's brother-in-law, from the M.E. because he had died of a drug over dose, he was only 30 and left behind two little boys and his fiance.
Wednesday: Even though we had two services that day, I didn't work either one because they were day services and I was in school. Michelle and her family did a private viewing on their dearly departed which started at 5:30, and wasn't done until 7:30. Normally we only allow for an hour but since Michelle works there and there was no one else around obviously we made an exception. I got to meet her sister (now widow) and her little nephews. It was truly heart breaking hearing them say "why is daddy so cold?" and "give daddy a hug good bye, promise him you'll be a good boy." I can not even begin to image what kind of hell Michelle and her family are going through. Drugs are absolutely the worst and take the lives of too many people.
So when I got done at 7:30, I went back to my dorm, only to get called back in at 9 for a removal; I was literally 3 minutes away from my dorm and then got another call and didn't get done until 12:15 a.m. On that second call we were told that it was a house call and that the man was around 240 lbs, big, but should still be manageable with our regular cot...we were lied to. This guy was well pushing over 300 lbs, and should have been placed on our bariatric cart. To top it off we had to go up and down a sharp incline of stairs with a very obese man...I was petrified of dropping the body or slipping on the stairs....turns out my fear was misplaced because when we got back to The Home the cots back legs didn't click in and ended up dropping....my greatest fear realized. I will mention that my partner Kevin and I did notice that this gentleman had a very red and swollen eye, but the hospice nurse checked off the "No" box for needing to inform the medical examiner, we noticed this at the house before the issue with the cot.
Thursday: After spending a good chunk of my day making register books and videos, Dani asked me about what was going on with the guy with the black eye that Kevin and I had removed last night. I told her what we knew (which was nothing, he was already pretty much like that, although now the swelling had gone down and staining had taken place). Turns out that we should have asked the hospice nurse as to what had happened because the M.E. who had come in was questioning it and thought it looked suspicious, who the fuck knows.
Friday: I worked one of the two services at our second location, and had to do a line up outside, so that is where I spent most of my time, until I came back and finished a bunch of books. Kevin and I got a removal call at around 7 p.m. that night, and at 9 p.m. Dani called me saying to come in early tomorrow for an embalming. Oh and Caleb asked if I would cover for him on Monday so he could go to the Packer game...he originally texted me, and I was ignoring it; until all of a sudden he magically showed up at work which he hardly ever does on a Friday until it's his night to be on call. I said I would...mainly because there was really no other option, which really sucks about this job. I ended up working 12 hours that day.
Saturday: I knew going into Saturday was going to be just absolutely wretched, and I was not wrong. I got in at 7 a.m. and Dani was already pretty much done with the embalming...yeah why the hell was I even there? We had 4 funerals that day, two at are main location, one at our other location, and one at church. I was stuck at our main location parking cars. Once service A was under way, it was stopped about half way through due to an elderly man fainting. Quick flash back to Monday! Thankfully this man was not vomiting an ode to The Exorcist We did have to call 911 and get the man taken to the hospital, all the while trying to get this other service underway. It was such pandemonium the parking lot because both services were doing a procession, but you could only start the line up for service A, to which we only had 4 cars....until the fuckers found out that there was going to be a free lunch, then everybody wanted to go. So Sean and I are running around the parking lot trying to get flags on all the cars that are going in procession, and once we get that one done and on its way, service B gets done and the exact same fucking thing happens AGAIN! So now service B is done and we have to frantically clean because we have a family coming in to do a private viewing and another family coming in to do an arrangement Then we need to finish the books and get things ready for tomorrow. Oh and did I mention that we had two death calls, in two different cities? So now Kevin and I get to spend the rest of our afternoon driving across the great state of Wisconsin. First we go up to Oconomowoc because this removal was going to be embalmed, so that was about an hour of driving but the removal went well. Once we got back from Oconomowoc, we then had to go down to Racine not knowing that the woman we were transporting would be well over 400 lbs. Yeah, we couldn't even get the arm rests to go up let alone zip up our cot all the way. I have never seen Kevin drive so timidly before, taking very wide turns...believe me it was a good thing because this woman was barely on our cot. Again another case where, had we had known, we would have taken our bariactric cart. So now we are back from Racine and solicit the help from David to get this lady into our prep room, thankfully she was just alternative care. While Kevin is working on her, I go up front, only to encounter Jack taking yet another death call, this one being at some creepy ass rest home in Milwaukee that Kevin and I have never been to. It is now 5:15 and the family says that we need to be there by 6...we get there at 6:10, after we finally figure out where it is that we need to go.
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This place is just as creepy on the inside as it is on the outside, plus it is run by Polish speaking nuns in full nunnery. The family we met during this removal was really nice, but when we gave them some time to say good bye, Kevin and I were unaware that they were actually waiting on two more family members to come, so we waited for over half an hour...we were not pleased.
So we finally get this removal done, only to find out that Dani has been waiting on us so we could get this embalming done. Kevin and I were not pleased, we were so over tired, we were getting slap happy. Thankfully with the three of us, and the fact that it was only a one point embalming, we were able to get it done within 30 minutes or so. By the time we were walking out the door it was 8 p.m. I had officially worked 13 hours.
Thus ends the official work week, tomorrow starts a new one
I pray to the Lord Jesus Christ, who died on the cross to save me from sin, that we do not have any more calls today or tomorrow, but especially today.
I do not know what tomorrow will bring but pray that it doesn't end with me working another 13 hour shift.
Until next time.
Monday: We have an evening visitation at our main location and everything is going fairly well...until this one elderly gentleman starts to pass out and vomit black bile aka blood. We called 911 and they sent a fire truck over...and then they called for an ambulance once they realize his blood pressure was continuing to drop and after he reenacted a scene from The Exorcist only this time swapping out the pea soup with black bile. Guess who the lucky person was who had to clean that up! Thankfully he made it all into the blue recycling bin. Out of everything I do, and encounter on a daily basis, vomit will always be a gagging trigger for me. I don't believe we got any calls that night.
Tuesday: Caleb and I had to go on a call to a hospital which usually isn't a big deal. This time however proved to be such a pain in the ass because the entry into the morgue is by the loading docks and you need to take a lift up. Well there was a semi trailer not only blocking the lift but partially the stars as well. We had called security but they pretty much useless, so Caleb and I decided to drop the got and climb up the stairs. Once we got in we got the body and I was ready to put our ankle identification bracelet on her. When I opened up the body bag I saw that she was a double leg amputee and was fairly large, it is safe to say she was fairly spherical with her double amputation. Due to this our second leg strap was worthless which meant she was only locked in around the ribs, which really made me nervous about going down the stairs in case her weight shifted. After looking at how close the semi was parked to the wall, we decided to try to take the lift down but keep the gate in instead of locking in (because it swings out to open). This meant that we had to put the cot in at an angle an each hold on to its ends with dear life. We made it safely down and after dropping the cot only one level, were able to squeeze all the way down. It was truly a feat of daring, but we made it. Later that day we unfortunately had to pick up the body of Michelle's brother-in-law, from the M.E. because he had died of a drug over dose, he was only 30 and left behind two little boys and his fiance.
Wednesday: Even though we had two services that day, I didn't work either one because they were day services and I was in school. Michelle and her family did a private viewing on their dearly departed which started at 5:30, and wasn't done until 7:30. Normally we only allow for an hour but since Michelle works there and there was no one else around obviously we made an exception. I got to meet her sister (now widow) and her little nephews. It was truly heart breaking hearing them say "why is daddy so cold?" and "give daddy a hug good bye, promise him you'll be a good boy." I can not even begin to image what kind of hell Michelle and her family are going through. Drugs are absolutely the worst and take the lives of too many people.
So when I got done at 7:30, I went back to my dorm, only to get called back in at 9 for a removal; I was literally 3 minutes away from my dorm and then got another call and didn't get done until 12:15 a.m. On that second call we were told that it was a house call and that the man was around 240 lbs, big, but should still be manageable with our regular cot...we were lied to. This guy was well pushing over 300 lbs, and should have been placed on our bariatric cart. To top it off we had to go up and down a sharp incline of stairs with a very obese man...I was petrified of dropping the body or slipping on the stairs....turns out my fear was misplaced because when we got back to The Home the cots back legs didn't click in and ended up dropping....my greatest fear realized. I will mention that my partner Kevin and I did notice that this gentleman had a very red and swollen eye, but the hospice nurse checked off the "No" box for needing to inform the medical examiner, we noticed this at the house before the issue with the cot.
Thursday: After spending a good chunk of my day making register books and videos, Dani asked me about what was going on with the guy with the black eye that Kevin and I had removed last night. I told her what we knew (which was nothing, he was already pretty much like that, although now the swelling had gone down and staining had taken place). Turns out that we should have asked the hospice nurse as to what had happened because the M.E. who had come in was questioning it and thought it looked suspicious, who the fuck knows.
Friday: I worked one of the two services at our second location, and had to do a line up outside, so that is where I spent most of my time, until I came back and finished a bunch of books. Kevin and I got a removal call at around 7 p.m. that night, and at 9 p.m. Dani called me saying to come in early tomorrow for an embalming. Oh and Caleb asked if I would cover for him on Monday so he could go to the Packer game...he originally texted me, and I was ignoring it; until all of a sudden he magically showed up at work which he hardly ever does on a Friday until it's his night to be on call. I said I would...mainly because there was really no other option, which really sucks about this job. I ended up working 12 hours that day.
Saturday: I knew going into Saturday was going to be just absolutely wretched, and I was not wrong. I got in at 7 a.m. and Dani was already pretty much done with the embalming...yeah why the hell was I even there? We had 4 funerals that day, two at are main location, one at our other location, and one at church. I was stuck at our main location parking cars. Once service A was under way, it was stopped about half way through due to an elderly man fainting. Quick flash back to Monday! Thankfully this man was not vomiting an ode to The Exorcist We did have to call 911 and get the man taken to the hospital, all the while trying to get this other service underway. It was such pandemonium the parking lot because both services were doing a procession, but you could only start the line up for service A, to which we only had 4 cars....until the fuckers found out that there was going to be a free lunch, then everybody wanted to go. So Sean and I are running around the parking lot trying to get flags on all the cars that are going in procession, and once we get that one done and on its way, service B gets done and the exact same fucking thing happens AGAIN! So now service B is done and we have to frantically clean because we have a family coming in to do a private viewing and another family coming in to do an arrangement Then we need to finish the books and get things ready for tomorrow. Oh and did I mention that we had two death calls, in two different cities? So now Kevin and I get to spend the rest of our afternoon driving across the great state of Wisconsin. First we go up to Oconomowoc because this removal was going to be embalmed, so that was about an hour of driving but the removal went well. Once we got back from Oconomowoc, we then had to go down to Racine not knowing that the woman we were transporting would be well over 400 lbs. Yeah, we couldn't even get the arm rests to go up let alone zip up our cot all the way. I have never seen Kevin drive so timidly before, taking very wide turns...believe me it was a good thing because this woman was barely on our cot. Again another case where, had we had known, we would have taken our bariactric cart. So now we are back from Racine and solicit the help from David to get this lady into our prep room, thankfully she was just alternative care. While Kevin is working on her, I go up front, only to encounter Jack taking yet another death call, this one being at some creepy ass rest home in Milwaukee that Kevin and I have never been to. It is now 5:15 and the family says that we need to be there by 6...we get there at 6:10, after we finally figure out where it is that we need to go.
This place is just as creepy on the inside as it is on the outside, plus it is run by Polish speaking nuns in full nunnery. The family we met during this removal was really nice, but when we gave them some time to say good bye, Kevin and I were unaware that they were actually waiting on two more family members to come, so we waited for over half an hour...we were not pleased.
Kevin and I playing the waiting game
Praying to Jesus to give us strength and endurance to get through today.
When we finally did leave, we had to walk back down this creepy ass hallway that was only partially lit.
 |
| Gee doesn't that remind you a lot of this? |
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| Just add some nuns in the background and you got yourself this creepy ass rest home that Kevin and I went to |
Thus ends the official work week, tomorrow starts a new one
I pray to the Lord Jesus Christ, who died on the cross to save me from sin, that we do not have any more calls today or tomorrow, but especially today.
I do not know what tomorrow will bring but pray that it doesn't end with me working another 13 hour shift.
Until next time.
Thursday, November 27, 2014
(Un)Happy Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
While everyone here has gone home for Thanksgiving break, I am currently stuck in Milwaukee until Friday night. This is the pain of working in the death industry and being an apprentice. I've worked retail for six years before working at The Home, so I am very familiar with having to forgo the traditional turkey dinner with friends and family to work Black Friday; which is more and more becoming a Black Thursday. So having to stay in Milwaukee isn't all that surprising for me, but this is the first time where I will have to miss a holiday, and not even have the opportunity to see any of my friends and family. And for a young twenty-something living away from home for the first time; this is a really hard pill to swallow. (And don't even get me started on Christmas, another holiday that I will not be able to enjoy). I'm trying very hard not to be bitter about this situation, truly I am. So here is a list of some things that I am thankful for:
- I am thankful for my health and the health of my mother
- I am thankful to be above ground
- I am thankful to have a job doing something I really enjoy
- I am thankful for the opportunity to go back to school for this
- I am thankful for a roof over my head and that I have the whole dorm to myself
- I am thankful that I can sleep in and do nothing all day
- I am thankful for a car that works and is reliable
So that is the short of it. Tomorrow is Black Friday, and in the death industry it has a whole new meaning. This is the start of the busy season for us, and when you think about it, it makes logical sense. The weather during winter can get very bad and very cold causing horrible accidents thus driving (sometimes literally) people inside where disease and illness can run rampant, and on top of that you have the holidays which can be a very depressing time of year for many people (I am now starting to understand this better), thus the suicide and murder rate unfortunately goes up.
Murder? Murder you say? Well I am just guessing here, but I honestly would not be surprised if someone got killed over a $20 crock pot, or hated their present because it was for the wrong video game system and thus goes on a murderous rampage. Believe me, crazier shit has happened.
Tomorrow and going into this weekend we have two funerals every day. Which means even though it is not my weekend to work, I lose any ability to go home early, so I won't be seeing my mom until Friday night if the weather decides to cooperate.
In the grand scheme of things these are just small peanuts compared to what others go through, especially the families we service. For many this is the first Thanksgiving where their loved one will not be there because they have passed.
So if you're reading this in between basting your turkey or watching the football game, take a moment to say thank you to your loved ones for being around you. And give them a big hug and let them know you love them, because things can change dramatically in the blink of an eye.
Until next time.
While everyone here has gone home for Thanksgiving break, I am currently stuck in Milwaukee until Friday night. This is the pain of working in the death industry and being an apprentice. I've worked retail for six years before working at The Home, so I am very familiar with having to forgo the traditional turkey dinner with friends and family to work Black Friday; which is more and more becoming a Black Thursday. So having to stay in Milwaukee isn't all that surprising for me, but this is the first time where I will have to miss a holiday, and not even have the opportunity to see any of my friends and family. And for a young twenty-something living away from home for the first time; this is a really hard pill to swallow. (And don't even get me started on Christmas, another holiday that I will not be able to enjoy). I'm trying very hard not to be bitter about this situation, truly I am. So here is a list of some things that I am thankful for:
- I am thankful for my health and the health of my mother
- I am thankful to be above ground
- I am thankful to have a job doing something I really enjoy
- I am thankful for the opportunity to go back to school for this
- I am thankful for a roof over my head and that I have the whole dorm to myself
- I am thankful that I can sleep in and do nothing all day
- I am thankful for a car that works and is reliable
So that is the short of it. Tomorrow is Black Friday, and in the death industry it has a whole new meaning. This is the start of the busy season for us, and when you think about it, it makes logical sense. The weather during winter can get very bad and very cold causing horrible accidents thus driving (sometimes literally) people inside where disease and illness can run rampant, and on top of that you have the holidays which can be a very depressing time of year for many people (I am now starting to understand this better), thus the suicide and murder rate unfortunately goes up.
Murder? Murder you say? Well I am just guessing here, but I honestly would not be surprised if someone got killed over a $20 crock pot, or hated their present because it was for the wrong video game system and thus goes on a murderous rampage. Believe me, crazier shit has happened.
Tomorrow and going into this weekend we have two funerals every day. Which means even though it is not my weekend to work, I lose any ability to go home early, so I won't be seeing my mom until Friday night if the weather decides to cooperate.
In the grand scheme of things these are just small peanuts compared to what others go through, especially the families we service. For many this is the first Thanksgiving where their loved one will not be there because they have passed.
So if you're reading this in between basting your turkey or watching the football game, take a moment to say thank you to your loved ones for being around you. And give them a big hug and let them know you love them, because things can change dramatically in the blink of an eye.
Until next time.
Monday, November 17, 2014
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
This weekend I was able to go home and spend some time with my mom and cat Jack. Sunday we had a bit of an emergency when Jackson got really sick due to some cat food. Mom and I had to drive almost thirty minutes north to the animal emergency hospital, but Jack was deemed okay and we were able to bring him home. We have to monitor his food and give him rice and chicken, but he should hopefully make a full recovery. Because of this little scare I decided to stay an extra night in Point and headed back to Milwaukee early this morning.
I was able to make it to school well before class started and got some studying in for my chemistry exam, which I think I did pretty good on. Going into work I knew that it was going to be a long day when I saw Kevin and Steve complaining about going into an embalming. I volunteered since tonight was my night on call to do it...I didn't realize that the embalming was an autopsy, this process as I have already described in some previous blogs takes a while to get through; and this body was discovered, meaning it was not in good shape.
Even though the body was not in full decomp, it was very black and blue, especially on the left side due to the fact the decedent was found dead on his left side. He apparently died while taking a nap, perhaps due to sleep apnea who knows. He was well over 250 lbs, and in his early 40's. His finger tips and left arm were purple and black, which makes our job as an embalmer really difficult because once that happens it is really hard to reverse; especially if the decedent has been dead for a few days. So at this point we are just working to preserve the body, and will use corrective make-up for pretty much everything else.
I was working on this body with Mitch, which was great because he layered the organs inside the cavity while I poured on the 'Shake-N-Bake'. Suturing this time went a little easier, although I did form a small blister on my left index finger...but that just means that I was doing a good job on my suturing. When Mitch was shooting the embalming fluid up into the head I had to clamp the artery behind the eyes shut, but going up the left side there was a small leak so I had to press that down with my finger. ..."Just got my hand in some guy's skull, no big deal...so what did you do today?"
Oh did I mention that this guy was pretty much his own little bloody water park? When Mitch was shooting down the legs there were tiny little streams of embalming fluid shooting up from the muscle tissue right along the ridge of fat, I have never seen anything like it. The fluid retention in the face was a bit much, so Mitch had to use a surgery to suck some of the fluid out but it wasn't working. His alternative was to slice open the eye ball and push the fluid out...and what came along with it was the innards of the eye...this is where I started to dry heave. I was not prepared to slice open a guy's eye tonight. When you squeeze an eye after slicing it open, "eye jelly" (not sure what the medical term is for it) comes oozing out...but this is why we have eye caps kids!
So once we were done, we cleaned up and headed home. Now I get to write my embalming report about today, this will be my 4 out of 25. (I was not very smart and did not document my first few embalming).
A quick shout out to my neighbor Bruce back home in Stevens Point, he has been so supportive of me going to school to become a mortician, he gave me one of his 1938 Cadillac model hearses!
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
I was able to make it to school well before class started and got some studying in for my chemistry exam, which I think I did pretty good on. Going into work I knew that it was going to be a long day when I saw Kevin and Steve complaining about going into an embalming. I volunteered since tonight was my night on call to do it...I didn't realize that the embalming was an autopsy, this process as I have already described in some previous blogs takes a while to get through; and this body was discovered, meaning it was not in good shape.
Even though the body was not in full decomp, it was very black and blue, especially on the left side due to the fact the decedent was found dead on his left side. He apparently died while taking a nap, perhaps due to sleep apnea who knows. He was well over 250 lbs, and in his early 40's. His finger tips and left arm were purple and black, which makes our job as an embalmer really difficult because once that happens it is really hard to reverse; especially if the decedent has been dead for a few days. So at this point we are just working to preserve the body, and will use corrective make-up for pretty much everything else.
I was working on this body with Mitch, which was great because he layered the organs inside the cavity while I poured on the 'Shake-N-Bake'. Suturing this time went a little easier, although I did form a small blister on my left index finger...but that just means that I was doing a good job on my suturing. When Mitch was shooting the embalming fluid up into the head I had to clamp the artery behind the eyes shut, but going up the left side there was a small leak so I had to press that down with my finger. ..."Just got my hand in some guy's skull, no big deal...so what did you do today?"
Oh did I mention that this guy was pretty much his own little bloody water park? When Mitch was shooting down the legs there were tiny little streams of embalming fluid shooting up from the muscle tissue right along the ridge of fat, I have never seen anything like it. The fluid retention in the face was a bit much, so Mitch had to use a surgery to suck some of the fluid out but it wasn't working. His alternative was to slice open the eye ball and push the fluid out...and what came along with it was the innards of the eye...this is where I started to dry heave. I was not prepared to slice open a guy's eye tonight. When you squeeze an eye after slicing it open, "eye jelly" (not sure what the medical term is for it) comes oozing out...but this is why we have eye caps kids!
So once we were done, we cleaned up and headed home. Now I get to write my embalming report about today, this will be my 4 out of 25. (I was not very smart and did not document my first few embalming).
A quick shout out to my neighbor Bruce back home in Stevens Point, he has been so supportive of me going to school to become a mortician, he gave me one of his 1938 Cadillac model hearses!
It comes complete with casket, church truck, and opens up! It has such amazing detail I am very thankful to receive such a wonderful, and thoughtful gift. Thank you Bruce!
And so I leave you with this poem by Dylan Thomas
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Goodnight
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Until next time.
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Good Intentions
I realized that it has been a while since I have written anything in my blog. To be honest nothing all that interesting has happened...until of course last night.
At around 1:30 am, the fire alarm in our dorm went off. Now I personally hate any loud alarms or sirens because for whatever reason they just freak me the hell out. So waking up to a very loud, very scary fire alarm is pretty much a nightmare for me. After putting on warmer clothes and getting my jacket my room mates and I exited out to the street. Shortly there after two fire trucks came ...I didn't see any smoke, but the stench of diesel fuel nearly gagged me to death. After waiting outside for about twenty minutes we were told to walk across the bridge to Riverview, another dorm, but once we got there, we were told that it was okay to return. The bitching and moaning from everyone was immense. Once we got back to our floor, our RA told us to report any standing water. I promptly through a massive bitch fit, thinking that the sprinklers went off....but thankfully they didn't. I'm not sure what caused the fire alarm to go off, but that is not something that I want to experience again...especially at 1:30 in the morning, in November.
And of course I had to arrive at work earlier than our usual time because we had a morning service at church. Today was a day full of good intentions that promptly blew up in my face, and me trying to be helpful but to no avail. After our morning service at church (which Caleb and I kinda dropped the ball on), we got back in time for the afternoon service at The Home. This service was for the woman that Kevin had to drive 3 hours North to transfer into our care, so of course her family and relatives would be traveling today for the services....I did not know that one of the grandchildren would be coming via taxi from Madison, (this person has some physical handicaps that prevent him from driving, reason why he needed to take a taxi...but man could you imagine how expensive that would get?) The turn out was small but the family was very nice. The services were done around 4, so we were expecting to clean up and head out shortly there after; unfortunately that was not the case. Apparently the taxi guy, even though he knew that he would be driving this person back, was told by his company to drive all the way back to Madison. So what does that mean? That means that at 4:00 pm, when the services were done, we had to call the Madison taxi to come to Milwaukee during rush hour to pick up this individual...he didn't arrive until 6:00 pm.
I would be a lot more upset about this if it wasn't for the fact that this guy was really nice and that I was basically getting paid for two hours to do nothing.
Oh, and I know that I will regret writing this, but I have not done a removal since November 2nd....that is really freaking weird. We have been literally dead at work, and of course now that I writing this and since it is my night on call, we will get something. This is probably the calm before the storm because winter is coming, and with winter it brings death.
Regardless, today will end and tomorrow I will be able to go home at noon!
Until next time.
At around 1:30 am, the fire alarm in our dorm went off. Now I personally hate any loud alarms or sirens because for whatever reason they just freak me the hell out. So waking up to a very loud, very scary fire alarm is pretty much a nightmare for me. After putting on warmer clothes and getting my jacket my room mates and I exited out to the street. Shortly there after two fire trucks came ...I didn't see any smoke, but the stench of diesel fuel nearly gagged me to death. After waiting outside for about twenty minutes we were told to walk across the bridge to Riverview, another dorm, but once we got there, we were told that it was okay to return. The bitching and moaning from everyone was immense. Once we got back to our floor, our RA told us to report any standing water. I promptly through a massive bitch fit, thinking that the sprinklers went off....but thankfully they didn't. I'm not sure what caused the fire alarm to go off, but that is not something that I want to experience again...especially at 1:30 in the morning, in November.
And of course I had to arrive at work earlier than our usual time because we had a morning service at church. Today was a day full of good intentions that promptly blew up in my face, and me trying to be helpful but to no avail. After our morning service at church (which Caleb and I kinda dropped the ball on), we got back in time for the afternoon service at The Home. This service was for the woman that Kevin had to drive 3 hours North to transfer into our care, so of course her family and relatives would be traveling today for the services....I did not know that one of the grandchildren would be coming via taxi from Madison, (this person has some physical handicaps that prevent him from driving, reason why he needed to take a taxi...but man could you imagine how expensive that would get?) The turn out was small but the family was very nice. The services were done around 4, so we were expecting to clean up and head out shortly there after; unfortunately that was not the case. Apparently the taxi guy, even though he knew that he would be driving this person back, was told by his company to drive all the way back to Madison. So what does that mean? That means that at 4:00 pm, when the services were done, we had to call the Madison taxi to come to Milwaukee during rush hour to pick up this individual...he didn't arrive until 6:00 pm.
I would be a lot more upset about this if it wasn't for the fact that this guy was really nice and that I was basically getting paid for two hours to do nothing.
Oh, and I know that I will regret writing this, but I have not done a removal since November 2nd....that is really freaking weird. We have been literally dead at work, and of course now that I writing this and since it is my night on call, we will get something. This is probably the calm before the storm because winter is coming, and with winter it brings death.
Regardless, today will end and tomorrow I will be able to go home at noon!
Until next time.
Friday, October 31, 2014
(Un)Happy Halloween
Where do I begin in today's blog...well perhaps I should say, Happy Halloween because it is Halloween...even though it does not feel remotely like Halloween to me.
As I had mentioned in my previous blog, Jim and Jack both lost their mother last week. Her visitation was this past Monday and it was extraordinary. There were flowers everywhere, and the line was out of the North chapel snaking into the South! I had to stand in line for over 30 minutes just to say goodbye and pay my final respects. I unfortunately had to miss her actual funeral mass because I was in school, but was invited to go to lunch, which was great; love Polish food!
Since the days surrounding the visitation and funeral were fairly quiet , i.e. not a lot of removals; it makes perfect sense that yesterday we were slammed. We had gotten three removals Wednesday night and early Thursday morning, and another two removals during the day on Thursday and one more Thursday night. (I had literally just gotten home and into my PJ's when Kevin called saying we had a house call). So in total we had six that day...six.
Yesterday marked day one on my five day stretch on being on call since I am taking over for Caleb this weekend. And this week marks week two of three that I will be working every. single. fucking. day. To say that I am just a little home sick is an understatement. If there is anything truly difficult about being an apprentice it is the fact that I can not see my mom and friends back home as much as I would like.
Thankfully Caleb will be taking my weekend next week so I can go home for my cousin's baby shower, and I should even be able to leave early on Friday provided the apocalypse doesn't happen...
The nice thing about having so many bodies come in, all the apprentices got an opportunity to get in an embalming. Two out of my 25 needed embalming have now been documented. (I know that I have worked on more than just my two, but have not had the chance to document them and recalling an embalming from a month ago is really hard).
One interesting fact that I learned the other day was that if you own a crypt chances are that you will have to be embalmed. Now in our state of Wisconsin, (or really any state in America for that matter), you are not required by law to be embalmed, however cemeteries may make some stipulations....such as if you have an above ground crypt. The reason for this being is that when the body starts to decompose there are a lot of fluids and gas buildup and will eventually seep from the cracks within the crypt causing a horrible odor and lots of flies to congregate.
So what I have learned this week:
- if someone related to someone who works in the death industry dies; expect a massive turn out
- I do not do well working for three weeks straight not being able to go home and see my mom
- Crypt owners should expect to be embalmed when they die
Until next time...
As I had mentioned in my previous blog, Jim and Jack both lost their mother last week. Her visitation was this past Monday and it was extraordinary. There were flowers everywhere, and the line was out of the North chapel snaking into the South! I had to stand in line for over 30 minutes just to say goodbye and pay my final respects. I unfortunately had to miss her actual funeral mass because I was in school, but was invited to go to lunch, which was great; love Polish food!
Since the days surrounding the visitation and funeral were fairly quiet , i.e. not a lot of removals; it makes perfect sense that yesterday we were slammed. We had gotten three removals Wednesday night and early Thursday morning, and another two removals during the day on Thursday and one more Thursday night. (I had literally just gotten home and into my PJ's when Kevin called saying we had a house call). So in total we had six that day...six.
Yesterday marked day one on my five day stretch on being on call since I am taking over for Caleb this weekend. And this week marks week two of three that I will be working every. single. fucking. day. To say that I am just a little home sick is an understatement. If there is anything truly difficult about being an apprentice it is the fact that I can not see my mom and friends back home as much as I would like.
Thankfully Caleb will be taking my weekend next week so I can go home for my cousin's baby shower, and I should even be able to leave early on Friday provided the apocalypse doesn't happen...
The nice thing about having so many bodies come in, all the apprentices got an opportunity to get in an embalming. Two out of my 25 needed embalming have now been documented. (I know that I have worked on more than just my two, but have not had the chance to document them and recalling an embalming from a month ago is really hard).
One interesting fact that I learned the other day was that if you own a crypt chances are that you will have to be embalmed. Now in our state of Wisconsin, (or really any state in America for that matter), you are not required by law to be embalmed, however cemeteries may make some stipulations....such as if you have an above ground crypt. The reason for this being is that when the body starts to decompose there are a lot of fluids and gas buildup and will eventually seep from the cracks within the crypt causing a horrible odor and lots of flies to congregate.
So what I have learned this week:
- if someone related to someone who works in the death industry dies; expect a massive turn out
- I do not do well working for three weeks straight not being able to go home and see my mom
- Crypt owners should expect to be embalmed when they die
Until next time...
Friday, October 24, 2014
What Do You Mean It's Not Water Proof?!
Let me start off this post by taking a moment to say that just because I work in the death industry, does not make experiencing a personal death any less hard or tragic. Today my bosses Jim and Jack lost their mother, and even though I never had the chance to meet her personally, my heart is still heavy.
By working in a funeral home, you become family with everyone you work with, just because you see them literally every single day. So when someone goes through a personal tragedy, it effects us all....needless to say, the next few days, weeks,...hell even months, will be hard on us all.
Now to transition from that, to what I did today. After getting back to The Home from working a funeral with Michelle, I was told that I needed to take the remains of Mrs. S to the M.E. and to take Steve with me since he hasn't done this before. Mrs. S was the house call that Kevin and I did, where we found out after the fact that she had fractured her hip 6 months prior.
So Steve and I go to the M.E. and it goes smoothly, and we come back. I am pushing Mrs. S up to the prep room to transfer her back to a table, when David says, "Good, You're back, and you'll be going back to the M.E."
I pause a moment and ask, "Why? I hope I didn't forget anything,...I mean I have Mrs. S right here..." David said, "No...we have a removal from the M.E."
"Oh, can I take Steve with me again? He hasn't done a removal from the M.E. before"
"Sure, just hurry back"
Back to the M.E we went! This time I made sure that I had my apprenticeship license on me so I could sign off on the paperwork. As I have mentioned in previous posts, whenever we go to the M.E. to do a removal we make sure that we always have a Batesville casket liner so we can transfer the body bag onto the gurney. The transfer went as well as could be expected. I signed off on paperwork and we transferred the body onto the gurney, the body was fairly large, but nothing extremely huge. What was large though, was the sack of clothing and amount of money this individual had on them prior to death. Thankfully we got an inventory sheet and were able to head back to The Home.
Once we got back, I made sure to give Dani the small bag of valued goods so that it could be documented and locked away, she then asked who was going to help David with the embalming.
Embalming you say? I eagerly raised my hand, stating that I would love to do this so I could document my first autopsy embalming...plus Steve and Caleb both wanted to go home since they were not on call tonight or this weekend.
Changing into my scrubs I put on the 'Smurf Suit' which looks like this:
The only exception being that I don't wear the face shield since I wear glasses and we are not required to wear a hair net....and also the casket is never in the embalming room...(This photo was taken from Google).
The body was fully opened and the breast plate was taken off so we could get to the bag of organs to treat them. When embalming a body that has been autopsied, we have a special pot, or kettle, that we use to put them in. First we place a red hazardous materials bag inside the kettle, then we place the organ bag. After opening the organ bag we dumped two bottles of chemicals that would help preserve the organs, once done we replace the lid and proceed on with the embalming.
Really wish I could have taken some pictures on what I was doing because the human anatomy is really interesting! With everything removed you can see the spinal column and all the layers of fat, muscle, and skin. Since the body cavity is wide open, it makes finding the arteries for embalming (supposedly) a lot easier. Thankfully I didn't have to find them, instead David went digging (literally) around in search of them. The femoral artery, found in the legs near the groin, were fairly easy to find, but the axillary artery found in the arms near the armpit were very difficult.
While David was running the embalming fluid through the body, I had to take the special autopsy aspirator and suck up all the fluids that were pouring inside of the body cavity. Once we were done running the lines down the legs and down the arms, we had to run the line up the axillary so it would go into the face and head. Now let me remind you that during an autopsy, the skull is opened so the brain can be examined, meaning the head is now just a gaping hole. When we run the line up into the head, there is a place (and forgive me, but I can not remember what it's called) that we must pinch to prevent us getting sprayed with embalming fluid.
Once that was all done, and all the extra liquids were soaked up, I got to stuff the neck hole and work on setting the features...it was really weird to see into the mouth and not see a tongue! This time placing the eye caps proved to be really difficult because the eyeballs were basically caving in. So we finished setting the features and I was (of course) given the task of removing the organs from the kettle and layering them inside the body....joy.
In order to create our 'Satan's lasagna' ...as I so affectionately named it, we first must start off with a layer of Viserac, a powdery substance that looks like saw dust but contains formaldehyde. After a layer has been spread inside the body cavity I then began the disgusting task of bobbing for organs. I took a few deep breaths, and then a few more; psyching myself up for the disgusting adventure that I was currently embarking on.
Reaching inside the bag I began to hum loudly to myself, a tactic that I use to distract myself from something either very painful, or now, very disgusting. And I must say, it kinda worked. I grabbed a hold of a slippery mass, of what I really can't say because everything was dissected from the autopsy, and then placed it inside the body cavity. When it was layered inside I sprinkled in more Viserac, and then added in more guts. I was up to my elbow in blood and guts, and beginning to worry that there wouldn't be enough room in the cavity for everything. I asked David if the gowns were water proof because I was beginning to feel some wetness creeping up on my forearm...the answer David gave me was less than satisfactory... "WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S NOT WATER PROOF?!" seriously!!! Out of everything that should be water proof...or at least resistant, you'd think that our embalming gown would be!
Now that Satan's lasagna was finished, I was now able to suture up the body. I got to about the navel before David kicked me off of the struggle bus and took over finishing the body. If I ever felt like a failure...it was here. Where as I was struggling just to pierce the skin with the needle, David made it look effortless.
While he was finishing up suturing the body, I began to give everything a thorough cleaning and spray down with bleach. Did you know that when blood is sprayed with bleach it turns a horrible brownish green color? Once we were done (shortly before 6), we both got out of our Smurf outfits so we could change back into our work clothes.
I should say that I was not surprised, but I was, and thoroughly disgusted. After taking off my blue smock, I could see that my right forearm was covered in blood. Oh joy. Oh rapture, Oh happy day!
Needless to say, I gave my hands and forearms a deep clean and took a nice hot shower once I got back to my dorm.
So that is my story for the day. Tragic and bloody. More about the events of the funeral for Mary and the cause of death on Mr. Bloody in the days to come.
Until next time.
By working in a funeral home, you become family with everyone you work with, just because you see them literally every single day. So when someone goes through a personal tragedy, it effects us all....needless to say, the next few days, weeks,...hell even months, will be hard on us all.
Now to transition from that, to what I did today. After getting back to The Home from working a funeral with Michelle, I was told that I needed to take the remains of Mrs. S to the M.E. and to take Steve with me since he hasn't done this before. Mrs. S was the house call that Kevin and I did, where we found out after the fact that she had fractured her hip 6 months prior.
So Steve and I go to the M.E. and it goes smoothly, and we come back. I am pushing Mrs. S up to the prep room to transfer her back to a table, when David says, "Good, You're back, and you'll be going back to the M.E."
I pause a moment and ask, "Why? I hope I didn't forget anything,...I mean I have Mrs. S right here..." David said, "No...we have a removal from the M.E."
"Oh, can I take Steve with me again? He hasn't done a removal from the M.E. before"
"Sure, just hurry back"
Back to the M.E we went! This time I made sure that I had my apprenticeship license on me so I could sign off on the paperwork. As I have mentioned in previous posts, whenever we go to the M.E. to do a removal we make sure that we always have a Batesville casket liner so we can transfer the body bag onto the gurney. The transfer went as well as could be expected. I signed off on paperwork and we transferred the body onto the gurney, the body was fairly large, but nothing extremely huge. What was large though, was the sack of clothing and amount of money this individual had on them prior to death. Thankfully we got an inventory sheet and were able to head back to The Home.
Once we got back, I made sure to give Dani the small bag of valued goods so that it could be documented and locked away, she then asked who was going to help David with the embalming.
Embalming you say? I eagerly raised my hand, stating that I would love to do this so I could document my first autopsy embalming...plus Steve and Caleb both wanted to go home since they were not on call tonight or this weekend.
Changing into my scrubs I put on the 'Smurf Suit' which looks like this:
The body was fully opened and the breast plate was taken off so we could get to the bag of organs to treat them. When embalming a body that has been autopsied, we have a special pot, or kettle, that we use to put them in. First we place a red hazardous materials bag inside the kettle, then we place the organ bag. After opening the organ bag we dumped two bottles of chemicals that would help preserve the organs, once done we replace the lid and proceed on with the embalming.
Really wish I could have taken some pictures on what I was doing because the human anatomy is really interesting! With everything removed you can see the spinal column and all the layers of fat, muscle, and skin. Since the body cavity is wide open, it makes finding the arteries for embalming (supposedly) a lot easier. Thankfully I didn't have to find them, instead David went digging (literally) around in search of them. The femoral artery, found in the legs near the groin, were fairly easy to find, but the axillary artery found in the arms near the armpit were very difficult.
While David was running the embalming fluid through the body, I had to take the special autopsy aspirator and suck up all the fluids that were pouring inside of the body cavity. Once we were done running the lines down the legs and down the arms, we had to run the line up the axillary so it would go into the face and head. Now let me remind you that during an autopsy, the skull is opened so the brain can be examined, meaning the head is now just a gaping hole. When we run the line up into the head, there is a place (and forgive me, but I can not remember what it's called) that we must pinch to prevent us getting sprayed with embalming fluid.
Once that was all done, and all the extra liquids were soaked up, I got to stuff the neck hole and work on setting the features...it was really weird to see into the mouth and not see a tongue! This time placing the eye caps proved to be really difficult because the eyeballs were basically caving in. So we finished setting the features and I was (of course) given the task of removing the organs from the kettle and layering them inside the body....joy.
In order to create our 'Satan's lasagna' ...as I so affectionately named it, we first must start off with a layer of Viserac, a powdery substance that looks like saw dust but contains formaldehyde. After a layer has been spread inside the body cavity I then began the disgusting task of bobbing for organs. I took a few deep breaths, and then a few more; psyching myself up for the disgusting adventure that I was currently embarking on.
Reaching inside the bag I began to hum loudly to myself, a tactic that I use to distract myself from something either very painful, or now, very disgusting. And I must say, it kinda worked. I grabbed a hold of a slippery mass, of what I really can't say because everything was dissected from the autopsy, and then placed it inside the body cavity. When it was layered inside I sprinkled in more Viserac, and then added in more guts. I was up to my elbow in blood and guts, and beginning to worry that there wouldn't be enough room in the cavity for everything. I asked David if the gowns were water proof because I was beginning to feel some wetness creeping up on my forearm...the answer David gave me was less than satisfactory... "WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S NOT WATER PROOF?!" seriously!!! Out of everything that should be water proof...or at least resistant, you'd think that our embalming gown would be!
Now that Satan's lasagna was finished, I was now able to suture up the body. I got to about the navel before David kicked me off of the struggle bus and took over finishing the body. If I ever felt like a failure...it was here. Where as I was struggling just to pierce the skin with the needle, David made it look effortless.
While he was finishing up suturing the body, I began to give everything a thorough cleaning and spray down with bleach. Did you know that when blood is sprayed with bleach it turns a horrible brownish green color? Once we were done (shortly before 6), we both got out of our Smurf outfits so we could change back into our work clothes.
I should say that I was not surprised, but I was, and thoroughly disgusted. After taking off my blue smock, I could see that my right forearm was covered in blood. Oh joy. Oh rapture, Oh happy day!
Needless to say, I gave my hands and forearms a deep clean and took a nice hot shower once I got back to my dorm.
So that is my story for the day. Tragic and bloody. More about the events of the funeral for Mary and the cause of death on Mr. Bloody in the days to come.
Until next time.
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Why Am I Doing This Again?
Today is a perfect example of me constantly asking myself, "Why the hell am I getting into this field?"
Last night, or really in the wee hours of this morning my partner Kevin called (1:30 am) to say we had a removal. I tell him I'll be there as quick as I can and get dressed. For someone who needs a good 8 hours to just function, trying to work on only two hours of sleep can be very difficult, plus I get really sick with not getting enough sleep. It's like your stomach wants to void itself, but you're really hungry, but really you just need a few more hours sleep and you'll be just Jim Dandy.
Driving through Milwaukee at 1:30 in the morning is a special kind of treat. There really isn't a whole lot of traffic and a lot of the stop lights are in their hazard flashing mode. While I was on the highway, I saw Kevin speed past me, I laughed that I was able to spot his car on the highway going 55+ mph.
We arrived at The Home and Kevin called getting more information about our removal. The person who originally called to notify us worked for a hospice. We were given the address and headed out, neither one of us totally familiar with were we were going. When we arrived to our destination Kevin and I were both royally pissed. Not once, during the informational call back, did Jim mention that this would be a house call. He told us hospice, so we all just assumed that we would be going to a hospice care center.
Since we didn't know it was a house call, we also didn't bother to bring the hugger or our house kit; and get this, this house had a three level ramp right in front of it. So Kevin and I take a moment, walking up the ramp just trying to figure out if our gurney could make the sharp turns. We then enter the home and the home hospice nurse along with the grandson and a neighbor are all there. I take a moment to introduce myself and give my condolences and the grandson, who really didn't seem much older than me, gave me a hug. I was taken aback by this gesture, but figured grief and loss makes people want to be closer to other, even if they are a stranger.
So we fill out all the necessary forms and get basic information about the deceased and the next of kin who isn't there. Kevin and I realize that neither one of us have an information brochure to give to the family so they can fill it out and bring it to their arrangement. Not the worst thing in the world but still mildly annoying.
Kevin and I were able to maneuver the gurney up the ramp and into the house, but were unable to get it inside of the room. So we had to lower the gurney onto the ground and after carefully shrouding the body, we physically carried the deceased to the gurney and strapped her in. Thankfully she was thin and frail, which made her easy to carry.
Going back down the ramp proved to be a bit difficult but we managed. Right as we are about to leave the nurse informs us that the deceased suffered a fall about six months ago, but it did not result in her death. This sent up red flags to Kevin and I because we both know that the M.E. needs to be informed of any falls, fractures, or breaks, even if it didn't result in death....and how apt that the "No" box for notify the M.E. was checked.
So as we are pulling away from the house, Kevin gives Jim a call asking if we need to make a late night trip to the M.E. to get her checked. Jim says that it can wait until morning...or until we double check the length of time from fracture, obviously if it happened a year ago we wouldn't much care. Jim also mentions that we are to be expecting another removal once we return.
After arriving back to The Home, we proceed to undress and document the body. Jim gives me a call saying that we forgot to give the hospice nurse some paperwork. I apologize profusely and tell him that we will deliver it once we are on our way to the second removal. I take a quick look at the paperwork and realize that we forgot to have the nurse sign our own internal document that we use for 'chain of custody', so it's a good thing that we are going back; and now we can give the family the informational brochure.
Kevin gives Jim a call to get the information on our second removal, and this time it's at a hospital. Ironically it is also the same hospital that Jim and Jack's mother has been staying in for the last few weeks. Their mother has been in and out of the ICU for a while now, and she was suppose to be coming home the other day, but we are all thinking that her time with us will be very limited. We got this call courtesy of Jim and Jack talking to this family who had their loved only a few rooms down from their mothers.
This removal was pretty straight forward, in and (waiting) out within a reasonable amount of time. Unfortunately I didn't get home until 4:45 am and had to be back to work at 8:30. Waking up for the second time was brutal and I really started to question my sanity.
I was able to help run a funeral service at our other location, but because I didn't get much sleep, and didn't eat a decent breakfast I was getting pretty sick with low blood sugar. I didn't leave the second location until 2:30, meaning that I didn't get to eat my lunch until 3. I was not a happy camper.
That is until Mitch came in and said that he was just about to do a stoking next door!
Guess I will leave you with that just burning in your mind -cue rim shot-.
Until next time.
Last night, or really in the wee hours of this morning my partner Kevin called (1:30 am) to say we had a removal. I tell him I'll be there as quick as I can and get dressed. For someone who needs a good 8 hours to just function, trying to work on only two hours of sleep can be very difficult, plus I get really sick with not getting enough sleep. It's like your stomach wants to void itself, but you're really hungry, but really you just need a few more hours sleep and you'll be just Jim Dandy.
Driving through Milwaukee at 1:30 in the morning is a special kind of treat. There really isn't a whole lot of traffic and a lot of the stop lights are in their hazard flashing mode. While I was on the highway, I saw Kevin speed past me, I laughed that I was able to spot his car on the highway going 55+ mph.
We arrived at The Home and Kevin called getting more information about our removal. The person who originally called to notify us worked for a hospice. We were given the address and headed out, neither one of us totally familiar with were we were going. When we arrived to our destination Kevin and I were both royally pissed. Not once, during the informational call back, did Jim mention that this would be a house call. He told us hospice, so we all just assumed that we would be going to a hospice care center.
Since we didn't know it was a house call, we also didn't bother to bring the hugger or our house kit; and get this, this house had a three level ramp right in front of it. So Kevin and I take a moment, walking up the ramp just trying to figure out if our gurney could make the sharp turns. We then enter the home and the home hospice nurse along with the grandson and a neighbor are all there. I take a moment to introduce myself and give my condolences and the grandson, who really didn't seem much older than me, gave me a hug. I was taken aback by this gesture, but figured grief and loss makes people want to be closer to other, even if they are a stranger.
So we fill out all the necessary forms and get basic information about the deceased and the next of kin who isn't there. Kevin and I realize that neither one of us have an information brochure to give to the family so they can fill it out and bring it to their arrangement. Not the worst thing in the world but still mildly annoying.
Kevin and I were able to maneuver the gurney up the ramp and into the house, but were unable to get it inside of the room. So we had to lower the gurney onto the ground and after carefully shrouding the body, we physically carried the deceased to the gurney and strapped her in. Thankfully she was thin and frail, which made her easy to carry.
Going back down the ramp proved to be a bit difficult but we managed. Right as we are about to leave the nurse informs us that the deceased suffered a fall about six months ago, but it did not result in her death. This sent up red flags to Kevin and I because we both know that the M.E. needs to be informed of any falls, fractures, or breaks, even if it didn't result in death....and how apt that the "No" box for notify the M.E. was checked.
So as we are pulling away from the house, Kevin gives Jim a call asking if we need to make a late night trip to the M.E. to get her checked. Jim says that it can wait until morning...or until we double check the length of time from fracture, obviously if it happened a year ago we wouldn't much care. Jim also mentions that we are to be expecting another removal once we return.
After arriving back to The Home, we proceed to undress and document the body. Jim gives me a call saying that we forgot to give the hospice nurse some paperwork. I apologize profusely and tell him that we will deliver it once we are on our way to the second removal. I take a quick look at the paperwork and realize that we forgot to have the nurse sign our own internal document that we use for 'chain of custody', so it's a good thing that we are going back; and now we can give the family the informational brochure.
Kevin gives Jim a call to get the information on our second removal, and this time it's at a hospital. Ironically it is also the same hospital that Jim and Jack's mother has been staying in for the last few weeks. Their mother has been in and out of the ICU for a while now, and she was suppose to be coming home the other day, but we are all thinking that her time with us will be very limited. We got this call courtesy of Jim and Jack talking to this family who had their loved only a few rooms down from their mothers.
This removal was pretty straight forward, in and (waiting) out within a reasonable amount of time. Unfortunately I didn't get home until 4:45 am and had to be back to work at 8:30. Waking up for the second time was brutal and I really started to question my sanity.
I was able to help run a funeral service at our other location, but because I didn't get much sleep, and didn't eat a decent breakfast I was getting pretty sick with low blood sugar. I didn't leave the second location until 2:30, meaning that I didn't get to eat my lunch until 3. I was not a happy camper.
That is until Mitch came in and said that he was just about to do a stoking next door!
I have wanted to see a stoking done for a cremation for a while now. Mitch and I went next door and he opened the retort door just enough so he could slide a long metal rake, which really looks like a gardening hoe, inside. I knelt down and peered inside the chaos that was happening. A lot of the bone fragments were glowing a fiery orange, which is good, but there was still a lot of black, meaning it wasn't fully done yet. I could see the spinal column and the thick bone mass of the rib cage and chest area. This is where Mitch began to stoke, trying to break up the bones and get them more centered inside of the inferno.
Once that was done we closed the retort door and added another thirty minutes to the cremation, just because the body was still so black. I took a deep breath, and then another one. Mitch said, "Yeah you smell that?" and I replied, "Yes...is that what the bodies smell like?" "Yes indeedy...they smell like mesquite BBQ wood chips"
And that my friends is what a burning body in a crematory smells like...burning BBQ. A lot better than it being embalmed, but about 1000 times noisier.
Here is a clip from that documentary that I keep telling you all to go watch, A Certain Kind of Death
This is how human remains are cremated.
Guess I will leave you with that just burning in your mind -cue rim shot-.
Until next time.
Thursday, October 16, 2014
DON'T POKE THE BAG!
When I was a kid, I would go to the grocery store with my mom and always had a fascination with poking the various meats that were wrapped in cellophane. This obsession became so great that my mother would say, "Don't poke the meat!"
Why I had (and let's be honest, still do) this obsession is beyond me. I think part of it was this really cool realization that there was this ewwy, gooey thing wrapped in all this cellophane and your finger wouldn't get messy by touching it.
Transfer this obsession to the funeral world and I am in 7th heaven with all the stuff I get to poke around in. Yes it's disgusting but the textures of the human anatomy is fascinating.
Remember in my last blog how I mentioned that the M.E. had to remove one of our individuals for an autopsy? Well after asking a few questions I got the low down on this guy's situation. Apparently this person had dropped dead at work, (possible cocaine abuse), and the hospital did not notify the M.E. This, unfortunately is a pretty common mistake. What is uncommon in this situation is how long it took the M.E. to get notified, which was over 10 days. Remember this is the guy who died on October 1st, and was not picked up from the hospital morgue until this past Monday, the 13th. And the only reason that the M.E. was notified was because we had called and asked about this gentleman's situation!
So a transport company that works for the M.E. came out to The Home to remove the body so that it could be autopsied, this happened yesterday. Today when I got back from setting up a visitation at our other location I was busy washing the hearse. (Oh quick side note, I got to drive the hearse today and fill it up with gas. It was the coolest thing ever!) Right as I'm finishing up, Steve and Caleb come back with the body from the M.E.
I made a comment about how they get all the fun, sewing up the body, and Caleb said that he would gladly let me in on it so he didn't have to stick around any later than he had to. Wonderful trade off! I got Caleb to finish washing the hearse and the other cars and I got the chance to practice my skills!
After changing into my scrubs, Steve and I got busy unzipping the body bags, Dani was going to supervise us. When the unveiling was complete we all did a collective groan. This guy who is over 6 feet tall and well over 250 lbs, was so bloated from all the gasses that had built up from the autopsy (and from also being dead for two weeks now), that his gut bag was protruding from his abdominal cavity.
Back when I worked on my first autopsy case with the 22 year old who had died, the kid had only been dead for less than 48 hours by the time we got him, and also he was in a lot better physical shape so his gut bag was very well hidden within his skin flaps....really no matter how I phrase that, it will just sound horribly disturbing.
Once the medical examiner is done with all they need to do with the organs and brain they place them inside a clear plastic bag, and then place that bag inside of the body cavity and then do a very quick sewing job just so that the skin flaps are held together and the bag doesn't fall out.
Because this gentleman was so large, and so very very dead, his bag was full of all the noxious gases that protrude from a human corpse.
Steve got to work the head, applying the drying spray and the silly putty. Then carefully fixing the skull cap and doing the best he could sewing the flap of skull skin back into place. While he was doing that, I was sewing up the incision on the abdomen. Dani mentioned to no poke through the bag with my needle in order to spare us all a horrible stench and messy clean up.
I started near the groin, which ironically is where it is hardest to sew because the stomach is so soft. I had to go through three different needles in order to find one sharp enough. When you're sewing through human flesh you need to just the right amount of force and leverage to get through all the layers of fat and skin, all the while being very careful not to poke yourself with the needle. Finger and hand placement is critical. ...also knowing that this individual could have died from cocaine put me on high alert because there could have been a slew of other horrible things in his blood and guts. (And this right here folks, is why we in the funeral industry are having panic attacks about Ebola going around in the United States, this is a serious safety hazard that we must face).
So I am sewing along this guy's abdomen, having to clamp it into several places just to get the skin to meet, all the while having my hand basically down into his cavity pushing down on his gut bag. Right around the belly button is when it happened. I was pressing through the skin and pulling tight on the string when all of a sudden I saw this brown liquid come seeping through the stitching I had done, and a horrible odor began to form. ...oh shit, I poked the bag.
I quickly poured some absorbing powder over the belly button, and gave a small chuckle....well at least his gut bag will go down now!
I continued to sew, getting into a rhythm of pushing and pulling through the skin, making sure everything was tight. My middle finger on my left hand became extremely tender due to a cut I had received the day before, ironically Dani mentioned that you know you're doing a good job sewing when you start to get blisters.
Thankfully I did not have to work the Bermuda Triangle of death, the place where the Y incision meets, Dani was nice enough to do that for me. So while I was finishing up, Steve was riding the struggle bus trying to sew this guy's skull skin together without his long hair getting in the way. Dani had to go back over his stitching because you could clearly see a gap between the skull and skin...had this been left like it was, all sorts of nasty liquid would have come spewing out.
I had asked Dani what would we have done to create this man's neck if he were going to be viewed, the details are a bit horrifying. Basically we would have removed the gut bag and placed it on the table between his legs. Then we would have taken some thick cotton and shoved it inside his neck hole, trying to create the structure of the neck....kind of glad that we didn't have to do that today.
When we were all done sewing we washed him off and tried to transfer him onto the portable table. Because he was originally pushed down a little on the embalming table, (to give us room to work on his head), we had to pull him back up the table.
Dani and I had to each grab underneath his arm pit and try to pull him up, while Steve pushed on his feet. ...This is where another extremely disgusting thing happened...my hand slipped under from where I was holding and I came up holding a chunk of his skin....this is what we call skin slip people! -insert gagging noises here- A bit funny how out of everything I did, saw, and smelled, this is where I begin to gag.
After that Dani was fed up with this guy so she pulled out a large white strap to help heft him onto the table. Some funeral homes have a really nice machine that will hoist bodies on and off of the embalming table, and into caskets....unfortunately we still do things the old fashion way...a surprisingly disgusting workout.
Thankfully I didn't have to stick around for clean up because I had to get out to our other location to work a visitation, and that deserves a blog all to itself, which I hope to write tomorrow after the I experience the joy of working its service and committal.
Until next time.
Why I had (and let's be honest, still do) this obsession is beyond me. I think part of it was this really cool realization that there was this ewwy, gooey thing wrapped in all this cellophane and your finger wouldn't get messy by touching it.
Transfer this obsession to the funeral world and I am in 7th heaven with all the stuff I get to poke around in. Yes it's disgusting but the textures of the human anatomy is fascinating.
Remember in my last blog how I mentioned that the M.E. had to remove one of our individuals for an autopsy? Well after asking a few questions I got the low down on this guy's situation. Apparently this person had dropped dead at work, (possible cocaine abuse), and the hospital did not notify the M.E. This, unfortunately is a pretty common mistake. What is uncommon in this situation is how long it took the M.E. to get notified, which was over 10 days. Remember this is the guy who died on October 1st, and was not picked up from the hospital morgue until this past Monday, the 13th. And the only reason that the M.E. was notified was because we had called and asked about this gentleman's situation!
So a transport company that works for the M.E. came out to The Home to remove the body so that it could be autopsied, this happened yesterday. Today when I got back from setting up a visitation at our other location I was busy washing the hearse. (Oh quick side note, I got to drive the hearse today and fill it up with gas. It was the coolest thing ever!) Right as I'm finishing up, Steve and Caleb come back with the body from the M.E.
I made a comment about how they get all the fun, sewing up the body, and Caleb said that he would gladly let me in on it so he didn't have to stick around any later than he had to. Wonderful trade off! I got Caleb to finish washing the hearse and the other cars and I got the chance to practice my skills!
After changing into my scrubs, Steve and I got busy unzipping the body bags, Dani was going to supervise us. When the unveiling was complete we all did a collective groan. This guy who is over 6 feet tall and well over 250 lbs, was so bloated from all the gasses that had built up from the autopsy (and from also being dead for two weeks now), that his gut bag was protruding from his abdominal cavity.
Back when I worked on my first autopsy case with the 22 year old who had died, the kid had only been dead for less than 48 hours by the time we got him, and also he was in a lot better physical shape so his gut bag was very well hidden within his skin flaps....really no matter how I phrase that, it will just sound horribly disturbing.
Once the medical examiner is done with all they need to do with the organs and brain they place them inside a clear plastic bag, and then place that bag inside of the body cavity and then do a very quick sewing job just so that the skin flaps are held together and the bag doesn't fall out.
Because this gentleman was so large, and so very very dead, his bag was full of all the noxious gases that protrude from a human corpse.
Steve got to work the head, applying the drying spray and the silly putty. Then carefully fixing the skull cap and doing the best he could sewing the flap of skull skin back into place. While he was doing that, I was sewing up the incision on the abdomen. Dani mentioned to no poke through the bag with my needle in order to spare us all a horrible stench and messy clean up.
I started near the groin, which ironically is where it is hardest to sew because the stomach is so soft. I had to go through three different needles in order to find one sharp enough. When you're sewing through human flesh you need to just the right amount of force and leverage to get through all the layers of fat and skin, all the while being very careful not to poke yourself with the needle. Finger and hand placement is critical. ...also knowing that this individual could have died from cocaine put me on high alert because there could have been a slew of other horrible things in his blood and guts. (And this right here folks, is why we in the funeral industry are having panic attacks about Ebola going around in the United States, this is a serious safety hazard that we must face).
So I am sewing along this guy's abdomen, having to clamp it into several places just to get the skin to meet, all the while having my hand basically down into his cavity pushing down on his gut bag. Right around the belly button is when it happened. I was pressing through the skin and pulling tight on the string when all of a sudden I saw this brown liquid come seeping through the stitching I had done, and a horrible odor began to form. ...oh shit, I poked the bag.
I quickly poured some absorbing powder over the belly button, and gave a small chuckle....well at least his gut bag will go down now!
I continued to sew, getting into a rhythm of pushing and pulling through the skin, making sure everything was tight. My middle finger on my left hand became extremely tender due to a cut I had received the day before, ironically Dani mentioned that you know you're doing a good job sewing when you start to get blisters.
I had asked Dani what would we have done to create this man's neck if he were going to be viewed, the details are a bit horrifying. Basically we would have removed the gut bag and placed it on the table between his legs. Then we would have taken some thick cotton and shoved it inside his neck hole, trying to create the structure of the neck....kind of glad that we didn't have to do that today.
When we were all done sewing we washed him off and tried to transfer him onto the portable table. Because he was originally pushed down a little on the embalming table, (to give us room to work on his head), we had to pull him back up the table.
Dani and I had to each grab underneath his arm pit and try to pull him up, while Steve pushed on his feet. ...This is where another extremely disgusting thing happened...my hand slipped under from where I was holding and I came up holding a chunk of his skin....this is what we call skin slip people! -insert gagging noises here- A bit funny how out of everything I did, saw, and smelled, this is where I begin to gag.
After that Dani was fed up with this guy so she pulled out a large white strap to help heft him onto the table. Some funeral homes have a really nice machine that will hoist bodies on and off of the embalming table, and into caskets....unfortunately we still do things the old fashion way...a surprisingly disgusting workout.
Thankfully I didn't have to stick around for clean up because I had to get out to our other location to work a visitation, and that deserves a blog all to itself, which I hope to write tomorrow after the I experience the joy of working its service and committal.
Until next time.
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