Diurnal

I ended up being completely diurnal this week due to a two day Diastat training session I attended. What is Diastat? It's a rectal gel. Why would I need to be trained in the usage of something as unappetizing sounding as rectal gel? Well, apparently there are some cases when the proper application of this gel might save a life. If a person is having a seizure, Diastat can stop it. If the seizure is outside of the norm (in duration), or if it's the first time a person has had a seizure and it doesn't appear to be stopping in a reasonable amount of time, I now have the training needed to get out a little plunger and stick some medicine up where the sun doesn't shine. I sincerely hope I never have to do this.

We got to practice this on dolls. It occurred to me that it might be more realistic if we used Tickle-Me-Elmo dolls, since they wiggle around. I even wrote this on the "suggestions for improvement" section of the feedback form we were all handed.

I was reminded of the time when Willow was barely more than a toddler, and had a febrile seizure, and how scared we were. I'm glad that was a one-time thing. It must be hard to be the parent of a kid with epilepsy.

Most of our staff got to miss this training, but the health aides and night supervisors attended. Squirrel, who is our permanent hub host at our second site, showed up for a little bit of it too. We discovered a little burrito place around the corner during our lunch break as well, which made enduring the sadly out of date videos slightly more bearable. In one video, All of the talking heads were wearing glasses big enough to allow their cheeks to see better. It was distracting. They were all digitized, but the schedule indicated that they were from the VHS era. I could almost imagine them being shown in Super 8.

On Thursday, I covered a field class for my friend, Big Brown Bat. The kids were great and the day was warm. I took the group up to Lake Ranch Reservoir, paying attention to my FitBit as we hiked. It seems that the hike I thought was around 5 miles long is actually over 6. We caught a couple of toads and a Garter snake, all first spotted by the kids. The Killdeer were out and about too, and a handful of kids got to see the heron that lives by the reservoir. It was a good day.