Earthquake

This morning Los Angeles was been struck by a 4.4 tremblor at around 0410H near Pico Rivera which is eight miles from where my work is. I was practically at work at that time trying to do my last rounds in the morning.

One of my patient had a fever of 103.2 degrees and I was on my feet going back and forth to the room giving him cooling measures and monitoring him. I had also a very congested two-year-old girl next door and I needed to suction her during that time. The other one was been nagged by a persistent cough and was been wheezing badly so I have to call the respiratory therapist to give her an extra nebulization treatment. I was been working out so hard actually that time in that I didn't even noticed we had an earthquake.

When I got to my patient who has a hyperbilirubinemia to collect a heel stick specimen for the bilirubin levels I noticed the father went out to the room a little dazed and panicked and was looking for something. He didn't noticed that I was coming towards the room so I asked him if I could be of help. He told me that he doesn't need anything but had confusely asked me if I felt the earthquake.

I nonchalantly told him that I did not felt anything at all because I was very very busy all night. Then he showed me the TV screen that he's watching and I saw the early morning news flashing on the screen reporting about the earthquake that just recently happened at that moment in Pico Rivera.

Well, the night was very busy for me. I had four patients and was basically running on my feet the whole night. I was so sleepy but I have to hold it off because I still have to attend to my admission who had a critically high fever and also do my pile high documentations.

I really had a lot of physical and mental exhaustion at that moment but I really have to finish everything on time that moment because I have three available more hours to do it. We were already been warned by the administration and prohibited to do overtime because our employer were cutting cost.

Technically, with my very busy and much occupied time I was all focused on finishing up my routine rounds, patient's assessments, and documentations. It was really an unrewarding time for me to work that time because I was always on my feet and always  focused on doing  my  tasks.

That even this minor earthquake shake near my workplace was been even ignored by me and not felt at all. I was glad the earthquake prevention plan in our hospital was given so much attention all the time that we even didn't feel any shake at all despite the people outside were already panicking.

I think the buildings here in Los Angeles were made to be earthquake proof that's why people were being protected against sudden collapse of the building during a major shake. And that's good on our part because our safety and the safety of the patients were been taken cared of.

California has always a share of eartquake shakes. Every year there's always at least five earthquake shakes every where in the state. And this is already a normal day to day experience for every Californians.

It's not even being taken seriously by some because the state has poured out billions of money for the preparation in case a super mega earthquake hit the state. Hopefully, there will be none in the future. But this kind of natural occurence is inevitable and a vigilant preparation should be done ahead of time, and that's what the state of California was been doing.

Well, for me had this kind of event happen here in Los Angeles, I think I can say that I am also prepared. I always see to it that I have enough water in my car, packed foods to eat, and also some important first-aid kits just in case I needed them.

Having worked in healthcare taught me how to prepare and anticipate ahead of time. And that's always my mindset all the time. I may be a little willy-nilly but when it comes to anticipating I can depend on myself to always do that. Yeah!

Well, with the tremblor that had just happened earlier this morning, life still has to continue to do it's course. Despite the minor shake people are still on their toes minding their own schedules and undertakings. Life has to continue and that's what everybody was been doing.