MGS RADAR

Munich is ON AIR! However, I am reporting from my extended living room as I now call my McDonald’s around the corner. You should see me, this place looks like my office now. Laptop connected to the power plug, mp4 player and cell phone connected to the computer. And to complete the nerd picture: My wireless Internet adapter is connected to a 30cm UMTS antenna and I wear headphones.

All this equipment is useful, but also a bit unpractical. It would have been clearly a problem yesterday night when I met Mister Crazy Guy. By now I know all the homeless people as I hang out with them pretty much every day to check my mails. Let me introduce to you Mr Crazy Guy. He got all people’s attention when he ordered A BIG MÄC! Shouting and repeating his order 5x times he got already more attention than he actually deserved. Then he started to talk to all people around him… he even followed some people. Ironically he kept on mumling: “Don’t let them make you to a fool!”.

After a couple of minutes I finally answered as he was sittung next to me. What followed was a series of bizarre questions:

• Did you know that James Dean died?
• What is Claudia Schiffer doing? She fucks! was his immediate answer to his own question

Then he felt it was time for some statements, of which “I am God!” was the ice breaker. He went on with his analysis, saying that he KNOWS I would be afraid of horses. When introducing himself I had to use my second hand to interrupt an odd handshake he offered to me.

This encounter with a self-proclaimed-McDonald’s God is clearly a sign from above: I need to stop visiting this place for Internet access. I need it at my own place, dammit!

Daniel

Well today we didn’t have many patients on our ICU, and the ones who were present…well not something you might expect on an ICU.

I took the chance to do some things…I visited my head teacher about some things and then she asked me the following question.

“Well do you feel capable about working on sick kids and babies?”

And I answered :”Iam expected to take care about any patient around any age!”

“Well, then go to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit right now, there is a 4 year old intubated child on a respirator where your expertise is needed!”

TRUE CHALLENGE!

I really liked pediatric nursing and working with the children on the ward, and I miss it during the days I spent washing 90 year olds. But…I’m formally not capable of doing it

Well long story short, there it was the intubated, sedated child with a minor surgery. I’m not in the position of mockering about other nurses, and I’m not a pediadric nurse but the nurse on THIS particular ward was a real bitch!!!

But, with some knowledge I pulled out of my back part in my memory I was able to take care of him and another newborn child, very pleasing for me at last!

Stephan

["If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear!"]

…what a freaking PiCCO Line is and how to set it up!

…what a Swan-Ganz-Cathether does!

….how to prep an arterial line!
…all emergency medications used in case of Resus!

…how to interpret an ECG quickly!

…what the fuck BiPAP and CPAP does!

…the different forms of enteral nutrition!

…the differential diagnoses for chest pain!

Three weeks to go!!!

Stephan

["If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear!"]

I still have no reference about popular metal music which puts itself in the shade of publicity by putting scandals or some kind of stylish understatement IN FRONT of their actual music (You know, I’m a nurse ; I define myself by fixing SHIT not other things) and I never liked the popularity of Slipknot , despite they have some good pieces of music around. Maybe it’s about the fans, I don’t like the fans of the band, but future articles will follow about this topic.

In my countless searches around Youtube I found some interviews of Slipknot Members without masks and I was amazed how deep and real these guys are in these interviews. Some of them share the same opionions, take a look into this philosophy

BY THE WAY

MySpace SUCKS ass and I’m no longer a member of this piece of shit!

Stephan

["If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear!"]

The countdown is on! Next week I am leaving for Munich to start an internship within an automotive company to finalise my Business Management studies. This is the second compulsory internship I am absolving, so there are chances to draw from experiences made, however some new challenges arise as well. For instance: A strange language, cultural differences, a different climate… or to sum it up with one word: Bavaria. Geographically London is even closer by roughly 150km than Munich is from Schwalmal - the hometown I’ll be leaving once again for about six months.

As I remain in the country several factors change:

The subjective feeling of distance is, despite the actual higher distance, smaller. This starts with university, which demands personal presence during mid-internship and closing presentations, over the company that has provided me with a contract just days before the planned start and of course my own feeling that is being reinforced by these circumstances. Just as it is by the frequent “See you in Munich” statements made by friends or myself.

Unpleasently the bureaucratic obstacles appear to be higher this time. I need to get all kinds of papers (even as a German national it is definitely more than for the internship in the UK). But once again the Internet saved the day and nowadays - very much to my positive surprise - even local authorities react quickly on requests communictaed online.

What is also different: I’ll be taking a car, now I can finally say my car, with me. In contrast to London I have a company owned flat already reserved - from the hoods of Elephant & Castle to Munich’s city centre. Both apartments were / are ridiculously expensive, but the jump in living standards is pretty much from “Your flat has been visited by pest control - Do not touch the poison traps!” to “The cleaning lady comes onces a week”.

Aaaaaaand: Although I miss a bit the minimalistic shopping experience of Britain’s Argos shops I am able to buy some basics of the classic relocating student beforehand. In this website’s recent tradition of shopping spree results I hereby proudly present: The cheapest home appliance and electronic articles in Mönchengladbach town aka “Dollar Menu appliances”

	Both electric kettle (9,99EUR) and toaster (9,99EUR) were a low price deal my mom noticed in Real’s weekly advertisements. Tested them yesterday night and should surive a half year term of duty.
	I am curious about the toaster as I had a very similiar model while being in England. The first one only survived roughly three months after the successful extraction of bagel remainings usinga fork. (Kids! If you try this at home: Pull the toaster’s plug first!) Keeping the functionality of the toaster was a secondary goal that has not been achieved.
	Instead of wasting money on cable television I put my faith in the fairly newly launched terrestrial Digital Video Broadcasting service. Let’s just hope this 14,99EUR baby from MediaMarkt is good enough for reception in Munich. Once again: As long as it is going to survive six months I am happy.
	If you can’t beat them, join them. I take the freedom to say that MGS-Radar has - in unison - a critical opinion on the idea of reducing particles in so called “Environmental Zones” by means of applying a traffic light colour system. Munich has introduced in 2008 the obligation for car drivers to equip their cars with these stickers (5EUR please). As driving every once in a while into an environmental zone is one thing and actually living there, thus keeping the car in this zone at all times, is another I can now proudly call my old Diesel to be a member of the worst category. It will be banned in the city center by the end of this year - luckily after I will have completed the internship.
	I am not gonna deny it, although I am going to work for a different car maker very soon - I am a bit proud of the old Ford, who served me well over the last couple of years. Just last week-end I added another 1.000km to the distance recorder, which now displays some number above 245.000km. Only the glow plugs needed to be replaced after too many years of operation for a total cost of 80EUR. During the replacement the mechanic noticed that the connecting cable was completely rotten, which means that the Diesel engine was starting without the help of the four fellas - despite the harshest winter with temperatues reaching below -10C° we had for quite some time. I am quoting the guys from the repair shop: For an engine of this age it must be in terrific shape!

Now bring me, the cattle, toaster and all the other stuff safely down to Munich old Ford!

Daniel

Again something about things you wear in the winter…as you can see in my series , the first item was the “Buff Cyclone” and I lost mine on New Years Eve , but I took me only 2 days to re-buy it.

My Glove Philosophy:

I live in not the warmest climate on earth but also not the coldest. The last winters were harder than usual but most of the time I have to deal with winter temperatures around -5°C to +5°C.

No matter what glove you choose, if you have FINGER gloves which means you put every fingers in one desired sheath, you will get cold fingers. The blood flow in your fingers is not high enough and they are too far away from the body that they can withstand a cold climate for a long time. It depends on the temperature but be sure, that even in the thickest gloves you will have cold fingers. If you choose mittens you don’t have this problems.

I don’t like and I even hate putting out my gloves for tasks that require dexterity. If you choose thick gloves, you need to put them out for opening your car or your door or just manipulating the radio in your car. That rules out wool or fleece gloves for me, I have them and I wear them but generally in very cold climate.

So my requirement is, that I don’t have to put out my gloves that often and I choose to have a solution between protection from the cold and dexterity.

The third thing to talk about is protection. I personally like to wear gloves while working. I play drums for over 8 years which put a really big strain on my hands. I also had numerous cuts from my cats and unskillfull handling of blades. I also use desinfectant regulary which puts my skin and my hands to a VERY high level of irritation. I also had a very nasty cut in my index finger in August 2009.

The healing took very long and I still don’t have a very good feeling in my index finger because they was nerve damage.Also the scar tissue hurts if I want to apply big pressure. So this was a lesson about protecting my hands, I need them for my work.

So, the test about the HATCH KED 100 Cut resistant glove.

Hatch gloves are VERY expensive in Germany, but if you buy them overseas over ebay or someting similar you can get them to very nice prices EVEN if you include shipping. So I did and I payed 25 € over PayPal.

I put my gloves on and I was suprised about the warmth and the feeling in them. At first they were VERY stiff, but they wore out by using them. The glove is very tight on the skin and the goat-leather (I guess it’s goat) gives you a very good feeling an protection.

During cold and wet conditions (Welcome to Germany!) they are in their field of expertise. You get absolutely NO moisture inside your palm, even if you touch wet objects like roofs of a car or bushes that are wet.

They are cut resistant and have a Kevlar lining inside the glove…I’m not quite sure how much I can rely on the CUT RESISTANT by hatch. I don’t think that a full stab with a very sharp knife will protect my hands from getting bloodless. I don’t want to test it out, and cut resistance wasn’t one of my options. - It was just included and I bought them because of the price.
Rough handling with these gloves, persons or sharp objects works very good because of the big friction you have, but the thumb is strange to me and doesn’t fit very well, don’t know why.

CRITICAL COMMENTS

The gloves are very SHORT IMO, the last part which you expect to go over your base of the hand just ends at the end of the palm, which is a little bit TOO short for winter-used gloves. The positive aspect in this is , that you have a better range of movement, but if it rains or snows something of this will get into your glove, nasty thing.

All in all, I tried out gloves from Mammuth(C) for over 50€, and in comparison to my police duty gloves they sucked. Very minimal dexterity, if fleece is wet - you don’t have to worry about getting warm anyhow. So, please buy Hatch Gloves (They tend to make great products!)

Stephan

["If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear!"]

Next month I’ll be commuting again, thanks to an internship in Munich. Mental note to myself and others:

• Lads! Don’t forget to put on your trousers in the morning!
• And dudes: Don’t forget your pants either!

This could be quite emberassing, nevertheless brilliant fun!

More on the ImprovEverwyhere website!

Daniel

If you think Diarrhea is nothing to bother and nothing but a symptom or sign, you are WAY wrong…it can…no wrong it WILL fuck you up if it will last LONG and it is dangerous…but no tears and fears - It can be handled without beeing a physician.

Why do I write this article?
First of all, I’m an official victim of Diarrhea…I catch it up at least once a year since I work with infectious patients OR I was getting fucked by a homojock Kebap - Maker - Idiot with lack of hygiene in his meatshed.

I also hear a lot of childish - half knowledge - cowfarm alike - rumors about dealing with Diarrhea…even in the internet on professional webpages which give actual medical ADVICES to people without any medical backround.

I spare you the routine disclaimer, I mean why should I point out that you should catch up professional medical advice and that this isn’t something you should transfer 100% to your case of bad luck?  Thats common sense and even medical disclaimers won’t let this show up in front of the idiots that got and will get killed becaused they tried to cure SEVERE illnesses just by wikipedia (nothing AGAINST wikipedia, I absolutely HATE Wikipedia-Credibility-Bashing - It’s just about the stupid shitbags putting medical advice into practice without load up their brains from a hybernating status.)

If some of my former or future employers will read this, see it as a part of small nursing science research shit. I mean I’m not the new Nancy Roper, but hands down I know something about Diarrhea. It’s still an advance if some of my employers is smart enough to understand the language I tend to write in, but no offense!

No make anything clear, I’m speaking about a short !(1 day to 4, maybe 5 days depending on your system)  diarrhea which is probably from eating something bad or having an infection in your intenstines. Now comes the bad part which is part of my job: Take a look at the diarrhea if it’s anything than fluid shit or something inside (slime, blood, something you might not really identify as old food) this mess must be reviewed by a physician!!!

Also I’m just speaking about diarrhea alone. They are common symptoms like nausea, general sick-feeling (like you have a flu) vomiting, light general stomach-pain and sometimes high temperature. If they are symptoms present which can’t be related to the diarrhea itself or the effects of this –> Physician

THE PRACTICAL PART FOR HELPING YOURSELF STARTS HERE
What causes diarrhea ?

For the average diarrhea it really doesn’t matter which bacteria or which virus exclusevely infected your intestines.  It doesn’t matter!

Does antibiotics help in case of diarrhea ?

I see some physicians prescribing masses of antibiotics against diarrhea, but the guidelines do not see the clinical outcome in this step. This might be a point of discussion for medical experts, but I see it rarely and in case I see it - never helped. Period.

What is the best medication against diarrhea?

Loperamide
I would personally not recommend loperamid in case of in infectious diarrhea…only in cases where you need to buy some time to get yourself in a calm position to heal, but loperamide and any other stuff like this will lower your peristaltic - bowel - movement of and you might give the possible virus or bacteria the best place to establish himself in your system. 37°Celsius - No bowel movement - Wet and dark condition PERFECT for developing of bacterias and viruses. This means the medication loperamide will actually make your diarrhea last LONGER.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Yeast) is something very nature and it hasn’t got many side effects, no relevant to me I think. It will re-establish the intenstinal flora in your colon and it will fight the bacteria. It helped me very often and also you can take this as a PRECAUTION a week before a flight to turkey or egypt OR you know that you’ve eaten something from the east that tasted not very good. Take it, it won’t bother you that much except some well…sounds and flavor.

This is basicly the BASIC medical treatment of diarrhea, if you are not interested in the whole understanding part you start here.

This is my flowchart like “MGS RADAR Diarrhea Treatment Scheme”
CAUTION: Brain must be used by application!

• If you have the first Diarrhea like stool and no other symptoms that may lead to a serious shit (take the word!) LIKE stomach mumbling or a “different” feeling in the guts, you start preparing but you should not call the cavalry ! One time can happen!
• If you got some strange feeling that this might last longer OR you have the second occur of diarrhea take exactly ONE pill of loperamide + 2 - 3 pills of  Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Perenterol etc.)
• In the first two days take 2 pills of Saccharomyces cerevisiae three times a day after the third day and if the symptoms are weakened take one tablet three times a day until you got exactly one week after the first occur of diarrhea
• Go to the local supermarket and buy:
  - Three bottles of Powerade or similar like Isostar (without bubbles, with sugar and with electrolytes, they need to be isotonic!!! NO ENERGY DRINKS!) The Powerade is the base of your re-hydration it works very fast and very well to my experience
  - Lots of salty stuff like Potato Chips, something that you really like
  - Buy lots of water without carbonide and with some taste in it, so that you can consume masses of water.
• You go home and consume the bottles of powerade in a row, after that you need to drink at least 2 liters of water, if you are able to do more drink like a moron!
• Eat the salty stuff whenever you feel like it
• The keypoint behind this is, if you are hydrated very well the side symptoms like weakness should be lowered to a point on which you can keep alive daily tasks, but KEEP A LOW PROFILE . You gotta imagine your body has a large wound and it may lose MUCH fluid.
• You should keep hydrated like this at least for a week
• Now comes the part which many people don’t aggree with, THERE IS NO REASON TO STOP EATING NORMAL FOOD. You can eat a light version of your normal stuff, but if you feel very good there is NO REASON to stop eating.
• Avoid food like: Whitebread, ANY FASTFOOD, eating outside, very sweet things, FAT FOOD, Salad, EGG
• food to like: Fruits in general, Carrottes, Apples, BANANAS, Potatoes
• Don’t drink alcohol, it’s a rollercoaster for your digestive system
• Use common sense!!

Be safe!

Stephan

["If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear!"]

What an icy, and for me personally busy start into the new year! I hope y’all made it through well into the new year, despite the blizzard-like conditions on the continent.

Thanks to a couple of internship application talks and the current exam period I am flying below the radar. Just to remain visible every now and then I want to share this beautiful prose I just discovered on last year’s Controlling exam:

“Calculate divisional earnings after corporate overhead allocations using divisional earnings before corporate overhead allocations as the allocation base.”

Controllers don’t write speeches, they calculate!

The showdown tomorrow morning for this year’s exam IS ON!

Daniel

Stephan

["If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear!"]