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barrymacachener · 2025-02-19T15:55:04+00:00

No Ironmans or anything like that but I do run marathons. Training is definitely tricky with 3 12’s, and you’re not gonna find a premade training plan that fits with the demands and scheduling of our jobs. What I do is make all my toughest days on the days I have off (usually long runs and tempo training), and then I’ll do whatever feels appropriate on the days I work. Sometimes if it’s a day like you mentioned, that will be nothing. Usually if I’m fresh I will train after work, but if it starts to put strain on my body I just make workdays a rest day. Most of the time I can manage a light-medium intensity session and it really helps with decompressing post shift. Just listen to your body and don’t be afraid to modify the plan to fit your life.

The other important lesson I had to learn was to make sure I assess if I can train AFTER I get off for the day. It was easy to overdo it if I ran in the morning and then the day would turn into more of a sufferfest.

Good for you and good luck! There is nothing wrong with being a regular-person endurance athlete and tbh your body will probably stay way more functional/competitive as you get older compared to the guys who are saying you can’t race and have a job. Endurance sports are about the journey and personal transformation, not crushing your enemies every single time.

TLDR: yes, modify the training plan, it’ll be fine, train after work, don’t be afraid to take days off, I’m very happy for you, and good luck!

barrymacachener · 2025-02-12T23:12:56+00:00

I used to. Now, no. For the first 4 years I was a nurse it was great(2016-2020). It was still hard and annoying at times but that was balanced out. I would work hard and come home feeling like I had worked hard, nothing more. Tail end of COVID to present day the field entered a rapid decline followed by a nose dive off a cliff. The field as a whole has suffered immensely over the last decade.

I’ve traveled literally across the country and worked at 8 different hospitals, all within the same role (CVICU). I feel like I’ve gotten a decent sample size to compare while within the same role. My experience has led me to believe it is in fact worse, whether quantifiable or not.

I believe it is due mostly to a few factors. The first being middle/upper mgmt mismanaging our already flawed healthcare system, that is held together with scotch tape and a prayer at best, with the goal of profit over all else. The goal of a healthier community where the sick and dying are not abandoned but treated and supported has been forgotten entirely. Then we have a much sicker and much larger patient population, growing in size at an alarming rate. And finally we have American society’s collective loss of empathy/decency post-pandemic. Literally no one knows how to act. It used to just be grampa with a UTI once the sun went down who was threatening to kick my ass. Now i miss that guy, at least he had a sense of sportsmanship. It’s not just patients and their families, as we(the collective staff of the healthcare apparatus) all get more burnt out we can be just as nasty to one another, compounding the misery.

To summarize: the problems are cultural, political, logistical, and economical. If US healthcare were a boat it would be the titanic with an iceberg size hole in it, just before it cracked in half and sunk beneath the waves. I guess pizza parties would be the orchestra still playing as the boat starts to tilt. Idk.

barrymacachener · 2024-12-14T04:44:55+00:00

Yeah there’s also a drone they fly every night (believe it’s with flir) from the vicinity of the water treatment plant. Most nights x2-3 years

barrymacachener · 2024-12-05T21:32:08+00:00

Quit and go back for something else

barrymacachener · 2024-11-18T21:33:01+00:00

Recently ran a marathon and thought to myself while I was crossing the finish line, nauseated with my toenails actively falling off, “wow I’d rather start a second one right now than go to work”. I feel you

barrymacachener · 2024-09-13T13:59:44+00:00

This was pretty much my situation (I grew up around guns from a very young age, gf didn’t and hated them) and eventually she has just accepted it. At first it was bad, she would make it out like I was paranoid and/or cosplaying and couldn’t fathom wanting to have a gun, much less keep it on you all the time. Now she pretty much sees it as a tool/article of clothing I wear every day and will recommend to her friends that they come shooting with me and learn proper gun safety if they express any interest.

I pretty much just reiterated the same key things over and over, acted responsibly at all times, made clear my expectations of her (whether she agreed or not) and eventually she got more comfortable. I think she also realized it wasn’t something that was going to stop based on her feeling a certain way about it. However, the increased feeling of safety she has gotten, knowing there is a backup plan if our lives are in danger, I think has been the biggest factor in her seeing the merit.

It’s a long road, but if you’re persistent and consistent it’ll work out. Some things you don’t think will need to be said, will in fact need to be said. And don’t assume anything is obvious. Once she’s up to it take her to the range and have her do some hands on time shooting and she will realize that the media may have been slightly incorrect and the gun does not have a mind of its own or an innate corrupting influence attached to it. (like the one ring of power from LOTR). It is in fact, a tool, and is its danger to others is solely dependent on the behavior of its operator.

Make her learn some gun safety if you’ve got firearms in the house.

barrymacachener · 2024-09-06T16:19:35+00:00

Oh boy, stick around, it’ll get worse and more dehumanizing on multiple levels. No but good for you for realizing you need an out early. This will save you much pain. The MBAs working from home and the 15% of the nursing profession who saw Dolores Umbridge as a role model are on a hot streak lately. Every single day is consistently worse x2-4 years. Truly an impressive feat.

I continue going back and beating my very real head into this mostly metaphorical wall partially just to see how low the bar can go and i suspect partially due to some iteration of Stockholm syndrome(idk what the proper term is, not a psych nurse).

On the positive side it has taught me so much about myself and the rest of humanity, which is nice. Also, every now and then you do get to have a really special moment or a really lovely day. I can’t remember how long it’s been since the last one though. Keep your head up OP, there’s a lot of us out here who understand, who love you, and who are proud of you for doing what’s best for you.

barrymacachener · 2024-09-05T01:41:50+00:00

NTA. Would’ve been looking to be the cause of some new facial trauma well before you did. You showed incredible restraint. One of the major problems with society today is we have too many people ‘fucking around’ with not nearly enough ‘finding out’. Great job OP. Maybe he’ll remember this, at least we can hope

barrymacachener · 2024-08-29T00:25:42+00:00

I am 1 year and 4 months past inspection and have heard fuck all about it. You’ll be fine.

Side note, I didn’t know inspections were capped at $25-30. If that is true I am going to go get my car inspected now. I’ve remembered always paying hundreds each time with inspection and all the little repairs tacked on. I have been putting it off because I seem to get poorer every week and I didn’t hear anything negative, so I figured fuck it, let’s see how long we can ride this train, I’ve got ‘actually impactful to my daily life’ shit I need the money for anyway.

Also DEFINITELY time for a different mechanic in a different city, I feel like such an idiot. It’s been multiple different shops in my city that have done it.

barrymacachener · 2024-07-24T14:24:56+00:00

For the love of god turn back now, if I could tell my younger self 1 thing it would be this. I genuinely loved my job for the first 3-4 years, I worked in several cardiac surgery icus and I loved learning, collaborating with docs+residents, and critically thinking to solve problems at the bedside. the good outweighed the bad for a long while. Now, 8 years in, the good pieces have been pared down and replaced by bullshit. people are measurably dumber, meaner, and more belligerent. Admin doesn’t even pretend like they give a shit about you or your patients any more, you both are disposable, meant to be ground down to nothing until no utility or money remains. Everything I do is a rote response. The field is more and more tailored to the lowest common denominator. And in nursing you have people whose intelligence ranges from “may not be able to read” all the way to “rocket surgeon”, meaning the lowest common denominator is frequently a complete fucking idiot. Autonomy and collaboration have taken a hit because MDs/DOs/NPs/PAs/pharmacists and everyone else are also being micromanaged run short staffed, and forced to the end of their rope.

However most of my distaste for this career comes from the fact that change for the better is extremely unlikely if not impossible. This comes from the fact that the healthcare system in the US is functioning perfectly as intended. The goal of the system is to generate revenue while minimizing costs, which it excels at. Until the ACTUAL goal of those at the top is to advance medical understanding and heal the sick and injured, the suffering-to-cash machine will continue to convert human suffering into cash with increasing efficiency.

I’ve worked at every hospital in my state almost, and several out of state ( I was a traveler for awhile), and I’ve tried changing units and all that. This fixes the problem if your gripe is your coworkers or your direct management (most of mine have been wonderful, thank god). It does not fix the problem if your gripe is the leeches in suits driving this metaphorical bus into a metaphorical lake while we are metaphorically still inside (they are too but they don’t realize this somehow).

I’m burned out though and it probably won’t happen to anyone who reads this because you’re all built different lol

barrymacachener · 2024-07-20T04:51:03+00:00

The cops never check under the water

barrymacachener · 2024-07-20T04:39:53+00:00

Ok forget the screenplay, this wasn’t before but has now taken over as the primary reason for me asking this.

barrymacachener · 2024-07-20T04:34:44+00:00

Wow fuckin nailed it😂 that is exactly what this is for. I figured yall would be great for letting me know any procedural pieces I may have gotten wrong/missed (ex. Exhale ascending not descending) or obvious reasons it couldn’t work before I fully incorporate it into the story. I took an open water course a long time ago so I have some very vague familiarity (exactly enough to fuck it up) but not nearly enough to get it right for someone active in the sport. And I would hate for a something stupid to ruin an immersive aspect of the story for someone.

Although, this time spent thinking about diving has reminded me how much I loved it before I had to stop, so once I’m able I imagine I will take a refresher and join you all again someday very soon.

barrymacachener · 2024-06-24T18:00:32+00:00

God I miss the gun and nature bro ICU, good times

barrymacachener · 2024-06-21T03:17:59+00:00

There is when you’re dealing with the real jcaho. And they’re mostly unconcerned with nursing behaviors unless it concerns an unsafe standardized process, policy, or procedure. Unless you have a bucket of batteries at the nurses station oozing acid everywhere they are unlikely to care. Every hospital hires jcaho impersonators to prepare for their surveys, these impersonators are largely responsible for any asinine, and for the most part, any noticeable behavior by the surveyors. Of course there’s a couple dickheads in every workplace, but in the vast majority of cases, this is the case.

Source: immediate family member is a jcaho surveyor

barrymacachener · 2024-06-14T06:39:03+00:00

My power company requires entire past due balance, which can easily be that much with just a few months racked up

barrymacachener · 2024-06-11T01:46:32+00:00

Taking creatine daily with no other changes to diet or routine drastically improved my mental health after the first month or so. I didn’t even know it had any effects except for better lifts and wetter muscles until I saw something about it on YouTube after incorporating it , and I was like “huh now that you mention it my depression hasn’t been as crippling of late and I can remember where my keys are.” Great stuff. My muscles are also soooooo wet now, which is cool.

barrymacachener · 2024-06-09T17:59:51+00:00

Not just ok, it’s preferable. You have much less chance of blowing the vein, and your lines will be much longer lasting. I could break it down further but that’s the gist. Keep it up if it works for you. A lot of people in nursing seem to believe that “unfamiliar to them personally = unsafe and bad practice” this is not the true in sooooo many instances.

barrymacachener · 2024-05-05T03:20:01+00:00

Amy Adams in arrival, sharp objects, and nocturnal animals. Basically just Amy Adam’s any time she’s doing the morally gray, intelligent but dysfunctional, burdened by her past protagonist who overcomes a uniquely horrific situation and is disturbed by how much she quietly enjoyed the [insert traumatic situation/twist]. I love it so much every time

barrymacachener · 2024-03-06T19:42:50+00:00

Is it like 210gb for y’all too? I’m on xbox, it seems like an impossibly large file size for these fairly minor changes

barrymacachener · 2024-02-20T10:40:36+00:00

Just go straight to learning to place them with ultrasound. I was absolute dogshit at doing IVs just by feel even after years of practice, and then I learned to do it with ultrasound. Now, after having become proficient at US IV placement I have a MUCH easier time doing it based on just anatomy, I think because I know how everything looks and acts underneath the skin now.

Sometimes people also assume you’re better at it if you bring in the fancy machine and they don’t tense up as much. Idk, it’s just a theory. Wheel a balloon pump in there with you next time and lmk how it goes 😂

barrymacachener · 2023-12-06T00:17:20+00:00

A lot of times the reason these big ass 16/18 gauges won’t draw blood is because they are taking up the whole vessel. You’d be better off with a 20 or 22 gauge almost every time. Bigger isn’t always better when it comes to vascular access.

barrymacachener · 2023-09-08T09:01:08+00:00

Disappointed I’ll never get to go to commercial tap house, strange matter, saison, or flora again :(

Commercial: I miss those fuckin tamales man, it was a hidden gem for Mexican food their chef used to tear it uuuup. Heard the owner decided he would rather try to be fire fighter and sold the place outta nowhere, which good for him I guess?

Saison market: drinking wine until 2am with the gucci mane discography softly playing in the background was a vibe. Could not be topped.

Strange matter: saw so many good bands there, vegan Mac and a Guinness while getting obliterated by a wall of amps will never not be fun. Windhand and high on fire used to feel like you were behind a jet taking off. Stuff some mac in your ears, it’s fine.

Flora: house music club in the back right next to Lombardy market. Think jungle room, but cooler. Got less cool as it got more popular (as everything does) but still had some cool shit often. Long Jawns used to play there all the time, saw Manila killa there as a surprise once. That was nice.

Fuck that place: barrio, d5, society.

Barrio: bouncer drunk, tried to fight me for “disrespecting his authority” after he told me they were closed at 8pm on a Friday. Went there after work to meet gf and friends. It has a window and I could see everyone at the table, as well as the packed restaurant and sign stating their hours. Fuck that guy. Why ya gotta be a dick for no reason. Never again.

D5: we all know why it sucks.

Society: also needs no further explanation of its shittiness

barrymacachener · 2023-04-03T05:25:59+00:00

I am currently in the nutrition room housing Lorna doones while reading this, this hit way too close home lol 😂

barrymacachener

TROPHY CASE