From Mountains to Sound

I've practiced the maneuver several times.  Though I must say, performing abdominal thrusts on a lifeless dummy is not anywhere near the feeling of violently hugging an anxious person who is unable to breath and potentially minutes from death. My patient swallowed a small pill into his airway and almost immediately began turning a ruddy purple, hands grasped around his neck, unable to make sound or move oxygen through his wind pipe.  I'd like you to imagine me as a heroine, hauling his body out of the chair and pummeling my fists upward into his diaphragm to launch the pill from his throat.  But in fact, there was nothing brave occurring in my heart or mind when I first realized he was choking.  I actually thought, "oh nooo, I don't want to have to do this!!"

A few abdominal thrusts later, and the tiny white orb flew out of his mouth and rolled on the floor, I released him and he collapsed back into the chair.  Panting heavily, he looked at me in the eyes and said, "well, shit!"

Work occupied the first three days of this week, then Wednesday I was excited to pick up Laura Haile from the airport.  We immediately hit the highway and drove into the cascades, to Leavenworth.
The weather was kind of ugly, but we still enjoyed the Bavarian themed tourist town, ate lunch, got some Christmas shopping done, then drove into Olympia to join Cyndi in passing out candy to trick or treaters.

It was a nice evening.  We sat on the porch for a while, then hid inside with the curtains drawn and outdoor light off to keep them from continuing to knock after trick or treating officially ended. Laura had been up for almost 24 hrs, thanks to the time change, so we went back to Puyallup and crashed.

Today we went to Whidbey Island in Puget Sound.

Accessible only by ferry, we went over in the late morning for shopping, antiquing, and wine tasting.

After a day of island driving and site seeing, we got back on the ferry in time for a lovely sunset.

It's so nice having a visitor :)