NaNo Pep Card: Day 10

[age.livejournal.com]

Wow, with the drama of earlier, I'm glad I didn't try and post today's card. The inability to post woul dhave irritated me to no end, and at a time when such irritation would have been most unhelpful.

So here we go!

A friend of mine, who is an EMT, says that people at restaurants choke more often than you imagine. According to him, the real danger isn't the choking, it's the bathroom. Because the moment people get a chicken wing lodged in their throats, they do a curious thing: They use the last of their oxygen to politely remove themselve to the bathroom, far away from anyone who might be able to help Heimlich it out.

If at any point you start having difficulty with your novel, the worst thing you can do is suffer silently. Complain in great detail to your support team and anyone else who will listen.

Curse your characters and their mothers. Crumple up this card and hurl it in the trash. Let the frustration out. You'll be surprised at how much clearer your writing vision is after a good venting.

Today's flashcard from the No Plot? No Problem! writing kit, the genius brainchild of Chris Baty.

...I know you're not supposed to refer to it as the Heimlich Manouver anymore, so you can tell how long ago these cards were written. (For the record, they're now to be called 'abdominal thrusts', according to the nice man who re-certified me for emergency first-aid and CPR two months ago.)

Just an FYI :)

And for the record? I vent my frustrations by taking them out on my protagonist. I managed to make her cry by novel's end last year. I'm mean ^.^

Comments

[walkertxkitty.livejournal.com]

I'm in a real jam on this one! I don't normally research as carefully as I would with a normal writing project but I try to stick with reality. Unfortunately, I ended up nearly killing my main character and it will take a miracle (literally) to get him back.

I HATE doing things like that. I wish I'd been more careful with him.

And the husband, who developed an attachment to the character, is really mad at me for almost killing him.

I find a high powered scream of frustration from the gut often helps in situations like these.

[mamasboo.livejournal.com]

Mom was a nurse and worked with Dr. Heimlich way back when. She says he once threw a scalpel at a nurse.

Why don't they call it the Heimlich anymore?

[age.livejournal.com]

1. That's pretty nifty :) Your mom working with Dr. Heimlich, not the scalpel thing, that is ;)

2. I'm not sure. We were just told to never call it that for some reason. Anyone else have any ideas or sources?

3. Your icon? Is made of win. Very oh so much win.

taken with a grain of salt, this is what i could find about it

[cerrenes.livejournal.com]

http://www.answers.com/topic/henry-heimlich

From 1976-1985, the American Heart Association and American Red Cross choking rescue guidelines taught rescuers to first perform a series of backblows to remove the FBAO (foreign body airway obstruction); if backblows failed, then rescuers were taught to proceed with the Heimlich maneuver (a/k/a abdominal thusts). After a July 1985 American Heart Association conference, backblows were removed from choking rescue guidelines. From 1986-2005, the Heimlich maneuver was the only recommended treatment for choking in the published guidelines of the American Heart Association and the American Red Cross. In 2006, both organizations changed course and "downgraded" the use of the Heimlich maneuver, essentially returning to the pre-1986 guidelines. For conscious victims, the new guidelines recommend first applying backslaps; if this method failed to remove the airway obstruction, rescuers were to then apply abdominal thrusts. For unconscious victims, the new guidelines recommend chest thrusts, a method first recommended in a 1976 study by Charles Guildner MD whose results were duplicated in a year 2000 study by Audun Langhelle MD. The 2006 guidelines also eliminated the phrase "Heimlich maneuver" and replaced it with the more descriptive "abdominal thrust."

Re: taken with a grain of salt, this is what i could find about it

[age.livejournal.com]

You definitely need a large grain of salt. Or perhaps the American Guidelines are different from the Canadian Guidelines?

Because my instructor said that back-blows were not to be done and for a conscious victim that was still able to cough you were to merely encourage them to continue to do so.

The reason for not using back-blows is the simple fact that when someone hits you on the back when coughing, your natural reaction is actually to inhale sharply, or it may startle you and make you gasp, which is counter-productive to what your body is trying to do (i.e. expel a foreign object from your airway), and may actually make matters worse by getting the object lodged further down the airway.


After they moved to true choking, and they accepted your help as a first-aider, then - and only then - did you move into abdominal thrusts.

(If they refused your help - which is foolish to do but happens, nonetheless - you can do nothing but wait for them to pass out and then move into procedures for non-responsive-non-breathing victims.)

Re: taken with a grain of salt, this is what i could find about it

[cerrenes.livejournal.com]

i wouldn't doubt the guidelines being different. after all the US uses gallons and miles instead of litres and kilometres just to be a pain in the tush. :) i remember reading something about that Dr Heimlich was adamantly against the renaming because 'abomdominal thrusts' weren't descriptive enough. ::shrug:: i couldn't find anyone that specifically said "this is why it changed" hehe :)

Re: taken with a grain of salt, this is what i could find about it

[age.livejournal.com]

Hee :) Well, we learned a lot of interesting stuff, to say the least, and indulged in a little procrastination (which is never a bad thing ^.^).

I guess this is one of those things that shall remain a mystery for a little while longer :)

[celestialgldfsh.livejournal.com]

Funny that this is posted the day I'm struggling through scenes with my protagonist as an EMT. *spooky music plays*

[pinkpolarity.livejournal.com]

Abdominal thrusts? Am I the only person lol'ing about that particular name? /is twelve

[hendrikboom.livejournal.com]

Curse your characters and their mothers.

Actually, my characters formally declared a strike against the author a few days ago. It seems they figured out they were just characters in a book, and even though I was sitting back letting them so as they wished, they figured out that they could only do things that I was writing, and so I was the one who carried all the responsibility for their actions, and they went all philosophical on me after that.

I got 2000 words out of the strike!