Run Chicago Run!

October 7, 2012 was an exciting day in Chicago.  It is hard to believe, considering I've lived in the city for a while, but I have never gone out and watched the marathon until this year.  My pathophysiology instructor is has been on the head medic team for a few years and a while back she made an announcement to our class to volunteer in the medic tents.  It sounded like an amazing experience so I signed up.   As did 20+ other nursing students from our cohort.  

Since I had to be at Grant Park at 5:30 am, there was nothing exciting on my agenda for Saturday.  Anne wanted to make posters for the runners and they had a little cheer group for Team Bear runners.  I love crafts and glitter so I was in.  We made a nice dinner had some glasses of wine and went to work.  The toenail and balls posters are my works of art.  

I didn't think they'd take that long to make, but I ended up heading to the marathon with only 4 hours of sleep.  As I was getting up and ready for the big day, Tyler was texting me to see if I was home because he was going to have people come over after going out.  I appreciate the consideration for my sleep, but how sad...he's just coming home and I'm already getting up for the day.  I had to chuckle as I was walking to the red line and the bar staff was still cleaning up from the Saturday night crowd.  Now any other weekend I would have opted for a cab at 4:45 in the morning, but marathon weekend the el is filled with runners and supporters.  It's a very positive, non-threatening environment and you could already sense the energy and excitement even before the sun came up.  

I made it to the volunteer village and there was already a vast crowd of people standing around.  I suppose a 45,000 person event requires a lot of volunteers.  I picked up my "all access" medic team badge (oh yes I said all access), and free nike marathon jacket and hat.  The other Rush nurses and I stood in the line for breakfast with no idea of what the day would bring and what was expected of us.  It was a little unorganized in my opinion and didn't get much better.  We went to the main medic tent that we were assigned to.  It was on Balbo at the end of the race.  There were three sections:  Critical Care which is easy ache and pain stuff, maybe some ice, General Care, where we had cots laid out and vitals would be checked, IV starter kits were available, warming blankets etc. and an ICU section where we would bring the extreme general care cases.  I was assigned a general care position.  After we got the scoop on how the day would go they allowed us to go see the start of the race.  Since we had our all access passes we were right up next to the runners.  I couldn't believe the clothes that were left behind when the runners got the cue to advance to the start line.  The street was literally covered with sweatshirts, jackets, pants jars of vasoline, garbage you name it and the regular volunteers would go pick everything up and throw it to the side before the next corral advanced.  It was comforting to know that all the clothes would get donated.  We were cheering and and giving high-fives as they jogged by the start line.  One guy was running his third marathon without shoes on and says he never has a problem.  

As the race started it kind of resembled herding cattle, but again with 45,000 people running you need a good system.  I think it was a 2 hour process to start everyone which is kind of funny because as the last runners were leaving the start line, Kebede of Ethiopia was finishing with a course record time of 2:04:38.  By then we were back at our station in the medic tent just waiting for runners.  The people that finish first rarely have medical issues because their bodies are trained to do this.  It's the ones that wake up one morning and say, hey I'm going to run the marathon this year that we mainly see.  I think because we had optimal running conditions, things were kinda slow, but there were a few good cases I got to get my hands on.  The worst was a guy who came in shaking uncontrollably, feeling like he was going to pass out and hardly able to walk.  They put his feet up and started their assessment with basic vitals.  Because we need accurate information and fast, we only take core temperatures and for those of you who don't know what that means it means we put a thermometer about an inch up your butt.  Just an FYI for you runners out there.  Well this gentleman instantly had a temp of 103F.  We grabbed bags of ice to put on his groin and neck, they prepped him for fluids by starting an IV line and they drew blood which I rushed to the lab station to get electrolyte and blood gas levels.  Before I could even get the lab values back he started to have mental status changes so they took him into the ICU tent for more aggressive treatment.  I don't know what happened to him from there.  

Most of the cases were not that intense though.  I had a guy who ran his third marathon and got a PR but cramped up all over at the finish.  He ran his first marathon in Japan.  Another patient was a doctor at Rush actually, who was running for asthma until his cramped up and lost his breakfast three times at mile 17.  Good thing charity donations are not contingent of finishing.  I loved hearing everyone's running stories but I didn't forget that I needed to get the PQRST for their charts.  It's an assessment tool nurses use to get a good picture of the pain patients feel.  Here are a few examples for each category.

• Palliate/Provoke:  Is pain relieved when I do this?  What makes it worse?
• Quality:  Describe the pain:  sharp, shooting, dull, aching etc.
• Radiate:  Does pain travel anywhere or is it isolated in one spot?
• Severity:  Rate pain on scale of 1-10
• Timing:  When did it start?  Does it come and go?

While exhausting it was a great day and it would be a pleasure to do it again.  Im looking forward to next year, especially because Chelsey said she'd volunteer to be a massage therapist too!