UNC makes me proud!

Today, UNC made me proud...and it made me smile. On April 17th, UNC students dressed in maroon and orange gathered in the Pit area to hold a candlelight vigil for the victims of the Virginia Tech shooting. They made posters of support and sent them to VT. On April 20th at noon after a moment of silence, the Bell Tower chimed the Virginia Tech alma mater. Then, on April 23rd at noon, students observed another moment of silence in the Pit area. I thought that was simply awesome. For those of you familiar with Chapel Hill, the Bell Tower basically represents this campus. It's used to signal the beginning of a football game and chimes every hour on the hour. I felt proud that this entire campus heard Virginia Tech's alma mater being sung by the heart of UNC. I only wish I'd been here to hear it.

Since I work for UNC campus police, lately I've been getting flooded with questions about how we're going to prevent a Virginia Tech incident from happening here. Well, you can't prevent it. This campus is 795 acres with 400+ buildings acting as a community for 37,000 students, faculty and staff. In addition to that, you also have a hospital with visitors at all hours and 75,000 visitors weekly to the libraries alone....and only 53 sworn officers. There's no way to predict or prevent an attack from happening. You plan for the worst, hope for the best and just deal with it when it happens and hope you've prepared for it. I can tell you some things the police are doing to be better prepared for it if it does happen.

After Columbine, the Dept. of Public Safety integrated active shooter drills as part of their yearly training. They're developing a multi-layered approach since no single system could solve the problem. Some students have started a pilot program where students can receive warnings through text messages on their cell phones. There's also email, but many employees and students aren't by the computer all day. Grounds workers and housekeepers wouldn't get an email in time. The university has started looking into a siren system that could also be used to make public address announcements. Between emails, text messages, phone trees, a siren system, police training and awareness of your surroundings, UNC's campus would be made safER. No system is foolproof, but they're doing what they can to make sure this community is kept safe. If you want to read the whole article, you can check out http://gazette.unc.edu . As of today, it was the front page of the website.

UNC ER is a real pain in my kidney...

So..I've had a bladder infection since Thursday but didn't see the Dr. till Monday..he put me on Cipro, which makes me sick, but anyway. I started getting sharp pains on my left side, so I started thinking that it had turned into a kidney infection. I got to work Tuesday night and started getting sharp pains again. Every time I'd get a pain, I'd have to throw up, so I knew something was wrong. I went to the ER to be checked out around 10:15 pm. Jeff came and sat w/ me as they did a CT scan and hooked me up to an IV and gave me Toridol...mmmm good stuff. They were so busy they couldn't even give me a bed, so we spent the night in the psychiatric holding room...aka..rubber room. Rubber chairs, rubber wall, bullet proof glass and a security camera. Gives me warm fuzzies just thinking about it.

I should also mention that they apparently forgot about me b/c my IV bag was empty. It had been running wide open since I got there. I glanced up when Jeff leaped across the tiny room and grabbed the IV line. There had been a 2 in. long air bubble slowing inching towards me. If he hadn't been there to see it and clamp off the line, I would've died. They came in to check on me 45 minutes after that little incident and Jeff informed them of what had almost happened. All we got was an, "Oh, I'm sorry. We're just so busy!" Anyhow..after hours and hours of waiting...I have a damn kidney stone. This morning was absolute hell. We got home around 7am and I couldn't sleep b/c of the pain. The percocet was doing nothing for me. As we were leaving the ER, I glanced to the other side of the nurses station....4 open beds...and I'd been sitting in a freakin' rubber chair for more than 8 hours. We were told that they weren't using that section because they didn't have enough staffing to cover it. Uh..but it's still a bed..and it's only 30 ft. from where I'd been sitting uncomfortably all night. Thanks guys.

The Dr. told me to cut way back on sweet tea and sodas b/c they contribute to the stones and I have to strain my urine to collect what comes out and take it to urology to have it examined on Friday. This sucks. I had this whole weekend thing planned w/ Jeff for his birthday and it may be ruined...ugh. I hope he can understand. He's been so sweet and good to me though. I could never ask for anyone better. Anyhow, I just thought I'd write about this horrific experience so I'd never forget that I need to drink lots of water and to avoid UNC's ER.