One day

When I retire, I may have to write a book entitled, "The Poop Chronicles". Some days are so FOS, as the radiologists say.

Recently, WildDog, who is getting pretty old, now only relieves himself on our front porch (next to the bushes) or in the driveway. He's gotten pretty adept at surrounding the RehabRN family truckster with feces. Most of the time, Dahey cleans up after him quickly. 

Not so much this weekend. Dog poop turned into smashed dog poop in the driveway. Now, we have to get out the scraper or maybe even the dreaded hose.

And while most of you may go to boring old staff meetings where certain members of the "interdisciplinary team" only show up if there is food available and a show, we are different. The game of choice for our team: complain about the nursing staff BEFORE the manager gets to the meeting. Don't wait, don't give a recap, leave the recap to the office manager to do that.

I wonder what those industrial psychologists would say about our "team dynamics".  Poopy, was my first thought, and it wasn't because incontinence in therapy was mentioned, either.

Lots of fertile ideas, and they aren't all poopy.

That is all. Enjoy your day!

A classic

Just another reason why someone needs to leave this book out on the break table at the Hotel. We can't change everything, but we can change ourselves, one person at a time.

What I learned in kindergarten:

Share everything.

Play fair.

Don't hit people.

Put things back where you found them.

Clean up your own mess.

Don't take things that aren't yours.

Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.

Wash your hands before you eat.

Flush.

Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.

Joy of joys, details at 11

Team meeting tonight. It would possibly include the news tagline "Details at 11" if R. lived in the same city as one of our other teammates for this grad class. Thank goodness for the internet...keeping nurses from physically throttling other nurses at team meetings.

It also helps that we have a leader who is completely clueless on the group dynamics. Here's a chance to have more hours of my life thrown into a black hole of nothingness, and to top it all with a cherry, this assignment is due this week.

And if that's not enough, Boss and I get to hit the road to visit for a meeting halfway across the country.

I'm packing my bags, 'cause Maalox here I come! Stay tuned...

Back in the saddle again...

So glad my favorite charge nurse is coming back. I had more than my share of excitement recently after I ran off the plane to get to work.

First, I had to deal with the family from Hell. Entitlement Trio (ET for short...which is quite a generous moniker) played the ugly American tourists at home. After standing around at the airport awaiting the shuttle to my car, I secretly wished these people would have been kidnapped by narcoterrorists. It's couldn't have happened to nicer people. These people even lived near the Hotel where I work, which also irritated me, as most of my neighbors have been socialized to be more polite.

The ET bumped into people with their enormous amount of luggage, and they proceeded to bitch at every single shuttle driver who came by because they wanted their shuttle right now. One shuttle driver actually called the office to get not one but two shuttles to come to pick up the mass of humanity now at our terminal door waiting.

Of course, after their whining display, ET boarded the shuttle first and ET daughter proceeded to check her e-mail. Mother and daughter b*&tched the entire way to the next terminal, where the driver had to stop to see if he had any other pickups. Father was absolutely silent. Daughter was loud and obnoxious in her comments when he did stop which irritated me even more. The man was just doing his job.

Once we arrived at the parking lot, ET wanted to be dropped off first and as luck would have it, they were in the closest row. Driver pulled right up to their car and they jumped off without even a thank you or even a tip for helping them get their bags off the van.

Finally, the driver got the rest of us off the van (we were all parked within two rows of each other). I was the last one off. I thanked the driver, an elderly gentleman, for being so nice to everyone, especially the ET group. I also gave him a good tip, since no one else bothered. I love leaving, but wish that some people would be grateful to come back once in a while.


After flying down the highway, and avoiding the usual speed traps, I was early and I went home and kissed Dahey and Bubba and scratched WildDog behind the ears.  I gave Bubba his souvenirs, which he paraded around the house (a t-shirt, a hat and a special commemorative medallion). I got dressed, made coffee and headed to work.

Stay tuned!

Sweet end to the week

I didn't have to get angry at anyone today. I keep reminding myself that frowning will cause wrinkles, and just being happy for the heck of it will irritate the people who drive you nuts.

My people were pretty good. One was up and one in bed, but the census has been low, so I can round on them, and do lots of other stuff without issue. I even helped out another nurse who was busy with his/her heavy (literally and figuratively) patient. Family education is a big part of what we do, so I had to verify that this family could do what they say they can do. Besides, I like the patient. He's a very nice guy. It's not hard to help him.

I actually had time to get into lots of interesting discussions today: about lazy coworkers (one of whom was chewed out by the boss for his/her lack of diligence), family education and dynamics between spouses when one has a debilitating disease or condition, previous lives and packing boxes.

One of my coworkers may trade me her schedule for part of next week, so we'll see if the boss lets me do it. I hardly think it will be an issue, but you never know. With our pre-JCAHO inspection, who knows what will happen.

I'll ponder it all this weekend...while I rest and relax. Stay tuned!