Nursing the nation

Molly Case in the UK reads her poem at the RCN Congress.

"See our world/See what we see!"

Makes me proud to be a nurse! Bravo!

Lest we forget

Freedom Is Not Free

- Kelly Strong

 

I watched the flag pass by one day.
It fluttered in the breeze.
A young Marine saluted it,
and then he stood at ease.
I looked at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud,
He'd stand out in any crowd.
I thought how many men like him
Had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign soil?
How many mothers' tears?
How many pilots' planes shot down?
How many died at sea?
How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?
No, freedom isn't free.

I heard the sound of TAPS one night,
When everything was still
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill.
I wondered just how many times
That TAPS had meant "Amen,"
When a flag had draped a coffin
Of a brother or a friend.
I thought of all the children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands
With interrupted lives.
I thought about a graveyard
At the bottom of the sea
Of unmarked graves in Arlington.
No, freedom isn't free.

One day

There was no rain
That riotous, sunny day,
You left us.
And we still remember, with a laugh and a tear,
This day in May,
As the cortege nears,
On its way to a soldier's rest,
Beneath the flowering trees.
The guns fire,
And bugles playing taps
Stifle the sound of tears.

Feeling artsy....

Well, it's a full moon in honor of Dahey's natal day, and it's full of excitement, just like the weekend was.

First, I got to get artsy figuring out how to lay the Tegaderm dressings I had to put on a couple of my patients with PICC lines. Sometimes it gets crazy when the best place for the PICC is not the best place for the dressing, like on the inside of an arm of a patient who's very contracted.

Next, since it was time to bake the annual hubby natal day cake, I got to work early. Thankfully, no one snuck in and ate all the icing like they did last year. Between kid and dog, I'm not sure who's worse...and yes, I know cake and icing is not good for dogs. Tell the WildDog that for me, would you? Maybe I'll just get him his own, like this dog....

After that, I tried Photoshopping, cropping and beautifying some of our vacation photos. Another artsy thing I like to do even though I'm not the greatest. When in doubt: grayscale hides a lot!

Finally, I got the note from grad school saying my poem was accepted into the Medical Campus student journal. I have never been published in any capacity as a nurse.

Should prove to be an interesting week...stay tuned!

For the soldier...

...the sailor, the airman,
the officer,
the XO,
the COB,
the submariner,
the SEAL,
the parachutist,
the Green Beret,
the lowly KP potato peeler,
today we honor you all.

For the young men and women in the prime of life,
for the husbands, fathers, brothers,
wives, sisters and friends.
And the aunts, the uncles, the cousins.

For the combat nurses, the docs and the corpsmen in the field.

For the young and the old,
Injured and healthy,
Strong and frail.

For the wounded,
I am proud to be your nurse,
To just listen,
Or tell your story.

For the fallen,
Who left everything to fight--
Families, fortunes and friends,
And never returned.
You, truly, gave all.

May we remember, not just today, but every day.
That freedom has a price;
Paid in blood, sweat and tears,
In toil and tribulation,
On battlefields of the past, present and future.

Thank you veterans, one and all.

A nugget of a poem

Warning: if you have a weak stomach or are in the middle of your lunch break, come back later. Otherwise, continue, as you have been warned...

The Underside of Nursing always has an interesting ditty or two, but since some of the nursing bloggers I've been reading have been talking about bowels in one form or another lately, here's an ode to that potassium-ridding drug, Kayexalate.

Reminds me of Mr. G. Wonder how long he spent on the throne after leaving Saintarama with a going on 7 K a little over a month ago.

I'm always going to be wondering about the end of some of the stories I end up being part of as a nurse.

More later. Happy weekend all!