Going to the taxman

Getting ready for this guy. Ugh!




Gotta go early enough, or I'm on my own.

No thank you. I'll leave mine to the professionals.

Anniversary, it is...

But a happy one? Not exactly.

This weekend is the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina wreaking havoc in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast. It has gone on record as one of the deadliest natural disasters in US history.

We should learn a few things though.

1. No matter where you are, you should have an emergency plan. Yes, my plan's not the best, but I am fortunate, that most of the time, I work close enough to walk home if anything happened here in RehabLand. Bubba is close to home at school and we have some basic supplies on hand.

Don't forget your desk/locker/car trunk. You can store some basics in there too, just in case.

2. Figure it will take three days to get help. We are fortunate that a lot of important public services are less than a mile from us, but we still stay ready. When it's time to evacuate, you need to evacuate.

However, there are happy things. Very soon, in September, many rehab professionals will descend on the Crescent City (or the Big Easy) for their annual conferences. If you are there, and are free, I'd highly recommend one or both (ASCIP for all you SCI nurses or professionals and/or the Annual ARN conference, for any rehab nurse). New Orleans is a pretty city with lots of history and delicious treats. Don't miss it.

Who knows...maybe I'll even see you there. Stay tuned!

The joy of Bubba

We had Bubba's first parent-teacher conference of the year recently. It was a hoot.

This year, Bubba is in the big kids section of the LocalWarHero elementary school on the second floor (this is a nice building built in the early 1970s but with frequent updates so it looks pretty decent compared to my 1940-something bomb shelter looking grade school).

His teacher Mrs. G. is a riot. You can tell she's an old pro because one, she doesn't get upset that he's a rambunctious boy. Two, she's figured out how to harness that energy to learn. Bubba has taken it upon himself to study everything about the elections and he can tell you the who/what/where of all the candidates from president to municipal dog catcher (wait, we don't vote on that one anymore).

Three, unlike many of Bubba's other teachers, she doesn't tell us anything is wrong with him, she tells us how to manage his habits in the classroom and that it seems like we're doing a good job of that at home. "He is kind and a joy for everyone to be around."

He's pretty smart, since he's also figured out how to mess up the computerized tests by answering incorrectly on purpose. The test gets done faster, too, she said. (Can't say he's not efficient!)

Overall, compared to last year, Mrs. G. is a breath of fresh air. She really IS a professional teacher who knows how to get kids to learn.

More to come...

Just another reason...

I don't have guys like this as a lot of my patients.I do have a secret to share though, if you're nice. I'll ask for a lidocaine order to go with it, so it takes the edge off.


I am a professional rehab nurse and do this a whole lot. In fact, I'm pretty good at it.

Just remember: No nicee = no lidocaine, and nurse may get nervous and go really, really, slowly.