They came, they saw...

They took lots of pictures and they asked lots of questions. My doc for this clinic was stellar. He even remembered to keep his white coat on, which was hysterical. (Normally, he never wears his coat in the office.)

We had to wait a long while for the dignitaries to come through, so we asked the doc lots of questions. He told us his father was a military doctor who worked in a controlled area and never talks about his work.

My technical specialist, S., said "I did the same thing when I was in the military. I can't talk about it, either."

"Well, I won't ask any more, because I don't want to hear, 'if I tell you, I'll have to kill you.'" I told S.

The patient, Mr. Q., who was a "jungle grunt" in Vietnam (his words) says, "All they told me about this appointment was that I had to talk to people. Maybe I ought to leave."

"We're just being silly, Mr. Q." I told him. I'm not letting S. do anything to you or he doesn't get anymore Mountain Dew.

S. just smiled...and clutched his bottle close to his chest.

You just have to know what really makes people tick...and where their sense of humor lies.

Mr. Q. had a good time and told me he was going to stay in his room and rest this afternoon, in case he needed to sign any autographs later.

We had a good laugh.

And off I go to sleep. My destiny awaits (with a quick trip to PublicU).

No Sandy but...

When your advisor has to reform a panel so you can take your comps exams this week, since some of the folks are marooned on the East Coast, it makes you think.

1. Thank goodness I decided to go to PublicU, which, is not on the East Coast.

2. Thank goodness I thought ahead to buy plenty of beer right now, since I'm having one to calm my already frayed nerves.

What could fray one's nerves? Oh, showing up at work surely could especially when...

1. You still have mayhem with some others in your group who keep insisting on reliving it no matter what.

2. You get a phone call that a VIP delegation will be coming to Madison and you really have to show them what you do in the SU...and have a patient ready at 0900 for the VIP to talk to about your work.

So much for a relaxing, just get things done before I leave to go to comps Hell at PublicU.

Nothing a nice Kolsch can't solve at the moment...stay tuned.

A little break

And while I was doing that I got flashbacks to the old days when I worked in marketing. First when I saw this new Adobe commercial and then later when I saw this classic IBM ad on buzzword bingo (which we actually played at one firm).



Fun times....stay tuned.

Best discussion I've heard at a conference in a while

I should have been studying, but I committed to this conference six months ago.

They were talking about alternative medicine in this local nursing conference and Wahoo NP was talking about O cream, which I had never heard of before (take 2 Viagra compounded into a neutral base cream and voila!)

Her quote, "Doc, it doesn't matter what you're saying. What you're really doing with that O cream is teaching them how to masturbate."

No one was napping after lunch with comments like that zinging around the room.

The sun will come out tomorrow...

Yes, my life is still crazy. My exams really are in one week.

Methinks I'll have to hold off on posting until they're over because I feel so overwhelmed between work and this looming test. Or not. Decisions...

I've only worked YEARS on my own time for this moment.

At least, I had a good day. Still have the a-holes giving me trouble. I went to spineless boss and said, "You're his/her boss. You need to handle it." (Can't believe I did that, but I was really irate at the petty cr&p)

On a bright, shiny note, our area chief nurse at Madison nominated me for an award. It really is a big hairy deal if I make it all the way through the 13 levels my chief's essay has to pass--hospital, region, witch doctors, then the big kahuna. (okay, no witch doctors...)

We'll see...as they say, it is an honor to be nominated. Frankly, I thought I was getting in trouble!

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...

The good, the bad, the ugly

The good: the sun eventually came out today. The torrents of rain ended before I was ready to leave the Hotel.

The bad: I had to send my slightly squirrely EKG to my provider today. She never called me back, so I take it that it wasn't anything major.

The ugly: The ways people from our interdisciplinary team manage to talk about how nursing is "so unprofessional" and maybe we need training.

I really wanted to bang my head on the table. Why not? It's just another form of not-so-subtle nurse bashing.

And I get to be the battering ram before our group at an area meeting tomorrow. Nice.

I'm taking backup.

To be continued...

Why Bubba's getting an upgrade

To reflective tape on his Halloween costume this year. Just so no one mistakes him for a skunk.

What.The...?

More to come...

Sunday vegetating

The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.~ Bertrand Russell

Sometimes I just have to remember Bubba is growing up. He makes me laugh so much. He really is becoming a tween before my very eyes.

We plan on having lots of fun jumping in piles of leaves and doing nothing today with Dahey.

I need a little break after a marathon conference call  with my classmates yesterday.

Stay tuned...

Now, for something completely different...

Yes, I can tell from the word play on this theme from an old SNL episode that my husband Dahey is a punny sailor.

More to come...

Not passive, but definitely agressive

Oh, it was such a delight to read an e-mail with lovely things like this:

"Don't we already do this?"
Yes, but not the way the main office says we will do it.

"Does it make our staff look incompetent?"
Not if you aren't already, and with e-mail like this, I wonder.

"..prime therapy time stolen"
FYI this is for aquatherapy...for which only certain Hotel patients qualify. Yes, I'm asking for that time (around an hour) so I'm that time thief.

So being a good team member, I bounced this to a couple of nurses at another two hospitals in the system.
Their answers when I gently mentioned the time conflicts were similar:

"Yes, we had the same thing until the chief medical officer had a chat..."
"Once they knew we were really going to do it and not back down..."

And after I recovered from the shock, I asked whether it would be okay with these folks to bring along two of the people who helped me write the bulk of the process documentation at the request of the boss.

I loved the response to that. My reason: share and share alike (if there going to try to take me down, I'm bringing my own backup...)


"Not sure what that has to do with explaining the reason for the change."

It will be interesting to see what happens at our meeting. Stay tuned. TGIF!

Teamwork...not!

How's this for teamwork....

1. Boss tells you, "I'll handle that." and proceeds not to do what you ask him (communicate).

2. So, doing the job your boss asked you to do, you send an e-mail to all the affected parties for further feedback and updates on the plan Boss asked you to implement.

3. One of the teams sends a very inappropriate e-mail with feedback, then demands your presence at their next team meeting.

4. Boss also mentions that he/she will go with you to meeting.

5. Since you thought this was a team project all along, you invite some of the other folks who helped you work on the plan.

6. Said team (who wants you at the meeting) says, "Why do they have to come?"

7. You kindly reply that you thought an interdisciplinary team was just that...an interdisciplinary team.

And pray, that your boss will actually show up for said meeting since you think he'll just ditch everyone and leave you out in the cold.

We shall see...so much for team cohesiveness in RehabLand.

Heard on the unit

I love the random comments and compliments I hear right up at the front of the SU.

"You don't need anything? You mean you're going to do whatever it takes? Okay. If I can help you, I will". --TechnoWizard

If he/she only knew how many silk purses (as a nurse) I've been forced into, sometimes I feel like MacGyver. Do not leave any loose wire or chewing gum near me, or never complain, never explain might be more appropriate.

"Cool! You get all the good stuff." --Mr. X.
As I told TechnoWizard, I show all the geek patients the technology (no matter what it is) whenever it's in the SU. They enjoy the distraction.

"I'm getting paroled."--Mr. P.
Mr. P. says he sees people that look familiar from his days working the transit beat. Sometimes, he says the darnedest things.

"I'm sorry." --Dr. Snitty
This doctor is rarely apologetic about anything. It was nice to catch him/her in a good mood today.

I love chocolate, so...

I really loved this article I saw today about the Nobel Prize winners for economics (aka the dismal science).

One of them obviously, Alvin Roth, is not dismal at all...rather funny. He posted about Nobel prize winners and chocolate, then had to post a note Monday that his blog post would be delayed. (Maybe due to a really early wake up call).

I've always wanted a cattle prod

But, alas, they are not FDA approved.

However, maybe the Manglement at the Hotel will advocate for our patients to start wearing sets of these so they do pressure relief when they're rolling around the unit.

I'm sure those docs in Calgary already thought of the cattle prod and got shot down, too. Shout out to my peep Ray-Ray and his family. (I sure miss P. and the stories about Timmy's and your orders just "appearing" when you walked in.)

I love the last line...all you rehab peeps know they HAD to say this or they'd short staff us all.

That is all...back to grad school madness.

Never leave anyone behind...

I was a little busy last weekend, so I missed this story, but it reminds me why I do what I do.

Here come the Marines to make sure one little boy isn't left behind on his mission.

The clock's ticking...

And in less than a month, I'll be on a jet plane, flying in to take my comprehensive exam at PublicU.

This is how I'm feeling right now, since this voyage is nearly over. And if I had my way, I'd enjoy every minute.

Just a little anxious now...

If your eye is your problem

The gospel passage says, "pluck it out."

Well, Mr. Q. already had his out. His prosthetic eye was at home when he was hospitalized at Saintarama before he come to the Hotel. One of his relatives just brought it over recently.

I've dealt with lots of prosthetics of all sorts for patients since I've come to RehabLand. Since we haven't had any eyes in quite a while, it made quite an impression in our weekly meeting, since many of the nursing and non-nursing staff we have (who are new) hadn't seen any, either.

Thank goodness Mr. Q. has a sense of humor. I like him already.

Stay tuned...

Just maybe...

These guys can get us a clock with the correct time or that rascally quantum computer I was always hearing about as a kid on every sci-fi show out there.

Happy Nobel Prize season all!

Back to work....

Thanksgiving...

Yes, it really is Thanksgiving today if you live in Canada (yes, and a happy day to all my friends up there, bisous to all!)

I'm just thankful that this beautiful Monday is a day of vacation for me. After all the excitement with the Dahey tribe in-laws and outlaws, it was a crazy busy weekend attending Deity Doctor Brother's daughter's wedding. Katie is a lovely girl.

I have come to the conclusion that if Dahey had to pack for the entire family, we would not have a thing. When I have to pack for the entire family in one short evening between meetings, I'm bound to forget something. All Dahey had to pack for himself was a tie (since he never likes the ones I pick out).

Well, we get to Appointed Electric Brother's house (who's having a party for all of us who weren't invited to Deity Brother's party--since we are all technically relatives of the bride) and he tells me, "I forgot my tie."

In my haste to get out of the house after leaving work a bit early I forgot something, too. All of my makeup. Yes, this assured my early AM trip to the nearest drugstore which fortunately sells a couple of brands I can wear without breaking out into hives (have had this happen a few times).

We took a trip to the drugstore, then the mall, ate lunch and were back to get dressed and be at the church on time for family photos. This is a big deal, since at our wedding, Dahey's family members got lost on the way to church. We couldn't find them so everyone panicked.

"I'm the bride," I told them. "I can be late. Just wait for them to get here." Fortunately, they did (and we were only about 5 minutes late).

The ceremony was lovely, but I'm sure the rector will bolt the doors the next time he sees Dahey's family coming. Within five minutes of assembling for pictures, something glass (no idea what it was) got broken. Out comes the wedding coordinator with the broom to sweep it up.

Next, since the kids (there were plenty of them) got bored really easily (as evidenced by Bubba's rolled eyes in more than a few pictures...) the Wild Girls (Military Brother's kids) decided to play run up and down the choir loft steps. They had lots of fun, until the rector saw them and asked them to stop.

Bubba wanted to follow on the stairs until I persuaded him not to by saying, "You always want to listen to the minister of the church, even if you don't belong. It is disrespectful if you don't." Bubba marched back, sat down, and Military Brother went into the choir loft to fetch his wild child who was happily ensconced right next to the organist. She eventually came down to sit with us.

Finally, we went back to our hotel, so Dahey and Bubba checked out the swimming pool. (He gets really mad if he doesn't get to swim). We went to Deity Brother's suite and started our party before the reception. Grandma Susie brought cookies from home. OMG! I thought I'd died and gone to Heaven.  They were the best.

Deity Brother made us all toast in the suite with a shot of apple flavored moonshine. My a&hole brother-in-law, the typical sailor comments, "It's like urine with an apple flavor". I downed mine fast and thought it was more like apple cider with a kick.

The reception was fun. No one broke anything and none of the sorority girls brawled or acted silly like at the bachelorette party. The kids had their own table, a coloring table AND a table full of candies and sweets to take along after the reception.

Bubba tired out early but so did we. I was glad when the wild weekend was over!

Stay tuned...mere days before the excitement of a lifetime: comp exams.