All this time...

I waited to do my stair climb. The last one I did was in 2010. Ah, to be that young again!

However, I sizzled the old time.

Thanks to this guy on my phone. Next year...I plan on being back. Happy weekend all wherever you roam.

RehabRN book club: The TGIF edition

Yes, dear readers, it's been a while. Books just take forever anymore, especially when I spend an inordinate amount of time with my new baby computer, trying to get everything where I want it. Online backups are wonderful, yet slow.

However, I must say, I've found some good stuff to read. As I may have mentioned earlier, Brief by Joseph McCormack is a keeper. If you're a fan of the Elements of Style, it's more concept than rule. It really does give practical advice. I'll be buying one (since I got threats from the library if I didn't return it).

My most recent finish (on Wednesday) was Presence by Amy Cuddy. To me, there's a lot to like in this book. As a rehab nurse, you'll be cheering for Amy because she's a rehab patient who's made it (she had a DAI for all of you who are interested.) As an escaped business person, she went to work at Harvard Business School and changed up a lot of things with her research. Overall, Amy's book is stories of how presence changes things (see her TED talk for the rest of the story).

Trust me, I'll be posing it up before my next set of meetings. Why not?

Have a great weekend! Enjoy every minute.

And so I rise...again

I rise again, because the crazy patient leaving Washington missed hitting me in the crosswalk. I really thought I was going to go down for the count. I had the right of way, but the hurried patient was turning right on red. No harm, but I did notify our local PD (took a photo while he waited at a stoplight nearby), in case Mr. Hurry-Yup decided to run down any students down the street at Private U.

I'm not sure why I decided to become a stair climber. I think it had something to do with running up and down all the flights of stairs at Saintarama to the rehab gym to take patients their pain meds. Ah, the days before bar coded medication administration! Pull the meds, mark the MAR, and give the pills. It wasn't perfect, but we made do.

This weekend, I'm going on my next stair climbing journey. It's the same set of stairs in the same skyscraper. However, I'm older, wiser, and a tad out of shape, but a promise is a promise.

I figure this old asthmatic nurse ought to do something right? I have been so lucky that my asthma is well-controlled. I drove my sainted mother crazy with my asthma attacks as a kid. We were on a first name basis with most of the Saintarama Childrens Hospital ER staff due to our regular visits.

My friend, a grade school teacher, had to tell her class that one of their classmates passed away on spring break. P. was a kid with asthma for years. This time was different: it got so bad he was put on a ventilator, then he crashed. They couldn't bring him back.

So I will rise, and as I go up all 865 steps, I'll think of P., and the 3,630 other folks who died last year due to asthma. Otherwise, the firefighting crews who race after me will just have to pick me up and take me the rest of the way to the finish.

Stay tuned...

Happy Easter!

For those of you who celebrate (now or later), may the joy of the Risen Christ be yours all throughout the year.

For those of you who don't, enjoy every bit of candy while you can. Most will be 50% off tomorrow. Cadbury eggs are awesome!

I have already hidden my chocolate marzipan eggs (I prefer dark) from prying characters in my home.

Until next time...I raise a glass to you and then go check the ham.

Now hear this!

This Good Friday was eventful. Bubba was still on spring break, so in between some appointments we had fun with him.

Dahey and I had to get our taxes done. All went well except for the craziness when he had to work out of town last year. It's just fun when people make stupid mistakes and we end up paying taxes for one state when we're in another.  Eventually, my boss will figure out how to make sure my paycheck is correct, too. He/she should get docked, too, even though it's always resolved in my favor.

We owe money this year to everyone, but I'm not complaining. As our tax guy told us, if he calls, it means someone stole our identity and filed a return. Thankfully, we got no call.

After tax excitement, Dahey got his new hearing aids. While I don't work in audiology, I have to know the basics of hearing aids because it can cause issues in our clinics. Rehab nurses sometimes get enlisted to change batteries. (Another skill for my resume, I guess!) I even learned a few more tricks today, thanks to our lovely audiologist.

Dahey was amazed at what he was missing. Noise inside my car, wind, and birds made him look around in wonder. He goes back in a couple of weeks to get his remote ordered and to get more sound profiles set.

We finished the day off with Bubba at a local fish fry. He wouldn't have it any other way.

Stay tuned...

An inspiration: RIP Joe Garagiola

In another life, I graduated from college, and this baseball player/broadcaster/general good guy came and spoke at our university at commencement.

It was a time when unemployment for new college graduates was high. How high? High enough that employers were picky and paid you a pittance unless your degree was in demand.

I remember things from that day that don't seem important: goofing off, taking a picture with my favorite professor, watching pigeons fly into the arena (unplanned!), hanging out with my husband and my best friend. My dad couldn't make it to the graduation--he attended one of the other graduation events earlier that week--because he nearly died the month before.

To me, graduation was a victory, even though the reward--a full-time job in my specialty--was still more than a year away, after five years of undergrad work.

When Joe spoke, he told stories, of his life, baseball and left us with many words of wisdom. The ones I'll never forget were these:

"Don't take a 'no' from someone who can give you a 'yes'."

As I finally got a job, and made a career, I learned that maxim, and many other things he mentioned, were absolutely correct.

I never saw Joe in person after that day, but many years later, I got to thank him when I called into a radio show. I had been driving down the road, heard it, and called the question line.

He was kind, appreciative, and thanked me for paying attention. The radio host, too, was surprised. However, for a guy like him, it was just taking care of the folks coming up. Because that's what you do. You share the gifts you are given. Joe did that wherever he went.

And you never forget where you came from, where you were just a regular kid down the block.

RIP Joe. Godspeed and say hello to the rest of the folks you and I know for me.

Full moon fever

Oh, the natives are getting restless, and for a moment, I didn't know why. Ah, the full moon!  It was one of those days recently. Everything and nothing goes right.

One patient I follow is still ditching me for his/her monthly follow-up. Since I have to report to his/her provider re: progress, this makes things sticky. Try, try, again.

I am finally (maybe) getting resources to start a program I proposed earlier this year. Got clearance from the local committee and everything. If all goes as planned, the key pieces will fall into place next week. I'll still be sending prayer requests to my favorite nuns, monks, and old ladies, though. Working in this arena is rewarding, but endlessly frustrating with the amount of backtracking I have to do.

Thank goodness some of my folks still love me!

And speaking of the love, my next door neighbor and I found out our abstracts have been accepted to one of our favorite conferences.

The show WILL hit the road again, just in time for hurricane season, Labor Day and a family wedding. Why not have everything big happen in one week's time?

Stay tuned and enjoy your weekend! Happy Easter to all who celebrate!

More later...

Happy Spring

Hope you are enjoying your day. It's cold, cloudy, and snowing today the first day of Spring.

Mother Nature is surely a jokester.

That is all...more later.

Oh weekend

Dear Weekend:

Thank you for arriving. Waiting for you this week has been interesting. Yes, there were fun things this week but there were things that were decidedly not fun.

The beautiful sunny weather is disappearing this weekend, so I'll make myself productive again inside.

Here's hoping for better weather next week when Bubba is on Spring Break.

We can only hope.

Yours sincerely,

RehabRN

Pills, possibilities and picadillos

Ah, what a week it's been. Starting off with Pi Day on Monday, I feel as if I've been sprinting everywhere. Spouting might have been correct, though. After I had my lunch and ordered a new computer (which was absolutely crazy--for both the discount and the credit card hold), I showed my friend K. the new office, since she's rarely over anymore. I look up, and there it is: a huge leak on one of the ceiling tiles.

Since my office is in an older part of the Hotel, leaks are not that uncommon. After three days, moving from this room to that room, they finally finished the search for the leak. They found it in one of the radiator lines upstairs. I was ecstatic that the leak was repaired and I didn't have to wonder if the tile would come crashing down while a person was visiting me.

The CDC also published guidelines this week about opioid prescriptions. Our folks in the SU hope it works. They had another unruly customer in the building who required a two person assist, I mean escort out of the building by security. On top of that, we have a very troublesome patient, who's behavior is escalating. It's making things difficult for the staff.

For picadillos, Google says I must remind all of my European visitors that we use cookies here on Blogger. I don't use the data, so I hope you don't mind.

Despite all the mess, today is St. Patrick's Day. I celebrated by wearing my green and eating corned beef and cabbage at the lunch one organization had for the staff  and patients at the Hotel. I remember that without those Irish ancestors (or some like these) I probably wouldn't be here today.

More to come...

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.

Dear Boss

I know you are stressed. I'm sure you're kind of on autopilot, but I notice things.

I notice that you said, "You learn this in therapy" in way too many places recently. Yes, people learn things in therapy, but when you have a RN in the room and a therapy student with patients in a education class, you have to make sure the patients understand one thing.

They should learn EVERYWHERE at any time. Yes, everywhere. If they don't, they may not survive.

Nurses work 24/7, and frankly, we should be teaching patients that amount of time, too. It's not just during therapy, or by nurses on breaks from therapy, it's whenever they can. I view saying "hi" to someone in the hall as an education opportunity. Like the fellow who wandered into the clinic at Washington while I was talking to my nurse friend T. He learned something, because I took five minutes to teach him (thank goodness for those brochures in my bag!).

Our therapists might be good, but they are not here 24/7. Our nurses are. Please don't discount them. Empower them. Encourage them to do their best, to learn more, to get certified, to be the best they can be.

Sincerely (because I really do care),

RehabRN

Sin City indulgences

Yes, it was beautiful weather in Las Vegas when I was there recently. But, as usual, in conference season, it's also crazy. A couple getting married was on our flight. We all signed napkins with marital advice and they got a bottle of the sparkly stuff for their trip.

I got to stay at one of the most beautiful places around in the Mandalay Bay complex. Pools, palms, casinos, shows, nightly turn down service, you have it all.

What I would have preferred though? A lighter duvet. You would have sworn it got to 30 below zero outside even though the thermostat in the room never went below 65 (I tried to no avail). This lead to much discomfort at night. I figured out (on the last night) that I actually slept better in the bathrobe with just the sheet covering me.

We had lovely meals (hence the indulgences that made my scale go up) and I ate EVERY dessert (although most were tiny). Tiny pain au chocolat at breakfast, tiny chocolate mousse and other sundry mousse-like items, and tiramisu (also tiny). They were all good.

To make up for it, I tried to march around the mall every chance I got, because it beat walking around in the casinos which could get smoky. I also ran up stairs wherever possible.

And yes, I gave some money to the house at Mandalay Bay and Luxor. After I ran through $80 of my $100 budget, I gave up and went to the airport. On my last $20 I put in the slots near my gate, I made $50. I cashed out and vegged while awaiting my plane in the crowded terminal.

The flight back was nice. I sat next to a pilot who was returning to start his work week. Got a lot of insider information and it was fun.

Now, it's back to work. Let the week begin. Hope you enjoy yours wherever you are!

In a hurry

If we are in a hurry, there are a lot of things we don't see. We run past people on the street, in the halls, in their rooms. Just like this guy, a noted researcher in a hurry.

Some people just don't move fast enough: they're slow. E. was one of those folks. He just meandered around in his wheelchair, sometimes numbed and slowed by his brain injury. Frankly, I was surprised when he wandered into my clinic a couple of weeks ago to ask some questions. It was something he rarely did, but he needed help.

A staff member at the nursing home told him he needed to be seen at the Hotel. So when I looked into things and checked his appointments, I saw, he was right. I sent a message to our clinic nurse down the way, Q. and he/she said they'd get him on the next clinic list. I escorted E. to make sure he wouldn't be distracted and forget. Our scheduler was waiting and put him right on the schedule.

E. was happy when I saw him last week. He got his appointment, and everything looked good. "Thank you." he said slowly. I smiled and told him, "Any time, E. Just come bang on my door (pointing at it) if you have to."

He smiled, his driving cap, turned jauntily to the side and rolled out to the home's bus, awaiting him outside.
That was the last time I saw him. Today we found out that E. was found dead in his room.

I always wonder when I'm in a hurry about what might happen if I slow down. As I reflect, I see it now. I just might catch a glimmer of a light that may never shine the same way again.

Take your time and remember those little moments. They could be the last.

More later...

Multiple headaches today

It all started around 3AM. The front bringing the crazy weather showed up then and the migraine started. Nausea was next, and then the dizziness started. I got some meds and it got better, but the dizziness continued. Snow started at 5AM.

Took the cure for the dizziness and waited. Was still dizzy. Called in sick to the happy nursing supervisor, who did not sound thrilled. Texted my manager and he/she was cool. Went back to bed.

Wind blowing woke me up. Branches broke off trees in our yard. Dearest brother called to tell me his electric was out at his apartment complex. The complex needed assistance and so I called some local agencies via 211, since the staff there were busy making people lunch and running heaters to keep them warm. Electric Company gave no ETA on restoring power.

Went over to give him my battery backup so he could call and text if needed. Somewhere on trip, my windshield cracked. Another headache. Thankfully, the electric came on right after I was over there.

Now, my moody teenager (who was off school) is crabby.

I'm ready for Calgon to take me away, folks. Off I go...stay tuned for more later.

May your day be wonderful wherever you are.

Kids these days

I feel like an old lady reading this article, or perhaps, rightly so, like a person from another century. This is a non-nursing publication, but I hate to say this could have been about some folks (and some spots) at the Hotel.

I know startup companies (from reading, and hearing from my friend's kids who have one, not experience) often allow booze at work. That's not too shocking, probably because I did once work in an environment where we talked of imbibing all day, and we actually did it after work ("product testing").

However, who'd a thunk that you'd have to tell people not to have sex in public parts of your office building.

Different strokes. Ugh!

Stay tuned.

He WAS a hard working man

We always liked having R. around our place at the Hotel. No matter the task, whether visiting M., his wife (and our RN coworker) on the unit or fixing something broken, he was happy and smiling.

He was a good old boy who had a whole bushel basket of gifts. He was courteous, kind, and a whiz in the machine shop. Our volunteers were stunned when he fixed one of their pieces of equipment and got his staff to bring it back to life. It wasn't just better. It was amazing. In fact, they thought they got a new one.

Today I heard R. left us. He passed away too soon. Being retired for almost two years, he was doing fun stuff until he got sick.

I thought of him when I heard this song.  And we at the Hotel mourn with his wife and family today. Yes, indeed, he was a hard working man.

RIP R., because you earned it.

Why executives should proofread e-mails to staff

Dear Chief Executive:

Thanks again for taking time out of your busy day to send us a weekly update. I like that your updates aren't just boring old hospital numbers on admissions and outpatient visits, but include real stories.

I have to say, though, that your recent missive was one that will go down on the books as probably the most entertaining one we've had around here in years.

No, there were no inappropriate funny photos or jokes that could offend someone. There was just an inappropriate acronym (yes, I know we love them at the Hotel as much as anyone). Please remember: if we have an Iraq War veteran patient, most likely he has suffered as a result of an IED attack, not an AED attack.

We use those occasionally when our smokers fall out in the middle of the cafeteria (as you mentioned last week.)

Consider this your education session for this week. We just want you (and everyone else here at Madison) to feel safe when they see an AED in the hallway by the water fountain or near the ATM.

Sincerely (really!) yours,

RehabRN

Say amen, somebody!

It's Wednesday.

I made it through the RehabLand license office (to renew my license plates) in less than 15 minutes.

I survived the craziest day I've had in a while (thankfully, no one got sick, fell,  or pulled a fire alarm).

I completed my first webinar for my advisor. It was a success.

Yippee! Now it's time for bed.

Stay tuned!

TGIF (for so many reasons)

Yes, I'm thankful it's Friday because I don't have to work on Monday. Happy long weekend to all of you fortunate enough to be able to celebrate our country's presidents Monday.

I have been doing research for another conference abstract (the story of my life lately) so I've managed to find some interesting articles, including this one on writing a good one. Some of these are even appropriate for the abstracts.  Here are a few of the ones I found below.

While I'm not looking for a job right now, I try to keep my reference list up to date. This article talks about how to ask references the right questions to get good information on candidates. While I don't actually check the references, I have interviewed people. One of the folks I interviewed provided us a list of references to check. Surprisingly, the candidate's name and phone number was on his/her list. It gave me a chuckle, as the other interviewers didn't immediately pick up on this. This got said applicant in my "Interesting Interviews Hall of Fame".

The end of this week was sad, though. One of the national folks for our program died suddenly this past weekend just as he was getting ready to watch the Super Bowl. His team won, so despite everything, there were a few smiles knowing that. He was not old and it was not expected.

We found out that one of our coworkers has a family member with cancer. What makes it worse is that it's a child. Being new at the Hotel is crazy enough, then to have your family member have cancer is just awful.

These moments remind us all to be grateful for health. It's never guaranteed.

Until next time...