My God, that's a hard walk toward the end for your uncle. A stroke, a death by stroke, cancer and another possible stroke. If he was in a position to be in touch with everything happening to and around him (i.e., not debilitated by the first stroke), it might be comforting to hold on to the thought that all of the physical and emotional suffering is over for him now....

It's terrible that his services will be on your mom's birthday - my mom, with her traumatic relationship with death (faced her own mortality at a very young age), wouldn't be able to handle such a thing.

Did you hear about the nurse who died and went straight to ****?

It took her two weeks to realize she wasn't at work!

You know you're a nurse if... you would like to meet the inventor of the call light some night in a dark alley.

Your sense of humor gets more warped each year. Almost everything can seem humorous...eventually.

You know the smell of different diarrhea to identify it.

You wash your hands BEFORE you use the bathroom.

You can tell the pharmacist more about the medication they are dispensing than they know.

You check the caller ID on your day off to see if anyone from the hospital is trying to call and ask you to work.


You've been telling stories in a restaurant and made someone at another table "sick".

You notice that you are using more 4 letter words than you even knew before you started nursing.


Every time someone asks you for a pen you can find at least 4 of them on you.

You live by the motto "to be right is only half the battle, to convince the doctor is more difficult."

You've told a confused patient that your name was that of your coworker and to holler if they need help.

Your bladder can expand to the size of a winnebago's water tank.

You find yourself checking out other customer's veins in grocery waiting lines.


Your finger has gone places you never thought possible.


If you are not a nurse and have been sent this by a friend who is, it's just to help you understand our mind set and questionable mental status/sanity. Most of the time we function in spite of this sick sense of humor, fairly normally and very responsibly.

Scary, huh??????

KNOW A NURSE????.....PASS IT ON....

^^
...as hangs on every refrigerator of every unit breakroom I've ever been in!

Sorry I haven't been around this weekend, folks. My father-in-law is back in the hospital with pneumonia so I've been pretty busy and not on the computer so much. I will try to review the posts on the boards later today or maybe tomorrow. Wouldn't mind some positive vibes thrown our way either, he had to have blood transfusions for anemia and they aren't sure why he's anemic in the first place. Ugh.

rowe

Much love to you and your family, Rowe. My positive thoughts and prayers are all yours.
Peachy

Oh my!!! Full on Transfusions!??? For anemia?? A possibility is that it could have been brought on by poor diet, naturally occuring, as it does for most, by the fact that he's been sick and hasn't wanted to eat(?) If he's elderly, there's a general (not necessarily usual) risk within the population to trend toward poor diet habits to begin with, so combining the two factors... For him to be at the point that they've skipped (EDIT: or did they?) the non-invasive measures (iron supplements, B-12 if labs showed a deficiency, high protein diet), suggests a pretty serious level anemia. The fact that he's sick on top of it suggests to me that it might by pancytopenia which effects all blood products from red cells to white cells to platelets. I say this because being sick would put him in immediate need of white blood cells to fight off the infection and could contribute to why they didn't want to risk a wait-and-see rebound of his blood levels by sticking to non-invasive interventions. That's a pretty good, aggressive treatment choice in that case. (can you tell i'm thinking "out loud" in typing this?) If I may ask, had he been discharged recently to undergo in-home managment of an existing pneumonia (PNA) or for something else? I ask because, though it's counter-intuative, the best thing for PNA is to be up and active (within a safe environ) as much as possible in order to loosen up whatever secretions have build up within the lung. The fact that most people would be more likely to maintain bed/couch rest because that's what you would naturally do when you're sick is what bothers me about people being discharged to manage their PNA. Same thing happened with my grandmother last year. She was discharged after not being up and ambulatory while in the hospital with PNA and she just about almost ended up right back in. Thankfully, she kept in pretty good follow up contact with her primary care MD, averting the risk of re-admission.

I'm wishing for the best for you and your family, and, as I've shared, it seems that they're going at his condition whole-hog; at least in terms of getting the anemia under control. If we here on the board can be of any support to you at all, I think it's safe for me to be bold enough to say that we're all here for you!

You and your family are in my thoughts and prayers, Rowe.

Didn't want to be overly familiar since I'm new, and post on the OT board, but I want to say;
To NS, it sounds to me like your Uncle had a great heart and fought the good fight, same as your Grandpa. You and your Mum have my sincere condolences. I know you can get through it, look who you came from.
To rowenaaine, all my best wishes and positive energy to your Dad in Law for his battle. I'm sending good vibes for him down south.
Mari

Thanks first off to you all .

and Rowe sure hope you father in law gets better soon


Yah it is nay and thank you for your kind words .

blister sister still at it . regreted callin her today ugggggg



and no snow yet but by tonight into tommorrow we are gonna be the ones with ice .

way up north they're saying a foot of snow . lol
and if we do get the ice do'nt be surprised if i do'nt show up for a few days .lol

I think they said 4 to 8 inches of that crap .

has anybody seen vurty around .

hope shes ok .

and thanks for lettin me vent .

Sort of.
Some things are similar, but of course, our 'constitution' is totally different...like there's no "right to bear arms" and such.

One thing our system revolves around is how we put people in maximum and minimum security. There's something here called 'two years less a day'. It's when a person can be convicted up to just under two years (two years minus a day)...they go into minimum security. If they're convicted for 2 yrs or more, they're put into Maximum security.

I know for sure that when it comes to sexual based crimes our system...in my opinion...sucks a**. I read about this guy who was convicted up raping 4 boys...and accused of 12 others (but they refused to come forward)...he did 6 months for each boy (total of 2 years) and was released. THEN, 2 days later, he was found trying to rape another boy...luckily the police got a tip and got to him in time.

Also, with the Insanity Defence there are tight restrictions on it. If you can't prove a good background (medical records) then it won't even be considered.

Best way I can put it, In the Canadian Justice system there are two different yet equally important groups, the police who investigate crimes, and the Crown/AGs who drop the ball.
There isn't consecutive sentences here, so you kill ten people, the bill is the same as killing one, unless the perp is declared a dangerous offender, which is very complex and the Crown rarely bothers. I'm from Scarborough, home to the earlier mentioned Paul Bernardo, long story short, there is lots of anger about how that case and others are (mis)handled.
Mari

Thinking good thoughts, rowe. Hang in there!

Yes Rowe, I have you & your family in my prayers. Hopefully, all will go well.

It sound like he is in good & capable hands.

Now that news receives a genuine Snoopy "Woohoo!!" response!!

And dare I say...Moderator Rowe will be proud!
Peachy

D'mn you're too fast!!! I just broke my neck back here to delete my post because -going to the thread- I saw that I ended up inadvertently mocking DonnaLu...

I think she'll pick up that it wasn't my intention at all, though.. *or, so I hope *

Well, I'm gonna be tacky and copy my post from here into that thread. So we can both sit on the "repeat" bench together, Naydi.
Peachy

You guys are the best! Thank heavens I found all of you intrepid CI fans!
Mari

Mari,

We're a wonderfully whacky, friendly bunch here!

And say...before I forget again Welcome to the board!! I was so excited to have someone to talk to and share thoughts with about the Litvinenko case I neglected to say that!
Peachy

Thanks PeachyBC! I was glad to see someone so excited about that particular storyline too. Glad to spend time with everyone here, as we see with NBC (wisely) featuring a thread from this (our?) site, great conversation in the service of a great show and important issues.
Mari

I'm as "ghey" as a 49 year old mother of 3 teenagers who works in a church should be, young lady

Just kiddin ya' Naydi. Of course I would never take that personally. Actually, I posted it there because I was so surprised to be brought to that thread that I just posted my comment as soon as I could.

Congrats Cvl, for your fleeting fame! Millions of people do read the main page every day. Hope we don't get any crack pots posting. At least, not any more than we have already

Good God, woman - I'm surprised you've got the energy to navigate this carnival of characters having 3 potential hellions in the home???? Then again, more than likely, you've probably got them well-trained up....


(wait...re-reading....was that too big an a** kiss? scale it back a bit, should i? not writing rhetorical questions in yoda-style should I attempt as well? such a conundrum is this that I now can't stop doing it.... MAN, i need food!)

And the first thing I did before I even came to the board was hit the Viewer Buzz page to see if we made it this week. I am TOTALLY proud and thrilled to death that the Bobby Goren thread was the one they picked. Cvl - awesome work. Let's get back in there and make some new posts about BG.

And thank you for keeping us in your thoughts. Dad might come home today or tomorrow. He's diabetic and he'd been in the hospital recently for a different respiratory infection, so he's pretty worn down. That might be why they elected to go with the transfusions for the newly discovered anemia. (sigh) When I saw him last night he looked infinitely better than he had for the past week, and was even back to cracking some jokes. I'm quite optimistic. (Thank you Naydi, your explanation really made me feel better about the transfusions - I was pretty panicked about it.)

rowe

Ah...Rowe...good to "see" you here and to read the optimistic news! You and your family have my continued positive thoughts and prayers.

Hugs to you,
Peachy

That's fantastic!! I was going to come back here to add the whole chronic disease related anemia thing I'd remembered about later as being a possible normal, non-alarming root on top of which the diet theories shared here could be piled, but I figured that these good people had suffered enough medico-speak over the last couple of days!!

Cool

I just saw that .Way to go CVl

and Yup I'm still online but we are getting ice pouring . yikes

the up most northern part of the state is getting a blizzard above indianapolis

and indianapolis center is getting not to bad a mix of snow and sleet .

and me south pure ICE lol

and west of us the county they have already had power outtages .

there's been sirens going on out side here in our county I think there's been some accidents.
and everytime I called the time and temp busy signal alot of ppl calling .

the snow is headin our way but not as bad as north .

so far so good on the power . knock on wood .


Wonder what's the weather over in vurts neck of the woods.

The weather in vurt's (and my) neck of the woods - Chicago and NW Indiana - is snowy. 6-10" so far, and the wind is howling. The bigger question is, where the h#ll is vurt? I haven't heard from her in a couple of days, on the board or PM, and I'm getting worried. Has anybody heard from her?

Me too I hope she is ok .

and in your neck of the woods then is worse . how far north do you live . I know that near kokomo it's real bad . several counties near there declared emergancies.


and now the temp is 28 and it says freezing rain but the concrete out side our place is bone dry.

not that i'm complainin cus I ain't lol

just wierd.

I live in the South Suburbs of Chicago, a couple of miles west of Dyer, IN (Hammond-Munster-Merrillville area, just south of Gary), right on the border. I'm not sure where vurt lives, just that she's somewhere in the Greater Chicago Metropolitan area. I wish I did know where she lived - I'd go pound on her door right now, make sure she's okay, and then yell at her for getting us all worried!

Ok. lol

aw crap the bottem of the tv screen said the wind was supposed to pick up and the temp was gonna drop quick .

sheesh.


may I scream . Hey CvlSrvnt you want to join me . lol

Took my sarc line out .lol
I do'nt wanna get decked .lol



but lets pray it don't and stay safe my dear .

I'll let you know later what we got for sure.

I live in the South Suburbs of Chicago, a couple of miles west of Dyer, IN (Hammond-Munster-Merrillville area, just south of Gary), right on the border. I'm not sure where vurt lives, just that she's somewhere in the Greater Chicago Metropolitan area. I wish I did know where she lived - I'd go pound on her door right now, make sure she's okay, and then yell at her for getting us all worried!



I think I might know where that is . lol

and Yah I wish ya could too .
Hopefully she'll see this and come in and let us know .


But stay safe where you are . and hopefully vurty will pop in soon .

Well I'm now in the middle of the same weather system all y'all were talking about today...
And yeah, it's still got some power to it. Hope everyone is fine, and that all check in tomorrow, so no more worries. I don't know if I should complain about the weather or not, don't want to tempt it to do better (or worse). If it starts to break up the signal for my Express Vu, then you'll hear about it! Be careful, all.
Bon nuit.
Mari

If you could send a valentine's message to Vincent D'Onofrio or Kathryn Eames, what would you say? Keep it PG please)
Nila

Bummer, bummer Cvl I feel for your nephew. This is a prime example of Mercury Retrograde chaos along with the freaking computer glitch I've had for about the past hour! AND I NEVER get this kind of weirdness. Insert "Twilight Zone" theme.
Peachy

He had snow day today, so I took him shopping for some snazzy clothes. I convinced him that it's okay to go to the dance "stag"; he may meet a girl there who decides she likes him all cleaned up. I also told him that I mentioned his predicament on the board here, and he got all embarassed at the thought of us cooing over him. (Adolescence is a whole lot funnier when you're watching it from the safety of adulthood )

Get this...

The past 3 weeks there have been a lot of home invasions in my city. The perps knock on the door, stick a gun in the person's face and force their way inside. If there's women in the house they tie them up, if there's men they pistol whip 'em.

All incidences were on my side of town (right by the college). The last 2 home invasions were only 2 blocks from my house.

As if hearing this didn't make me paranoid enough, I saw the CI ep 'To the Bone' for the first time last week.

...yeah... now I'm thinking i should lock myself up and embrace the life of a hermit.

i think no one's responded for that very reason! J/k, I think we're all a little less pervy than that. I'd say HAPPY SINGLES AWARENESS DAY!!!! Just like that!



That. Sucks. Awesomely.

Hello everyone! How's everyone doing? I have to catch up on my reading since I've been gone for a while. Oh, and I get the pleasure of catching up on the awesome Peachy pics, and the humorous Naydi posts. Oooh - Naydi, have you posted any new links? I'm looking forward to catching up actually!

Vurtgirl

Oh yeah, I just posted a reminder on the 'Albatrose' thread, but I'll remind you guys here too.
'Albatrose' will be playing again on USA today, Feb. 15th at 11ET/10CT, for anyone who missed it (like me), or anyone who would like to catch it again.

Vurtgirl

(I don't know why I feel the need to post reminders in bigger, colored font. Maybe I think it'll stick in people's heads better. Who knows. It's all a mystery to me, my head I mean. I just bounce around doing whatever it tells me too. )

Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!! No - I haven't posted any here. I'm gonna have to get the CD posts for b going at some point over the weekend. Wait - no, there's been a couple of "meaningful" links within the thread since you last posted, but I'm not going to ruin the surprise! As far as other threads - there was a DOH!-ly placed link thrown into a thread somewhere out there when my reading skills on a particular word took a mini-stroke vacation, but I think it actually might have been moved into here...

Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Naydi! I can find it for sure. All I have to do is look up your posts from your profile. I'm a clever lil bugger, aren't I?
You know, I was thinking of something last night when I was PMing you. What will happen when you start your RNing? You're probably going to be too busy to write on here during the days, aren't you? It's going to be pretty darn sad and boring here without you during the days. Unless you get a job taking care of an elderly patient in their home during the days, and then you can play on the computer all day with us. What are you going to do? Do you have it planned out already? I'm sure you probably answered this already somewhere on here, but I just got it stuck in my head, and I'm curious now. Does your career have to come first? Don't you think you should put this board before family, friends, work, pets, everything, even your own well being? No?
Silly Vurtgirl

Yes. Yes you are. As b would say; quite the clever girl, are you! As far as the board having main priority life placement:

Yes. Yes it should.


But sadly, you're right; once I start working clinically, I won't be able to come here during the day. I was, originally, planning to work 3 -11:30 (you know, the immediate i-can-do-whatever-i-want-with-my-hours-so-i-want-to-be-lazy-in-the-morning decision?), but I realized thereafter that I'd be off schedule with the whole rest of the world and, thus, would be choosing to d'mn myself to having no life whatsoever rather than just dealing with that temporarily, as I have over the last way too many years, as a consequence of achieving a more harmoniously complete life for myself. queen of the run-on sentence lives!!! There's a couple of computers in the shared breakroom, but who wants everybody they work with 'up in their business' like that? I mean, I've mentioned the board to people, but when and what I post; that's between us, dammit! So yeah, once I make the switch - it won't be until late afternoon/early evening that I'll be able to jump on the board....

Hello . I'm still here .
The ice was'nt as bad for us just on the trees and power stayed .

the counties were in between though and all up north snow emergancy .

and did'nt get here yesterday cus of sinus . uggggg


but i'm ok .lol

saturday were supposed toget more snow but they say it won't be like the last round uh yah right . thats what they thought before .


Nice to see ya vurt . been wandering how you were .

Stay out of the wind, NS, that is a killer, and who need to be laid up with 'the sinus headache that makes one cry'?!
I'm scared to say anything about how the storm treated us. All I want to say is, I live in Canada, I know winter...so why do people who live here not automatically have snow tires on, and emergency kits in the trunk? That's all I'm saying. Back to my basement to worriedly look at pipe problem...
Mari

Good God!!!?? Has there been a massively, ridiculously high unemployment rate going on up there or is there some suspicion of these crimes being linked to an organized group of perpetrators??? This news kinda kills Michael Moores lollipops and cotton candy skies portrayal of crime in Canada....

(no - i've nothing against the man nor have i any doubt Canada is generally safer; just noting how Bowling for Columbine portrayed a, basically, utopian society compared to America!!!)

Well, as much as I would like to pretend we are a Utopian society Naydi, my existence casts doubt upon that theory. Actually, we are way safer, percentage wise with our neighbours down south, but I think that is part of the problem. Most of the hard core criminals commit most of the crimes, but our system isn't set up to deal with die hard bad boys (and girls) with little deterrance in a two year less a day sentence... For me the funniest scene in Bowling For Columbine was when MM indicated Canadians don't lock their doors. Yeah, in 1974, but nowadays? Only when we forget.
If it's any consolation alliehalliwell, most home invasion vics in Canada are somehow targeted, (not in anyway indicating a blame the victim attitude BTW) so the cases end up solved. Not much consolation, huh?
Mari

YES! That's EXACTLY the part that I'm talking about!! I mean, I applaud the man for championing the cause for the working poor, the existence of the literally trapped on Welfare vs the choosing to be on it, and different pieces of news that he's brought to light or covered in a way that others wouldn't dare, but maaan, can he stretch the h'll out of a truth!!

As far as the criminal justice system (ah crap, i just heard the man's voice saying it - Thanks a lot Dick!!!), that story shared by allie earlier this week was enough to make my stomach turn inside out. I'm hoping there's an outspoken contingent screaming for getting tougher laws in place sometime soon??

There is said contingent Naydi, (changing the laws) but at the moment it's not moving, it's a minority government, and without a clear majority it's hard to make laws that all parties will get behind, which isn't a reflection of proposed laws. generally a knee jerk partisan gridlock which, in spite of best intentions will shortly invade the Capitol in Washington. I think that my main desire would be for the election of judges and Crown Prosecutors, if your job is on the line, you might actually pay attention...
Funnily enough, after alliehalliwell posted the re-cap of the Bernardo/Homolka case I thought of a point that kind of illustrates the problem we have here. In that trial, the Crown was presenting the list of charges, and he kept talking about "annual rape" until one of the detectives corrected him, he was trying to say "anal rape" but he had no idea how to pronounce what was in the police report. Not a pleasant story I know, but it illustrates the rarity of hard core crime, and possibly some of the problems in the Crown's ability to handle it.
Mari

Hello, Miss Vurt! Glad you are OK! Welcome back.

OK, Everybody......now where is Vincent-Kathryn Fan?