stefanl, can you post or PM me with the name of the organization that sends Mike his newsletter? (I love this. Our vet sends our three cats their appointment notices and Christmas cards by mail. With us mere humans doing most of our bill paying and correspondence online, I swear the cats get more actual mail than we do )

We're in a small apartment right now but hoping to purchase a home in the next year. And when we do, I will resume being the dog person that I truly am! The cats are firmly entrenched as the masters of this particular universe. and I wouldn't give them up for the world, but boy do I miss having a dog.

I read an article in one of our Toronto papers quite a while ago about a woman who runs a greyhound rescue operation. I thought it might be an option for us, but it was a long way off at that point and I misplaced the article. Now I'm hoping to do a bit of homework on whether we'd be an appropriate home for one of these dogs ... what type of environment do they need, do they do okay with other pets, etc. thanks!

Excellent point about peanut butter.

Always happy to spread a little greyhound cheer to the world.

I too lived in an apartment when I lost my last dog and did not think I wanted to have another one while still in an apartment. Getting another dog was actually my incentive to buy a house quicker than if I had wanted to have it for myself. I've done the puppy thing and wanted to choose an adult dog that would already have a personality and none of the silly puppy chew syndrome that destroyed two couches. A greyhound filled that bill perfectly.

Greys do not need to have a large area like a house. They are happy being couch potatoes or, as in Mike's case, speed bumps. (He's not permitted on the furniture.) They need regular exercise as would any other dog, so an enclosed yard would be optimum, but walks a couple of times a day work just as well and the occasional trip to the dog park keeps him happy and trim. I've had other hounds before (beagle and basset) who would eagerly eat until they resembled breakfast sausages about to pop. My grey is nothing like that. You're almost guaranteed a sweet temperament and the placement organizations will ask you about your family/current pet situation and place an animal with you that meets your needs. Cat friendly, kid friendly, mailman friendly...

Here is a link to a pretty wide reaching Adopt a Greyhound page. Click on the link at the top of the page for where to adopt and then there's a link for Canadian groups. You mentioned Toronto in your post. There are a dozen listings for Ontario, maybe one is close to you. There are also other links for history, care, living with... By all means, PM me if you have other questions.

Linda

Thanks for the link, and for the all the information, Linda. Our last dog, a Sheltie, could never had survived in our current little place. Although it probably would have been quite funny to watch her trying to herd the cats. I'll probably have questions as I look further into, so thanks too for the offer for future information. Greatly appreciated.

Thanks for posting this Linda. My Boy Toy's Mom has a retired racing Greyhound, he did think the house was wierd at first, you should have seen him trying to walk on the carpet without touching it... He is such a lovely, lovely personality. He loves attention and being part of a family unit. His name is Kel and he meets other former racers in a park twice a month and they run for fun. He seemed to miss the running, and there was a group on the net all with rescued Greyhounds who also liked to run, that my bf's mom found. The rest of the time Kel is so normal, but I guess he has an athlete's spirit. He started by trying to race with other dogs at the dog park, who all thought he was mental. For practice, he runs with my bf's little brother and his hockey team when they do laps! Kel wins all the time, too!
Mari

My boo's name is Mike and he is just about as typically greyhound as a greyhound can be. People were invented to scratch his ears, rub his neck, bask in the wonderfulness that is Mike. When your hand tires of the scratching/rubbing, you've outlived your usefulness and he's off to find another admirer. He's the biggest goofball.

There was an Italian greyhound (they look like accidents waiting to happen to fine porcelain China) who would run up and nip other dogs at the dog park and then run away in furious little bursts of speed. Funniest thing you ever did see, legs sticking out to the side as he's running. He trots up and nips Mike on the backend and tries to get away. Mike had him pinned in no time between those gigantic front paws of his. Little thing didn't know what to do and sure didn't expect to get caught nearly so quickly. His owner just about died laughing that the little bit had finally met his match.

This is Mike decked out for the holidays on one of his MANY beds.

AAAAWWWW! He is so handsome! And he is so good natured, getting into the spirit of Christmas! I tried to put a hat on my cat for Hallowe'en...once. What a good looking fellow Mike! Mike has his priorities right, people are good for attention and opening food. And making the food. And buying toys. Kel likes you to cheer for him, whatever he is doing. I take it that's a relic of his career too. As he plays with his Kong, "Kel! Kel! Go Kel!" the neighbours think we're all completely nuts. Oh well, whatever.

And speaking of nothing in particular, because that's what OT threads are for - Where's Naydeeee?

A few days in the new job, and still we hear officially nothing on this site - no goss at all. Must have been promoted to Head of Nursing. Speak to us, O Pinned One!

Either that or she met the senior staff and is now planning a coup d'etat. We'll know for sure when she sends the signal for us to start digging up the weapons caches and reassembling the assault vehicles.



Are these the same little people who live under the hood of my car, and who require constant praise and encouragement to keep it running? (Collectively, I call them "Jake", although my last car preferred "Sam").

WAH HAAAA HAAAA HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!
Between your being blind and Cvl being stuck in some form of All-Consuming Maternihell, I've been laughing my a** off over here!!

Anywho....

Hi!

Week 1 of the ongoing series National Geographics' Life of the New RN has come to an end. It actually came to an end on Wednesday night, but still being in 5-Year of Stress Letdown and having had a whooooole h'll of a lot of built up lactic acid to burn off, I've only really come to today. Who knows, maybe tomorrow I'll actually wake up BEFORE noon?

I did 3 twelves, 7a to 7:30p, Monday thru Wednesday; starting with 2 patients Monday and Tuesday and getting a third, on a vent, on Wednesday. It was 36 hours of trying to make sure nobody died, everybody got clean and 'fed', everybody got their meds and their dressing changes, everyone's paperless chart was documented in as thoroughly as possible, while trying to stay on schedule with everything that I needed to do in order to actually be able to leave at 7:30 by mustering up and desparately clinging to some tiny little bit of confidence that I actually knew what I was doing in order to keep myself from just stopping to dead standstill in the hallway, crying like a woman possessed. So yeah - so far so good! *cheeeeennnng *



Of the patients that I had, only 1 was totally communicative. Lucky for me and everyone else who had to take care of him, he was a whining attention seeker. "No, I'm not going to stop hanging your declared incompetent roommate's IV antibiotic in order to come throw away your unwanted pudding cup." I got to "admit" this fine gentleman after discharging another patient to a skilled nursing facility. That was a lovely moment, finding out at 1:20 -before I'd eaten lunch- that an ambulance had been scheduled by Case Management to come pick her up at 2:00. Fan-Frickin-Tastic, my friend! Thankfully, this has got to be the most nurse-friendly organization in terms of systems management. All I need worry about was disconnecting her feeding tube, asking Super CNA Welly to pack up her stuff while apologizing profusely for late notice that wasn't my fault, and write up a little 'Page 2' nursing note for the discharge papers. Interfacing with the EMTs, and making sure everybody else did their paperwork: Wasn't my job. That worked. The admitting process, however, that was a ridiculously long ordeal with multiple redundancies written into our "practitioner friendly" computer system. It was Tuesday that the discharge and admission took place. My preceptor planned to finished up a remaining piece of the data entry for me YESTERDAY. As far as whiny man, I got to miss what could only be the beautiful effect of the newly initiated Seroquel and Ativan orders for him. Whoever had him today, must have had a great time. It could only get better from my having to actually say a hand waving 'You know, I've got to get going; I'm going to have to let the nurse coming on know about this, so she can help you' after the final act of scratching his back and applying lotion for him, when he asked me to wash it off because he didn't like the smell. I stopped wondering a long time ago of what drives an elderly woman to murder her husband over the placement of the cranberry juice on the wrong shelf in the fridge just that one time too many. Hasn't been reported in the news much lately, but I'm pretty d'mn sure that snap killings are still being inspired out there. No one can convince me otherwise.

On the killing tip - the one low note of the 36hrs o' fun: Darren Shiftless Lazy A** CNA. There's a word missing from this title, but certain things can't be said in the presence of a broad audience. jordan would know; last letter 'o'. Only worked with him on Wednesday. Went in to check on my incompetent patient only to find the red cap on the gastric side of his two-port gastric/jejunal feeding tube had popped off at some point between my having given him his morning meds and then. His bath having taken place in between. Odd considering it hadn't happened at all in my 24hrs with the patient before. How disappointed was I to have missed the bed acrobatics that led to the cap being under the back of this patient who's only motion prior was begging for contractures by pulling his legs up to his chest, laying in a fetal position? But alas, the moment was missed so I just set to replacing the cap and cleaning the gastric juice off of him. Cut to a bit later, need to give my dear patient his 2:00 o'clock meds through his gastric tube. Go over, lift up his sheet, his j-tube has been pulled out and letting the contents of his feed bottle just pump out all over him and the bed. Now how in the h'll???? Given that, he in his fetal ways, was quite combative when it came to trying to move him for anything. I call out to my CNA for help in cleaning him up. I say 'His feeding tube came out somehow'. His answer? 'Oh, I Know, he's always doing that'. wha whu? 'You knew the tube was out?' 'Yeah, I saw it. I don't know why they took off his restraints, cuz he's been doing that since he been here' Apparently, everyday that he's been there except the 2 days prior that I was with him for 12 hrs, hearing of no such incidents from the 3-nights of RN reports; which is beside the point because the main issue is that You knew that the man was lying in Jevity feeding formula and #1 - You didn't bother cleaning him up, and #2 - You didn't bother telling me that the sh't happened!!!?????!!! I swear to God, if I had the authority to fire - His a** would have been leaving right then and there! I didn't even bother saying anything because I already knew he's just too ingrained ignorant to see the point. I haven't been there long enough to have some jacka** start talking me up as a b'tch to work for/with. That he can start talking up later once I'm more comfortable in the role and more established with the crew; because HE WILL be made a miserable lazy a** sumb'tch when on shifts with me if he "works" the same way then. I don't have the patience for the decidedly lazy. Good news is that, before I saw how crappy a CNA he was, he'd mentioned to me how he couldn't wait to start working nights. You know, the shift that I'll be working once I'm done precepting? Oh lucky day . I asked my preceptor a little later if it's well known that he just sucks and it turns out that it is. She being a form of manager (they don't really have unit Nurse Managers there), she said that she's been watching him. She plans on watching him even more now.

Welp - that's it for this week's report. All in all - I can't for the life of me imagine how day shift RNs can EVER get everything that needs to be done, actually done, with a full 5-,6- or 7-patient caseload, over the course of an 8hr shift. It seems pure madness for me to even try to believe so from where I sit! Kudos to those seasoned nurses who can actually pull it off. My new org doesn't actually even hire for 8's anymore. On Monday, I'll be spending about 4 hours performing rounds with the Wound Nurse, and another 4 shadowing Respiratory. The last 4 (told them I want to make sure to be working fulltime during precepting) kind of following and assisting one of the RNs, Gail, instead of picking up my own patients for 4 hrs. Works for me! Gives my muscles an extra day of rest away from lactic pain, too. Still surprised by that one; didn't even feel like I'd done anything to bring it on!?! d'Ah well - Time to go eat!

na

Been wandering where you went .lol
thought you forgot about us .
Lordy sounds like you have had a time .

Hey Naydeeeeeee! I had to take time to read the National Geographic/National Enquirer diary twice, it was so chock-a-block with fascinating stuff. Well, fascinating from my comfort zone 12,000 miles away. Now, I gather you were working in the wing/ward/section where the patients are victims of - stroke? dementia?catastrophic acccidents? Gastric feeding, immobility, inability to speak and the transfer to skilled nursing facilities suggest that to me, but maybe I've got that wrong. I'm feeling so heratbroken for the patients who truly may be suffereing, unable to communicate, while Mr Backscratch Pudding Cup demands all the attention. A 12-hour shift sounds almost incomprensible these days. Take the sheer hours combined with the intensive care and monitoring - jeez, no wonder we haven't heard from you this week.

So what's the schedule, then? You say that you will be moving around the various specialty sections in the coming days and weeks. Is this training period like an internship, where you are exposed to all the areas of specialised care within the hospital?

I wish I could ask you really interesting and/or intelligent questions. Alas, I have to leave that to Cvl. I have to go back to working out how the wheel works now.

BUT before I forget" : Will you be around for the night of April 3rd, or are you on duty. See the "Silencer" thread. We really need all the brainpower this board can muster for some smart insightful questions to ask Luane Davis and her RIT students. Me, I'm hopeless.

Nay, honey...You got GOMERS! Congrats! Heartless and cynical as it sounds, GOMERS are God's gift to the medical community. They are how we perfect our hands-on skills, that we may use them effortlessly on those patients who are still truly among the living (and freeing up our minds to practice good bedside manner while said hands are on autopilot). [Yes, you reeeeeallly need to go read House of God, now - once things settle down a bit.]

And now I may truly welcome you into the medical community, for you have had your baptism by fire (and urine, and gastric juices, and scaly old man skin and...) and you have survived your first week on the hot seat without killing anybody (coworkers included). Trust me, it does get easier with time, and you will laugh at yourself when you remember this week in a year or two. As for the sore muscles - that's 90% stress and 10% pt contact. Most of it will be gone next week, except for the residual that will stay with you for the rest of your career, but which you will shortly cease to notice except on the days when everything goes to the crapper.

On a side note -- I know this doesn't need to be said to you, but I'll offer it again as a gentle reminder: my counterparts hate the paperwork and BS of those transfer runs as much as you do, so please go easy on them.

Love ya, girl! Now go soak in a hot tub for a while!

Hey naydi,

I think what you are doing is admirable. I know I couldn't do it. My mom is going into her 15th year of heart replacement. She is now on dialysis due to all the drugs she has had to take over the years. She's disoriented at times, and I know probably difficult (she is on predizone). I live 750 miles away. The care she is getting from the nurses has been beyond excellent. I appreciate that. My dad is blind, so, he's limited on certain things (tho' he would never tell you...and believe me, he knows all the nurses names by voice!).

I know you probably see your job as thankless, but it is not. Without you, well, we would be in a world of fix. So, as we say up North, 'cowgirl up' and do the best you can, and know it is very much appreciated! 'Cuz it is girl![/color]

To my homegirl Naydi, glad you could pop in! We have so missed you! I second all Easterlily says, you know I've had my experience with hospitals, and nurses, and you are indeed worth your weight in rubies! Trust me, the patients have no idea how you deal with us, (and the GOMERS) and the politics, my admiration is boundless, girl!
Mari

...can't take a thing away from Cinderella, but nobody can, nor will, kill it like Miss Holliday did

(oop - just came quick before heading out the door to share what had me grabbing a tissue yesterday just to see there's more here that'll get me doing it again!! I'll be popping back tonight to read everything... )



^ have to turn the link up, though - man, i hate it when some of them are barely audible at normal volume....

Not thankless in the least, actually - outside of Backscratch wahiohnlikedatlotion Pudding Cup, who's only there because he needs to get longterm vancomycin infusions for bloodborne MRSA. If not for the fact that his insurance probably refused to pay for home IV treatments, his a** wouldn't even be there! (got to share; the Ativan and Seroquel are meds he took at home... they/we don't go around prescribing just-shut-the-h'll-up!!!! meds to certain patients! though I think Cv would agree that, at times, it's a d'mn shame we can't) ...writing back to everyone, but picking up from here...

I did get to have my moments of 'eeeey, 'owyadoin'!!! with our friends in blue, white and red, an black (thus far) over the course of the three days - only it was when it wasn't my patient! Haven't figured out who the regulars are, but I'm assuming there really isn't a 'regular' bus as we don't have an ER, thus no direct admits. We're a long term acute care facility (LTAC). We get all the sickest of the sick from the acute care hospitals that, basically, Medicare -and thus most all other insurers- won't pay them to take care of anymore for the related diagnosis (DRG). Apparently, it's a newer animal in terms of Medicare acuity levels. Your longterm ventilator patients, your longterm IV treatment (a la Puddin') who don't have anything wrong with them that warrants taking up a hospital bed, your longterm traches (a la contracted and Lazy A** mistreated man), dialysis, hospice patients, etc. Your mom, easter, sounds like the type of patient we would take care of; if she's not still maintaining a decent level of independent functioning. Basically, the regular "med/surg" floor's are like a non-Boston hospital's ICUs, with the ICU being like a Boston med/surg and/or ICU floor. I'm thinking not too much like MGH's though. It's still shuddering to think of the acuity of the patients we took care of and saw on MGH's Neuro floor that last semester who DIDN'T reach the level of neeing to be admitted to the Neuro ICU. I thought we WERE in the Neuro ICU! Sh't, do those people have their brain stems hanging out the back or something!!??? Oy.... Just can't fathom it on my own. Anywho - Back to the LTAC; hemodynamic monitoring is done to the extent that you don't want anyone up and dying on you "out of the blood" with passing of cardiovascular meds, but anyone who's acutely unstable on this front would be sent back to a hospital and/or not accepted for transfer in the first place.

Ah crap - I'm taking too long to write this and I need to be up in Peabody by 7 tomorrow morning (haven't had my mousse and cab yet!). I'm gonna have to cut this short. Whereas I'll be a "guest" for most of tomorrow rather than a servant, maybe I'll have a bit o' energy to come back on tomorrow night. (b- doing 7a to 7p on Tues; nothing scheduled for Weds... )

Catch up with you later!!

na



EDIT: Oh crap! Did mean to add, Cv, that at least I've not had to make any heroic efforts to keep any of them from Going to Ground.... (so far that is - despite the new, strong push against using restraints *shudder* )

Vincent D'Onforio's movies. I just bought & watched Full Metal Jacket with VDO in it.He had a little part,but it was a Goren gone mad!! It was really a good movie,if you like war movies.

Yes, we are definitely going to have to have a chat here reeeeeeaaaal soon...

Some of the nursing homes around here have taken to putting trundle beds on the floor to avoid the problem, but it's h#ll on your back.

Poseys are my friends, but chemical restraints are my one true love - just gimme an excuse; I'll even RSI 'em, please?

FLASH!!! Important medical news for all peep lovers.

Introduction: One of the great mysteries of the Peep species is that these creatures are always born as conjoined quintuplets. Some scientists have theorized that this arrangement, much like pack behavior in other species, serves as a natural protection against predators. As evidence, note that Peeps are most often consumed by predators only after they have been separated from their siblings. Conversely, Peeps which remain attached to their siblings are rarely preyed upon.

For the rest of this groundbreaking, and peep breaking, article, please visit this link.

Warning: NOT for the Peep Squeamish! Karo is spilled!!

LOL

Mom will love this link.

she loves peeps . oddist thing is she had the pink one in the middle muahahahaaaaaaaa

Yup I'm right she loved it .lol

gave her the giggles officially stef

and now she's eating some of her peeps now .lol

I got an official mom giggle! Does she prefer them fresh or stale? Me? I'm a stale peep lover. Poke holes into the plastic soon as I get them home.

Mom loves them stale .lol

you and mom would get along .lol

mom was giggling again saying I like'em good and stale..lol

If you nuke one in the microwave when it's fresh, it'll blow up like a balloon. Not that I condone peep abuse in any way, you understand.

LMao

She's laughing
she wants to know

What the heck are you doing nuking peeps .lol

LOL

Did you actually try that ?muhahaa

she sarcastically calls it peep terriosim .lol
I know i most likely missspelled it .

Yup. I had one of my students tell me to try it. Can't exactly call that peer pressure but it worked like a charm! When we do the gas laws in my chemistry class we put some shaving cream in a beaker and put it into a vacuum chamber and it expands like crazy. Peeps too!

Peep terrorism. That's blow milk out the nose funny.

AH so they dared ya did they .

you might've wanted to put a disclaimer no actual peeps were harmed during the making of this experiment.We just got curious.lol

My goodness! LOL 'shut the h*** meds up'....I am sure some of our counselors would love to prescribe some of those to a few of the clients (not that they can), but I know what you mean!

Fortunately, Mom is pretty independent. She had a bout with an infection (more of a mold) in her system in November. That put her in the hospital a couple of weeks. They managed to 'fix' it, or make it manageable. With her heart transplant (almost 15 years ago), it kind of makes things a little more dicey on what she can take without upsetting her med regime for her heart. She's able to walk again, and she's back on her treadmill to keep her strength up. I think what keeps her going is being there for Dad, and what keeps Dad going is being there for her (they've been married 57 years). They are tough old birds....and I hope I can be that tough at their age!

It's sad to see them grow old. In the last four months they have been making a positive move towards assisted living, which is probably for the best. The place that they have chosen has accepted them. Now to down size! But, mom is working on it.

Take a Tour of the Peep Factory!!!
Join the Peep Fan Club - Make Groovy Peep Treats

The Pennsylvania Cable Network has this excellent program called PCN Tours where they take a tour of different Pennsylvania businesses and other places of interest (eg. Yungling Breweries, Tastykakes). Around Easter they aired a tour of the Just Born Candy factory where they make the peeps. They showed the peeps being made from beginning to end. Visit the link above to see still pictures of the peeps being made.

Mmmm...TastyKakes!! I miss the Coffee Cake TastyKakes. Any chance they'll visit Utz in Hanover?

I love Utz. Why do they charge extra for the burnt pretzels? Wouldn't they just throw them out? They can give them to me, they don't need to charge me for them! I'll take them right off their hands.

Serious love affair with peanut butter tandy takes, or are the kandy kakes now?

Forgive me for the sin (for PA anyway), but I never really cared for the pretzels. Now, the cheap refills on potato chips (when you bring your own Utz tin from home) was a great deal. And the Old Bay chips - I really miss those.

I had forgotten about the peanut butter ones! Aw, now I'm getting hungry...we really have to get this board away from the food discussions.

Day Three - Peeps Among Us

Today's episode: Fear Response in Peeps

Introduction: It has long been appreciated that various animals have developed innate responses to stressful situations that may increase their chances of survival. Included in these behaviors is the exaggeration of physical size, a strategy employed by various animals including the common house cat, the pufferfish, and the ever feared Siamese fighting fish.

Other behaviors of a similar nature include the ability of skunks to spew foul smelling nastiness at enemies (a response which fortunately has not been observed by peep scientists thus far), and the tendency to exaggerate one's own intelligence (a practice employed multifariously by insecure scientists who through obfuscation and transmogrification render oblique the perspicaciousness of the facts, and attempt to ensure utter confusion through pedantic pontification and verbose oration in order to maintain the illusion of their own preeminence).

In order to assess whether fear adaptations are present in the peep population, it was necessary to find a stimulus that elicits a fear response. After spending hours screaming obscenities at peeps, and subjecting them to a variety of scary stimuli including, but not limited to KFC commercials, Dr. Laura, and a full-length Martha Stewart video, we decided to investigate whether peeps exhibit fear responses when placed in enclosed, brightly lit spaces.

To read the rest of this riveting article and view pictures of the actual experiment, follow this link.

Delsign, what is the sign for Passover?

(And my quest for fairly useless knowledge continues... but this one will be fun to use at temple.)

Okay two things so I'll make two posts.

First, my friend sent me this link...apparently people do this and I just think its so wrong on so many levels.

http://www.earlylifecosmetics.com/

I really like your avatar!!!

stupid computer kicked me off...

Anyways, i was also going to tell you that I had a dream about CI last night. It was weird of course so here it is:


I came down to watch CI on the tv, got comfy on the couch and turned the tv on. Ross was talking to some perp for 45 minutes. It was soooo boring. All the cops in the squadroom were called away and when they came back all their desks/chairs/files,etc. Everything was gone except one lone desk with a phone and a stapler on it.

While all the cops tried to figure out what happened, Goren and Eames talked in an interview room. they had a 'talk'. Eames went on about something for awhile then told Goren that she loved him, like a big brother. She asked him if he had wanted anymore than that, just to clarify, and Goren said no. He then asked "so you love me huh?" Eames smiled. "yeah I do." She hugged him and Goren looked ready to burst into tears. Loud emotional music played in the background.

Then when Eames went to leave the interview room Goren started doing this dance...snapping his fingers and bobbing around. He looked ridiculous (and it was a horrible dance).



....and that was my dream. I think that CI will be good as long as it doesn't turn into the crap that was my dream.

Hiiii-eeee... My God I'm loving this working three days a week thing! Got the scrubs laundry going downstairs, went out and did some household shopping, hit the bakery at an early enough time before they'd run out of my favorite peaches and cream white chocolate ganache pastry bars, threw the clothes in the dryer on the way back in, had my Dunkin Donuts maple cheddar croisant sandwich while finally watching Silencer from Tuesday *the one-hour dryer setting should have just shut off* and it's only going on 2 o'clock (or at least it was when I STARTED typing). Once I manage to be able to get out of bed before 12 o'clock on a regular basis on my days off, life is going to be good. Off yesterday and today, working tomorrow, then I'm off until Monday. Finally - some real Rest within my life. Starting thinking that I'd never actually see any of the spoils of hard labor! (at least until the fall, when I go back to the world of higher learning... online of all things... maybe with 4 days off a week I can actually develop the discipline for it? Lord, I hope so!!)

Funny you should mention beds that go to the floor - When doing wound rounds on Monday, a recent unilateral amputee who had fallen and gotten a nasty gash on her stump and the middle of her suture line, was in a bed that went all the way down. I don't know her full story yet -all be working that floor tomorrow- but she was on a 1:1. Guess I'll be finding out tomorrow if it's a matter of her having previously dx'd psych issues or a matter of terribly bad denial coping to being a new amputee. On Tuesday, my sweetly delirious patient with the best natural skin glow any of us has ever seen ripped out her Foley. Last week, she took to popping one of the ports off her J-tube and drinking her own gastric juices. Tuesday was the first time I'd worked with her; was still without restraints per her daughter's request. Hadn't done any thing "destructive" all day ;'til pulling that Foley out at 7:15p. It was reported to me by my CNA while I was down the hall helping another CNA Hoyer somebody else's patient back into bed. I was nice enough to have pulled out a new kit out of clean utility and got the special silicon tubing from the RN supervisor, so the night nurse would have that much of a head start after taking my report at 7:30. Wasn't that so nice of me?



Actually, I wouldn't have minded putting the new one in for her, but, by the time enough people were free from change of shift for me to get the required person per leg it would have taken to get the thing in while keeping a sterile environment, I could have been half way home and half way to picking up my Sei Bar order. Finding new restaurants are fun for me, but way too d'mn expensive. I did manage, having had 1/2 the una-ju available for lunch yesterday, not to have a gut inverting craving to fight yesterday, but I'm seeing some Crazy Maki in my future tonight. Tempera battered fried shrimp, avocado, cucumber, and flying fish roe. Hmmmmmmm.....fish roe..... They allow custom rolls that customer can create. I'm thinking an extra layer of rice on the outside wrapped with unagi. Ooooooo, that'd be good. Too bad the roll's already pretty "American sushi" fat. You'd have to have a Honeycomb mouth to take in an extra layer of rice and unagi on the thing! But anywho...

Have you seen Posey beds? Basically adult playpens with roofs? (or is it rooves? io'no...) Great for keeping a patient in bed, in theory. Not great, though, for keeping that guy on the MGH neuro floor from cutting a hole in one of the corners after having wiped his feces around the thing. Yeah. He had some issues goin' on. Schizophrenia with a brain tumor on top maybe? Not quite sure. The Ativan and Seroquel weren't enough to keep a good Puddin' Cup down. Normally, I can forgive a sick patient a lot. Him - he's just a d'mn pain in the a**. When you have to actually say, 'Well, I'm holding blood right now, so that's gonna have to wait; but, they do know to come back to pick those up!!!' when he calls for "your help" through the curtain as your doing a blood sugar immediately after eating his last bite off his food tray; you know your just dealing with a whining self-centered pain in the a**. I wasn't even his nurse. During my 12 hours Tuesday, he must have pressed his call light at least 20 times. Thank God I'll be on a different floor tomorrow, Monday, and Tuesday. With any luck, his blood cultures will start coming back with lower colony numbers, and he'll be gone by my next shift. One can only hope....

Librarian, in case Delsign is occupied elsewhere, here is a link to ASL for Jewish Festivals. From what I could find, there is a Quicktime video for signing Passover, which seems to be the same as "cracker". I'm not sure if I've understood the author correctly there, but have a wander around.

I did a similar snoop-around for Easter ASL instructions. Mostly I found out how to sign 'chocolate', 'bunny', and 'egg hunt' . Ah yes.. Gimme that ole time religion

Try not to feel too discouraged by their impending move. Being in an assisted living facility, there's more of a goal that the resident will remain independent, they just need a little help with the bigger things. Assisted living is designed to be just that: Living!! As Seraph and her group are putting into practice, the longer someone can stay involved in the performance of their own ADLs (activities of daily living), the longer they psychologically, and, thereby, physically, will be able to do so.

Use it or lose it is one of the truest idioms ever spoken! Unfortunately, most elderly end up being pushed toward early institutionalized "helplessness" and resulting disease by the thinking that, at a certain point, somebody should start doing everything for them - whether they're still capable or not. One broken hip doesn't mean that grandma should never, ever walk again. It's great to read that you're focused on their being as independent as possible!

All I can say is, once the bottom of the aparatus was pulled aside and proper technique was used, that was mighty fine stapling, son...



hmmmmm....vanilla-flavored Fun Dip sticks....

That was the only part of the whole thing that I ever liked; the colored sugar I could do without...



(if i could Photoshop i'd be an even sadder geek, but the Homer pic would make a h'll of a lot more sense)

LOL B!

I found this for you Librarian... a video showing the sign for Passover.

Sign for Passover

I managed to miss that the first time... !!!!

I know this is way Off Topic but the religious chocolate affiliation...

This is exactly what made the vote against including artist illustrations in the Old Testament carry over; despite Jebediah's commendable campaign to the contrary. Finding an original tapestry of the above rolled up carelessly among Rabbi Zippy's copy of the scrolls just made the whole idea feel too risky...

Absolutely cackling crazy-like here. There is a Far Side cartoon in this....

Probably from Matzah, which is (just in case) the unleavened "bread of affliction our Forefathers ate, because as they fled, in such haste, from Egypt, the dough they baked into bread had not the time to rise." It's the only part of the Seder

(means "Order" in Hebrew -- It's a traditional Passover meal, eaten in a certain order, sixteen steps in all, for which there is, of course, a menmonic poem/song.
-->(The nice thing about Hebrew rhyme

----->(just thinking about the thread I'm in now -- I've been installing
----->a "what might a
----->Deaf person experience right now?" "room" in my head....)

-->is that it shows up visually, because the vowels are "extra" marks,
-->put above, below,
-->and inside of, the consonants that form the actual, 22-letter,
-->alphabet)

and the Passover diet (eaten all week), escept for the Passover offering of a lamb, specifically the shank (which is, at this point in history, only a symbol on the educational display-plate that has been employed since at least the early Middle Ages)that actually shows up in the Torah.

It is the primary symbol of our being swept up in the joy of God's deliverance of our people, so much so that we forget that God was forced to kill all the Firstborn of the Egyptians, and so He reminds us that not only did others pay the ultimate price (an unfair price, if we get too haughty about our deliverance and forget that some had to die for it) for our feedom (we are all supposed to believe as though we ourselves had come out of Egypt with our ancestors, one unbroken line of masses and masses of Jews, on our way Home to Israel), but that God could take all that away from us if we forget the anything that is good for our Nation is bound to have severe consequences for another. But that He has deemed us worthy (however He has figured such things, which is as unfathomable as anything else about Him) all the same, and there is a party on, now. Just that the refreshments should be just right for the totality of the Occasion...

Anyway. Matzah is a "cracker." Yeah.

P.S.

I like that a story of Freedom for an Oppressed and Misunderstood People coincided with Passover. Also, unless I'm mistaken, neither Christians nor the Deaf have "baby-naming ceremonies," but I do know that that's the Jewish female equivalent of the male celebration, the Briss (Circumcision ceremony), the Naming Ceremony. Maybe the Jewish Child Bringing the Truth and Renewal was supposed to mirror Passover and Easter...?
Anyway, it's good to see a Liberation Story for the Deaf. Yay!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I seeeeeeeee . Of course! I fell into a cross-cultural morass there. I kept thinking in the Anglo-Oz vein, not the American one. Cracker to me suggested firecracker or nutcracker, or something that cracks things. A 'cracker" in the UK and Oz means a firecracker (as in Cracker Night), whereas crackers-as-in-Nabisco are called 'biscuits' (and cookies are called 'sweet biscuits' ). Enough of that, I'm getting a headache. Wonder how it works when an American Jew is talking to an Australian Jew????