IHOP Girl: Back Again!

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Back Again!

Whew. It is good to be back! Between my poor car fiasco, visiting the family, almost missing my flight home due to airport delays, and spending the last three days working I not been able to force myself to post.

When I woke up today though, I cleaned my house which was SO needed. Then I decided with some dinner in my belly that I could and should attempt to get on here for an update!

The vacation to my parents was SO much fun. I got to see some of the cousins and grandparents also. I even made it to a Civil War Reenactment, which I'll have to get the pictures from my friend Jess, and then post a couple on here so you can see them. It was the nicest weekend for it. Partly cloudy, 80s, and low humidity. I must admit that I enjoyed every minute! ;-)

The Kitten and my parents cats are doing amazingly well adapting, so we'll see! Hopefully, they will settle in. I do miss the bugger a little, but Polly (DOT's cat) is glad that he's gone. Not to mention - I have a puppy to look forward to around Christmas. I heard from the breeder yesterday that the mommy dog still hasn't gone into heat yet, but as soon as she does we'll hopefully be hearing the good news that "we're expecting"!

My car is repaired and back to normal, WOOT!!! It is so nice to have it back...

I am so ready to be back on day shift Sunday - it has been an exhausting six weeks, and I think I will need to sleep 24hrs a day just to catch up on all my sleep ;-).

I had to renew my CPR/BLS (basic life support) this week, which was no big deal aside from having class all afternoon then going and working all night. The 5th of August though I have to renew my PALS (pediatric advanced life support), and I'm a little nervous because its a very hard class/test. I can't work without it though, so I'm studying a bit for that, and I'll let you know how it goes.

Speaking of CPR. Funny story. At work this morning around 0600 (am for those of you not on military time), my patient started coughing. Now, she liked to drop her heart rate from a normal rate of 100+ beats/minute to a heart rate in the 60s (bradycardia) whenever she coughed or you messed with her ventilator. This wasn't a good thing, and technically we do CPR on all pediatric patients with heart rates <60bpm,>

Ok, sorry for the length of this post, but I promise I'll be posting more soon!! Stay tuned!

3 comments:

Unknown said...: I have a PALS training session coming up as well. I recently heard that some PALS training sessions use live animals...I couldn't practice on a healthy animal, it just doesn't make sense. Fortunately, the center I am going to doesn't do that.

Do you know if you will be learning with an animals?; 11:51 AM
Clair Bannerman (alias) said...: Wow, that is interesting, I've never heard of them using live or dead animals to be honest...Hmm, I'm pretty sure I won't be at the one I'm going to. I will have to look into that! Thanks for stopping by!; 10:37 PM
Clair Bannerman (alias) said...: Edward - I did a little looking, and while the American Heart Association which created the course definately is opposed to the use of live animals in the PALS course for intubation practice, it doesn't prohibit it. It looks like the practice is rare, although St. Louis Children's still does. Anyways, that is just what I found. We as RNs should not be usually required to practice intubation since that is not part of our license. Just an fyi :-); 2:38 AM

Movie Night In...I love a good movie!

Mega Mind
Taking Chance (Will make you cry like a baby)
Charlotte Grey (A bit of a different take on Nazi Germany)
Series - Merlin (I LOVE BBC)
Robin Hood (Okay, a love Russell Crowe, you'll have to understand that about me...)
Kingdom of Heaven (Chuck full of acting power with an epic tale)
Miss Potter (Such a great film! Story of the creator of Peter Rabbit)
How to Train your Dragon (Possibly my favorite animated movie ever...I'm like a little kid, I watch it over and over)
Buck (Sundance winner, Biography of Horse Trainer, heart touching)
Lost in Austin (Modern day spin on Pride and Prej.)

Life as a nurse...

Great words by Reb Jeff: Vayishlach: Facing Death

"Rachel died. She was buried on the road to Ephrat — now called Bethlehem. Jacob set up a pillar above her grave. It is the pillar at Rachel’s grave to this day."–Genesis 35:19-20

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidui http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_(Judaism), and preparing the notifications to the community, feel like little fragments of the sacred. I have been entrusted with the care and tending of the most powerful, complex and difficult emotions that a person can experience in life. I have been made, in some small part, a guardian of the memory of a departed soul — a life that touches upon many other lives.After dropping off my older daughter at her high school this morning, I made a stop at Treasure Coast Hospice http://www.tchospice.org/, a remarkable organization that sets a very high standard for the loving and respectful care of the dying. There, I visited a lovely man whom I have seen a few times in his hospice room. I sat by his bedside and listened to him (in full possession of his faculties) as he told me about his worries about his family, the support of his wife after he is gone, and the future of his children and grandchildren. I was deeply moved by the way he put any concern for himself — even while facing death — in a distant backseat to his concerns for his family. When my own time comes, I can only hope to have his awareness of the way that one life can touch so many others.Also at hospice, I visited a woman I have known for the past two years — a dear soul who is a former Jewish religious school director. I sat with her, too, singing psalms to her as I listened to her heavy and labored breathing. I have no medical training, but I have come to know the sound of a person who is close to death. The body begins to fight for each breath as it slowly looses it grasp on life. As I held her hand and sang, I realized that being a rabbi is no protection against becoming one of the people caught in the web of connection. I, too, am changed by the loss of a life that has touched mine.Later in the day, I met with a couple from our congregation. She had just learned that her brother died yesterday in a car crash. Coming to terms with the loss is made more difficult for her by the fact that she and her brother had not seen each other or spoken in five years. Sometimes, people think it is easier to mourn the death of someone who has moved out of your life. In my experience, though, it's harder. Grief is magnified by wounded love and regret. I have no magic words to say to ease the pain of mourning. All I can do is listen, become a vessel in which people place their stories, and offer compassion.Actually, there is one more thing I can do. I can have faith that "all I can do" is all that I need to do. It is enough.In this week's Torah portion (Vayishlach) Jacob watched Rachel, the love of his life, die in childbirth. He was overcome by grief. Jacob had worked for his cruel uncle Laban for fourteen years to earn the right to marry Rachel. Now she was gone. Because she died while they were traveling, Jacob had to bury her by the side of the road. He built a pillar of stones on the spot to mark the place as sacred.This is what we all do, in one way or another, when death enters our lives. We grieve and our hearts break. We wish that we could continue to walk along the path of life with our loved ones forever, but the dead cannot fully join us. We have to leave something behind in order to resume our own journey. So, what do we do? We mark the moment as sacred. We erect monuments — both in cemeteries and in our hearts. The stones we place on top of stones remind us that a life may end, but its sanctity is forever.The Torah says that the monument Jacob built for his beloved continues to stand until this day. A life that touches the lives of others never ceases to send living reverberations throughout the web that binds us all.