Dead bodies and Recipes



As nurses you become desensitized to a lot, but once in a while a wtf moment hits you.

Yesterday, because of sick calls they had me helping in the cardiovascular ICU. Halfway into the shift an elderly Asian gentleman passed away; it was not unexpected as most of the family had been called and were at the bedside.

After he passed, the family wanted to spend more time with him and have their 6-year-old granddaughter come into the room to say goodbye. The patient had been on a ventilator with lines and tubes inserted into every possible orifice and extremity. It would have been a scary site to most, but why subject a 6 year old to this?

Anyway we had the family go to the waiting room as we fully gowned and masked up. Because of his condition we knew there would be extensive body fluids everywhere; also bathing and turning a dead patient requires a lot of contact.

The air in the room smelled horrible as we started pulling lines, tubes and clean up the man's body. Then the two nurses with me started exchanging recipes for some type of bread pudding dish.
I laughed a little and found it is sad, because while cleaning up that poor dead man's smelly fluids, their talk actually made me hungry.

750 Words.com

There is a site called 750 words and it kind of describes why I started blogging, but it is not a Blogging site or Facebook. It is a place where you write 750 words a day to yourself, and nobody reads it. Kind of like the old days when people kept journals or diaries about their thoughts.

By writing 750 words a day you release some of that inner energy, creativity or frustration. You can write in the mornings to get your mind working or at the end of the day to let things go. They call it "a daily brain dump" and creative or not it probably helps.

To write freely and say what is really on my mind. That's my problem I recently started worrying about what others would think or want to read and see.

http://750words.com/

Party Like a Nurse

  Today is the 105th anniversary of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake that pretty much leveled and burned the city to the ground.
However, one of the aftermaths of that disaster was the establishment of one of the oldest nursing schools in the country at UCSF. With a proud history of graduate and research nursing that has lasted through two world wars, financial meltdowns and political fighting, it helped make nursing a respectable occupation.

The flip side:

Advance for Nurses is a company dedicated to making and selling products to nurses and health care professionals. Yet, they play right into spreading the stereotype of being the good time party nurse. Thanks for spreading the professional image and making a buck off us at the same time.

Special Place in Hell

Maybe I'm noticing it more or maybe it's happening more; those stories in the news that make you think how could somebody do that?

A wheelchair van is stolen.
An elderly 90-year-old woman is pushed down to the ground and assaulted.
A greedy pharmacist dilutes cancer medication to increase his profits.
Cemetery grave markers and headstones are destroyed by a bunch of drunken partying idiots.

Now this, three girls in Georgia were running a lemonade stand to raise money for their two-year-old cousin who is sick and needs surgery. Two losers decide they are going to steal the $130 dollars the girls had raised and run.

Good people always seem to step-up in these situations by donating to make things right. Just a sad commentary on some people these days. Someday in Hell they will wish they had some Lemonade.

Forget You

It came out last year and sorry if it offends anyone, but I still love this song by Cee Lo and the 50-60's Motown style and feeling about it, and I think we've all had someone like this in our past.

Also next time you get cut off in traffic, disrespected, or just happen to be dealing with someone who is rude, recite a couple key phrases in your head. (Out loud if appropriate). Guaranteed you will feel better.

 (Sorry this is not the dumbed down edited radio or Glee version.)



Remember when he did Crazy  in Gnarls Barkley

Attitude

I've been stressed lately and there is no reason for it, because life is good. Even though I have this quote by Charles Swindoll stuck on my fridge as a reminder of how important attitude is, sometimes I forget.

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.

Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home.


The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.


And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes

-Charles R. Swindoll