Circumcisions. Just a little off the top please

The Jewish and Muslim people have teamed up to fight an evil enemy. An enemy they call racists. An enemy they call anti-Semitic to both the Muslims and Jews. However, this fight is not taking place in the Middle East, but in the city of San Francisco, and over a little piece of skin.

A group has successfully collected enough signatures for a measure to be added to the November elections. So if passed it would make San Francisco the first city in the US to ban male circumcisions.

Maybe it's a health issue, as studies have suggested and that circumcisions prevent future health problems like STDs, HIV and UTIs. On the other hand, maybe it is only a personal choice or a religious preference.Are we infringing on the rights of parents?

The ancient Egyptians performed circumcisions, and if done in infancy is it really traumatizing? Personally, I do not remember having it done and I have never talked to a guy who remembers it happening. I am sure by now some lawyer would have used a traumatized circumcision defense if possible. The only problem is, if it was removed as a baby no guy remembers it happening.

I guess we will let the people decide in November.

How to Blog

A friend will be starting nursing school this fall and after reading about so many other people's journeys back into school. I thought she should document hers as well. So what kind of advice would you give a new blogger, or an old blogger for that matter?

Let’s face it school, work and life can be stressful. Some bloggers including myself believe blogging is beneficial to relieving some of that stress and providing a way to process all of the positive and negative emotions. Reading other people’s experiences and insight may also help because they have been through it.

Personally, I would say there is no right or wrong way to blog, just start writing and your style will develop. Everyone is different in what they like to read, so at first write for yourself and not what you think other people want to read. You are not writing an academic paper to be graded, so enjoy yourself. Although, I have noticed that bloggers seem to have better writing skills than most. ( Maybe not mine)

Some people want others to read their blog, while others do not care because they are writing for themselves. There is a follower’s widget and by following someone, they may follow you. However, the best advice I can give to gain followers is not my own, you have to click here and read this older post by Red Means Go. She is a fun read and does not take herself too seriously. With over 2200 followers, she understands that followers do not equal readers.


The blog roll is something I’m indecisive about and always changing mine and playing around. However, it is good to look at other people’s blog links and click on them, because you might find other blogs that you really like.

People can be very creative with their blog templates, while others like mine are somewhat boring. I really need a change. So play around with the backgrounds and layouts.

Then she needs to decide whether to be anonymous or use her real name. Privacy is a big thing in health care and if you make accusations, bitch or say something negative about a patient, staff member or the facility, it can come back to bite you.

Any other ideas or advice?

Put it on a stick and deep fry it. It's done.

Downloaded and handed in a hard copy of my final paper, which ended up being 33 pages. Funny, how the minute you hand in that final paper and complete that final exam, you forget how awful the last 11 weeks have been. Nevertheless, it is over now.

Twelve weeks with nothing to study and no assignments due until at least September. (Look a fragmented sentence and I don’t care). I can read something for pleasure and not because it is required. If I had crappy cable TV, I would be watching it. Note to self don’t get cable. Should pick up some extra shifts at the hospital, but probably no more than required to pay the bills. I’m sick of working too.

Heading to Minneapolis in August to visit family and friends. Might need to get some Sweet Martha’s Cookies too, along with some other various edible things on a stick. The MN State Fair is a uniquely gross, and yet tantalizing event. So many future overweight cardiac cath patients in one place, eating and eating and eating. However, that's the tradition. They started eating and doing this fair thing before the Civil war, so who's to argue with tradition. I wonder what they deep fried back then?



Pull the Plug Already

I'm to the point where I'm sick of school and burnt out, at least for this quarter.

I've been in universities that use the semester system and ones that use the quarter system and really, I don't think it makes a big difference. Because, like a slow death the closer you get to the end of the semester or quarter you just want it to end. Pull the effing plug already.Talking to another student who was also a travel nurse in her past and I compared school to a travel assignment. When you travel nurse you sign 13 week contracts with the hospital and it is exciting, at least in the beginning.

The first couple of weeks you are in a new city, learning a new floor, a new system and meeting new people.

Then next few weeks you still ask many questions and start falling into a routine. You get to know your co-workers and who to trust and who to avoid. The same with the new city your living in, you learn where to go and what to avoid.

Then for the next four or five weeks, you can coast a little, being sure to cover your ass and not be blamed for anything. You know what doctors to call when there's a problem and who to bother to get a patient discharged, that should have been gone days before. In town, you have learned the good places to eat and the parks and tourist areas to explore.

Then that last week or two you relax and stop giving a shit. Not about the patients, but the politics of the floor and hospital where you are working. It really is sad that it only takes a few weeks to get involved in the politics; the regular staff is always looking for a new person to listen to their complaints, and take their side.

Well, I am into the last week of school and the I don’t give a shit phase. I really need a break.

Goodwill Deal?

There is a Goodwill store on the way home from school, so yesterday I took a tour looking for any deals. Although, in my annual visit I never seem to find anything, and I am not interested in owning other people's dishes or wearing their clothes. I get enough second hand stuff at work from patients, like advice and body fluids

There on the shelf at Goodwill sits an incentive spirometer, why would someone donate that and why did Goodwill not throw it away? I understand wheelchairs, walkers and maybe a commode, but trying to sell an incentive spirometer for $2.99. Do people even know what the hell it is or how to use it? Do they understand that someone sick enough to be in the hospital also had their lips wrapped around it. I like a bargain, but I think I will stick to Target.



Old Nurses

I was not sure whether to be flattered or slightly depressed, as the financial aid seminar progressed. The counselor explained how she liked nursing students and had a soft spot for them, especially after the recent hospitalization of her mother and the nurses who cared for her. Well the majority of nurse are likable I thought. As she explained further about her financial aid department doing everything possible to assist us in not worrying about money for school. That helps, because the added stress of money on top of everything else is too much for some people. She then started clarifying the demographics of the students making up the university, including the old nurses.

Okay she didn't exactly say old nurses, what she said was that the average age of the students in the nursing programs, was 10 years older than that of the average age of those students in the school of medicine. Again to self, that explains why those residents and new doctors keep getting younger every time I go to work.

I should give a little more background about this university. It is attached to a large medical and research facility and consists of only medical, dental, pharmacy and graduate nursing programs.

So anyway many of these old nurses entering graduate school have been working for years as registered nurses, before coming back to school for their masters or PhD. The counselor went on to say that they are more likely to have established themselves in life and have families, children and a mortgage. This meant their financial worries and stresses were a little different. Whereas, the medical students tended to be younger, more flexible and probably more willing to move for their careers, while trying to establish themselves in the medical field.
Not sure, what these average ages were, maybe 28 and 38, or it could be just a few old nurses or young medical students dragging the curve along with them.

Thinking again, this is a different stereotype than exists in the outside world, where people usually think of old doctors and young nurses.

Note to self, don't over think it.

Graduate school. I keep repeating it to myself, because sometimes I don’t believe it. So many times in my life, I could have taken the wrong turn and ended up dead, and too many times, I did take that wrong turn and just got lucky. I am sober now, but I gave a fair share of my money to the liquor industry over the years, and when younger tried just about every street drug available. Probably a good thing for bad experiences or I might have taken things too far.


I have thought about this on and off over the last few months and it came up again last night while eating with a friend. She was telling me of her personal conflicts from the past and although different, good life lessons. I understand people who have lived life and been to the edge, I think it makes them appreciate and understand things better.