Teaser

Here is a teaser for a coming to you soon blog -

How hard is it to give a urine sample? How about 10?

What NOT to say when someone is starting your IV

No side seat driving allowed.

Just DO YOUR JOB and we will get along just fine

Tune in later for the complete details! (Basically I needed to put it on here or I'd forget what I wanted to tell everyone!! I am such a dummy lately.)

I must be Crazy

So I got up determined to run today, which I did. I ran 3.3 miles in 39 minutes, the fastest time yet. I really felt good during and after. I felt even better when I passed a much fitter-looking girl in obvious exercise gear on my way to the airport and on my way back she was not much further. She may or may not have started much farther away and petered out but it doesn't matter because in my head - I AM TOTALLY ROCKING this run!!

I stretched out afterwards as usual, but this time I did it in my driveway. While stretching, I noticed how badly I needed to weedwhack the front yard because Naaman has finals this week and I can't wait for him to have time to do it. So I changed my shoes (I don't want my running shoes all green on the toes) and grabbed the weedwhacker and went to town. I edged the entire yard and changed the spool on it at least 3 times. I got to the front yard and was cutting around the trees when I finally got sick of the 2 dead trees. I finished weedwhacking and got the handsaw and went to town. I chopped the 2 dead trees down and cut them up smaller so they will be easier to haul AND THEN I decided the trees in the back and on the west side of my house need trimming and went to town on those too.

All said and done, I ran 3.3 miles and then did about 3 hrs of yard work. Like I said, I must be crazy!

I love my job!

I don't know if I've said it enough times but I REALLY love the people I work with..well almost all of them. They are great friends and awesome coworkers and when I move I will really, really miss them.

First, I made it to work really early by myself - like 30 minutes early. I carpool as much as I can with Jess and Janette and they would be SHOCKED by the fact that I made it their early without them.

Second thing of the day - I pulled into my parking spot and saw Ron walking into work and he waited for me. We chatted while I was walking in and I heard this huge splat right next to me on the ground- I narrowly avoided being hugely crapped on by a bird. I laughed and made a joke about yesterday being so nice and today probably should be rough and that this is the omen of the day - narrowly avoiding being crapped on. How prophetic I am without meaning to be!

Third thing of the day - Jim gave me a HUGE thing of coffee he bought for me at Costco. He had said a few weeks ago that he thought I'd like that blend and he was going to buy me some, I doubted him and thought he was just saying that and I shouldn't have doubted him. It's like 3 bags of coffee beans in one. I now have enough coffee to last me until the end of the year especially since I just bought a bag of Abba Java beans.

Sounds like the start of an awesome day, right? Well, I was sure optimistic about it.

We were busy about 2 hrs into the start of the day and it NEVER LET UP. I ended up staying an hour past when I'm supposed to leave so night shift wouldn't hate us and I usually get to leave 30 minutes before that! Jim and I stayed the latest. Cindy stayed an extra 30 minutes. Everyone else jumped ship and I didn't even see them leave. They were so overloaded and the NOD wouldn't send any help except a tech from 2N named Crystal. She was a very nice tech and did her best but that isn't another nurse.

That last hour was pretty rough because I was already feeling crappy and then went to help triage. The first time I opened the door to call my first name and this guy started yelling at me how he'd been there for 6 hrs and that they keep telling him they call in order but no one has been in order. I tried to explain triage and how it's not just time order but also the level of sickness and then he gets 2 feet away from me and is in my personal bubble and yells, "SIX HOURS!" I took a deep breath and tried to be nice again and explain that they called in TWO extra doctors and they were trying to move as fast as possible and national wait time was about the same to which he barks out, "That includes cities like NYC and this doesn't count!" My filter at that particular time broke under the pressure and what came out was the pure truth and I didn't yell this but I certainly wasn't sweet with it. "Well, SIR, this IS a city and there are many other places to go so why don't you go find good free healthcare somewhere else and scream at them. Wait, it doesn't exist. You have 2 choices, sit down and be grateful you have free healthcare and aren't sick enough to be rushed back or go somewhere else." I got a few appreciative smiles from other people and I turned and called the next person in line who just happened to be the one RIGHT before him, and told the jerk to move to allow him to come back. Do not piss of the gatekeeper of the ER! He is lucky I didn't just decide to "reassess" him and move him back.

Working with friends

I don't know if I've said it enough times but I REALLY love the people I work with..well almost all of them. They are great friends and awesome coworkers and when I move I will really, really miss them.

Jim brought me a HUGE thing of coffee he bought for me at Costco. He said he thought I'd like that blend and he was going to buy me some, I doubted it and shouldn't have. It's like 3 bags of coffee beans in one. I now have enough coffee to last me until the end of the year.

Working Memorial Day...

and very bored. This is one of the few minor holidays that veterans actually remember so it has been pretty quiet here in the ER. Easiest double time made in a 12 hr shift.

I ran 1.8 miles today because I really didn't have time to run my 3 mile route. I work tomorrow too and am so tired today that I see another short run tomorrow. I took Angels advice and bought some decent athletic socks and am very glad I did. I noticed a significant increase in my foot comfort with the new socks. It is amazing how much I sweat while running and even my feet sweat. It's a good thing I am so meticulous with my feet or I'm sure I'd have athlete's foot by now.

I am trying to increase my fluid intake but I am noticing a HUGE side effect. I feel like I am constantly on the toilet. I have drank 2 - 20oz things of water, a large diet sprite, a 12oz cup of coffee, and a juice and I have gone more times today than I did the previous 2 days. I hear it's because my body isn't used to this much and thinks it needs to get rid of it and it will eventually adapt and I won't pee as much but until then...hold that thought I have to pee now because I was thinking about it. :-)

I'm back but not like you noticed.

So anyways..Naaman is about to drive me crazy with his homework or his procrastination of doing his homework is more like it. It's not the school itself - it is the general "wait until the last minute to do something then grump at everyone and everything because he stays up all night and everyone is bothering HIM" thing that is making me nuts. Thank goodness he only has 2 weeks left. He tells me all the time he can't do stuff because he has homework but spends a lot of time trying NOT to do his homework by doing whatever else. If he spends all his time screwing around and only think it's important to do his homework when I need him - I get mad. Then he doesn't understand why I am mad. I think this makes perfect sense. He just spent an hour watching tv, wrestling with Micah, picking his nose, WHATEVER and then the INSTANT I say, "Well, since you aren't doing your homework can you (((insert small job request here)))," and then he says to me, "Well, I was just about to go back to it," which I KNOW is a crock because I am INTERRUPTING his procrastination to ask him to help me.

I am often telling him how odd it is that when he was DEPLOYED and I was basically a single mom and I had a part-time job, and was in nursing school and STILL managed to keep the house clean, spend time with the kids AND find a little time for myself every now and STILL do my homework and then YET he can't even just get his homework done or, God forbid, clean a bathroom or do something that doesn't serve HIS purposes and something I'd like done. He does do laundry but ONLY if he needs something or he does do the dishes but ONLY if he is cooking dinner while I'm working and it is in his way. He gets mad at me when I tell him all I did and then says, "I know you were the PERFECT (said very snidely) wife, mom, student, whatever and I so suck compared to you. You love to tell me this." Well, I freakin work full time and I am EXHAUSTED and he is home A LOT more than me yet it still seems like I am doing a ridiculous amount of housework, food shopping, kid shuttling, etc. This seems very unfair. What do you think?

Past Due for My Quarterly Post...

I know. I am an extremely inconsistent blogger and I make attempts to do it more often but rarely succeed. I used to be pretty good about updating but I don't know why not anymore.

Funniest work story of the quarter
I had a patient that was brought in for new onset deafness. I mean I could speak very loudly right next to his ear and he couldn't hear me at all, plus he had no practice reading lips. So both of us not knowing any sign language, I get this bright idea to write notes to him, have him read it and then verbally answer me. Well, that would've been great except the man also has macular degeneration - basically almost blind! He could read but it took him a minute to keep adjusting his head position, glasses, and the paper for him to read a single sentence and if I wrote it too sloppy or too small, FORGET IT! SO after finishing his assessment, I push him in the wheelchair to a bed but when he gets there he tells me he needs to use the toilet. I tried to shout, gesture, whatever to see if he only needed to pee because then I could just hand him a urinal and he could pee at the bedside with the curtains shut. I didn't have any paper, so I grabbed my pen and wrote "pee?" on my hand and showed it to him. After a minute of trying to read my hand, he says yeah so I hand him a urinal bottle and he looks at the bottle and says he says he can't pee behind a curtain and has to use it in the bathroom. I said okay and showed him to the bathroom. I came back and Tony says, "Ha! You have pee on your hand." I giggle a little and then go about my business. Next time I see the patient he is extending his hand out to me to give me the closed urinal with a small amount of urine in it. I grab it from the bottom and am immediately aware that the entire bottle is soaking wet and it is almost certainly PEE! He then says, "Sorry I didn't get much in the urinal. I didn't realize the lid was on and peed all over the floor and the bottle." I turn around still holding the peed on urinal to see Tony laughing his butt off and then Tony says, gasping between chuckles, "Now you really do have pee on your hands!" I am still trying to figure out HOW THE HECK you don't realize the lid is on a urinal bottle and try to pee in it - blind or not. I mean, NORMALLY men place their penis slightly inside the urinal so as not to have any pee going anywhere outside the bottle and I cannot figure out how he didn't know the lid was on. Did he think with his blindness he could AIM??

Running
I never thought it would be possible but I have become a runner. I am a beginner and SLOW but I do run and I L~O~V~E it! There is nothing like that first deep breath I take once I step outside my door in the very early morning and it's still dark out and feeling the anticipation of the run. I pop in my earbuds, turn on my ipod and just GO. It is awesome. I am not losing much weight but I know I am feeling so much healthier and I can feel less flab on me even though the scale says I weigh the same. I am up to just over 3 miles every other day now and my goal is to get to 5 miles. I am thinking of joining weight watchers again to help with the weight part.

Ellie's Run for Africa
I ran/walked my first 5k last saturday and it was the farthest I had ever gone at that time PLUS it was cross country, on hills and soggy/stinky from the floods 3 wks ago but it was still awesome! When I crossed that finish line 43.28 minutes later, friends and strangers alike were cheering for me and I thought, "I need to do this more often!" Micah and Naaman ran it too and much to our surprise Micah kicked butt and ran the entire thing in 26.28 minutes with no training prior to this other than soccer this past spring. He thinks he wants to run track in high school now.

Naaman's Almost Done
Naaman graduates June 18th. He is almost done with school. He has this possible opportunity to take over a place in Hayden, ID and it is scary. It's not that I doubt his ability to cook because DANG he is GOOD!! Nor is it that I doubt he can run a business...I am just scared that the economy is still not so great and now we are taking on this HUGE thing and he will have EMPLOYEES that we will be responsible for. Wow. With God all things are possible, so I have been praying a lot about this. I want this to work out for him. It's the perfect place for him and just what he's been wanting.


Moving and Finding a New Job
We are moving sometime this summer and it is stressing me out. I hate not knowing when, where, or what job I will have. I hate packing and saying goodbye to my friends. Naaman won't let me put the house on the market until he graduates. I think we have too much to do to this house before it will sell because there are just so many other choices!! Too many people are moving out of our neighborhood and we do not stand out enough. PLUS I have to find a new job. I already told people at work about it and they were all so sad about me leaving. I didn't expect that. I knew some people would be sad but some people had a bigger reaction than I expected and made me realize they really do like me. I guess I just don't trust people enough to think that they actually like me. How weird is that? I have some obvious issues I need to think about and work on. Anyways, I haven't set any dates yet because I haven't even applied anywhere yet. I need to get my resume done and work on getting CEN and Med-Surg certification before I leave the Nashville VA. I am excited though to be near my family and oldest friends whom everytime we get together it's as if we never were apart. I miss my sisters and nieces and nephew all the time and it will be nice to be able to see them WHENEVER!

My Church
I am seriously going to miss my church family. I love my church and what we do for the community and for each other. I love Pastor Steve and his awesome sermons. I love Pastor Elyssa and the worship service that reminds me what worship is supposed to be like. I love sunday school where Dan delves into such deep things and as a group we discuss and that teaches me and shapes my walk. I love Pastor Dwayne and Marli for what they do for the youth including my kids. I love Pastor Rachelle and her zeal and love for the kids. That woman works so hard for those kids and is SO underappreciated but she NEVER complains. I love my 2:42 group (old and new) that has now become my friends and people I can count on to help me in my daily walk. I love the preschoolers I help out with once a month. I don't want to move and start this all over again!!

Bloggity blog blog blog

I have a TON of things to blog about since it's been about forever and I will TRY to cover as much as possible.

1. I have been exercising practically every day since Christmas Day. I usually take 1 day a week off and I haven't even done that in 2 weeks. Every morning when my alarm goes off I give myself a pep talk that goes something like this, "I know you are sleepy and tired but you are also sick and tired of being fat and out of shape. You want to look better and feel better so GET UP, PUT YOUR WORKOUT CLOTHES AND GET OUT THERE!!" I have lost 10 lbs total so far and feel better too.

2. About 3 weeks ago, Noah came home and I asked to see the stuff in his backpack. IN THE SAME DAY, he pulled out a report card with 3 D's and 3 C's AND a letter telling me he tested gifted. WHAT THE HECK?!!! This tells me he's lazy and obviously bored to be getting crappy grades like that when he is gifted. I must've lectured him for an hour and he's still grounded.

3. Took some awesome pics of us sledding last weekend, hope to post those on here tonight...or sometime anyways.

4. The ER is in the middle of a renovation and it is driving me nuts. There is not nearly enough room and the too many consults and docs coming into the nurses station. People do not understand that we do not have the room to have your entire extended family visiting at your bedside and we have a 5 minute time limit on ONE person visiting. They get so pissed at us and I always give them the directions to patient advocacy to complain if they don't like our policy. Maybe they'll make the contractors finish the construction sooner!

5. We also have this temporary clerk that makes mentally handicapped people closer to normal IQ. I am not certain how the man functions in everyday life since he can't seem to remember a simple task from day to day. Every patient that checks in gets 10 labels and an armband - it's not rocket science yet the concept escapes him and he's been here for 2 months. I've seen dogs with more ability than this man. In fact, it has been suggested we get a service dog because they are better trained than he is. I am nice to him but some days I just walk away so I don't say something mean. Janette doesn't hold back and I have to admit she can be mean about it but it is the truth regardless.

6. Micah is getting invites in the mail for private high schools in Nashville because of his grades, his SAT score and his TCAP scores. He asked me if he could go to one...the only way that would happen would be for us to win the lottery or he gets a scholarship and we move to Nashville. Unfortunately for him, we are in an income bracket that is definitely not poor but not enough for private school!

7. Abriel has an upcoming JROTC ball to go to and is looking for purple shoes and purse. Anyone know where to find a pair of bright or dark purple flats that aren't too frilly or too plain and ugly? She is wearing a short black dress and wants some color to offset the black dress.

8. Naaman is becoming such an awesome chef and baker. The man can make the most amazing, beautiful cakes and he swears it's easy but WHATEVER! Will try to post some pics so I can boast all about my awesome baker. I am so proud of him.

9. Still pondering on where to move and when. I just know I don't want to be here in Clarksville with my kids going to that crappy high school anymore. Naaman wants to move to Idaho and our entire extended family does too. I want to but I also don't. It is tough to explain. The kids want to move closer to Nashville so they can be in better schools and able to visit their old friends still - their opinion matters but it won't make or break our decision. Naaman graduates in June so sometime after that we should be trying to sell.

10. Naaman put in his 3 week notice and will be a student/SAHD. He works 3-4 days/week and school is 3 days/week - the man NEVER rests. He is getting the new GI bill so we can afford for him to quit now and he deserves it. Our big deal is he says he's going to finish all the projects we've needed to finish for the last 2 years and keep the house clean. He isn't much on tv and can't really sit still at home anymore so he will probably do it all. I really appreciate him for all he's been doing. I am definitely blessed!!