Oh, Home on the Range!!!!

Where the buffolo don't roam..and the wind is blowing kazillion miles per hour! Planned the beach today. Dogs where pumped!!!! Thought they would be eating Turkey wieners and such on the sand, but no such luck. Too much wind. Instead we planted tree's, and marked the back property line. Dave on his shorts and me in my white bekini....in hopes that the wind would die down...not. Well , there is always hope...right??? Anyway, 10 beers and 5 holes (for the tree's later) we have decided it was a productive day off anyhow.

Little Mexico

Yesterday we went to "Little Mexico"...which is the huge flea market in Brownsville, TX. We took a translator (our preacher) so we could actually shop....lol. Anyway, I bought some palm trees for my yard and some other plants. Now, I have to leave my blogging friends and get to work..digging holes and watching Dave repaint the door. He's already had a cow because the "forest" green pain looks grass green in the daylight. Huummmm.... it's the back-door, I don't think anybody will care if it isn't an exact match...but he is Mr. Perfect, what more can I say????

Bad Company

Rock n Roll baby...Bad Company, Pink Floyd ... and my hubby dancing Nakkid with a black cowboy hat...that and a glass with coke and whiskey...now that's what I call a perfect night off.

What's Black and Hairy and....

What's black and hairy and sitting at the end of a drive-way on the way home to my house from work yesterday???? Is it a dog??? Is it a cow??? Is it a goat, you may ask. It was neither, either any of these common things. It was in fact...it appeared to be... let me be clear right here...I was neither inebriated nor was I drugged up...I was not in fact even sleepy....but sitting right there in somebodies driveway was one of the fugliest (yes a f##king ugly) BIG BLACK HAIRY MONKEY!!! Or maybe it was an orangutan or a small gorilla type primate...what ever the hell it was it was staring back at me....and turning it's head to watch me pass. NO...IT WAS NOT ONE OF THOSE UGLY CONCRETE GORILLA'S that people think it is cute to dress up with a red bandanna and a flag in it's hand. It wasn't a cut-out and it wasn't an apparition (well I hope not anyway)...as best I could tell it wasn't even a visual hallucination. I slowed down, I considered going back and checking it out again...but then I remembered that primates (other than humans) can be quite territorial and aggressive.

I considered calling 911...I played out the scenario in my head. "911...what's your Emergency?" " Well, sir, you see...there is this monkey sitting at the end of a drive-way" , "A monkey, are you sure lady?" "Yes, sir, a monkey!" "And how would a monkey sitting at the end of a drive-way constitute an emergency?" "Well sir, somebody may have a wreck when they see him...or he may impede traffic in someway..he is a wild animal you know?" "Well lady...what exactly was this alleged monkey doing when you spied him sitting at the end of a drive-way?" "Well, he appeared to be acting like a monkey and picking his nose and eating boogers," "Lady, are you sure that isn't a kid?".....well not likely I would be reporting that little critter.

Monkey's ...running wild in Texas...Monkeys...when you see one, there must be more of them. Used to, I thought Monkeys were the precursor to death in the ICU unit I used to work in. When-ever I would have a patient close to death they would start seeing monkeys in their room...monkey's on the ceiling...monkey's in the corner's...frisky monkey's everywhere...the patients would beg me to rid their room of monkey's! I asked a co-worker what was up with my patients seeing monkey's in their rooms...she informed me her patients saw bug's in the room...huge spiders and cock-roaches...We decided that my monkey's must be chasing her bugs out. Never did figure that one out.

Monkeys...in Texas...not in a zoo...go figure...what is this world coming to???

And the Wind Blow's wildly!!!

Wow. We are having wind gusts...in excess of 40 mph. No sprinkles yet, but a kite hasn't got a chance in hell today of survival! I've had a tough few weeks at work.

Baratric nursing: Nursing care of the morbidly obese. Well I don't know what the exact definition of morbidly obese is...since I had a Doctor tell me I was very obese...at 180 lb and 5'8"...which pissed me off to no means! Made me want to gain more weight just to spite him...the skinny so and so.

Well our hospital is getting geared up to start doing baratric surgery. They have prepared by getting special "bari" beds and giving us "sensativity" training. What I have noticed they have not done....is get any kind of lift device or lift aid to help the nurse's caring for the post surgical patient's. I recently had a pt who weighed #681 pounds. He was miserable. He was in respiratory distress; with C-pap ....the man couldn't breath. They had him in a "bari" bed. I had to use a stool to reach him to do any care...suctioning....anything (and I am a tall woman!). He was not doing well on my shift..I managed to get a second line in him (I felt like the IV Diva!) and just before 7 a.m. he vomited and aspirated. The bed was up as high as it would go to sit him up, and there was literally nothing I could do except suction and bag him as I called for the rapid response team. Thank-fully since my respiratory therapist had been working closely with me all night, we were able to keep him oxygenated enough this way...but he was going downhill fast. We had to move him to ICU, which was no small feat in itself because the ER doc was hesitate to attempt to tube him (short neck, adipose tissue) due to probably only having one shot...and if he didn't get the tube the 1st time the man would die. So here we go down the hall with every man we could snag...ER Nurses, ER MD, all the floor nurses but one...it took 8 people just to push the bed, bagging all the way. THEN the HUGE BED got stuck in the ICU room's doorway... it was literally forced through the door (GUESS WHAT...NO ONE HAD THOUGHT TO MEASURE THE DOOR TO BED RATIO WHEN THE BEDS WERE ORDERED TO BE SURE THERE WAS ENOUGH CLEARANCE TO GET THE DAMNED BED INTO A ROOM WITH THE BED-RAILS UP!!!!) . We were still bagging...thank God the Respiratory Therapist was on the head side of the bed, stuck in the room. We finally got the bed unstuck ... now we know the trick for transport, let the rails down before going into the room, and hope like hell the patient doesn't fall out!

Update....that was 4 weeks ago. Pt was surgically intubated, then later trached and now he is doing well, and has lost almost 200 lbs, the first 50 was probably all fluid. He is getting his strength back, and communicating...sitting up watching tv. He's a really nice guy, I sure am glad he made it !