Me and My Mutts.

Dave and I traveled with friends to Texas Hill Country. We rode our Motorcycles on the Three Twisted Sisters...my most challenging ride yet. It rained all night Friday night and we woke to the welcome sound of water running over rocks in the Frio river, right in front of our cabin. Here is a picture of me and the dogs later that evening hangin out on the porch. The temperature had dropped to the 30's and my Valley Dog's were freezing!

What Happened....did I die???

It looks like riding a Motorcycle... and addiction to FaceBook really can cause death. Apparently death of my blog that is...since I haven't blogged since like March of this year. I spend a lot of time on FaceBook, until today, when it appeared my account was phished. I was forced to reset my password, and now I am locked in password hell, the sign on takes me to reset password, which takes me to sign on, which takes me to reset password...et nauseum. I cannot actually get on my account to check my friend and family posts, it is driving me crazy!!!! Literally crazy!!!

Ok, so today I am up at the butt-crack of dawn, it is an amazing 37 degrees outside, and it is 90 in our bedroom. My hubby is cooking me one brain cell at a time...I woke up with a raging headache and have been hanging out in the cool, unheated side of the house for hours. Now I am cold...my free are frozen. To alieve my discomfort I have been hunting for socks to no avail. I finally found the solution....work gloves. So I sit here in front of my computer wearing yellow gloves on my feet, looks a bit like a duck...wondering if my hubby will find me frozen and think I have gone off my rocker?

Back to : Motorcycles: I have graduated from my Honda 1300 VTX to my new love: Harley Road King Classic. I am addicted. I even rode in 52 degree weather (with wind chill I was definitely chill). My new bike has cruise control, which is great for my weak wrist and power....dang....I catch myself hitting 80 when I think I am going 60. Loud pipes.....the coolness factor (not many women can handle this size of a bike), braids flying behind me....life is good.

Spring Break is in the Air

Here, near Padre Island, spring is here...how do I know? I see College Kids everywhere...on tv, in cars...and how the hell is it that all those girls can find fantastic bikini's and fit and jiggle in them everywhere???? Did I get old? It was just a day or two ago, I was the chick in the teeny tiny swim-suit, basking in the sun. Now I look for a little more adequate coverage and cover all my exposed skin with sun-screen.

Did I grow up, or just get old? Hummmm, maybe it was that damned AARP card I got in the mail today, makes me want to run naked down the beach yelling "NOOOOO I'M NOT OLD!!!", but that might get me locked up for insanity, they probably wouldn't buy the "Early Onset Dementia" excuse. Dave thought the mail run was excessively funny today, as I have been teasing him for years about receiving the AARP offers in the mail. I think he secretly contacted those damned people and put my address on their database. Bummer. He better look out, I see more roses in my future.

Last week I had to return two bras to Victoria Secret that didn't fit. The salesgirl conned me into letting her measure me...then proceeded to show me the ugliest bras I had ever seen, I wound up taking two of them just to shut her up. I asked to see something more stylish, and got one with lace on it....what the hell, I'm barely over 50 for God's sake...I am not ready for 18 hour comfort yet! Then to cheer myself up following the Victoria Secret depression causing incident, I headed over to the local nail spa to get my feet done. The nail tech, who was Vietnamese and barely spoke any English kept trying to talk me into additional services. I finally decided, OK, wax the upper lip. So into the inner salon room we go. She carefully spreads hot wax on one side of the mustache area....RIP...she looks at the used wax strip and says "WOW"....omg, NOT 'WOW'. Humm, "lady, do you want me to do the chin?"....now she is looking at my face closely, and I think, "Oh, holy hell, now I have a beard????", "Yes" do my chin....she proceeds to spread hot wax from EAR TO EAR....RIP.....needless to say, it was horribly painful, and now the skin on my chin is all irritated. I felt like the OLD BEARDED LADY from a circus....

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoo, my darling husband, felt sorry for me and brought me a dozen Pink Roses with Lilies to work to cheer me up. My coworkers all thought he was apologizing for something. So I had to tell the Victoria Secret, ugly bra's, waxed lip, "Wow" story...and somehow, by the time I get to "WOW", it's not depressing anymore, but actually funny as hell.

So, I think I am ready to hit the beach, in a modest swimsuit, for spring break, with my newly waxed face and new AARP card.

The "Bomb"

Closest thing to a bomb yesterday. Secretary was talking to the House Supervisor yesterday and stepped backwards, surgery had dropped off pt and just placed the O2 tank in the nurses station...kinda in the middle, and left. Well secretary knocked over the O2 tank which was full, thank God it only loosened the regulator (as opposed to breaking it off). We got loud, dramatic spewing O2. The House Super was a guy yesterday, and he was able to turn the tank off with his fingers (we would have been scrambling to find a wrench). If the regulator had broken off....bad news.....we were lucky. The House Super looked at how full the tank was...we had something like 2000 lbs of pressure....wow...glad it didn't turn into a missle. Scared the bejesus out of me! LOL.

Which way is the Wind Blowing?

Nothing smells worse than a dead 'possum, especially if said 'possum is between the insulation and the floor of your bathroom. When the wind blows from the South (ocean direction here), the smell is unbearable, and that is the direction the wind blows most of the time. I have laid on the ground and cut the insulation cover and pulled the insulation down, but my arms, not being 6 foot long, cannot reach the area where the suspected critter met his demise. In fact, not sure if I want to. The stench has improved, but not gone yet by far. Everything in my bathroom has been pulled out of the cabinets and under the sink, we even pulled up the false bottom under the sink, nada. To make this all worse (for me at least), is that my hubby has a very weak stomach. That means that "I", being a nurse with a "strong" stomach, gets to seek out the source of the decomposing corpse. THIS IS NOT FUN. I WANT TO GO SOMEWHERE FUN...NOW.

Moral of the story: When going out of town for the weekend, and you wish to rid your home of "mice", don't put poison under your house...there may be a bigger, smellier critter lurking around.

I wonder if I could rent a hotel for the holidays? I wonder now big of "sticky" traps I can buy. Is there a product called "Corpse be-gone" or "Decomposing body Oder eater" or "Freebreeze for Decay"? I would "kill" a 'possum to get my hands on something that would eliminate the smell.

What he brought home from Vietnam

Working in ICU, I seem to always be seeing and learning new things. Who would have thought I would ever take care of a patient with Tetanus (Lock-Jaw), a disease that has been pretty much eradicated in our country? Now I have cared for another patient with something I never thought I would see in my lifetime: Hansen's Disease (Leprosy). I did not even know what Hansen's Disease was, so I asked the nurse giving me report, "What the heck is that?". He had cared for the patient 12 hours without even asking that question. We googled it on our iPhones (management has taken away our internet use and we don't have any "books" on the units), and were amazed to find that Leprosy is now called Hansen's disease because so dude discovered the bactrium rods that prove the diagnosis.

Hansen's disease can be treated, but not really cured. It is simular to Tuberculosis and the medications are almost the same. Apparently there are thousands of cases here in the United States every year. The Armadillo is a carrier of the bacteria (another good reason to run from the scaly armored digging machine). Usually Leprosy is contracted in another country, a 3rd world country, where the sanitation is not good and the water is not clean. In this man's case he contracted the disease in Vietnam while serving in the military, judging from his age, it was probably his 3rd or 4th tour of duty. The article I downloaded stated that the incubation period could be up to 30 years.

This man had documented treatment at least 3 years ago. Apparently he was not following up with the VA or his family physician. He had gotten neuropathy to the point that he could no longer walk. He lived alone, his family all lived far away, and no body took care of him. No one, at all....apparently even knew what his diagnosis was or how sick he actually was....no one. With the stigma that this bibical disease has, I would venture to guess he didn't talk about it much.

Finally one of his children traveled to see him, and seeing the condition he was in decided to stay to take care of him, but his father refused to let him take him to the doctor (maybe a little dementia setting in here). The son, who had no medical training, tried to care for his father to the best of his abilities, but he was already so debilitated and covered in decubitus ulcers (bedsores) that the care he needed was beyond his skills. His father began having difficulty breathing and was brought to the hospital by ambulance.


Now he is recieving end of life care and will probably go home with hospice. I am puzzled that any ex-military, who should have been recieving military benifits and medical care, could have gotten to be in such poor condition...in this country with all the medical advances we have. I would think that there would be a Social Worker who would follow up when patient's with chronic conditions just stopped showing up for their appointments. I would think they would at least contact them by phone to be sure they were still alive. I know that patients are in part responsible for their own health, but sometimes, just one person going out of their way can make a big difference.

The physical manisfastations of this disease was horrible, the neglect of someone who served our country so nobely....criminal.

My Birthday Weekend

I worked this past Saturday. I was put on call, then called in by 8 a.m. for ICU. When I saw my patient's, I had a sinking feeling in my heart. One patient was post surgical, no problem. The other, I had cared for several times over the last few months, over the course of several hospitalizations. I knew I was in for a hard day. Patient's mom is also a nurse, and is very helpful with the patient, but when the nurses kid (twenty) is sick, soooo sick....somehow, the whole family because a patient by extention.

Unfortunately I could tell this was going to be a heart wrenching day, and within hours the family finally decided to honor the patient's wishes and made her a DNR. OMG, it was so hard. The families pain was so hard to bear, as they bravely helped their loved daughter thru her last hours.

After it was all over, the mom and sisters insisted on doing after-care and saying good-bye. I gave them their privacy. I don't think I have ever been so sad at work. The secretary said she had too leave our unit because I was making her cry! I was so glad to leave work that evening.

The next day was my birthday, and I was called off, so I was able to recoop. I have prayed for this sweet girl and her family every single day since. It really makes you realize how precious this life is and how short it can be.