Thanksgiving

I don't normally get into holidays, feel free to call me scrooge, some do already. I just never got the whole idea of them (especially Christmas). However I got an interesting email the other day. Well more of a newsletter from a band some of my family belongs to, each of the members listed what they are thankfully for. It got me thinking a little. So here is my list of thankfulness. And for those that know me, no I am not getting into the holiday spirit. Don't panic.

I am thankful for my family, all of them. They are my support and best friends. Without them I would have nowhere to turn and be lost in a darkness I would never find my way out of. I am lucky to have my fiance, even though I could kill him some days he is one of few people that knows the real me and judges me for only the good (poor blind guy). I am lucky to have a best friend that has been there most of my life, and she has blessed my life with her friendship and her small son who has brought light into my life. I am thankful for a home to come to at days end when the rest of the world is crazy. Things will always be the same at home no matter what. I don't need a vacation getaway because I have that everyday.

Just life.

The house is coming along great, almost done. I bought all my appliances last week and my new furniture tonight. I will halfway be sad when it is all over because then I will not be able to do all this shopping. I can go now and write checks for a thousand dollars and nobody says a word about how much money I am spending. It is nice to walk in and pick out what you want, because it is what you want, not what you have to settle for because it is what you can afford. However this statement does not fully sum me up, because I am thrifty to. For instance I drove 50 miles to a scratch and dent warehouse to purchase my appliances. You can’t beat scratch and dent; they are brand new GE appliances with a five year warranty just like the new ones everywhere else.  I spent 980 dollars on a brand new stainless steel fridge, stainless stove, stainless steel microwave and a dishwasher. I still got what I wanted but the truth is I would have been too cheap to buy the stainless appliances at full retail price. I cannot even find the supposed dent or scratch on the fridge, stove, or dishwasher. The microwave has a dent in the back of it (like who cares about that!).

I am really stressing out about my fiancés job situation though. He quit his job to take a job driving a truck with his best friend of 15 years. They leased this semi truck and took off, well after three weeks of it his best friend has decided to quit. He can’t pay the 800 dollar a week truck lease payment on his own. Some best friend to leave somebody hanging like that. Of course I knew deep down from the start it was a terrible idea but I kept it to myself. I didn’t want to be the nagging girlfriend. The only good thing is that he can turn the truck back in and not be financially responsible for it. (I did make sure of that before I agreed for him to do this) I know that trucking jobs are a dime a dozen these days, but the fact that he was off work a couple weeks before starting training with the lease company, and has only worked a month and now he will be off again until he can train with another company. Not to mention it makes him look like he is job jumping. I know it will work out but I am a worrier!

Blessed

A new patient told me this the other night. “When I was thinking about nursing homes, somebody told me that if I came here, that I would love (my name here)” I said well that is awfully nice, who said that? She told me and of course with all the patients that come in and out of there on a rehab basis I didn’t remember them. She said then, “they told me, that (my name) makes that place, she is the best, without her it wouldn’t be as good of a place.” Apparently the man was a patient of mine, and the wife told my current patient that she and her husband thought a lot of me. Some days are just ordinary days, and others you hear another affirmation of why it is that you do this. To know that you touched someone enough that they always remember you is such a blessing.

On the other side of this, I heard that a former patient of mine passed away. Of course I would never forget that patient. How could you forget someone so mean, rude and manipulative? I thought to myself well I bet no one goes to that funeral, and then I felt guilty thinking that. I am being honest though, and honesty is what counts right?!

Do you know me?

Are you concerned about your job safety when you publish your blog posts? I am not necessarily concerned but I have often wondered what the effect would be if a co-worker ran across my little ramblings about life and work. Most days I think I am mostly civilized but then there are those days when I really go on about the stupidest of things. While truthfully I do not believe I post anything that I wouldn’t or haven’t said out loud. That could be left up to the individual opinion though. With age has come this wonderful free feeling of, I really just don’t give a damn. I was once concerned about others impressions of me, but thankfully I have outgrown this crushing confining self depreciating trait. I no longer go to work to make friends, or care if others think I am stupid, ugly, fat, or unlikable. Yes, there is a small hint of it left. I certainly do not want to be thought of as something I am not. But I have learned I cannot control if others think I am something I am not. I have fought the thought all my life that I am stuck up. Others always seem to view me as a snob. Maybe it is that I am quiet at times, and do not make great attempts to suck up to others or stroke their egos. I have enough friends that love and know me to know I’m not. I don’t have to prove it.

Sharing my thoughts here prove to be more helpful to me then anyone else. This is my always constant sounding board. I do not set out to release private information or shed negative light on my employer. But is blogging about patient and work situations a violation of privacy? If it is done correctly I do not think so, but if others came across it that knew me and the situation would I really have been vague enough? I hope so. I cannot say 100% though. There is defiantly a fine line between sharing patient situations and privacy. I do not believe I have ever read any healthcare professionals blog and thought that they crossed the line. Most of us are just that, professionals.

Just as an added security thought here is an interesting link: How to Blog Safely (About Work or Anything Else)

Bird Flu, cat flu, dog flu, flu you!

I am sick and tired of hearing about the bird flu. Once again the media is attempting to scare us all with their constant reporting of the “worst case scenario” situations. While I do believe it is important to protect individuals from known diseases and teach society how to prevent the spread of infections through basic principals such as hand washing and more active preventions such as vaccinations, scaring people to death is not the way to approach it.

I have the opportunity to work with our county health nurse on occasion and she told me of the very long lines of people lined up for the flu shot this year. If you can remember back to last year at this time the media was bombarding us with terrible news of the lack of flu vaccines. We were going to have the worse flu season ever, with more deaths etc. (We didn’t) She had many people tell her they were getting the flu shot this year, just in case of the bird flu. While her attempts to explain to people that the flu vaccine would not protect them from this, they insisted that it could help and that they wanted it. I do not know when the public became more informed of the steps in protection of the Avian Flu then the county health nurse did, but there were many of them that felt they were.

I hope as a nurse I can take the time to educate myself about this situation, so that in some small way I will be able to ease a friend or neighbors fear that the media has planted. The CDC website is a good place to start. It is the first source I have seen that does not fill the pages with scare tactics to get you to pay attention, and want to keep coming back to so you can learn more of the deadly news, like the major media outlets.

So my link for the day is, you guessed it, The Centers For Disease Control!

Links

I once liked to share weird, funny, good, interesting and just plain stupid links on one of my old websites, it was received well, and since I have no time for websites anymore then I thought this would be the best place to switch all my links to. Of course you don't have to visit them, or agree with my veiw of them. We all can't like the same thing anyway, if we did the internet would be a boring place, just like life would be. I must warn you though I have a weird sense of humor and what I find hilarious some may find no humor in what so ever. So with that being said here is my first link to share:

http://www.alltooflat.com: Overgrown children pulling off pranks, with less punch then punked, but with more creativity. Unlike Ashton Kutcher (Or now Mr. Demi Moore officially) himself these guys have a little intelligence. Unlike other popular pranksters such as Ashton or god forbid Jackass, these guys manage to pull off their pranks without embarrassment to anyone or damage to personal property. Be sure and check out the post it notes prank and to all my friends beware, I might just have to pull this one myself one day.