Todnem.com (beta)

To those of you who suffer migraines, my very deepest sympathies.  I had a headache the other night (it may not have even qualified as a migraine) that started in my neck and worked clear through to the front, and Oh Momma, I began to think I was going to stroke or pop an aneurysm or something.  Broken bones hurt, burns hurt, but few things make you feel as sickeningly bad as a headache.

I rarely take even a Tylenol, but after the Ibuprophen and the ice pack and the Vicodin I began to think if I had to endure this for days, like some of my patients, I think I'd rather pop the aneurysm and get it over with.  I've only had one other like that and I'm very grateful.

Got the canvas on the boat washed (it was starting to mildew badly), but the weather remains cold, freezing every night.  A couple times, we've had snow falling in bright sunlight.  Didn't see any "snowbows".

Usually this is about the time when other parts of the country are reporting 70's and 80's.  One Daffodil has had the audacity to open up.  The rest are smarter.  This is when work goes from crazy to dead slow, so I haven't worked much this week.  Gives me a little time to make progress on all my other projects.

Dave

We heard about the pet food recall, and we about died when we realized we had some of those brands right here.  From what I have been able to learn, the problem developed well before any recall was announced, and now they are looking at sudden kidney failure deaths from some time back.

Our cats get treats every night when they come in for the night, and for years have demanded them loudly.  Yet one night last October or November, I opened a package and they refused to eat any.  Shadow, in fact, turned his back and pawed at it like he was burying it in his litter box.  We have tried other brands on the theory that they suddenly got tired of their normal, but nothing has made any difference.  Smokey is the only one who would eat any.  So we stopped giving them treats.  I can't help but wonder if their instincts and my cheapness (they only get a spoonful) may have saved their lives.

I can't imagine suddenly losing them, but to think it was because I poisoned them -- I would never get over that.

Dave

Dick,

Got a letter recently from Hopper's attorney, quite incensed about the latest bill I sent him.  Says he is "out of patience" (poor guy) and will reinstitute his suit if we ever send another bill to him or to Hopper (ooooohh).  Presumably, this would be the same suit that he dropped before, saying he was satisfied and had all his stuff -- in order to get his $5000 bond back from the court.  Stuff that we were never responsible for in the first place and that by written contract was supposed to have been removed before closing.  Sounds like a pretty weak bluff to me.

But then, unless we're going to sue him, I would prefer not to have the asshole in our lives.  And from what we've learned about small claims court, we can get a judgement, but said court has no enforcement.  To get enforcement, whether through lien, fine, collection, etc., we have to take him to superior court any way, which is right back into attorneys, etc.

I can certainly reply to this attorney, asking for clarification of his intent, and tweaking his nose again at the same time, but the satisfaction of so doing also keeps him in our lives.  What do you want to do?

Dave 

Our poor starved Smokey, has managed to nearly double his weight since we've had him.  He's now about the same size as Shadow and dwarfs Cricket.  All this eating, however, produces an inevitable result.  I am carrying cat poop out in five gallon buckets.  Yesterday I took out six 1-gallon ziplocks.  Presumably, we will need no fertilizer.

He and Cricket compete for my lap, but Cricket won't come near, if he's there.  Then Smokey and Shadow team up to pin me in the bed.  They get on either side of my thigh, lay on my leg, and slide down until I have 35 lbs of 100 degree cats pulling down the covers so tight I can't move without disturbing them (and at that, only sliding straight out.)  Last night I dreamed I was trapped under a boiler.

In the morning, they get active and want to go out, (especially Shadow lately) and he gets our attention by jumping from the floor and landing unerringly on my bladder. 

Of course, they don't wet the bed, demand 3:00 A.M. feedings or draw on the walls, so I'm way ahead of the game, but I offer the above in the hopes that those of you with kids will be able to find some measure of consolation in your fate.

Dave

We have a nurse friend who's a terrific nurse, proficient in every facet of nursing from ER and ICU to Pediatrics and OB, and currently getting her degree as a nurse practicioner.  Years ago, she worked in a prison (Monroe) where a convicted murderer who overslept and missed the morning med pass filed a complaint against her license with the state nursing board, because, while she gave him his narcotics as prescribed, she adjusted the time backward for his second pass so as to maintain the minimum time in between doses (exactly as she should have done.)  She told us that although the complaint was found to be baseless and malicious in nature, it nonetheless went on her permanent record, and several of the major hospitals in Seattle wouldn't hire her because of it.  I found the story so incredible that from someone else I would have dismissed it outright. 

So I called the state nursing commission to see if it could possibly be true.  While they didn't "think" the hospitals would not hire someone because of it, they confirmed that all complaints even after being resolved entirely in the nurse's favor with no disciplinary action of any kind, remain on our permanent record.  And after seven years, the file on the complaint is thrown out, but the complaint remains forever (so now the employer has no way to see the original file) barring a court order to remove it.  I told them I appreciated their giving us a fair trial before the hanging, and asked if they wondered why there was a nursing shortage.

A letter to the editor of Melody's CCRN newsletter described the plight of nurses in New Orleans when Katrina hit. (Right out of Boston Legal)  Lacking power they had to hand bag the ventilator patients hour after hour.  There were no IV pumps so they had to gravity drip.  There was no light after dark, no toilets, no drinking water (They started IV's on themselves to keep from dehydrating.)  They were out of supplies, out of food.  They dragged their patients up to the roof on blankets when they thought rescue was coming, only to find no rescue and be met with sniper fire.  For five days they survived.  Many of the patients who had any risk of dying, did, their bodies rotting in the 100 degree heat.  And now those nurses are being tried for murder. (As opposed to those who abandoned their patients and saved themselves.)

I don't know any of the facts of the charges, malpractice? euthanasia? negligence? but I can tell you if my patients were in unbearable suffering, with no hope of survival, in sub-primitive conditions where absolutely none of the normal rules applied, I could think of a good use for the last of the narcotics.  

I had a patient last night whose family met with the doctor and made him comfort care only.  His morphine drip can only be turned up, never down no matter how low his pulse, respiration, or blood pressure drops.  Is any interpretation necessary?  Guess it's a good thing there's no self-righteous, politically aspiring prosecutor involved.

There are 10,000 things to remember, get right, pick up on in nursing.  Getting 9,999 won't save you.  It's the one you forget, get wrong, overlook that will kill you.  If you know anyone considering getting into nursing, advise them against so doing.  You'll be doing them a favor.

Today before going shopping, we couldn't find Smokey.  The day before, Cricket had asked to go in the crawl space under the house, so I had opened it up.  This morning I closed it back up, not realizing Smokey was in there.  When I finally checked, he came out, blinked, and went to find food, without a peep.  Cricket would have read us the riot act.

So we went shopping, as we have a wedding to attend this weekend.  Since I couldn't possibly wear my jeans with a hole in them (the marriage would be doomed) I had to get new jeans.  Melody had to get a new outfit (along with several other things that were on sale) and we had to get a wedding present.  Of course we also needed a card and wedding wrapping paper (we couldn't be so crass as to use regular wrapping paper.)  By the time we add in travel, ferry, meals and hotel (overnight in Seattle) we will spend about as much for this wedding as for our own.

Dave