Choo Chooing Quietly...

So I babysat the kiddies today (babysat 8-3 and then worked 3-11....ouch. Long. Day.)  and as always, the things they say throw me for a serious loop.

Within the same 15 minutes of my arrival and the mother's departure this morning, I had such a blast. The 4 year old boy is still not potty trained and has this gigantic fear of the pooping in the potty for some ungodly known reason. And the parents have tried everything, and I mean everything. So, to my utmost joy and total convenience (not) the mother tells me on her way out, "By the way-- they don't get to watch ANY T.V. until he poops in the potty."  So I'm like, oh- Fabulous. I rely on the tv a lot when I'm making them meals or in the potty myself (lol o god I just said potty when referring to myself....). So I knew right off the bat this was going to be a very interesting day.

Meanwhile, I have the delight of dealing with a screaming two year old that wanted nothing whatso ever to do with me or anything that represented me or anything that came from me or said by me. So, I'm in her bedroom with her *attempting* to help her get dressed for the day, because in her midst of screaming I made out a mere "IWANTTOGETDRESSED". So be it. So I started helping her take off her Jammies which only made her scream more when she screams "IWANTTOKEEPMYJAMMIESON". So we went back and forth like this for quite some time until I hear out of the corner of my ear  from the 4 year old, "JULIEEE! I HAVE TO POOOOOOOP!"  

This is the golden moment where I think my head turned to the side like a curious dog that just heard something that he is not sure about. I had to think about it for a second. He has to poop? ANd he wants to go in the potty? And he is telling me? OH MY GOD.  So in my midst of proper prioritization, I turn back to the screaming 2 year old and tell her that its totally up to her to pick out an outfit for the day and dress herself and that I was not going to help her if she was going to scream. So I went in (well, ran in) with mr. 4 year old and "gave him his privacy" aka stood outside the door, when 5 seconds later (literally) he tells me, "JULIEEEEE, I POOOOPED!"   Well, that was not long enough, I think, he just sat down! So through the door I insisted, sit longer and push some more out, get all the poop out! (lol). And I get back a "I CANT!"   So that was that. And, sure enough I went in to help him be done thinking there would be nothing but........there was like a friggen monster. I'm telling you. Frightful.  And he looks up at me, and says, "Can I watch t.v. now please?"  lol. yes. go for it little man.

needless to say in his delight of pooping on the duck potty, and in all the rush, he totally peed  all.over.the.floor. WHICH I did NOT know until my feet were wet and he felt obligated to tell me that although he totally pooped in the potty, he peed on the floor, and that it was gross. Yes, thank you. So I spent the next half hour with a lot of clorox (gross). But I actually didnt even mind because I was so happy he pooped! (Oh my god I sound like an overexcited mom.....oh my. )

Back to the 2 year old...she comes out of her room and besides the fact that her pants are on backwards, I am totally impressed. She picked out a gorgegous little tank top I didnt even know she had, and (somewhat) matching pants, and even put her hair in a bow. And no more screaming. Just went and sat down and watched t.v.   Morning success.


Before I leave you for the night, I shall leave you with a couple conversation babysitting funnies: the 4 year old shall be Boo and the 2 year old will be squirt (girl).

Squirt is holding her baby doll, rocking it to sleep, telling everyone, "Shhh!".
Boo starts to sing a little lullaby, mixed with a little soft humming. I thought this was nice.
Squirt: "Boo, be quiet baby is trying to sleep!"
Boo: I know I'm singing a lullaby!"
Squirt: But you have to be quiet, the baby is trying to SLEEP."
Boo: I know but i'm singing a LULLABY for it!"
Squirt: but the baby is trying to sleep!

this conversation went on just like this for a healthy thirty seconds until I had to intervene, with:

"Squirt, sometimes people sing lullabies to help little babies fall asleep."

Squirt: *paused*.... "Oh."   starts singing/ humming a lullaby to her baby.
Boo: I AM SINGING THIS LULLABY TO YOUR BABY SQUIRT!!!!!!!!!!

*facepalm*.



Later on in day, on another occurence when squirt was shhhhing everyone for her baby, Boo was playing with his trains, Choo Chooing.

Squirt: Shh!
Boo: Squirt, I canNOT Choo choo quietly!



Later on in day....t.v. is off, they are just playing with their imaginations in their room. I love to watch this.....
Boo: C'mon Squirt we have to go feed all the parrots in the zoo with all the seeds!!!!
Squirt: AHHHHHHHHH!!! *Runs around in circles* (she really was).
Boo: "don't roll your eyes at me."


I also taught the two year old how and when to say "Bon Appetit!", because she made a kitchen setup for her dolls and was telling them to enjoy their food and was looking to me to uh...say a couple words? So I said, "Bon appetit!" and of course got crazy looks. So I explained what it meant and when people say it. Needless to say, I am so looking forward to the parents faces when day ( I wish I could see this) when they all get some dinner and squirt says, "Bon Appetit!". Priceless.


~WNB




  

Whether you believe it or not...

...your body is constantly trying to protect you.

-Grey's Anatomy

This Proves Smart People Live in this Country After All

Check it out !


Smart Growth Walking Community

So I am sitting in my college's health services today, and since they are exceedingly inconsiderate of your time, I had the extreme pleasure of waiting an hour to see the NP, after my set up appointment time. My time was 3:45, and I was seen at 5. So, more than an hour. Complete monkey business.

Anyway, being that I was too lazy to get off the couch and read a magazine, I resorted to watching the same TV reel of "news in the health" on the "Healthy TV". OK, the TV is not healthy. It just plays clips of these "newscasters" that delve into health issues plaguing America. Since the majority of the school is not a nursing major, they cater these programs to non-medical students, so naturally they are easier to understand, and more annoying. However, this one program came on that interested me very much.

It first began to talk about how, in a certain community in the mid-west (somewhere near Chicago), many of the residents were being plagued with heart disease, diabetes, etc. But it was nearly all of  them, an extremely high percentage. So these health profession epidemiologists set out to travel to this time to see what the heck was going on in this town. Well, surprisingly what they found was that these residents did not have a simple grocery store near them for a 45 minute drive-radius! This seemed unfathomable to me, as there are....at least five within a five minute drive from my school (2 shoprites, a Stop & Shop, Wegmans, and a super walmart), and by my house there is a shoprite and a stop & shop literally right across from each other on opposite sides of a minor highway. Like, people walk to and from each. So, it seemed CRAZY that people in a community would have to drive so far for something I see as simple as a grocery store. One of my girlfriends lives in a very rural part of NJ, up north. I know for a fact she drives 20 minutes to get to her A&P, and 50 minutes for a Wegmans. So, I guess I knew that it was out there....but a 45 minute trip to get groceries? Every time?

Resulting, the people in this community don't make that trip often. Some of them don't have the resources to make that trip (a car, gas for the car..money to shop in a grocery store in general...). So what ends up happening is they shop at local liquor stores for drinks, convenience stores for vegetables in cans, and oh- GUESS WHAT. THis study found SEVEN fast food restaurants within that same 45 minute radius, all closer than any grocery store. IMAGINE THAT.

So, you can just guess what these people are eating. No wonder why these people have horrible health status.

So, the city was working on convincing supermarkets to move in closer. I guess the supermarket industry felt they couldn't survive there. Sad. What this program proved, is that supermarket sells produce, fresh fruits, veggies, fresher foods on shelves, healthier and a broader set of options...which leads to healthier people. So that's good.

The program then led to a new but similar segment discussing something new they are coining a "smart community" or a "walking community". What they are doing is setting up communities across the country that make it possible for families to live in a community where they can realistically live, grocery shop, exercise together, leisure shop, read in a library, go to school, church, etc. Everything is fairly walkable too. Resulting, I am not sure how many people they could fit in such a community as all the things listed above makes for a large space already. So I'm not sure how its actually working. And its probably pretty expensive to live in, especially if there are limited spaces. However, we are on to a very smart idea! I am definitely intrigued!

The website above leads you to demonstrate more on what I am talking about. But this is truly fantastic. Not only are you providing community residents healthy food, but you are encouraging them to walk everywhere AND providing actual exercise space! Because we all know exercising is more fun if you can do it with everyone you love! (Rather than driving to a cold gym in which you are self conscious and know no-one). So, yay! Just imagine, you could have a track...an Olympic pool, a tennis court set, volleyball....a baseball field? A skating rink for skateboarders?   Am I dreaming too big?  Think about it. It would get your KIDS out and about, you could let your kids out without constantly worrying where they are.

In my neighborhood, walking is accepted and encouraged. But what fun is walking if you just walk in a circle with no actual purpose other than to walk?  I would never ever, ever, try to walk to even the nearest convenience store, let alone school or church or a grocery store. I wouldn't even BIKE there. In these communities, they don't walk in circles. They have purpose. They get their exercise in without even realizing it!

So, what do you guys think about these smart communities? How close of a drive is your nearest supermarket? I would really like to know more!

~A Writer in a Nurse's Body

Sluggerlogs, Obituaries, and Long Beach Island

Unique title, yes? Betch' ya never heard of that one before, huh?

Anyway, they have nothing to do with each other. As I said this morning, they are just a collection of tidbits from the past week that I have collected to share with you.

Sluggerlogs:

Does anyone know what this has anything to do with anything? I don't.

When I babysit the little four year old, I can usually understand *mostly* everything he says. I have a hard time understanding diction when like...normal people talk, and its even harder to not only understand what a young child is saying, but to then understand what he means by what he's saying. But I've gotten a LOT better at it. Last year at this time, If i didn't understand what either of them wanted, I would just give up and let them cry until they gave up or I figured it out. But now I can get it by watching their mannerisms too, the context of the situation and listening for diction better. And, they are getting older and easier to understand. The other day we were playing with his train set and he kept asking me to "click on the train over there to make it go choo choo" and I was like....why does he keep going back to the "clicking"?  Then I realized that the father bought him a Thomas the Tank Engine computer game, and it all made sense. So working with kids, half of the game is just going with the flow. I think thats an important lesson for nursing, too, doncha think?

Anyway, today I came across something that I was just like....what?

He is getting into the stage where when he is pissed at me, which happens often, he fancies screaming, "SLUGGERLOG!!!!" or sometimes he mixes it up with "SLUGGERHORN!"  Does any one that works with kids and kids products know what this is? Or if you say it outloud, does it sound like something else he might be saying?

It's probably from a TV show he's seen, or a movie....or something he picked up from a game or something. I will NEVER underestimate the power of TV on a child's brain. For the better but mostly for the worse.

So, here's my ethical dilemma. He is using the word as a demeaning sentence to me. If he were an adult equally pissed off, he would substitute SLuggerlog with something we consider to be a "curse" word. But he doesn't know any curse words. Yet. But he is using it as one, just without realizing it. Sometimes he would call me specifically a sluggerlog, and sometimes he would just shout it out in frustration. So can you punish a child for saying that, even if 1) you don't know what it actually means, and 2) its not really a bad word, just a....confusing word? 

Can you punish a child for calling you a "Happy Easter Bunny" if he meant it in a screaming and horrible bad way? Where do you draw the line?

Sluggerlog, will lead to the next word which will lead to the actual curse words soon. If they encourage the behavior of calling out any word in a moment of frustration, or to someone now, its like saying that is acceptable to do even when those words are defined as a curse word.  But is it OK?  I can't exactly tell him, "Don't say that, its not nice." Because.....I don't even know what it means, but I just get the general gist its not meant to be nice, in his mind, especially observing his tone of voice, facial expression and facial redness.



On to a newwww topic: Obituaries.

Ever re-visit a hobby or collection, or something you just used to do in the past, and realize that you were kind of insane?   I did yesterday.   I'm having relatives over in a couple weeks, and they will probably be sleeping over in my room. So I've been trying to clean it up a little, take out the junk, make it look like a 23 year old lives inside, not a 12 year old. 

Well, back when I was working Full Time as an aide, I was obviously seeing a LOT of patients, and I used to be obsessed with learning names. I was also obsessed with reading obituaries. If I had a patient and they died  long after after I had them, I would still remember them. I then felt compelled to cut out every obituary I knew the person for, and then proceed to write a little bit about the person that I could contribute on the back, and hang it on my wall as a memory. Everyone said I was crazy. And creepy. But I didn't see it. I just saw it as remembering old friends, old patients that I shared a part of my life with. People I shared last moments of life with. People that shared their life story with me. I just saw it as honoring them and remembering them when I looked at my wall.  Keep in mind that the obits were NOT the only thing on my wall! I have a huge wall full of literature that I wrote, memories, pictures I took, quotes, comics, etc.  SO the obits just sort of found places.  But people still thought I was crazy. But I kept doing it. Well, I must have saved and clipped at least 100 over the years. And kept them all. But they weren't all up on the wall. It got to be so many that I came to my senses mid-way and took down most. I kept up the ones that either I knew *personally* beyond the patient-nurse level, or were just patients that were extra-memorable. 

But I couldnt even manage to throw the rest out. I got a special folder and put them all in and filed it away. I felt like throwing them out was disrespect. That because at one time I took the time to remember and honor them and now I was just throwing them out? I couldn't get past it. I couldn't get past the sad concept that someones entire life....sometimes 100 years of life, was all wrapped up in a single column, and who ever even looked at it?

I always wanted to know more about my patients. Being a writer at heart, I always want to know your back-story. Why are you here, what are you thinking, whats your story?  So when I read the obits, I just want to know more about the lifestyle they led, the people they were before I met them as a patient. I just found it fascinating.

Well, being off at school, and not working FT anymore, I lost interest in clipping or even looking for them. Occasionally I would have a death on the floor and then look for the obit and then just read it, but not clip it, sometimes I would just occasionally read through the obits one random day and scan it for names I knew...But I grew out of the odd clipping/hanging them on wall "hobby".

So now, a couple years later in time, when I'm cleaning up my room, I stare at my entire wall. I think, "Should I take this down?" But I couldnt take the wall down. But I could take the obits down.

I thought it would be hard. But when I went up to them to re-read them, I couldn't even remember them as patients. The whole point was to remember them and hold on to them, and I forgot them anyway. I guess with the amount of patients I have seen, its easy to do. But still sad. So I'm looking at all these names, and thinking, they mean nothing to me on this wall now. So I took them all down and threw them out. It was sad, but not as meaningful as I thought it would be.

But looking back now, everyone was right. It was really creepy. And odd. I meant well. In my brain it made perfect sense. In reality, not so much.  So they are all gone now.


Do I have room for a third topic? Maybeeee. I'll make it quick.

I had a dream last night that I was in LBI (Jersey shore). We go here as an annual vacation and I look forward to it drastically every year. Its my favorite part of summer. As Ive mentioned before, I cannot stand the ocean, but I can't get enough of the beach. I love the beach, the sand, the smells, the shore type towns, the mini golfing....I love it all. But in my dream though, It happened to be a rainy and depressing week that we got to go. In my dream, I was sitting outside on some sort of fence, In a sweatshirt. I think I was reading a book? I remember looking down the boardwalk, and thinking:
" I can't believe its supposed to rain this whole week we're here. I can't believe our week is almost over and all I've done is sit here in the rain. Where did the time go? I need to get up. I need to live, I need to get out of the rain." So I finished the dream by running, running a long time in the sand on the beach. It felt so good.

Point is, that last thought in the dream is a huge metaphor for how my last entire week has been.

I wouldn't even know how to start explaining it all, if I tried and could. All I can say is that hopefully it will get better soon.I'm making a couple moves in the right direction to make things better. Health-wise, emotion wise, relationship-wise (with everyone), and so forth.  It will all be OK. I'm sure of that. I just need change, I think. I need something life-changing. I need to do something different. Get out of this routine I'm stuck mindlessly in.....


Thanks for reading everyone. I'll blog soon...:-)  

~ A Writer in a Nurse's Body

Have ‘Mercy’!

This week I would like to discuss the T.V. Show on NBC, "Mercy". First off, I give it a high thumbs up. I have watched every episode to date and have been very impressed with each episode overall. However, I know where differing viewpoints are coming from, and they make me angry sometimes too. For instance, the biggest upset about the show for many people is that sometimes the characters do things that would never be expected in a hospital. A lot of people are picking on the fact that character Sonia was walking down the hall in her gown and got attacked by a patient. I agree, that is a little (OK, maybe a lot), far fetched. But the point the writers of the show were trying to make was that although she was dressed in this beautiful gown and late for her date, she made the decision to help a patient that was calling for help when no one else was around, and she was off duty. The whole point of this show is to show nurses in a brighter light and that even though it may be far fetched, nurses might actually do something for a patient such as that. Which most of us would…just not in an evening gown! Many of the viewpoints brought up in my presenting article circulate around the very valid point that NO show on TV is ever going to accurately portray nurses 100%. If you wanted even 90% accuracy, you have to turn on Discovery Health channel. This is primetime TV we are talking about, in order for the show to remain on the air, they need viewers. They need to entice viewers that aren't nurses, otherwise they wouldn't have enough viewers. The general public does not care what is accurate nursing and what is not. They want drama! The public wants love triangles and sexy scenes in supply closets. Its T.V. drama, get over it. The show would never survive if there was no drama. However, I think in order to "save" themselves, in fear of intense criticism from real nurses, the show really does an accurate portrayal of something I haven't seen at all in any other show thus far: Nursing advocacy! In each episode, one or more of the three leading nurses (Chloe, Sonia and Veronica) have had a patient that needed the nurse to fight for their rights. A couple episodes ago, Chloe "stepped over her boundaries" by fighting with the Dr. to get him to realize what she was saying about the drug abuser. She believed he had ringing in his ears and went through a lot to prove it. Just this past week, Character Sonia went through a lot of thinking to come up with a solution on how to help the trouble-making nude sleepwalker (again with the drama). A couple episodes ago Veronica went through the trouble of finding her patients amputated leg in the biohazard room to help her patient achieve closure. Just last week she stayed with a patient that wasn't technically "hers" to make her feel comfortable throughout her hospital stay. As you can see, in each episode the nurses go out of their way to fight for their patient or find a solution. This is accurate, this is what we are supposed to do for all of our patients. Also, I think the medical information is very accurate on the show. I think Veronica displays a very good portrayal of a nurse. She performed a very good physical assessment, and asks all the right questions. She even used the pain scale (1-10) even after the patient said she wasn't in "that much pain". I am also continuously impressed with her good therapeutic communication skills. She has a soothing voice, and always knows what to say (lets put aside the fact that the show has writers that spend all day figuring out the "perfect thing to say").

As for what I (and many other people) don't like about the show, I dislike the fact that these nurses are getting punished for the nursing advocacy. Again, I know its for ratings, its for drama between the doctors and the nurses. I get it. But here is Veronica trying to get her patient into a rehab program and despite the doctor saying no (only because the patient stole his sandwich), Veronica still goes behind his back to get him in the program because she believes it is the right thing to do for her patient. I hate that there is a disciplinary trial held against her for this. Also, why is Veronica the only one wearing scrubs? Why does Sonia get to wear gorgeous clothes that help her figure every week, while Veronica has to wear typical scrubs that do nothing for what I'm sure is a gorgeous figure underneath? Also, why does Sonia always have her hair down, in gorgeous locks, whereas Chloe and Veronica (more Veronica than Chloe) portray an accurate version of a nurse with her hair pulled back in a perfect yet very messy bun? Is this done on purpose? The last thing that I disapprove of in this show is how much Patient confidentiality is compromised. Just this past week, (and this isn't the only time it has happened), Sonia and her friend (a nurse?) are loudly talking about her nude sleepwalking patient in the hallway. Not only are they talking about him, but making fun of him, even referring to him as a "gargoyle". Meanwhile, if you notice, this takes place right outside where all the patient rooms are! It's a TV set, they only use so many different patient rooms, and they are all seemingly right outside this nursing station that we always see. Out of all the things that I (and others) should get upset about in terms of show accuracy, this is what gets me the most. We learn so much about how to maintain proper patient confidentiality rights and here are these characters throwing information out to anyone.