Sybil at soccer games

 Reading in the back seat before the game starts

Imparting wisdom

Don't fall asleep

Sybil's favorite game to play with me these days is "makeover:"

These makeovers tend to be long and quite involved 

and when they aren't painful, they can actually be quite relaxing. 

Notice I'm lying down:

Now, notice that I'm wearing my scrubs in the picture below

which means I just got off of work, 

which means I'm exhausted

which means I'm going to fall asleep in any semi-horizontal position.

Look closely.

She signed her name on my cheek and then took a picture of me.

I didn't realize the extent of my makeover when 

Sybil woke me up to tell me that Iris had just texted asking when I was going to pick her up.

I grabbed my car keys and ran out.

Iris' friends appreciated Sybil's creativity.

Sybil's second favorite game to play with me is "Nurse." 

She can cure everything with a TicTac, even heart failure.

But don't tell Nurse Sybil that you are allergic to 6-year-olds. 

She might suture her initials somewhere when you fall asleep.

 

I love that we live so close to Red Rock. 

Here are some pictures from a leisurely jaunt we took there a few weekends ago:

Another tea party hosted by Sybil. 

We all wore dresses and I got a special 20-minute makeover.

I was assigned "Sassy Barbie" who judged the fashion show. 

Claire was sick for most of last week, poor girl.

It's Spring!

My mom came in town to help with the kids because David was traveling for work.

On my mom's last morning here, I skipped a work meeting and hiked. 

It was just what I needed.

    Hospitals are home to intense feelings, which is the breeding ground of a stressful work environment. In an effort to be optimistic, I want to write weekly moments of humanity that I've seen (which aren't always happy).  A son sat tirelessly by his hospitalized father, who was also his long-time business partner. The family congregated in the hall with the doctors who relayed a bad result on MRI and CT scan. Their eyes were wet as they spoke to each other softly in German. The hospice representatives came the next day. 

    I meet people from all walks of life. I wheeled a discharged woman down to a new Porsche Cayenne, but more often we order taxis for men going back to living on the street. This week I had a patient suffering from chronic hiccuping and another patient with colitis--we bonded over talks of pupusas from her native El Salvador, while another patient talked about both of us being native Bostonians (although he was really native to Iran). A grumpy patient, took a brief interlude from complaining to talk to me about how much he loved Autumn in Michigan--As do I! 

Riddle

 What's the difference between catching rays 

on Saturday and catching rays on Sunday?

Scriptures on the side table

Now that this kid is 16, he has made it known that he refuses to date until he can drive. 

I'm not sure the ladies will be able to resist this bronze babe that long!

Satisfying rejuvination

     Just before I started working as a nurse, I told my sister that I was afraid I wouldn’t like nursing as much as I liked classroom learning. She said something like, “There’s no better classroom than a hospital.”

     Last week I researched conditions that my patients had: apple core lesion and metabolic encephalopathy, the latter, being one I see a lot in older patients, caused by urinary tract infections. I loved both patients—felt connected to both. The man with the apple core lesion sometimes had up to 7 people in the room with him. They bought him a mattress cover, a new pillow, made sure he was being taken care of properly. I couldn’t help but love him. He kept calling me "Sweetie" and every time I came in, he said, “You’re my girl!” His wife of several decades was with him 12 hours a day, and his 3 sons, some in-laws, and grandkids were also there to support him (I don’t know how so many people got past security with a 2-visitor limit). 

     Just a few doors down was a woman who was combative and had a lap belt placed so she wouldn’t get up and fall. Despite her rough edges, by the end of the first day (of three), we had made plans to jump on my trampoline together and dance the night away--I even showed her a few moves. Unfortunately, she was also convinced that she had been kidnapped and was sequestered in a room above a garage. Her only visitor was a previous caretaker from Egypt. She was the woman’s only friend in the world, although she too was getting burnt out with hallucinatory phone calls every 30 minutes. The Egyptian friend told me that the woman would scratch herself and then call the police and then accuse her of abuse. The woman also had hit her son, and therefore, the son had broken ties with her. 

     I loved both of these patients; loved learning about their conditions. But the bigger lesson learned, above apple core lesion and encephalopathy was about the complexity of life. Mental illness alienates while physical illness unites. 

     Yesterday I had a patient with schizophrenia and severe autism who has been in the hospital for almost a month (I know because I have heard him screaming for several weeks while I've been in other halls). He can’t go home because his wheelchair-bound mother can't care for him and the only placement that was found for him is in a facility that will force his mother to surrender parental rights (the man is 44). So he’s stuck in a state of limbo. 

     I’m stuck in a state of limbo. Because although my nursing skills are improving, they still aren't great, something I’m reminded of multiple times during physically and emotionally exhausting days. I’m caught in limbo: hating my inadequacy, but not ready to give up, which causes a multiplicity of side effects that bleed into every aspect of my life.

Let’s end on a high note: Last week I was driving home after school drop-off, caught in a comparison cycle: looking at what I am not compared to what other people are. I looked up and saw the beautiful mountains towering above me. And I thought about God. And that was the end of my comparisons. Rejuvenation. Like a correctly placed Foley that drains 550 milliliters of bloody urine.