the aging mind

A conversation between my mother and her aging mother (aka MorMor-that's Swedish for mother's mother):

Mom: Hi Mom, how are you?
Mormor: Oh. I'm alright. Did Gaith get his card yet? [My brother Gaith's birthday was last Thursday]
Mom: No, not yet.
Mormor: oh no! I hope it isn't lost in the mail, I sent it yesterday.
Mom: Well, you know it takes more than 2 days for it to get here.
Mormor: Oh alright. Now when Gaith gets it, tell him to open it carefully. There is a check in there and I don't want him to rip it.
Mom: I'll tell him.
MorMor: I'm about to send a birthday card to one of your daughters.
Mom: Well Mom, both of their birthdays are in the summer.
MorMor: No. One is coming up.
Mom: No Mom, Linnea was born in July and Rachel in August.
MorMor: No. It's in my birthday book that one is coming up. Hold on.
*goes to get birthday book*
MorMor: See, "Kristin Richardson, born March, 9, 1951"
Mom: *trying to hold in laughter, or tears* Mom, that's me.
MorMor: ...are you sure?
Mom: yes, that's me.
MorMor: Oh you're right. I didn't think you had a daughter that old.

long clinical woes

these 12 hour shifts are killing me! I'm sure eventually I'll get used to it, but just as I think I can handle it, I get a crappy shift.

Yesterday, my preceptor is assigned two patients: a very critical guy with all sorts of ICP issues and six million drugs and lines, and one guy who had no business being on the unit (he was in no way critical, just a big pain in the ass).

Instead of dealing with our sick patient, we spent most of the day babysitting the other guy, trying to keep him from pulling out his lines and stuff while we wait for him to be transferred. Meanwhile, our sick guy (let's call him Guy B)'s ICP keeps going up, his BP keeps going up, and he is generally just getting worse.

So we're rushing around trying to get him a STAT CT and get everything else under control, while we're babysitting this other "crazy" guy (Guy A).

After lunch, we finally get rid of Guy A (after calling to give report to the floor nurse 5 times!) and Guy B is stabilizing. So our busy pain in the ass day turned into a boring day. Nothing to do for a while.

So I start helping the other nurses out with things. Bed baths, turning, restocking supplies, etc. I even did a straight cath. Too bad it was a very heavy woman (I'd say probably near 300 lbs), and the two nurses in there helping hold back her legs and what not kept trying to coach me through it and messing me up. If they had just left me alone, I would have been fine. SHEESH! And to top it off, the lady started to pee right as I got the catheter up there ready to stick it in, peeing all over my hand! Thank God for gloves!

I also got my first IV! Got it on the first stick!!

I came home exhausted, and am still exhausted today. I'll be back on the floor tomorrow. Hopefully it'll be a great day and I'll learn a lot.

Actually, what I am really hoping is that the 400 lb pt that replaced Guy A right at shift change is gone before Wednesday morning. (So not looking forward to turning that).

Happy Birthday Gaith!

I'm home for the weekend, celebrating my older brother's birthday with the family.

(okay, to be completely honest, the major reason I came home was to do some laundry without having to waste a bunch of quarters or haul my crap up 3 flights of stairs)

Reflecting on the conversation I had with my brother when I told him I was coming home, I realize how much of a dork I am and how crazy my family is:

G: Yo
L: Yo. Happy birthday bro! *singing in a low monotone* happy birthday, happy birthday, people dying everywhere, all the world is in despair, happy birthday, happy birthday
G: thanks nea. So what'd you get me?
L: my presence.
G: what?
L: I'm coming home this weekend.
G: Seriously? No real gift?
L: ....uhh....no? Am I not good enough?
G: no, you're alright, but seriously not even a crummy gift card to Wally World??
L: nope sorry. Oh, but Greta did get you something?
G: Really?!?
L: Yeah. But I wouldn't get to excited.
G: Y not?
L: well, she is a cat.
G: true
L: plus, she is totally schizo so I wouldn't hold high hopes.
G: haha. Yeah. She is about the strangest cat in the world.
L: Hey! don't make fun of my cat.
G: I'm not being mean, she's just weird. So you coming home tonight?
L: probably. Y?
G: Oh, cause we are going to the practice space and going to have cake, a bonfire, and beer.
L: sounds like a stellar combo.
G: you should come.
L: ....do u really want me to come or are you hoping I'll drive your drunk ass home later?
G:....um. the first one (in a strained voice)
L: you just me to come play DD.
G; okay, true.
L: but if I have to sit around with all of your friends all night, I'm going to need to drink.


Seriously, that was our whole conversation. Nice to know I'm wanted; even if it is only as DD.

reading is fun

These past couple of days I have rekindled my love for reading.

Since Wednesday, I've read 5 books cover-to-cover. It was marvelous to just sit down with a book and not stop until I was done.

With the craziness of school, I haven't done a lot of pleasure reading in the last year. So to spend 5 days doing nothing but reading for fun has been a bit odd, but also so wonderful.

I found this website where people have uploaded texts of thousands of books, available for download or to read online. No need to drive out to the library now.

Okay not true; I love the smell of books. I love the library. And sitting at my computer screen all day isn't fun. So don't worry books, I have not abandoned you!

As I've been reading these past few days, I started to try to figure out what my favorite book is. I can't decide; there are too many that I love. Instead, I've just narrowed them down to my top 10 (in no particular order):

- Persuasion by Jane Austen
-The Guardian by Dee Henderson
-The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
-The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
-Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
-Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
-Metro Girl by Janet Evanovich
-Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
-Blink by Ted Dekker
-Digital Fortress by Dan Brown

I chose these books as my "top 10" not only because I enjoyed them, but because I couldn't put them down. Because I've read them more than once. Because no matter how many times I read them, I can never seem to get enough.

random chatter

Oddly enough, chatter-box Linnea has nothing to say.

Probably because actually saying something hurts too much. Stupid wisdom teethe. And apparently finding a dentist near me that is "in network" for my dental insurance is harder than finding the Holy Grail.

In other news, I'm having fun getting into cooking again. For those who don't know, I don't particularly like to cook. I love to bake, but cooking is another story. However, since I got this fancy-schmancy mini food processor, I've been having fun in the kitchen again. Mostly, I've been making salsa and pesto sauce, but I do plan to expand my culinary horizons at some point.

I doubt it will last, however.

Answer to riddle #2

Okay Valarie (since I think you are about the only who cares at this point :oP), here is the answer to riddle #2:

Riddle #2
My first wears my second,
My third would be, what my first would acquire if he went to sea.
Put together my one, two, and three, and the Belle of New York is the girl for me.

the answer: Manhattan

A man wears a hat, and if he goes to sea, he'll get a tan.

Answer to the first riddle

A group of 3 friends goes into a hotel and asks for one room for the night. The clerk tells them it is $30, so each friend chips in $10 to pay for the room. They go upstairs and get settled in. A little while later the manager is looking over the hotel records and realizes that the clerk overcharged them, as the room was on special right now for $25 a night. He handed the bell-hop 5 ones and sent him upstairs to give them their money and apologize for the mishap. On the way upstairs, the bell-hop thinks to himself, there are 3 friends, and they are going to have to split this amongst themselves. $5 doesn't split evenly. I'll just pocket $2, and give them $3 back. So the bell-hop returns the $3 and and apologizes for the mistake.

Now I'm sure you are going WHERE IN HELL DID THAT OTHER DOLLAR GO?!?!?!

The answer: no where, it never was missing.

Think back to 5th grade math, and recall that little thing called order of operations that says you have to multiply/divide BEFORE you add/subtract.

I know. STUPID joke. But it did get you thinking, and that is the entire point of riddles.

The other answer is soon to follow. So think on it a little more. (hint: why did the riddle say Belle of New York? What is so special about New York? Why New York?)

Tagged to be truthful

I bet someone out there is dying to know the answers to my riddles. Or at least I'm hoping at least one person in this world reads my blog and is semi-interested in the answers to my riddle. But you'll just have to wait a little while longer. Don't worry, the answers are coming.

Since Valarie tagged me to be truthful, I'm going to post 10 things about myself. I'm not going to tag 7 blogs I read, since I'll just be tagging half the blogs Valarie tagged, and I think that never ending circle would get a bit ridiculous.

1. Even though I'm constantly being told how "in demand" nurses are, I'm scared I won't find a job. Well, I'm scared I won't find that job I love. I'm sure if I was desperate enough I could get a cruddy med-surg job in some rinky-dink town.

2. I used to hate my name as a kid, because no one could pronounce it properly. Now I love how unique it is (at least here in the States) and wouldn't change it for anything.

3. I hate driving. After all the years of driving so much on the ambulance, and learning how to drive immediately after being in a car accident, I'd kind of rather not drive. Unfortunately, I live in Houston, where you kind of have to drive everywhere.

4. My new favorite snack is a salad drenched in Wishbone's Romano Basil Vinegarette salad dressing.

5. One day I'd like to spend a few years working for Mercy Ships.

6. My favorite play/show/production that I've seen so far is Spamalot.

7. My sister and I have tons of "code words" that I use almost daily.

8. I'm in love with my kitten. Unless she scratches me, then I don't love her so much...okay yeah I do love her regardless.

9. I really want to work in the ED at Ben Taub.

10. When I was a little kid, I lived [nearly 24/7] in my Wonder Woman jim-jams.

Riddles

Tonight at dinner with Matt, Katie, and Rachel, we sat around telling jokes and riddles. Okay, to be fair, most of them were my stupid (and some are really awful) jokes and riddles.

I thought I'd share a few of my favorites with you.

A group of 3 friends goes into a hotel and asks for one room for the night. The clerk tells them it is $30, so each friend chips in $10 to pay for the room. They go upstairs and get settled in. A little while later the manager is looking over the hotel records and realizes that the clerk overcharged them, as the room was on special right now for $25 a night. He handed the bell-hop 5 ones and sent him upstairs to give them their money and apologize for the mishap. On the way upstairs, the bell-hop thinks to himself, there are 3 friends, and they are going to have to split this amongst themselves. $5 doesn't split evenly. I'll just pocket $2, and give them $3 back. So the bell-hop returns the $3 and and apologizes for the mistake.

Okay, so each friend paid $10, but got $1 back, so they paid $9. 9 times 3 is 27. Plus the $2 the bell-hop pocketed, you get $29. So where did the other dollar go? (remember, they paid $30 originally)

Riddle #2
My first wears my second,
My third would be, what my first would acquire if he went to sea.
Put together my one, two, and three, and the Belle of New York is the girl for me.
(hint: the "first", "second", etc. are syllables of one word, that when said alone are also a word.)
(second hint: the answer is one word)
(third hint: pay attention to all the words in the riddle. they were all chosen very carefully)

Okay, now no cheating! Take some time to think them through, for more than a few minutes, before googling the answers. I'll post the answers soon. So don't ruin it for yourself, or others, and think about it for a bit.

Many mishaps...

Instead of studying for the dreaded community exam, I have decided to procrastinate some more by sharing the harrowing tales of my many mishaps today.

My day started off by me sleeping in late, cause I refused to get up and indulge my self-centered kitty cat. I slept in late partially because I stayed up so late last night. And I stayed up so late because I took a 5 hour nap Sunday afternoon!

After getting up, I wanted to take a shower, then head over to the SON to help get ready for Job Fair '09. Went to turn on the water and NO WATER PRESSURE. And getting in touch with someone from the office of my apartment complex was almost as hard as pushing a 2-ton stone uphill. I finally gave up and decided to go take a shower over at Matt's, since he graciously offered me the use of his shower.

But I locked both sets of my keys inside my car!! So Matt came over and the two of us attempted to break in my car. We finally did it, by slowly peeling down the window and putting the antenna from his truck through it to pull up the lock switch. It took about an hour and a half, and us trying several different ways before we finally got it.

At this point it is like 4:45 in the afternoon. I'm starving, gross and in desperate need of a shower, and exhausted. On the bright side my water pressure has finally returned and I got to take my shower! After that Matt and I went to Papa John's for a pizza (YUM and only $5.99 on Mondays for take-out!).

Oh, and my preceptor for High Acuity is impossible to get in touch with. I tried calling her several times today. I left my name and number and information for her with another nurse on the unit, and she still hasn't called me back.

The rate I'm going, it'll be March before I do a clinical.