Happy Nurses Week!

In Honor of Nurses Week (May 6-12), I thought I would share my two favorite poems on Nursing. They make me smile because of how accurate they are!




Being a NURSE means...

You will never be bored.
You will always be frustrated.
You will be surrounded by challenges.
So much to do and so little time.
You will carry immense responsibility
and very little authority.
You will step into people's lives
and you will make a difference.
Some will bless you.
Some will curse you.
You will see people at their worst...
and at their best.
You will never cease to be amazed
at people's capacity for
love, courage, and endurance.
You will see life begin...and end.
You will experience resounding triumphs
And devastating failures.
You will cry a lot.
You will laugh a lot.
You will know what it is to be human
and to be humane.

Copyright © Melodie Chenevert RN, MN, MA



When God Created Nurses


When the Lord made Nurses He was into his sixth day of overtime.

An angel appeared and said, "You're doing a lot of fiddling around on this one."

And the Lord said, "Have you read the specs on this order?

A nurse has to be able to help an injured person, breathe life into a dying person,

and give comfort to a family that has lost their only child and not wrinkle their uniform.

They have to be able to lift 3 times their own weight,

work 12 to 16 hours straight without missing a detail,

console a grieving mother as they are doing CPR on a baby

they know will never breathe again.

They have to be in top mental condition at all times,

running on too-little sleep, black coffee and half-eaten meals.

And they have to have six pairs of hands.

The angel shook her head slowly and said, "Six pairs of hands...no way!"

"It's not the hands that are causing me problems," said the Lord,

"It's the two pairs of eyes a nurse has to have."

"That's on the standard model?" asked the angel.

The Lord nodded. "One pair that does quick glances while making

note of any physical changes, And another pair of eyes that can look

reassuringly at a bleeding patient and say,

"You'll be all right ma'am" when they know it isn't so."

"Lord," said the angel, touching his sleeve, "rest and work on this tomorrow."

"I can't," said the Lord, "I already have a model

that can talk to a 250 pound grieving family member whose child has been

hit by a drunk driver...who, by the way, is laying in the next room uninjured,

and feed a family of five on a nurse's paycheck."

The angel circled the model of the nurse very slowly,

"Can it think?" she asked.

"You bet," said the Lord. "It can tell you the symptoms of 100 illnesses;

recite drug calculations in it's sleep; intubate, defibrillate, medicate,

and continue CPR nonstop until help arrives...and still it keep it's sense of humor.

This nurse also has phenomenal personal control. They can deal with a

multi-victim trauma, coax a frightened elderly person to unlock their

door,comfort a murder victim's family, and then read in the daily paper

how nurses are insensitive and uncaring and are only doing a job."

Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek of the nurse.

"There's a leak," she pronounced.

"I told you that you were trying to put too much into this model."

"That's not a leak," said the Lord, "It's a tear."

"What's the tear for?" asked the angel.

"It's for bottled-up emotions, for patients they've tried in vain to save,

for commitment to the hope that they will make a difference

in a person's chance to survive, for life."

"You're a genius," said the angel.

The Lord looked somber. "I didn't put it there," He said.


Copyright © 1998 Alabama

Will the rain ever end?

Okay, it has been raining, raining, raining...and we haven't been able to start anything in the yard yet because everything is flooding. (The rain has been good for my fruit trees, however, and the blossoms are pretty!) My mom wants to 'till the garden a couple of times, but hasn't gotten the opportunity yet because of the constant rain. Our yard is a soft, wet yard, anyway. We have gotten all kinds of things stuck in the yard...trucks, backhoes, etc. One thing that is going for us is at least it is not snowing! I had to laugh because my sister Jennifer said "April flowers bring May showers" because we are wondering when it will be over! The forecast isn't looking so good!

I have worn my pedometer at work this past week or so and the average that I walk in a night is 8 miles when we are busy (which is like 95% of the time) and 3 miles when we are not. Both of them are not too bad. No wonder my feet hurt when I get home!

I must say a thank-you to Busi, a fellow nurse who works on nights with me. I had an interesting experience last night (Wednesday) where a pain medication rolled off the counter and into the trash in the med-room. (It was in a tube.) Busi helped me find it in the trash can. Luckily, they had recently emptied it. Now that's teamwork!!

Physical Therapy is going well and I have noticed some increase in strength in my back. Kudos to Courtney and Lyn for helping me.

This week I start my chemotherapy class so I can be certified to give it. I am kinda excited and nervous at the same time. It's something new, but there are a lot of good people on the floor who can help me out. I was going to sign up for a statistics class this term, but I just cannot afford it right now. I have to work on getting my house ready for winter. (I know it's crazy to already be thinking about winter, but it takes so long to remodel!)

Tomorrow, we are off to Wal*Mart again because mom needs to buy new wipers for her truck that she got at the slasher sale. She really hasn't been able to drive it because the wipers have no rubber and it has been raining ever since. She got a 1991 Ford F-150 that runs really good.

Updates...

It's been a little while since I've posted on my blog. I've been working and enjoying the sunshine (when we get some!).

It has been getting nicer lately...and I love that! I have been planning on what needs to be done in my yard. I did a lot last year, but there is so much more to do. I thought it was kinda ironic because I did so much to clean up the yard last year and then the value of my home went down a little. Not that I mind that much because it means that my taxes also went down, but it was just a little funny. Here is a funny picture of us (my cousins and uncle) working on my yard last summer.

My mom is excited thinking about what she is going to do with the garden. Our garden is normally 1/4 acre, so it is a big undertaking. We didn't have a good garden last year. The weeds were too outrageous. It was too wet. A lot of people I know said that their gardens didn't do well either. We usually can tomatoes; freeze beans, zucchini, corn, and carrots. The corn we don't even bother growing anymore because it hasn't worked for us. We can buy 5 dozen for around $20 so why bother with the headache.

A patient told me about a place in the town where I work where they can tomatoes and they will sell their "seconds" super cheap and he said they are good canning tomatoes, so it we don't get anything again this year, we might try that. He said that the tomatoes were better than anything he ever got out of his garden. That's a good recommendation and a good second plan.

I recently been wearing a pedometer at work because the new tower (designed with the patient in mind, not the nurse) is so spacious that we all have been saying that we walk miles every night we work. Well, the two nights I wore it, I walked 8.4 miles and 9.5 miles. Granted, they were crazy busy nights, but I wonder if that is the norm. I have my trusty pedometer in my locker at work, so I will be wearing it over the next few weeks to see what the average is...so I'll let you know.

My mom is going to this "slasher" sale this Saturday to try and get her a car for $88. She is going to be camping out Friday night at the car dealer to get in line. It is going to be crazy, but fun. I will let you know what happens!

I got low census at work tonight. When they called me (as I was about to leave, mind you) they asked me if I wanted to be off for 4 hours or 12 hours. I always say 12 hours because it is incredibly hard for me to come in at 11 p.m. By that time, I am already ready to go back to sleep. Even if I slept all day. If I'm not up actively doing something (starting to walk the 8 miles or whatever), I realize how tired I am. So, they called me at 9 p.m. asking me to come in at 11 p.m. I'm too tired to do it now, so I had to tell them no. I would never make it though the night. What else could I do?

I've recently been in physical therapy for my back so I don't strain it again. We are also going to work on some exercises to strengthen my right arm as well. Couldn't hurt! I have a wonderful therapist named Courtney who is working with me. It's kinda weird and nice because whenever I go into therapy, everyone knows me there.

It's Arch...not ark. :)

This week, everyone has been on Spring Break, including my friend Janette who works at head start. We wanted to do something since she has a "vacation," so we decided to go to St. Louis because it wasn't that far from our home. It actually was a seven hour drive, not that bad. Mom went with us too. We had so much fun. We were there for one night actually and stayed at Harrah's Resort & Casino because it was only $101 total for the night. We got to see the arch (which for some reason, I kept calling ark). Janette and I took the trolley up to to top. Here are some photos of our trip.

Gateway Arch


Mom & me sitting on a sofa in the lounge.


This really cool sink in the Missouri visitors center. You just kept your hands in the same spot and it washed, rinsed and dryed. Amazing. I felt like laundry. :)


The trolley that took us to the top


Me in the trolley


Mom & me by the arch


The top windows where we looked out

There are plenty more pictures that I won't post here but it was super fun to be up that high. What a fun short trip. Then it was back to the old grind and I was supposed to work Thursday but got Low Census, of which I was glad.