As I wrote this blog in my head last night, I was crabby, selfish, and just plain pathetic. Last night was Fun With Son, but I was miserable. It was 97 or so real temp, who know what heat index. I was pitching a tent, getting eaten by bugs despite spray, and nowhere near running water. It was too hot to move, and I was soaked just from breathing. I didn't have too much nice to say about scouts. Ya know what? My kid was in heaven.
When I went to church camp as a kid (Camp Jo-Ota) the cabins and mess hall had a/c. And we slept in cabins with pretty decent bathrooms. When I was a counselor (Camp Wesley Woods), the camps each had themes - homestead, horse, Indian teepee, Night camp etc. that reflected what you were doing or where you were sleeping. Most of them didn't have a/c, but you weren't on the ground either.
Needless to say, I am not a tent camper. Really, I am a Holiday Inn camper. I don't like hiking to the bathroom. I don't like bugs. I don't like heat. I don't like the ground. But my kid was in heaven.
This morning, I was really quite certain they should end the day at noon and send us home out of the heat. And then I looked around a little bit more. Nancy the camp leader was just as sweaty as the rest of us, and she was smiling. Bob the obstacle course guy had plans for us to have a good time. I'm hoping the older scouts that were helping out were getting a little financial compensation, but I am not sure that was the case. Thank you Nancy, for sharing your vacation time with my kid. And did I mention that my kid while hot, was in heaven?
Evan earned his archery, BB and swimming belt loops, and his archery & BB pin for Cub Scouts. He was hot and cranky from the walking up and down hills, but he was in heaven. The adult volunteers were sweating up a storm and working hard (and planning hard) so that my kid could be in heaven. I think I'll quit my whining, moaning and complaining now. My kid had a great time, and life quit being about "me" the moment he was born.
I had a great time at camp! Even if I didn't, it wasn't for me. Now it's laundry, Motrin, bed and work tomorrow.
And for anyone interested, Tom took great care of Colby while we were gone, and the house looked better than the cyclone state that I left it in!
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
Weekly Roundup
Evan and I are getting ready (ok, I am procrastinating packing) for Fun With Son tonight. It's 95 or so outside, and doesn't sound like fun at all to me. Evan told me last night though, "Mom, I've been waiting for tomorrow for four months!" Ok, ok, I'll suck it up and have a good time with him. I've been reading too many "dead baby" blogs - parents blogging about their child's short life - so I appreciate the two living ones I have more right now. At least until they drive me crazy, in about 5 nanoseconds.
Tom gets the sick, mellow boy tonight. C has been coughing and sniffeling for a few days, 3 days of swim lessons, and now an ear infection. Surprise, surprise! He had a lovely crusty bloody ear this morning. Yuck! I refuse to do ear tubes again, but it's the 3rd since Christmas. And he has a hearing test scheduled for Wednesday. Hmm, should probably move that back a week or so.
Coming home from the doc this morning, we drove through 3 small towns. All of the businesses had something on the marquis signs about SSgt Melton. He was killed in Afghanistan last week. I didn't know him, but he's from another small town nearby. I was a little sappy thinking about his life, and life in a small town - where you have to work together to get anything done, and E's friend 2 doors away whose father is still there, and my brother's Naval service, and my cousin' recent military retirement, and Independence Day, and and and...
Have a good weekend, and stay cool!
Tom gets the sick, mellow boy tonight. C has been coughing and sniffeling for a few days, 3 days of swim lessons, and now an ear infection. Surprise, surprise! He had a lovely crusty bloody ear this morning. Yuck! I refuse to do ear tubes again, but it's the 3rd since Christmas. And he has a hearing test scheduled for Wednesday. Hmm, should probably move that back a week or so.
Coming home from the doc this morning, we drove through 3 small towns. All of the businesses had something on the marquis signs about SSgt Melton. He was killed in Afghanistan last week. I didn't know him, but he's from another small town nearby. I was a little sappy thinking about his life, and life in a small town - where you have to work together to get anything done, and E's friend 2 doors away whose father is still there, and my brother's Naval service, and my cousin' recent military retirement, and Independence Day, and and and...
Have a good weekend, and stay cool!
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Swim Lessons
I'm taking a trip down memory lane. The first time Evan took swim lessons, we couldn't bribe him with quarters to go off the diving boards. And trust me, Kirk, our neighbor tried! Today, three years later, he swam across the length of the pool with something resembling a stroke and breathing! And he loves the diving boards.
This is Colby's first round of lessons. He didn't have a problem with one of the lifeguards dropping him off of the high dive into one of his favorite cousin's (a lifeguard this summer) waiting arms. Joey is awesome and he'll do almost anything for Joey. Joe also graduated from high school this spring. It has been a pleasure watching him grow up into a fine young man the last 10 years. Nine years ago, he and his older sister were candlelighters at our wedding. Gosh, I am feeling old!
Maybe Thursday I'll be able to get pics of Colby...
This is Colby's first round of lessons. He didn't have a problem with one of the lifeguards dropping him off of the high dive into one of his favorite cousin's (a lifeguard this summer) waiting arms. Joey is awesome and he'll do almost anything for Joey. Joe also graduated from high school this spring. It has been a pleasure watching him grow up into a fine young man the last 10 years. Nine years ago, he and his older sister were candlelighters at our wedding. Gosh, I am feeling old!
Maybe Thursday I'll be able to get pics of Colby...
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Tooth Fairy
Evan bit into his sandwich last night and panic-ed. Mom, there's a huge hole in my mouth. I think I swallowed my tooth. No, he didn't, but teeth and bread look a lot alike. I sent the big boys to Cub Scouts and wondered just what the tooth fairy should leave for Evan. I had a few ratty tattered dollars, and thought about going to Casey's to buy a candy bar with Colby and asking if they had any decent looking ones in the cash drawer. Instead, Colby and I walked to Aunt Barb's new house to check it out. Not too shabby for a reposession that was a little trashed. She has worked hard and saved hard for it. In her dresser, she had a gold Madison dollar coin, so the Tooth Fairy could bring it. Evan got up this morning and didn't even think about it. I had to ask him well after he had woken up just what the Tooth Fairy brought. He looked in the little jar and said disappointedly "It's a quarter."
It's a what?
A quarter.
Are you sure? That's not the right color for a quarter.
It's not a quarter? What is it?
Look at it. I think it's a dollar.
Mom, it is a dollar!
Silly boy. Silly wonderful incredibly precious growing up too fast little boy of ours.
Monday, June 15, 2009
My Day
Let me tell you about my work day...
since I am still thinking about it a day later.
I got to work in my favorite ICU - Surgery, Burn & Trauma. I saw it all this weekend.
My partner was late, and we had work for 3 of us, but only 2 to do it. 16 ventilator patients, 2 more very recently weaned from a vent, and 14 or so on breathing treatments every 4 hours spread out over 4 floors. A lot of work. And a very sick trauma patient with 3 docs and 4 nurses and an RT all hovering trying to get blood in, keep up with the blood out from wounds, watching the monitor and patient, making vent changes, drawing labs and blood gases, getting chest x-rays. There was a staff meeting. I was called (I hate our work phones!) twice while in said patient's room, telling me I had to be at this staff meeting. Don't you morons (er managers) understand I am trying to provide excellent care here? You know, that excellent care that we aren't meeting our targets and are losing our measly little bonuses for? Then someone from the office called my partner (up to his armpits already!) and told him to cover my stuff so I could go to this staff meeting, and the Charge RT came to the ICU to help. What, am I ten and being called to the principals office for detention? Sure felt like it! I walked into the office, tossed down the papers in my hand as well as my phone, and leaned against a counter with my arms crossed across my chest listening to the meeting in progress. Bad attitude and anger spewed with me not saying a word. The topic was a hot button, and the supervisor was talking in circles getting nowhere with it. After 10 or 15 minutes of the same heated discussion (that we had 2 months ago as well) between my coworkers and the sup, I piped up "Next item on the agenda, please," trying to move things along. The next item on the agenda... Me. She presented me with my 10 yr pin and plaque. Great, I am throwing a temper tantrum and am rewarded for it? Don't I feel a little embarrassed. I did send the sup am email apology. It's as close as I could get to a real one. Patient care always trumps staff meetings! When I got back to my unit, the Charge RT hadn't really left the trauma patient's bedside, so I was at least justified in needing help. The pt didn't make it, but we certainly tried.
About the time I caught up (well after lunch) we extubated a pt I fully expected to fail miserably. The attending has the final say in decisions, and he overruled an RT, RN and a fellow. For the most part every patient deserves to be extubated once and be reintubated before we ask the family about a tracheostomy and open a can of worms with long-term ventilator issues. Dang, I hate it when the attending is right, but I love it that the patient did better than any of us expected. Even the pt's mom was not optimistic. Go, kiddo, go! I hope they had a good night, and the vent is gone from that room.
The surgery team didn't have enough to do on a Sunday afternoon. They're "all grown up" doctors in June and hopefully know what they are doing. We get the crop of newly minted just graduated doctors who don't know much at all of life in a real hospital in July. Try not to be sick in July. It's a painful month for those of us in a teaching institution. Back to the surg team. They decided that since they had family consent, they'd do some bedside work. Two patients, two percutaneous trachs. Easier to do them at the bedside on a lazy (only for them!) Sunday afternoon than wait till there was OR time on Monday, or maybe end up getting bumped to Tuesday. Am I behind in my work yet?
Heck of a day! And I stayed over for an extra 4 hours, which made 16 on Sunday. I love my job, when management lets me do it.
since I am still thinking about it a day later.
I got to work in my favorite ICU - Surgery, Burn & Trauma. I saw it all this weekend.
My partner was late, and we had work for 3 of us, but only 2 to do it. 16 ventilator patients, 2 more very recently weaned from a vent, and 14 or so on breathing treatments every 4 hours spread out over 4 floors. A lot of work. And a very sick trauma patient with 3 docs and 4 nurses and an RT all hovering trying to get blood in, keep up with the blood out from wounds, watching the monitor and patient, making vent changes, drawing labs and blood gases, getting chest x-rays. There was a staff meeting. I was called (I hate our work phones!) twice while in said patient's room, telling me I had to be at this staff meeting. Don't you morons (er managers) understand I am trying to provide excellent care here? You know, that excellent care that we aren't meeting our targets and are losing our measly little bonuses for? Then someone from the office called my partner (up to his armpits already!) and told him to cover my stuff so I could go to this staff meeting, and the Charge RT came to the ICU to help. What, am I ten and being called to the principals office for detention? Sure felt like it! I walked into the office, tossed down the papers in my hand as well as my phone, and leaned against a counter with my arms crossed across my chest listening to the meeting in progress. Bad attitude and anger spewed with me not saying a word. The topic was a hot button, and the supervisor was talking in circles getting nowhere with it. After 10 or 15 minutes of the same heated discussion (that we had 2 months ago as well) between my coworkers and the sup, I piped up "Next item on the agenda, please," trying to move things along. The next item on the agenda... Me. She presented me with my 10 yr pin and plaque. Great, I am throwing a temper tantrum and am rewarded for it? Don't I feel a little embarrassed. I did send the sup am email apology. It's as close as I could get to a real one. Patient care always trumps staff meetings! When I got back to my unit, the Charge RT hadn't really left the trauma patient's bedside, so I was at least justified in needing help. The pt didn't make it, but we certainly tried.
About the time I caught up (well after lunch) we extubated a pt I fully expected to fail miserably. The attending has the final say in decisions, and he overruled an RT, RN and a fellow. For the most part every patient deserves to be extubated once and be reintubated before we ask the family about a tracheostomy and open a can of worms with long-term ventilator issues. Dang, I hate it when the attending is right, but I love it that the patient did better than any of us expected. Even the pt's mom was not optimistic. Go, kiddo, go! I hope they had a good night, and the vent is gone from that room.
The surgery team didn't have enough to do on a Sunday afternoon. They're "all grown up" doctors in June and hopefully know what they are doing. We get the crop of newly minted just graduated doctors who don't know much at all of life in a real hospital in July. Try not to be sick in July. It's a painful month for those of us in a teaching institution. Back to the surg team. They decided that since they had family consent, they'd do some bedside work. Two patients, two percutaneous trachs. Easier to do them at the bedside on a lazy (only for them!) Sunday afternoon than wait till there was OR time on Monday, or maybe end up getting bumped to Tuesday. Am I behind in my work yet?
Heck of a day! And I stayed over for an extra 4 hours, which made 16 on Sunday. I love my job, when management lets me do it.
Monday, June 8, 2009
It's Raining Again...
The insurance paperwork from the basement flood is ready to be turned in after Tom looks it over. Let that fun begin!
The excavator was supposed to be here today to dig for the sewer valve, but it's raining again. Maybe tomorrow, when I have to work - great! Papaw, where are you? Come and babysit the workers when it's not raining again.
Three out of 4 Wednesday night baseball games have been rained out. We have a make-up scheduled tonight - let's see if that happens, since it's raining again...
It's the first full week of summer vacation. The kids are running and screaming (and laughing) upstairs with the neighbor kid who is a teenager. We're stuck inside because it's raining again.
I think I need to find some vitamin D and a "happy" light for Seasonal Affective Disorder because it's raining again.
The excavator was supposed to be here today to dig for the sewer valve, but it's raining again. Maybe tomorrow, when I have to work - great! Papaw, where are you? Come and babysit the workers when it's not raining again.
Three out of 4 Wednesday night baseball games have been rained out. We have a make-up scheduled tonight - let's see if that happens, since it's raining again...
It's the first full week of summer vacation. The kids are running and screaming (and laughing) upstairs with the neighbor kid who is a teenager. We're stuck inside because it's raining again.
I think I need to find some vitamin D and a "happy" light for Seasonal Affective Disorder because it's raining again.
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