Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to all of you. And I got some great news today. I checked my cell phone for voice mail messages at lunch at work and there was a message from the manager at the apartment building I’m moving into telling me my rental application is approved, the new carpet is down, and when I called her back we agreed I’m picking up the keys on Saturday! Yay! I’m really looking forward to this. I will probably be moving my things the following weekend, and since I work full time most of my free time until then will be spent packing. But I will be visiting all of your blogs still.

A new home… maybe…

I may be moving to a new apartment. Haven’t completely made up my mind but am leaning towards it. The new apartment is much closer to work. Right now I drive almost 25 miles to work. The new apartment is only three miles away. And it’s much brighter, with a full size sliding glass door looking over the yard. Right now I have just a window in my living room. There isn’t as much storage space as I have now, but as my wise sis and mom both put it, if I need to store it, do I really need it that badly? With some reorganization I could make the storage space I will have work. And the new apartment has a dishwasher! An automatic one instead of my two hands. And that’s my exciting news for the day… hope your day is going well. :)

This and that…

So, I just finished my second week of orientation at my new job. While I still like it very much and am happy with my choice, I have to say that I am not a morning person and this getting up at 5am is killing me! I come home from work and I’m so tired all I want to do is eat something and get to sleep. (It doesn’t help that I work 12 hour shifts.) But I only have to do that for one more week, then I get back to a night shift schedule. As odd as it sounds to you morning people, I actually have more energy when I’m working nights. So I’ll have more energy to tell you funny stories… or bore you with drivel… lol

My cat and I have a new game we play. If I’m taking a bubble bath he comes and sits on the edge of the tub. I lift a handful of bubbles and let them drop off of my hand and he bats at them and knocks them off my hand. Silly, I know, but we enjoy it.

Speaking of cats (as I often do), that reminds me to share with you all something I heard recently. My neighbor across the hall is an older gentleman, in his 70s, at least. A very nice man. When I first moved in here about seven months ago I noticed a beautiful white cat often sitting in his window. Then a few months ago the cat seemed to just vanish. A few weeks ago my Sylvester ran out into the front hallway as this man was leaving his apartment and he petted Sylvester and told me what happened to his cat. Apparently a few months ago his apartment was broken into and he didn’t say if they peron/s who broke in took the cat or left the front door open and the cat got out and got lost, but when he came home after the break in, his cat was gone. He’d had the cat for 15 years, he told me. That just seemed so sad to me.

I think that’s about enough rambling for now. I’ll write more soon…

Cancer, Cancer, everywhere

I’m going to preface this post with the statement that this post may get a little verbose and personal. So I won’t be offended if anyone doesn’t read it in it’s entirety.

October is breast cancer awareness month. As an oncology nurse and a person with a strong family history of cancers, and breast cancer in particular, you would think I would have already written a post on the topic. But it’s something heavy and serious and I wanted to make sure I knew what I wanted to say before I sat down to type this.

I have lost a grandmother and a cousin to breast cancer. Both were only in their 30s. I have an aunt who is a breast cancer survivor. And a grandfather and uncle both lost battles to different types of cancer. What made one of my past family doctors just stare at me for a minute is the fact these family members aren’t on just one side of the family tree. Some are on mom’s side, some are on dad’s. To say the least, cancer has touched my life personally.

And professionally. I’ve been a nurse for eight and a half years now and six and a half of those have been in oncology. I fell into oncology nursing not with any intention. I had been doing pediatric home care and loved the kids but needed to get some hospital experience. I went to work on busy medical floor at a local hospital. It was actually a medical/oncology floor. I quickly fell in love with oncology side of things.

Some people have asked me “How can you do that? Isn’t it depressing?” Well, sure, there are hard moments. But what keeps me doing it day after day and year after year is the fact I get to meet some of the bravest, strongest, most courageous people you could ever imagine in my work. I see these people going on this long and difficult journey through their diagnosis and treatment with grace and strength and I admire them.

I also learn from them. I have learned a few important lessons from my patients over the years. I have learned that no matter how important my petty little problems may seem, there are always people facing even bigger challenges. I have learned that life is precious. I mean, really learned what that means. It means you never know when your life is going to be totally and completely changed in a matter of seconds with just one word. I’ve learned not to take my health for granted. I don’t think my patients have any idea that they give to me every bit as much as I give to them.

Now if I may take just a moment to climb on my soapbox and do some quick teaching… Breast cancer, with early detection, is highly survivable. The survival rates for breast cancer caught early are very, very high. 98% of women diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer are alive 5 yearslater. It is not a death sentence. That’s not to say women don’t still die as a result of breast cancer. They do. But when women use the early screening tools they have available to them, it can be caught early enough for treatment to be be very successful. Those early screening tools are a yearly mammogram and monthly breast self-exams. They may seem silly, you may feel silly doing them, but they do save lives. Please use them. And everyone, please support any programs in your area that help women without insurance pay for mammograms.

About three years ago now my uncle died of cancer. He was a sweet, caring, generous man. The morning after he lost his battle I was in a class at work that was to teach nurses new to oncology about giving chemotherapy. It was also required for me as a refresher course. I remember sitting in that class that morning and watching a video that talked about how a cancer diagnosis affects family members of the patient. I remember saying to my mom and my aunt Quilly both later that I didn’t need to see that video, I was living it. I also commented to both of them that I felt at that moment like my entire life was nothing but cancer, cancer, everywhere. I couldn’t get away from it. It’s a part of my personal life, and a huge part of my professional life. In six and a half years of working in oncology, that moment is the only time I’ve ever wanted to get away from it. I’ve had nurses say to me “With that family history, how can you do this?” My standard answer is “It’s because of that family history I do this.” Cancer has touched my life in so many ways that of course I love to be a part of helping people with their journey through their treatment. And I love to keep on top of new treatments and see how far we’re coming with getting cancers into longer and longer remissions. Nothing would make me happier than to be put out of a job because we’d found a way to eradicate cancer.

Here I am!

My auntie asked if my new job has me too exhausted to type. Actually, it’s been a great week but I have been really exhausted in the evenings. Having taken a four week hiatus from work, my first whole week back has worn me out.

But I am really liking my new job! The first four days of this week were spent in classes and kind of on the boring side. It was all information that the regulating body that accredits hospitals requires new employees to be given and there’s just not an easy way to make it interesting. But today was my first day on the floor actually caring for patients. I left work smiling and in a good mood. :) And not because it was an easy day… it was actually a pretty fast paced and busy day but I enjoyed it. The staff I was working with were all very friendly and truly cared about their patients. And every employee I’ve talked to from all the various departments of the hospital all seem to truly like their jobs. I’m quickly becoming convinced more and more I made the right choice.

And I learned something today. Teaching apparently runs in the family. As most of you know, one of my favorite aunties is a 5th grade teacher. There have also been several other teachers in the family. Teaching does seem to come naturally to me when I’m talking to my patients. I’ve always felt that but someone else noticed that today. The nurse I was working with and I discharged a patient together today. As we were talking to him about two new medications he was being sent home on she had me do the teaching about the medications, side effects, what they’re for, things like that. She said I was good at it. In one day of working together she noticed that. I warned her early in the day that I am incapable of being asked a question by a patient and not answering it, so if I started answering a patient’s question that she wanted to answer herself to just tell me to shut up. She laughed and said that was fine. I love it when patients ask me questions about their medications or treatments or diseases. I love to teach them.

I think that’s all the rambling for now. I ordered some lovely, delicious smelling hand made soaps from Serra and they arrived today. I can’t wait to go take a nice long bubble bath and use my new soap! :)

New type of challenge and 5×5

I’m still working on designing what will be a fun challenge… So here’s a new variation to try. I’m going to type a sentence having to do with medical terminology and there will be blanks in the sentence. Your mission, should you accept it, is to fill in the blanks with the funniest, most off the wall things you can think of. Please post your submissions in the comment section and if there are enough takers in a few days I’ll post a poll letting you vote for the funniest one. Sounds like a plan? So here we go… If a patient is alert and is oriented only to two things and not completely oriented to three (person, place, and time) I might chart “Patient a&o x2, to (blank) and (blank).”

And now for the 5×5 my auntie tagged me to do…

Five Minutes to yourself. How would you spend them ideally?
1. On the phone probably with family
2. Reading
3. Petting my brat-cat, Sylvester
4. Being thankful I’m not at work :)
5. Reading any one of my family member’s or friend’s blogs

Five Dollars to spend right now. How or where would you spend it?
1. Handel’s raspberry truffle ice cream cone (Can you say YUM?)
2. Book
3. Some great thrift store treasure
4. Another book
5. A new calendar to write down the birthdays of all my nieces and nephews

Five Items in your house you could part with right now?
1. The wilted lettuce in the refrigerator
2. The ugly floral print pants in my closet that I’m not sure why I ever bought and not sure why I haven’t gotten rid of them yet
3. The stack of old read newspapers I haven’t gotten around to discarding yet
4. The candles on the kitchen table (need to replace them)
5. The throw pillows on my sofa that always just seem to be in the way

Five Items in your house you absolutely, positively could never part with?
1. Sylvester the cat
2. My cell phone
3. My computer (until it needs to be replaced)
4. The new super soft and cozy robe I got at Old Navy this morning
5. My photographs

Five Words (or phrases) you love?
1. I love you
2. Loveyoubye (that’s how Cindra and I end phone conversations)
3. Hi Brookie (that’s how mom answers the phone when she sees it’s me calling)
4. God is great
5. It’s on sale

Walking the walk

As you know, today was my first day of orientation at my new job. It’s a faith-based, Catholic owned and run hospital. The only faith-based hospital in the county it’s located in, actually. During my interview I was told there are morning and evening prayers said over the intercom every day. That impressed me. And then today I was simply amazed. In this age of political correctness, we actually started the day of orientation with a prayer and then listening to a hymn. (A beautiful hymn I’d not heard before I’ll try to find to share with you.) But then at the end of the day we ended with the group of us walking to the lovely hospital chapel together and having what was termed a “missioning service.” It consisted of us praying together and then each having our hands anointed with oil that had been blessed while an individual prayer was said and the same beautiful hymn was playing in the background. We were told it was the administration’s way of sending us on our “mission” to be part of the staff there and provide compassionate and holistic care to all of our patients. I was amazed that this was done in today’s culture of everyone being so politically correct and so careful not to offend anyone. As my mom pointed out, they could “get away” with this because it’s privately own, not publicly. But still. I’ve worked at another faith-based, Catholic run hospital where we did have a morning prayer over the intercom every morning but nothing close to what we did together today was ever done. This hospital doesn’t just talk the talk… they walk the walk.

As I was sitting in the chapel I had a strong sense of “coming home.” I felt, as I have since my interview there, that this is the job I was meant to have. This is the job I was guided towards. I haven’t had that strong a feeling that I’m doing exactly what I’m supposed to be doing with my life since the last two times I went to Guatemala. So it was a pretty great day! :)

**I couldn’t find an mp3 file or video, but I did find the lyrics.*

Holy Ground

When I walked through the doors I sensed his presence
And I knew this was a place where love abounds
For this is a temple
the God we love abides here
And we are standing in his presence
On holy ground
We are standing on holy ground
And I know there are angels all around
Let us praise, praise God now, praise him anyhow
For we are standing in his sweet presence
On holy ground
In his presence
I know there is joy beyond all measure
And at his feet sweet peace of mind can still be found
For when we have a need he is still the answer
Reach out and claim it
for we are standing
On holy ground
We are standing on holy ground
And I know there are angels all around
Let us praise, praise God now, praise him anyhow
For we are standing in his sweet presence
On holy ground

New Medical Terminology challenge

I’m going to try a different approach to this challenge to make it more fun for us all. I’m going to post a medical term and want you all to make up your own goofy definition and put it in the comment section. Then on Sunday I’m going to choose some finalists (number of finalists chosen to be determined by number of entries) and post a poll for you to vote on the funniest. So here we go… the word is phalanx.

And now I’m off to get a good nights rest before I start my first day of orientation at my new job tomorrow!

Terminology challenge answer

So, this challenge ended up being harder than I expected it to be. I apologize for that. There was a winner, though. My own clever aunt Quilly came up with the right answer last night.

Adjuvant

Ad·ju·vant n.
1) A pharmacological agent added to a drug to increase or aid its effect.
2) An immunological agent that increases the antigenic response.

Now wasn’t that fun? lol Or not. I do have an idea for a more fun challenge, though, that I’ll post shortly. It’s actually an idea my clever brother-in-law came up with and I added to. So, congratulations auntie!

Medical Terminology Challenge #2

Ok, so for this 2nd challenge it’s going to be fairly easy. The word I am looking for is eight letters. It completes the following sentence. “When a medication is added to a medication regime for the purpose of enhancing or assisting another medication it is considered (blank) therapy.” Please e-mail your answers to me using the e-mail link located to the right of this page under the About Me section. The deadline is 10pm EST on Thursday and I will post the correct answer then. So, have fun! :)