Monthly Archive

Some things are just too unbelievable to have been fabricated.  I came across this news story recently and was flabbergasted. 

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/21882976/

In a nutshell, a 13 year old girl “met” a boy online who supposedly lived nearby and they began to correspond and struck up a cyber-relationship.  According to her parents, her online activities were well monitored by them and they took precautions to protect their daughter from the dangers of meeting people online.  After a period of time, the young man ended the cyber-relationship with the girl and apparently made some very nasty comments about her to others.  This hurt her deeply and she committed suicide.  This part of the story is very tragic and my heart truly goes out to her parents.  But what makes the story so unbelievable and wild is that the boy was never real… he was fictitious.  He was made up by the mother of a former friend of the girl who died.  The mother said that she was only trying to find out what this young lady was saying online about her own daughter.  My reaction to reading that was “What?!?!” 

This mother, an adult, should have known better than to play those kinds of games with a 13 year old child!  She should have known better than to play with this girls emotions this way.  SHE is the adult… SHE had the responsibility to act like one and she failed miserably at that.  And she says she doesn’t feel guilty.  In the article the girl’s father is quoted as saying “They sent us a letter in the mail, basically saying that they might feel a little bit of responsibility, but they don’t feel no guilt or remorse or anything for what they did.”  I find that absolutely unfathomable. 

The girl’s parents are discussing with local authorities just what laws the woman broke and just what she can be charged with.  It’s been difficult to sort out since unfortunately stupidity and irresponsibility aren’t illegal. 

With Thanksgiving being tomorrow, I thought I would list one thing I’m thankful for for each year I’ve been alive… That means 39 things… so here goes.  (These are in no particular order)

I am thankful for…

1.  My wonderful, loving, and wee bit strange family
2.  My wonderful, loving, and wee bit strange friends
3.  My phone (It keeps me connected to those family and friends)
4.  E mail  (It also keeps me connected to those family and friends)
5.  My job/career
6.  My health
7.  The role of God in my life
8.  My pets
9.  My ability to see that things may not be what I’d like them to be, but they *will* improve
10.  The kindness of strangers
11.  The fact I can keep a roof over my head and food in my refrigerator when some people can’t
12.  The fact I have decent health insurance when some people don’t
13.  The fact I can cook well
14.  The fact I have great supervisors at work
15.  The fact I have skills I can use to help others both at work and on medical missions
16.  My intelligence
17.  Sunshine
18.  Rain… we need it for rainbows
19.  The zoo… I love to watch the animals
20.  Flowers
21.  My great apartment that I really like
22.  The fact I got my car back more quickly than I first expected to when it broke down
23.  Pictures of my friends and family to remind me of good times
24.  My amazing, strong, funny mother
25.  My amazing, strong, funny sister
26.  My amazing, strong, funny aunts
27.  My sense of humor
28.  My strong work ethic I learned as a child
29.  The fact my parents taught me strong values and a good sense of right and wrong
30.  The fact I’ve never done anything I’m *truly* ashamed of
31.  My love of music
32.  My love of reading
33.  My photography skills, as weak as they may be
34.  The wonderful pure glycerin soaps I discovered a few months ago
35.  Chocolate
36.  The great staff I work with at work
37.  My amazing, funny, wonderful nieces and nephews
38.  The beach… it’s calming and soothing to me
39.  My patients at work over the years who have taught me what really matters, and what doesn’t

A Happy Thanksgiving to all of you and yours!

Now, it seems common sense that no person is a punching bag… ever.  Right?  Well, we all know it does happen.  What the general public may not know is just how often nurses are manhandled.  And what little action is taken about.

In the past 10 years  I have been kicked in the chin, bitten, punched, had my breasts grabbed, and had things thrown at me … all by patients.  And each time it’s been a case of “Well, they’re confused, they don’t know what they’re doing.”  So I’m expected to just take it.  I’ve spoken with many other nurses and they’ve concurred that is always the attitude when they’re assaulted.  (Yes, this kind of thing IS assault.)  Not once have I spoken to a nurse who pressed charges against a patient for this or really in any way held them responsible for their actions.  Virtually every nurse I’ve spoken to on this subject has said they would receive virtually no support from their hospital’s administration were they to do that. 

Now, I’m not saying I think the 85 year old little woman who bit the hell out of my arm or the 75 year old man who kicked me in the chin should be arrested on assault charges and go to court and/or jail.  I’m not saying that at all.  But neither do I think I should be expected to sit back and just accept such behavior without any recourse.  I don’t think any person should be expected to, yet nurses ARE.  I don’t really know what the answer is to hold these people responsible for their actions.  Or even just how much they should be held responsible when they truly are confused.  I don’t believe confusion should excuse any violent behavior, but I do understand they’re not necessarily even aware of what they’re doing at the time.  Neither is the person coming in for detox and coming off of coke or alcohol or meth.  It’s a tough situation and I understand each side of it. 

The closest I’ve ever come to charging someone at work with assault wasn’t a patient, but a physician.  I had been going to answer a question for him and as I walked off to find the answer for some unknown reason he chose to grab my arm to stop me… hard enough that it left a bruise.  I looked at his hand and then at his face and I have no idea what kind of expression I had on my face but he dropped his hand from my arm very, very quickly.  (This particular physician had a reputation for being verbally abusive to the nursing staff, but had never done anything physical like that to me before.)  I spoke to my nurse manager at length about it later that morning and she said she would support me should I choose to charge him with assault and agreed I would have every right to.  I had the bruise on my arm and about 3 witnesses to this scene.  Ultimately I chose not to, because I had to maintain a civil work relationship with him and he had realized he’d crossed a line.  Maybe I wimped out and maybe I made the right decision… I ended up moving away a few months later and it didn’t matter any more. 

So, I recently made the conscious decision to revamp my spending habits and basically make a new philosophy when it comes to spending money.  If I don’t absolutely need it, I don’t buy it.  And I gave some thought to other ways to cut costs.   One of those ways to check out two different “bargain” grocery stores near my house that advertise their very low prices.  Well,  that ended up really not saving me any money in the long run at all. 

The first store I went to charged you a quarter just to unlock a grocery cart to use while shopping.  Then they had a really poor selection of products.  And then they charged you 5 cents a bag to put your groceries in. 

The second store did let you use a cart for free and had a slightly better selection, but still pretty poor.  By the time I looked over each store and still couldn’t find a few items on my list and had to drive to a “regular” grocery store I realized that by the time I spent the time and gas searching for all the items on my shopping list, I hadn’t really saved any money at all.  I suppose it was worth a try.