JESSIE'S VEGAS

  Sometimes the first few years of a nurses career are the most vivid. Like the time I collected my first 24 hour urine sample. By the end of the shift I had about 20 of those clear plastic 8 oz pee sample cups stacked neatly in the fridge placed in the weird brown shelf-thing the lab had sent up to house them in. The nurse I gave report to giggled as she showed me how the brown shelf-thingie actually turned into a big JUG when you expanded it!!! I was supposed to pour the pee in the big brown jug, not collect little pee cups. And my poor patient who was interrupting their urine stream trying to fill cup after cup! I was shown that the upside down sailor's cap was actually a urine vestibule that fit in the back of the toilet so the patient did not have to perform the small cup ritual over and over and risk getting their hand drenched in their own urine. WHEW!!! Luckily my patient giggled too.  My patient was a lady dealing with end-stage renal disease and she needed all the la...

"There is in all of us an apparently infinite, and certainly, ultimate need for a rich, abiding, trustworthy love. This is a love that reaches in and through the self, outward to others, and upward to the highest in the universe. In the ordinary world, even the world of religion, this craving finds extremely rare fulfillment. But a dawning understanding is the key to its creative source and the beginning of its increase and transformation:that man was known and loved profoundly even prior to mortal birth;that love, indeed, drew him and his Eternal Father together in a sphere of perfected light and glory; that he, distinct from all other beings, animate or inanimate, in the universe, is chosen and begotten spirit of the Divine...there is a flame that is rekindled when a prophet testifies in the 20th century as Jesus Christ did in the first, "God is our Father" AN intuitive flash dissipates theological and psychological speculation. A luminous nostalgia arises in us. A...

I rushed out the door to work the other night and grabbed a vest.  It was my 2002 IHC vest from our Idaho/Utah days. I had forgotten that there was an emblem of the paralympics on the lapel until a clerk at the checkout stand brought it up to me when I was buying milk on my way to work. "Did you see the paralympics?" he said. "That must have been something else!" "You, know, at the time the paralympics were the only sporting events we could get tickets to at the last minute.  I was surprised that the hockey game I saw was the most inspiring sporting event I witnessed in my lifetime.  One guy only had an upper half, his lower half was completely gone.  When he came out on the ice in his sled, the crowd roared! I do not know if I have ever heard a more enthusiastic crowd in my life." "I wish I could have seen that!" the guy behind the counter said. As I got into my car, I was suddenly grateful to have had that moment brought back to my mind.  S...

It is early or late or in between.  Anyway,  the whole house seems to be asleep and I am not.  It happened and now everything can begin. Syd has made tremendous progress!  However,  a letter came from the school last week that I have been dreading.  I knew it was coming because they told me. HOW come things seem so much more final or serious or, I don't know, REAL,  in print? When the eighteen candles were blown out she was SO excited to begin her journey to adulthood!  I have yet to see such excitement in a young adult to begin this transitory step. It is I who is not ready.  It is I who cringes when hearing how anothers rights have been violated, it is I who cherishes personal freedom and liberty, it is I who does not want to tell her she is incapable of caring for herself.  Most people do NOT realize when this has happened to themselves.  I have seen similar situations with children of aged parents in the ER.  The parent is ...

Some people do not like their in-laws. I kinda like mine. Mainly they are fascinating to talk to, well-read and up on current events. I have shied away from disclosing to them that I am not of a Republican persuasion,but that for years I have taken each political persons agenda, picked it apart and scrutinized my choices before voting.  I was surprised to hear they were the same way and were annoyed with those who voted a purely democratic or republican. I have been reviewing the constitution with Jess this year and I adore our founding fathers! These dudes were no nonsense fellows with a clear goal in mind.The day to day preservation of basic human liberty!  They did not agree on everything,but they were dears!  My in-laws called them statesmen and said even back then they warned of the day when political offices might be bought with money!  How right they were! I found my 13-year old was always present in the room,  along with Jess moving constantly around, b...

So Many GOOD things have happened! Syd is gaining function at an incredible rate and is blowing her teacher's away with her progress. Lauren is holding down a job and is happily married! Jess is getting almost straight A's in school and She feels more focused. Her ADD seems to be taking a back seat. Even Alyssa has shown wonderful progress! She decided to stop taking her meds for her Tourettes and she is not having any angry outbursts. It was the goal of her doctor when she was quite young that one day she would not need medicine. Really there is only one thing dampening my day, but I find I have to go hide when I cry because I do not want anyone to know or think I am ungrateful. I even somehow hope to disguise my tears from God.  He has helped us SO much, maybe I am petty or childish. I suspect I am just sad to be reminded in such a blatant fashion that there really is something unusual in my kid's craniums...most of the time they appear normal so even I try not to rememb...