Question

How do you block someone from commenting on your site. I have a porn site commenting on my photo blog leaving spam and I don't know how to delete it and bar it. Sigh.

We are expecting a blizzard tomorrow. They say we won't escape it and to expect 9 to 12 inches of snow with high winds. Oh goody. I can hardly wait.

Is it really Friday already?

I find these black birds fascinating. They have such fierce eyes and when viewed closely the beauty of their feathers can be seen. Their nests are routinely raided by cowbirds and they raise the intruder just like one of their own, with fierce protectiveness. But they are often overlooked when you talk about pretty birds. Look closer next time.

I am finally feeling better today. My stomach is still raw and food isn't sitting well with me yet, but so far I feel strong enough to be out and about today getting some chores done. I have a picture of my watch I want to bring to the watch shop so hopefully he can find mine. And I need things for supper. Plus I haven't left the house since Monday and feel a little cabin fever coming on, sure sign I am feeling better. They are predicting a winter storm so I want to get some staples in hand.



Another sure sign I am feeling better. I am drinking coffee. And it tastes good. I was starting to get a nagging headache from lack of it. I am such a coffee drinker. Zoey feels better today also. That shot sure make her feel down and out. We both did a weeks worth of sleeping in 3 days.



Check out Dirks blog today. He has a video everyone should see. And while watching it remember it was by a professor. And Ron's and Kevin's are very good as always. Such great articles.

Well, I had better pop in the shower and get the day started. I started out pretty good yesterday and crashed and burned around noon and ended up in bed again. Gee, in the old days I used to be able to just barge on through even when ill, now it lays me flat, could I be older? Naw, just a pup yet.

Day 3

Chester

And I am still feeling punkish. We think now it might have been a case of food poisoning. I had a spinach salad Monday. It is hard to tell, but the symptoms sure came on suddenly. I am done in though what ever it was.

Zoey was punky also all day yesterday but she is doing better. Those shots take some out of her also. We instructed the kids one buiscut each only a day and Rick is cutting down. We are switching to all senior adult food. Zoey and I are going to shed this winter weight gain. Of course I would rather it not be by being too ill to eat but..... She does look pretty tubby in the pic doesn't she, LOL. But cute.


We didn't get much of the snow predicted which is wonderful. In fact it has been in the 50's. Looking out the windows I can see the wild lilies popping up and little squirrels doing their love dance. Ms snotty mommy deer of last year was here and she is full of babies again. Her last years twins are almost her size now. The kids are thrilled to look out the window and see the turkeys and deer. Yesterday we watched another cat stalk the turkey's. It was funny to watch the cat turn tail when the turkey took off after it.

It sounds like it may be another week before the kids house if ready. I don't mind them staying here but I know it is an inconvience for them as they have most of their clothes and things are at the new house. It is fun to have the laughter of children in the house again. I missed it. Even as sick as I was I enjoyed hearing it.

I have all the residual aches and pains of a prolonged bout of nausea. And that terrible yucky taste in my mouth you can't get rid of. I also have pretty bad right sided pain. My liver must have taken a beating with this. So I have been drinking as much water as I can stand. I am hoping to feel good enough to pick up some extra nights working since I missed two nights of work. I have a week off every other week. Why couldn't I get sick on my days off? Murphy's law.

Well, enough about once again how yicky I feel. Man of man. Time to switch to other topics. Like bike riding and how I lost 10 pounds in 2 days, just water... but still.

Take care all and see ya in your journals.

Stomach flu

Of course now that I have company I have come down with the stomach flu. It started yesterday and man oh man, I feel terrible. I slept most of yesterday except for trips to the room and it was funny, I would clear the room just coming out of my bedroom. Unclean, unclean. Visions of sick 4 and 9 years olds running through their heads they hustled them into a different room from me, LOL. I am sure I looked pretty scary also with my hair all over the place and Rick said I was white as a sheet. I couldn't keep anything down so I drank shasta so it at least tasted better coming up.

Rick took Zoey for her shots yesterday. She weighed in at 85 pounds! 10 pounds since last year. This winter was hard on us old gals. The vet told Rick she has to drop 20 pounds and he wants to see her every 6 months. Rick overfeeds the dog. He overfeeds me also. Thing is I know better. Poor Zoey. Tubby dog. She is dumpy and feels sick from her shot so we are both laying around feeling sorry for each other.

Well, bedtime again. This is the longest I have been able to sit up.

Day off

I made it, I made it. And what a weekend it was. Yesterday we had a code blue. I had very critical patients all weekend. We seemed to have a theme going on this weekend. The I can't breath blues. I had low oxygen levels and blood pressure problems with several of my patients all weekend. Keep me running. Trying to adjust oxygen levels, giving medications to diuresis patients to get the fluid out of their lungs, getting stat port chest xrays, blood gases, giving fluids for low blood pressures and other meds for high blood pressure. And to top it off trying to keep my sweet confuse man from climbing out of bed and hurting himself. 3 of my patients had major heart attacks and weren't staple so we were adjusting their meds to keep them pain free and I sent 2 to the cath lab. One went to ICU. I got out late every morning. Boy will I be glad of a good night sleep tonight.

Saturday my son and his girlfriend and 2 kids moved in. The house they are suppose to move into isn't finished. They had a water leak and need to fix it and the carpet isn't done. So they will be here for a week or 2. Nice to have some kids in the house again. Not that I get to see them much between sleeping and work but nice anyway. Zoey is in heaven because they like to give her treats.

I have PT today and then am just going to chill. I need to rest. My shoulder was very painful Friday and Saturday but feels slightly better today. Thank goodness. And I had a helper to help me lift. That helped.

Well, I have to get ready for PT. We didn't get the snow they predicted. Happy. Bye all. Have you seen the 3 baby eagles, so cute and they grow pretty fast.

Grandma's Birth Control Pills.....


The doctor that had been seeing an 80-year-old woman for most of her life finally retired.

At her next checkup, the new doctor told her to bring a list of all the medicines that had been prescribed for her. As the young doctor was looking through these, his eyes grew wide as he realized she had a prescription for birth control pills.

"Mrs. Smith, do you realize these are BIRTH CONTROL pills?"

"Yes, they help me to sleep at night."

"Mrs. Smith, I assure you there is absolutely NOTHING in these that could possibly help you sleep!"

She reached out and patted the young Doctor's knee. "Yes, dear, I know that. But every morning, I grind one up and mix it in the glass of orange juice that my 16 year old granddaughter drinks.......And believe me, it helps me sleep at night."

You gotta love Grandma's!

I had this very pleasantly confused patient last night. He was a fiddler. Fiddled with this line, fiddled with that tube. In and out of bed. I told our telemetry cna to let me know right away if it showed his leads were off because first he would take off his heart monitor and then get out of bed. The bad thing that is he just had surgery and couldn't stand well.

So about the 299 time I went running to his room, (why are they always so far from the desk), he looked up startled, holding his disconnected monitor in his hand and he goes. OK, I am so busted, and he put his hand in the air, I burst out laughing. He was so cute with a real sense of humor. I asked him why he kept taking it off, just trying to stay busy he says laughing, and I'm keeping you busy too huh. Oh Yeah. But in a nice way. Thanks to a bed alarm and the fact I can still run we made it through our 12.5 hours without him landing on his noggin.

We get these very elderly people in that live alone. When they get here we see all this behavior that really sets the alarm bells going off. They seem fairly good during the day, but at night the confusion gets worse and worse. We have learned you can't really do idle chit chat and see how they are really doing. You have to ask questions to assess their cognitive functioning. What year is it. What holiday just passed. Do you know the president. Which is your comb and which is your brush.

Some mild confusion is fairly normal taking people out of their normal routine. In a normal routine even someone who has slight confusion can be perfectly fine. The trouble is with the ones that it isn't safe to return them home alone. Sometimes the family lives far away and don't realize their family member is forgetful. They get skilled at evading questions and family keeps the questions and talk light, maybe each unconsciously hiding from the truth. They aren't confused they will say. She is fine every time I talk to her. Ask her some hard questions I gently say. Ask her what year you were born, who the president is, the steps needed to boil water. It is sad when they slowly realize the person doesn't know.

That doesn't automatically mean a nursing home. Sometimes it is just medications that need to be adjusted, sometimes lab work will be wacky making the mind do funny things. But many times it is the beginning of when role reversals take place.

Anyway, where is all this going. My sweet patient. Living alone. And in danger of hurting himself accidentally. And today trying to get the family to ask the right questions. Because nursing isn't just about dressing your wound or giving you a pill. It is and should be the whole picture. Making sure you have whats best for you..... the patient.