Author Archives: electricnurse

I know I am grown up when…

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I discover I am Vitamin D deficient-thought that only happened when we got older (ahem, guess I am older)

I am sleeping in a different bed then my Husband. We currently have our guest bedroom queen mattress on the floor next to our King bed and depending on how my back is doing determines which bed I am on. I look forward to my next physical therapy session. AND, no I have no idea what happened to the darn back. It just IS.

I get my first mammogram. I was giddy with excitement (sort of) afterwards. I actually asked the tech if there was a sticker I could proudly wear that said “I got a mammogram”. I figure if the Red Cross has stickers for blood donors and if we get stickers that say “I voted” when we vote, why shouldn’t I get a sticker for getting my breasteses squeezed. As a fabulous side note, said mammogram was abnormal and more tests are pending. Fun.

Because I couldn't get a darn sticker I almost wanted to wear my bracelet all afternoon...I didn't but thought about it long and hard before I cut that bad boy off

I know my Husband is grown up when I come home from work and he says “I have a rash” only to discover that he actually has shingles. Stay. Away. From. Me. I have enough other odd medical things going on in my body right now, an order of shingles is not on my agenda. Not sure where I’ll be putting the Husband but I called in Valtrex in three minutes flat and sent him out the door to go get it.

…and here I thought that you didn’t start “feeling” older until you turned 50. At least that has always been my overall “consensus” from patients. Is 35 the new 50? Ha!

Re-fuelin’

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These past two weekends have been great! Packed full of goodness which is fabulous as it has been very much needed. We decided to spend our 15th anniversary apart. No, wait….that sounded bad.

We were together the actual DAY of it, you see but had plans for the entire weekend that didn’t involve one another. We started the weekend together in Omaha and then went our separate ways. You see I had got tickets to Women of Faith months ago to go with a bestest girlfriend. This is where things got tricky (more comical than anything because you have to KNOW Adam-he’d never, ever want to hurt my feelings). Adam came home one weekend awhile back wanting (nervously) to ask me what I thought about him going on this 4 day hiking/camping trip with a bunch of Christian guys in WY. The catch? “Ummmmm”, he said…..”it is over our 15th.” I’m all Dude! No problem! I’m leavin’ town myself so go for it! Totally caught him off guard and for about 3 minutes he looked like a little kid in a candy store.

Fast forward and he ended up not going camping but I still ditched him. For Women of Faith. But he made his own different fabulous plans, too. Missy and Jason lived in Tecumseh while we were there and left around the same time we did last year only they went South~to Tulsa. Missy is who I went to WOF with and Jason and Adam spent the weekend together re-living some of their favorite childhood (ahem, early 30’s) memories (such as a going fishing, geo-caching, getting a 12-pack and gaming for 24 hours straight-that would be a 12-pack of OATMEAL CREAM PIES!). Missy and Jason are a couple that inspires Adam and I. They are strong in faith, no matter what which always amazes me because that is where I am weakest. They are funny so you can’t NOT have a side ache from laughing while with them and they have 3 beautiful kids that they are raising and Missy, in fact is getting ready to start homeschooling this fall….something I am so very proud of her!

You may not know it....but that look in my eyes that is making them look all squinty and weird: PURE fatigue (read more below about the whole whacko backo!!)

Jason, Missy, Adam & I

Jason being the grown man-child that he is (a great big ball of fun!)

So even though we have had some things on our minds (Adam and I) and I have a defective back (long story but the short version now involves me sleeping on the queen size guest mattress on the floor in our bedroom while Adam is still sleeping on the king set in that there same said room) we have been re-fueled these past two weeks.

WOF was amazing. I will post another snippet about it with some more pics and stories. There were a few things I wish were different but overall….I NEEDED that two days. It was very good for me. I have one story for this post and it involves Sandi Patty. I’ve never heard her sing before and she was amazing. We had fabulous seats-4th row! It just so happens that those who were hearing impaired were only two sections to our left. Sandi sang “We Shall Behold Him” and while she did she signed it too. While she was doing this she was facing the section where the hearing impaired folks were. Her voice was booming through the arena and her sign language was so very animated. People, I cannot even begin to describe to you how it felt at that moment. God’s presence was there for sure. All of those folks were signing back to her the song as well. It was beautiful. Can you imagine how if it touched and moved me the way it did…..what she must have done for the hearing impaired folks? Apparently she does this….sign while singing at times, that is.

Sandi signing while singing....

Later she said a quote that I love. It was something to the effect that when we don’t get what we want, it may not be that He is saying no to our dream; it may be that He is saying yes to a dream that we have not had yet. Kind of reminds me of that country song….”some of God’s greatest gifts~are unanswered prayers”. Anyways, she touched me and refueled me a tad.

Last night we volunteered for World Vision. We had been contacted a couple of months ago as we sponsor Abdiel still and they asked if we would be able to volunteer at an upcoming concert. Sure! Our duties were minimal and were good but the concert…..Casting Crowns. You guys, they were amazing! They are fantastic worship leaders and their new song that is coming out “Come to the Well” is beautiful. I hate to write this but it is true: the presence of God was in that arena last night in Kearney more than I felt it the majority of time in Omaha at the Qwest Center during WOF (kind of what I’ll elaborate on more later). If you ever, ever get a chance to go to Casting Crowns…..do. You’ll feel re-fueled. Pinky-swear.

After returning home from the concert (I look tired and Adam, um....well, looks....twitterpated maybe??)

Our World Vision friendship bracelets (80s flashback!!!) & VOTA band. They were the opening band and are from Lincoln-they were great!

Adam’s 15th Wedding Anniversary Gift to me…

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The bestest gift ever. And he said he discovered that video tape only has a shelf-life of 10 years so it is a good thing he did this! He transferred our wedding video (from a Hi8 8mm camcorder) over onto DVD and then took just parts of it and made me this:

I know it is 7 minutes….but you never know….you just might catch a glimpse of yourself on this video!

Relay, 2011

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Adam and I joined a team called Care ‘n for the Cure for Relay for Life this year. A great team. A large team. We all wore tie-dyed shirts to try to represent all of the awareness colors for the different types of cancer. We had the photo booth there all night, charging for photos as an additional fundraiser~the first time ever we had the photo booth at an outdoor event! Adam was worried about bugs but things went really, really well. We used a white tent that we have and put a citronella candle inside the booth where the actual computer “guts” are which helped I think.

People had a ton of fun. Our little county raised almost $100k-not bad!

 

A photo of my Nana at the Luminary ceremony slideshow...

A special thanks to Cozad Community Hospital for covering the expenses related to the photo booth so that everything was profit!

I leave you with this….at the luminary ceremony I could hear a little boy sobbing quietly but didn’t know where he was. A bit later a man walked by carrying him and he actually looked like he was sleeping at that point in the man’s big arms. After the ceremony I saw the same boy at the photo booth and I said “Hey! I think I just saw you not too long ago napping! You’re awake already!!!???”. He responded, “No, I was missing my Grandma.”. I told him that was okay, I was missing mine also. He asked me if I cried, too and I said I had and he asked me what her name was. I said….”her name was Nana”.

Cute kid, that one was. 😉

Pepe

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He just turned 85, although he did not know it. He has 9 children and more grandchildren and great-grandchildren than one can count. Their hearts are broken. This is a story that should not have happened. A story of medical incompetence. A type of neglect of sort. Some call it just “sloppy medicine”.

He is an alcoholic, you see and often would have a temper, never physically albeit but he would “misbehave” as the family would put it so perhaps he was labeled from the beginning? Labeled as a difficult patient. Perhaps they automatically judged him like a book by its cover and said he was noncompliant. He’s just another old man, anyhow. Right?

One month ago he attended a beautiful granddaughters wedding and stood proud by her in her photographs. What a cherished memory that is now. He then began acting out….”misbehaving” like before only in extreme ways he never had before. And there was no alcohol this time and had not been for some time. He would thrash his arms and legs and try to hit people violently. This is not a violent man. This is a man that has 51 grandchildren and great-grandchildren that call him Pepe. The medical providers tied him down. To the bed. By his chest, his wrists and his feet. For three weeks they did this. They blamed his medications and his history of alcoholism and said he was now psychotic. They NEVER even scanned his brain to see if his behavior changes could be coming from there….

They gave him blood thinner injections to prevent blood clots since he was inactive.

On July 22nd, 2011 they said they could do nothing more for him and that he was officially “lost in his brain” and sent him away to a psychiatric hospital. Barely 12 hours later he developed difficulty breathing necessitating a brain scan to see the cause. A bleed. An acute intracebral hemorrhage was discovered and had been there actively bleeding for several weeks, made worse by the blood thinner injections given to him by the very same care providers that his 60 plus family members trusted. The very same care providers that said he was in a state of psychosis and was “lost”. The very same care providers that held him down.

He was not delirious. He was not psychotic. He did not have dementia. He had a traumatic brain injury that was misdiagnosed and made worse by the addition of blood thinners. He was treated like an animal by medical personnel that when he, at his worst, looked to for help. Rather their gross incompetence and neglect led to lack of timely diagnosis and contributed to the bleeding itself and have led to this man now truly being “lost”.

Because of the size of the bleed and surrounding swelling with resulting damage he IS now “lost”. He does not know who he is or any single one of his 9 children. He is trapped in his body unable to express himself appropriately to anyone.

Practicing medicine myself, I am ashamed of the medical profession that this happened. I am embarrassed for the hospital where it occurred and feel sorry for the providers and other caregivers that cared for this man during his stay at Palm Bay Hospital as they obviously made dire mistakes. I fear for the other patients that are in this facility and that are cared for by these same care providers as until they take a step back and remember the oath that they took when they decided to practice medicine, incompetence will continue to occur.  We cannot practice “sloppy” medicine. Patients and their families trust us. They trust us at all times, even when they are at their worst, which at times it is admittedly trying to take care of these patients but it is our responsibility to either to do so or bow out of providing care for them before doing harm.

I am so, so sorry Pepe that you were subjected to this. I love you. I pray for God’s blessings on you and know that someday soon you will be with Nana. XOXO.