My New Hero

I have never been a political activist by any means. I've just always cast my vote like everyone else but I've never argued for any one person. Today, I found my new hero. A woman. A woman who is strong without being abrasive. A woman who is a mother to multiple children. One of which is a soldier. A woman who has a servants heart. I encourage anyone who is interested to look up facts on Sarah Palin.

Tennessee Waltz

This post won't have pictures because I can't find them right at the moment. Seriously, my laptop has gone crazy again. It's getting some Shawn therapy and hopefully he can recover the repressed picture files. ha ha I know it's corny but after going through the dreaded mental health rotation this summer, it was really funny to me. Anyway, I thought I would write about patient care.
I took care of a little lady recently who was dying. Death wasn't imminent but she knew it was coming. She was such a tense little thing. Refusing to sleep. Couldn't be made comfortable. She was up and down all night. In report we were told that this little lady was going to be trouble because she had been the night before. Sure, we made plenty of trips to that room throughout the night. She was medicated appropriately. She was clean and dry. She sat in a wheelchair. She was repositioned in bed. The TV was turned on. The TV was turned off. The door was partially shut. The door was opened. The bed position was changed. As a nurse, one of my biggest frustrations is not being able to make a patient comfortable. I'm not just talking about pain but comfort in general. I had really tried everything I could think to do with this lady.
We were in the room transferring her from the wheelchair to the bed (after one of her sit at the nurses station and visit with the crazy night shift). As I was standing in front of her, I bent to help her stand to her feet. She put her arms around me and laid her head on my chest. As I hugged her, I could physically feel the tension leave her little body. We stood there like that for a short while and she said she was ready to get in bed. After placing pillows under and around her, we left the room. A few minutes later, I walked by and she was asleep. I've thought about this little lady several times the last couple of days. I don't think it was anything I did that helped her relax enough to go to sleep. I think she just needed to feel some love.
My point in sharing this story is that everyone needs to feel loved. Some people think hugs are corny or nonsense. I think (personally) that more hugs should be given out. It just might make someones day (or night).

Breaking Records

Is this guy the bomb, or what? As I was sitting here watching his last race, I was yelling go, go, Oh, what's-his-name! I couldn't think of the name of the guy swimming anchor in his last relay. I think that's kinda sad but not so sad to keep me from celebrating for Michael Phelps!

Learning to Take Good Pictures

Call me silly but when my new, shiny camera arrived in the mail, I thought "Yippee, I'm gonna take great pictures!" Well, maybe not those exact words but along those lines. It didn't quite work out that way! You see, part of taking great pictures is science (knowing how the camera works, the logistics of subject placement, yada, yada, yada) the other part is art (seeing in your minds eye what you want the subject to look like and making that happen). I had no problem with the art part. I've always been a very visual person but I've not always been a scientific person. I had a quick run-down on camera operation by my friend, Jeff, at work. After playing around a little I was starting to get the hang of it. I also learned to use my camera to take black and whites. All other black and whites that I've posted have been edited using software. This is the "straight out of the camera shot".
Please excuse the play clothes and messy hair. Like I said, we were just playing around but this one is pretty good if I do say so myself!