Wednesday

Wow.   Its Wednesday.  Yesterday I had a stress test.   You have to go and get your heart nuked, take pictures'  and walk on the treadmill, they get it nuked again and take pictures.    The treadmill goes from slow to fast, and increasing the the angle.   I made it for the six minutes with no pain.   I was short of breath but not enough to stop and fall over. 

Chuck, bless his heart, decided to take me.   So, in the waiting room, I am being interviewed by the RN.     RN:  "Do you have an allergies?"   ME:  "NO"

From the other side of the room, Chuck:  "You're allergic to Sulfa"    Me to Chuck:  "You are one of those spouses when the nurse ask the patient, they answer for them...."    Me, to the nurse,  "It gives me an upset stomach.  That is a side effect, not an allergy"    Me to Chuck:   "You are giving me fodder for my journal !!!"    RN:  "I am not getting into the middle of this one"   LAUGHS.

I had awakened with pain in the middle of my chest a few weeks back.   The Cardiologist said primarily it looks good.  Another doctor will read the nuked heart scans.....Wonder what the half life of the nuking isotope is?

Next is a Gall Bladder Scan, along with my biliary ducts (I had mention to my PCA about my mothers bile duct cancer)  and my pancreas after the discussion of  "The Last Lecture"    If nothing shows  (I AM REALLY HOPING)  I guess a trip to the Gastroenterologist is in my furture.   What the hell; he has already examined my colon.  Maybe he is in need of a new car !!!!!  I will do my part for him to get one.

 

 

 

Sunday

A tidy house is a sign of a wasted life.............

That was a sign at the Irish Festival, which Emily and I went to today.    http://www.pghirishfest.org/   I ran off the instructions that were given to me, but when I went to start this entry I could not find them.    They are somewhere and I will find them.   We went early and I was looking for books, or at least I had an idea about them.  I was looking for books on Irish Genealogy.  But, there was not a book to buy.   Just food, beer, jewelry and T-shirts and Irish  knick-knacks.   I did buy a t-shirt. http://www.kelticdesigns.com/   They really have a lot of nice designs.    I bought a T-shirt that was a Pentacle Knot.   You really have to peruse the bowels of this web site to find the T-shirts.   Emily at a chicken pita and I had a gyro.  

I wish I had purchased the above quoted sign.   It is funny but somehow I feel it is true.  My house is not dirty but neither am I Suzie Homemaker.   Sometimes I feel that I should have had a cleaning lady.  But, really, I would lose the only exercise I get.

Emily starts her clinical rotation this week.  I can not remember my first day of clinical when I went......Guess it went well.   I do remember my first day of OB and I hear a woman scream "You son of a bitch, you did this to me..........."   That made a lasting impression on me.   I never, ever, wanted to work on OB.   This was pre epidurals.......

I think what I liked the most was the Operating Room; maybe, it was because, at that time, it was the only place in the hospital that had air conditioning.......I was a wuss from the start.....

We had, at that time three month rotations in all the specialities.  I loved the OR.....When I was a senior I was interested in the Nurse Anesthetist.    http://www.aana.com/   I would only have one patient to take care of at one time..   After working for six months I applied and was accepted..    That was the best career move for me.....The anesthetist worse a lot of jewelry, and I liked that.   When I went not too many people were interested in the field,  so, they paid me a stipend to go.     NOW it is in a Master prepared field and soon to become a Doctorate prepared career.   I wonder, why would anyone do this when the same amount of time is required to go to Medical School.   You would get paid about 4 times as much if you had a MD behind your name. 

It is a push by the colleges and university's.   Most of the Professions are now on a doctorate level.  The Pharmacists are required a PharmD, the Occupational and Physical Therapist.   I really feel it is a money making ploy by the Higher Education Gurus.    If they want to control cost, making the entry level positions a Doctorate level is definitely not the way to do.  But, it is set in motion and we can not change it. 

They would probably do that for the entry level RN, but there is such a shortage that it would be impossible to do.

 

 

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Going to the Vets

Emily and her new found cat friends.  This was taken about ten years ago.

I keep getting post cards and I know I have to do it.   What, make an appointment to take the cats to the vets.   It is traumatizing for me and the cats.   Lucy, ALWAYS poops in the travel box, the thing I am glad about is it is (this is disgusting) always solid and I have a fresh specimen.  One is always needed when you go.

Henry, screams like a mountain lion in the back of the car.   Really loud and frantic.

Molly, who just squeaks and never meows, let go with loud full fledged MEOWS.

Jenny, meows loudly every four seconds during the whole trip; both going and return.  When Emily moved back from Cleveland, Jenny meowed for the two and a half hour trip.   I was ready to open the window and let her out.  She was inside her travel box, but the thought did enter my mind.

I have had pets most of my life.  The latest thing is cat dental hygiene.   A new young woman, just recently graduated from Vet School, told me that the cats had bad teeth and some needed to be removed.   The estimate was for about $1,000.    Now, I ask, how many people have $4,000 just lying about dedicated to cat extractions.     I could spend that getting my own teeth implanted.   I have decided to take them to the older woman (my age LOL) who had never mentioned the cats teeth to me.   Seriously, that is a lot of cash to remove a few teeth.    

Emily's second week in Nursing School is done.   She still likes it.....She said she has made a few friends, which is good.   I think they will have a study group.    She also wondered why they did not accept her Developmental Psychology from college.  She went to see and the course and its grade was not noticed because it was under the OFFICIAL STAMP.    She was happy because that is a few hundred less she has to borrow.   Yeah.......

It is still hot, I am really waiting for it to cool off.   I hate hot weather.  Anytime I have to use the A/C it is too hot for me.

 

Thursday

"The height of cleverness is being able to conceal it."
Frantois, Duc de La Rochefoucauld

 

"It is hard to believe a man is telling you the truth when you know you would lie if you were in his place."
H. L. Mencken

Just a few quick quotes, we are off to play Trivia tonight......Have to start thinking and being clever.

 

 

Henry again...

Henry was sooooo small when we got him at the Humane Society.  My red cat Ginger has recently died and I love red cats.   I think he was about 6 weeks, so small with such a big MEOW.   I swear he said "Pick me, pick me"

WE got two cats that day.  Including Lucy, she was a bit of an odd ball.  She is very pretty, "when you are very pretty you do not have to be smart."  That's what my daughter said....  Lucy is still odd, I do not think she had been properly socialized.  You get three pats max; she would have made a good solitary pet.

We had removed the carpeting and were going to have another installed.   The basement door is about 2" higher because of the removed carpet.     The first day I had the two kitten sleep in the basement; their bed, litter box and food/water dishes were down there.   They came up when one of us were home and down for the night.  

One night, I put the two of them to bed and I could hear meowing and then some scratching.    To this day, I do not know how Henry did it, but he crawled under that door in the 2" space.   I heard the noise and next thing I knew there he was walking across the living room and I swear he was smiling.....He only did that one and the problem  was self resolving because in about a week he got to big to do it again.    After I knew they could climb the steps the graduated to the upstairs. 

 

 

LUCY

This is Henry; he is getting old.  He will be somewhere about  10 next  year.       Henry is starting to slow down.    He used to go into my bathroom, jump on the sink, and then he would calculate his trajectory and leap upon the window  sill to look out the window at his backyard domain.  Now he will follow me in and stand below the window and meow for me to lift him up so he can watch.   

Emily also noticed that he is slower coming up the steps from  our  basement.  He was taking the steps slow and carefully placing his feet.   He still is hot on getting to the food dish...

Today I  received my replacement Office 2003 CD.    Somehow the old Office 2003 got scratched.   I was trying to find an old disc from some source.   I had posted an inquiry on one of the computer sites and, much to my delight, I found out that if you had registered your  CD Microsoft would replace it at a minimal cost.   YEAH !! 

So yesterday it came and it is installed.   I had also ran a scan to see if there were any updates and found that I needed MS VISTA Service Pack 1.  That took about an hour, I decided to not do any more today; just incase something went wrong and if I found something I could uninstall the program.    Do you know that some people pay big bucks for others to install their things ????   Really,  if   you can read and have half a brain, they easy to install.   I will preface that with, if every thing goes well.   I always seem to find some glitch that is not covered by the FAQ'S and end up sending emails to whomever to solve what ever dilemma may have happened.

Work was not to bad on my 16 hours.  I finished up about seven and then perused the Internet for a bit.   I could take my laptop but it would be on the hospital site and filters "ENTERTAINMENT" which  is what this journal is considered.     What I find irksome is that they allow "SPORTS" web sites thought.

GRRRRRR.

 

Monday, Monday....

My day was spent reloading the computer.  Before I sent it back to ACER I had moved everything to another hard drive.   Actually, I had moved some to a flash drive and everything to the external hard drive.    I actually forget what I had moved.    So, I spent today moving my photos back.  I still have to download the printer and scanner.   Did you notice that the electronics rarely come with CD's anymore.  What you have to do is connect the device to the computer, access the Internet and download the program for its operation.    There must be a lot of money spent in making those installation CD's to go with your purchase...

 Above are bromeliads, I think they are related to pineapples.     I really like fresh pineapples, but the pineapples are about $4 to $5 each.   I refuse to spend that on a pineapple.............I just can't do it.......Maybe, if I were taking a fruit salad to a picnic I would.

Back to work tomorrow, another one of those 16 hour shifts.   Tomorrow will be a busy day, all those non emergent emergency cases will be stacked up and need to be done. I have off Wednesday and Friday.  

This week is going to be a hot one.   It is more like the July-August forecast than September.   It is strange, the first week of September to be so hot.  But, really, this summer has been a nice one; a little cool weather and a little hot weather.  It has also been cool at nights.  

I think that Wednesday will be devoted to connecting my devices and then try to make clic links.  Beth, thank you for the instructions....

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