A year gone by...

It has been a while dear readers. This has been a fine year - with new experiences, and bold/insane challenges, I have enjoyed myself. I am also tired, but finally catching up with it.

I have just finished my first stint as an official clinical nursing instructor (Thank you Tarrah), in addition to my glamorous real job. This has been an excellent experience which is great for my resume, pocketbook, and ego - but my family does not recognize me anymore. My house seems to have a life of it's own; heaving and breathing with dust and piles of laundry - clean and dirty mixed together, in the corners of every room.

At the start of the year I made some resolutions. I wanted to follow up with some of these, and also let you know some other things. First, my friends I want to let you know that I am an overachiever volunteer. You may remember my moral dilemma about whether or not I was exempt from having to volunteer additional time and money for the sake of others, since all I do is nurse the sick, wipe their asses, cry with their families, and fight against administrative sloth and snobbery. Well, the answer the heavens gave to me, was "No, totally not exempt". I am actually not going to be fulfilled unless I dedicate a good portion of my time to enriching the lives of others - I shake my head in disbelief as I write this, as I really would like to just spend free afternoons drinking cocktails and watching movies. But, instead I coached my kid's baseball team for the spring, and volunteered as camp nurse for a week this summer, in addition to choosing not to get drunk at the school auction - and instead I volunteered as a registration/cashier person. The last one actually benefited me - as I saved $700, and was able to laugh at the drunkards, who were actually myself the year before...

Camp nursing is a lot like ICU nursing, only with lots of benadryl and ice. I was able to go for a week to beautiful Orcas Island and I read 3 novels in addition to my rigorous nursing duties. The draw was that my daughter was able to go for free, and I was able to spend an excellent week with one of my best friends as we giggled like girls, while we calmed the crying babes, and appreciated the strapping male 18 year old bodies... as an artist would of course - not like cougars... Also, the week was excellent as I got to give a series of the rabies vaccine to this kid who may or may not, have had a bat fly into his mouth when he was walking in the dark. Don't ask; only know that it was 4 intramuscular shots in a row, and the serum is hot pink - freaky!

I have not gotten more artistic, but I have made some delicious Thai curry.

TFMITW has died. He placed himself on comfort care, shortly after marrying his young Asian bride - truth is stranger than fiction, but I will let your imagination take flight here. He was stoic, and yet a child, and I said goodbye one afternoon, stroking his cheek as he wafted in and out of consciousness, sure in my soul that he couldn't actually die - but he did, three days later.

I have taken a more anonymous route with this blog, as my students are probably nosey, and may be looking for any kind of leverage. I have also been somewhat of a rabble-rouser at work. I am angry about many issues, and you know what? I won't fucking take it! We deserve a voice, and the ability to be progressive, move forward, be able to give the best care possible to our patients, and to be an actual part of the force that makes decisions for our facility. We get all the blame when things go wrong, God be damned if we shouldn't get the ability to self-govern, and have a vote - at least a little... And though I have no fear of being fired, I may try to take someone's job one day, and perhaps I shouldn't lay myself down as a martyr just yet in this forum - I mean really, I obviously still have some work to do, right?

On this note, I will inform you of my newest resolution for this coming year - Grad school. Yes, I am insane and masochistic, not to mention an absent parent, but I am compelled to do more I guess. I can not work in the same setting for 20 years, and I might as well get it over with while I have some of my youthful vitality and clever wit. This will assist me in contributing more to this online diatribe, as you will help me to promote dialogue, give me feedback, and also let me know if that's just the wine talking.

So now I offer you the title of my next entry: Palliative Care - Devil of Defeat, or Humane Patient Treatment?

Happy New Year.