Health Care and Compassion Go Hand In Hand

When I first started this blog I was not sure where I wanted to take, it, in the original draft. I realized, I was just rambling. well tonight after working I am more then ready to write this blog, I have collected my thoughts and am now ready  to put pen to paper and say what I believe is necessary to work in the health care field.

I work with the elderly when working in an assisted living home, nursing home or skilled nursing home you are there to serve them what ever they want, if you have available you give to them. Harsh as it may seem I do not care how big of an inconvenience it is you, you do what ever you can to make there lives as comfortable as possible, if you do not want to truly make a difference in people’s life’s make their road a bit easier, and perhaps more fun to travel, if you are in this merely for the money, or because generation upon generations of family members have done or because you don’t know what else to do, please take your time and consider all that is required of you to be in healthcare.

 

Weekends, holidays, time with family, that is hard to come by, breaks, eating regular food, good, luck, heck your lucky to be sitting down when your eating. I will admit, I am not a Nurse or even a nurse’s aid, I am in dietary to any one reading this that maybe in nursing and think we do not play an important roll. remember you may give RX medication but food and the conversation that goes with it  is just as important.

 

Now lets talk about next level of some what intensive care of medicine, the hospital setting, and its most vulnerable of patients, kids. I have had experiences on both sides, as a patient and as a care giver. As a child, it seemed like I was in and out of the hospital to the point that I thought it was a normal part of childhood,  by the time I was 9 years old I had had two eye surgeries, two bladder series two sets of tubes put in (and taken out) tonsils taken out kidney stones taken out that is a total of 8 surgeries by age 9.  Later on I would go back to the same hospital where I had so many of my surgeries to work in the kitchen on the patient tray line, but now it has a wonderful children’s hospital built onto the main hospital. I no longer work at the hospital, but there is one day I will never forget, Christmas Eve one year I decided to wear my Santa hat while delivering trays, I brought  some cookies to a kid in the pediatric Oncology unite wearing the hat, I thought that little boy was going to jump right out of his bed when he saw me coming, as I walked away I heard him say “Mommy Santa brought me cookies” that was at least eight years ago, and to this day I still smile when I think of that memory.

 

Here is what I am getting at, health care is not for the faint of heart, there is a lot of work, blood sweat and tears that goes into it.

 

 

I Wonder……..

 

 

As we approach this Independence Day Weekend, I wonder if this is the country our Founding Fathers envisioned all those years ago. Where we use our freedom of speech not only to let our opinions be known, but to also hurt and disrespect others, often times combining these two actions. I wonder if they would be okay with how we disrespect the leaders of this great country of ours.

All those years ago before there were defined cities, or even defined states, before there were boarders, when they fought so hard for our Independence from France. As they wrote the Declaration Of Independence, and those Amendments that we hold so dear and use on daily basis…….. I wonder what they would think of this country as it stands today, where deadly shoot outs have become the norm, where people can still be discriminated against due to race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identification, disability, income status, and/or country of origin.

Its odd how we complain about the selection of Presidential candidates we have to choose from, when most people in other countries would be thrilled and the mere idea that they would have a say in who ran their country.

People say we are loosing our freedom, thats odd because last I checked, we can worship witch ever religion and/ or spiritual belief we choose to. We can (legally) love whoever we want. Women are allowed to go to school, have jobs, provide for their families fight in wars. We as women can also serve our country as a Firefighter, EMT, or Police Officer. We can vote, drive and a variety of other things that women in most other countries can only dream of.

This is far from the country I wanted for my two precious nieces, who are still to young, innocent and inexperienced to know the true dangers this world holds, they are still dreamers, and believers of good, and disbelievers of evil. The truth will be revealed in due time to them, but until then and beyond, and I am only speaking for myself, they will have a believer in their lives, someone who supports their every dream, hope and aspiration.

This Blog has gone on longer then I anticipated but now that it is done, I am content with what I wrote. Thank You For Reading, Happy Independence Day.

To All of those who serve in The Mariners, Army, Navy, Airforce, As Police Officers, Fire Fighters, and EMT’s thank you for keeping us happy, healthy and safe.

 

 

 

Dear Facebook/Twitter Users, Liking, RTing Sharing Does NOTHING

It seems everyday I get onto Facebook and there are posts about how we need to treat our Veterans better or how we need to put an end to Child abuse, cancer, diabetes and numerous other medical conditions, well I got news for all of you who Like Share and Comment on these posts(I am including my self here) that does absolutely NOTHING. Do you honestly think our leaders are siting around on Facebook and twitter waiting in anticipation for these posts, no, if you want action get off of Facebook and Twitter get into your word processor and write letter(s) to our leaders.

 

If you want to go the digital rout, fine, e-mail, find the Facebook pages, but for the love of God don’t sit there and think that “Sharing” a post is going to make a difference, sure it makes the rest of us think, but it does very little in form of action. Its called Social Media for a reason you can do a lot more with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and Periscope then just sharing your day to day life. Okay, this rant, for now is done.

Elderly Care

I have been working at a local assisted living home for almost 7 years, there are only 4 residents that are there now that were there when I first started. When you choose to work with the elderly you are saying that you will care for them as if they were family, witch after a while becomes easier and easier because soon they become your family and you theirs.

 

Working with seniors is unlike any other job you have had,or will have in future. Depending on the type of care facility (that sound infinitely better then a “Home”) these people rely on you for just about everything. Its important to be compassionate, empathetic and understanding of each individual and understand things from his or her point of view. You also have to incorporate what the family wants and of course what is good for them in the long run, if you have a resident who is diabetic, for instance, it does not matter how much ice cream he or she wants, it is your responsibility limit it, and after time, you will learn how to best approach these kinds of circumstances.

 

As I said in the paragraph above there are many people’s feelings and views to consider when working with the elderly, actually in health care period. but at the end of the day you are there to do what’s best for the resident, witch can be easier said then done. You have residents who comply with every guideline you lay out for them, they may not like it but they know its in their best interest. Much like working with children, you just have to pick your battles

 

Remember you are working in these people’s homes, it can be easy to get the lines blurred  between what you consider work and what they call home, treat them with the respect and dignity they deserve, I have been working since I graduated high school well over ten years ago and this is by far the most rewarding job I have ever had. Yes I have days where I just want to scream, walk out the building and never come back again but I can count those kind of days over the last 7 years on one hand.

New Year, New Resolutions…..

Well here it is, 2016 (though I am not sure we got all of 2015, I am convinced they removed a couple of months on us)

Every year its the same thing, we resolve to lose weight, eat better, save more money, be better people, and the list goes on, these resolutions typically last, at the best a month and then we are right back to our old ways. A few years back I got tired of forever breaking my resolutions, I hate disappointing people, especially my self.

So I decided I would come up with something new, something simple, something that involved my passion, cooking, as of last year my one and only resolution was to make at least one new recipe every week, mainly because like most people, I had a never ending pins on my recipes board on pintrest that I wanted to try, and I new that this resolution would help me do so. I think this is far more manageable and realistic that your typical resolutions. I do it also to help my parents out of this food rut they seem to be stuck in. Last week I made an incredible slow cooker mushroom dish, this week I think I am going to try to do something new with Zucchini since I have some sitting in the fridge.

So long, So Little Blogging.

Technical difficulties beyond my control led me to not being able to blog these last few months, those “issues” being my computer not turning on, (even though it was fully charged) not being able to hook up to Wi-Fi and certain keys not working, but now that my computer is back from the Doctors (AKA the wonderful people at Apple) I would really like to start blogging on a more regular basis, this may mean posting on all my sites every or just one or two, it all depends on what is on my mind from one week to the next. So stay tuned, you never know when I will post.

So Let Me Get This Straight……….

I just want to make sure I under stand how things are “Supposed” to be now a days in Society, we have freedom of speech, so long that it is spoken in English, and we have freedom of speech all year long except in December when we have to say  “Merry Christmas”.  We are free to love who ever we want so long as its a man loving a women and vise versa.  We are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, oh wait. hold that thought.

Baking with a purpose

Hello All, I will be having my third annual bake sale next week on Wednesday September 17th, as always the ALL proceeds will benefit Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund AKA JDRF, in addition, though, this year the bake sale will also benefit Geneva’s Neuroblastoma Foundation A charity set up my my friend/co-worker and her husband, just over a year ago, their daughter Geneva, was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma, through out their battle to get their daughter healthy Nichole and Jason discovered there is virtually no support group in our region for children with cancer, so with this thought in Mind, they decided to create a non profit, one that would not only help families in our area who are effect by pediatric cancer but also raise funds to help find a cure. Now as for JDRF, most of you know the story as to why I support this wonderful organization, but for those of you who don’t, let me tell you our families story, five years ago, my cousin’s son Nathan was diagnosed with Type one or, Juvenile Diabetes, ever since then, our family has proudly taken part in the JDRF walk in our area (s) for Nathan and his family, this means they walk in Portland, Or, then me my mom, and my aunt AKA Nathan’s Grandmother do the one here in Spokane. I am happy to say that today both Geneva, now 1 1/2 and Nathan now 11 are happy healthy kids, its up to us to keep that way, lets put and end to these horrible diseases, if you live in Spokane, come by the bake sale if you can, its from 11:30am-5pm(unless we run out of stuff before) next Wednesday at my place of work Emilie Court Assisted Living, 34 E 8th Ave (Just east of Sacred Heart Medical Center) the baked goods are cheap, prices ranging between .25 and .75 if you do not live in Spokane or even if you do and don’t want to come to the bake sale, you can donate online the link for Geneva’s Neuroblastoma Foundation is https://fundly.com/start-up-fund-for-geneva-s-neuroblastoma-foundation?ft_src=fbshare_mobile and to donate to my team for the JDRF Walk (Nathan’s Sky Walkers) go herehttp://www2.jdrf.org/site/TR?fr_id=3950&pg=team&team_id=155486

One “Cartoon” on Facebook I just don’t think is funny

We have all seen them. those little comics that show up on our Facebook walls. most of them I enjoy, but there is one that really hits a nerve with me it reads “No matter what life throws at me, at least I don’t have ugly children” I just don’t get it. Why would we, the supposed adults of the world even begin to imply that there might be ugly children out there. I thought we were supposed to be ending online bullying, not starting it. Now you can make up every lame excuse you want, but at the end of the day, this “Cartoon” as its called, in my opinion is just wrong, and what really shocks me is that is parents that are posting it. 

 

Lets set this up differently, your out in public with your children, they are misbehaving, whatever, now you could be a wonderful parent, whose children always behave, but today, its just an off day, then someone comes up to you and says “Man your children are ugly” you would more then likely jump down there throats, so if its not okay for them to say it in THAT situation, why is okay for there to be a cartoon floating around on the internet about it, just think about it. 

Perhaps I Just Don’t Get It

By now, most people know that Target has banned people from carrying guns in their stores, and if you don’t you either live under a rock or are under the age of 21 and don’t pay attention to the news. I am all for people being able to protect them selfs however they see fit, but why on God’s Green earth would you need a gun to go shopping, If you carry your gun with you at all times (and are doing so legally)Fine, but if you are going to be in a place where children can get to it, or some insane person (it can happen ya know) then lock it in your car. I want to state yet again that I am all for people protecting them selfs however they see fit but I just don’t see the need to carry a gun when going shopping.