My Nose is Running Away...

...I guess I'd better go catch it.

Ha ha ha ha. Funny Funny. Ok, maybe not. It's hard to be witty when sick. I have a cold and my head is stuffy, and my nose is runny and my throat hurts and I'm tired and achy, and the skin around my nose is all raw. Fun Fun Fun!

Was miserable yesterday, thank goodness I was off. Missed work today, but I can't tomorrow. So I've been resting all day but I still feel all sniffly and not happy. Relatively minor in comparison to whats out there I guess but who likes to be sick in any capacity?

So I've been sleeping and reading my cadaver book and watching TV and movies and sleeping and blowing my nose and trying to drink lots of fluids.

Ok back to sleeping. I'm sleepy. Hopefully I'll feel betterer soon so I don't have to run and catch my nose while trying to get patients out of bed tomorrow. You wait right here, try not to fall, I'll be back in a second... That'll go over well at my annual review tomorrow afternoon.

Ok time to schluff. Byebye.

Wacky Mac

Kosher Mac and Cheese.

I love Wacky Mac. It brings childhood memories of boxed "artificial" mac and cheese to a kosher kitchen. And with fun shaped noodles too! Not that I don't love real and homemade mac and cheese, but who has time to make it so often? So I get the boxed kind for quick comfort pleasures on cranky evenings.

What makes regular "Kraft" or other brands Mac and Cheese unkosher? Rennet.

Cheese is made by coagulating milk to make curds which are then separated from the liquid, whey. The curds are then processed and matured to produce cheese. Milk is coagulated by the addition of rennet. The active ingredient of rennet is the enzyme, chymosin (also known as rennin). The usual source of rennet is the stomach of slaughtered newly-born calves.

Under Kashrut, Milk and Meat cannot be mixed. So putting an animal product into milk to make cheese is a BIG NO NO. Kosher cheese is made with vegetable, or microbial or artificially produced rennet, of course supervised by a Rabbi.

Anyway so Wacky Mac doen't have animal rennet and is supervised by a Rabbi so it is a Kosher produce found in the Kosher section of the supermarket.

So my question is this, why on a kosher product do they tell you to enhance the mac and cheese dinner to add ham or bacon to the product? Hmmmm, milk and meat? A kosher no no! Pork? Also Kosher a no no! Adding pork meat to cheese? A double kosher no no!! TREIF POLICE!!! HELP!! THE PIG IN THE DAIRY SINK IS WAVING TO ME AGAIN!!!

Scuse me. Long story.

Anyway, just one of those Kosher mysteries that I thought I'd BLOG about and share with the world.

Scrubs

I got to wear scrubs today! Well, scrub pants anyway. For half the day. Why you ask? I got pooped on, I reply. Yes, again. Part of the job I suppose. I stood a man up and SPLAT!!!! Out it came, and splashed. Onto my pants. You get the picture. I I got to wear scrubs while I washed my pants! Except there wasn't any detergent. So I used water in the washing machine. And I didn't bother to dry them because I wanted to really wash them when I got home. So I wore the scrubs home. I think I'm supposed to return them. Oh well.

These are the reasons that I think therapists should be allowed to wear scrubs on a daily basis. The blood and the pee and the poop! But we don't look professional with scrubs so they say. So why do doctors and nurses look professional in scrubs and we don't? I ask. No one can tell me why. Just that we don't so we can't. But I got the pleasure for this afternoon at least. :)

And that was my day. Nothing else interesting happened.
But YAY for scrubs!

Black and White Abstract Art

I know awhile ago when I posted up some of my Watercolors I said I'd post some of my Black and White Abstract Drawings.

I started doing these as doodlings in my notebooks when professors would drone on and on and on, or when they would get off on random tangents etc. They evolved into full page doodlings. Here are some of them.

This next one is something I learned how to do sometime in elementary school art class. I call it a "fingerprinting" drawing because it looks like the center shape is making a fingerprint ripple around the page. I've done this with names, phrases etc. This was one I have hanging in my bedroom at my parents house of my own name. :)

These next two with the pink ribbons I sold. Rob and I walked in the Avon Breast Cancer 3 Day Walk in 2003. I sold these to raise money, all proceeds went to the Avon Foundation . Which works to advance Breast Cancer Research and to bring education and treatment to those who otherwise couldn't offord or access it. It's really a great cause. And the walk was a lot of fun. One of the best parts of selling these drawings was that the person who bought them used them in an auction to raise $$$ for her Avon Walking. So in their making, they were able to give twice to eliminating Breast Cancer.

This last one was a wedding present for Adam and Laurie. :) YAY for Adam and Laurie! The pictures aren't great because of the lighting and the reflection of the frame, but the drawing is hearts and swirlies surrounding a center heart with the phrase Ani L'Dodi V'Dodi Li. I am My Beloveds, and My Beloved is Mine. That's part of Song of Songs and is a part of I thinkl the Ketubah (Marriage Contract) Those who know more can correct me or not, but either way it is a beautiful and commonly used phrase for weddings and marriage and love.

So that's some of the drawing art I do. Abstract, I find it hard to draw something "real" But pretty cool looking i their own right. Hope you enjoyed!

Hospital Beds are UNCOMFORTABLE!

Well, Camping out at the hospital left me with little sleep for the above reason.

It was fine, I got some supper, watched the news on the TV in the patient lounge on the rehab floor for a bit, went to my room on the pedi floor, read my latest library book. (Stiff; the Curious Lives of Human Cadevars)(Hey, it's interesting, funnily written and it was a NY Times Bestseller!)(Ok, yes I have an odd taste in reading sometimes) Anyway, so I read for a bit and went to sleep early.

Or tried to go to sleep early that is... I kept waking up ever couple of hours.

Rubber/plastic mattreses just don't do it for me. They crinkle and make noise when you move. And every time you roll over, the air in the mattress adjusts itself and the bed makes a lot of noise. You can unplug the bed, but then the mattress goes limpish and that's uncomfortable too. And there was an unhappy baby on the floor. :( Poor thing. So I didn't sleep much.

I sat at my window for awhile during my waking hours and watched the snow fall. That was nice. I like watching snow fall, as I BLOGged about the other day. And I got to watch the maintenance people attempt to plow the outside parts and exits/entrances of the parking lot. It was like watching Tonka trucks move around. :) I watched them for awhile, went back to sleep, woke up a couple of hours later and watched them some more, it looked like they hadn't done any plowing. It was kinda funny, but I also felt kinda bad, they were up all night just trying to keep up with the storm, keeping the lot and the streets around the hospital clear for ambulances etc.

Today the hospital was eerily quiet. It's always quiet on a Sunday, but it was quieter because a lot of people didn't make it in for their shifts because of the snow, and a lot of patients left early on Friday and Saturday morning because of the storm. Maybe it was busy on other floors, but it was quiet on Rehab and on Ortho. Which was a good thing for me, I didn't have to run around or be stressed and I was so tired that it helped to be able to move at a bit of a slower pace. We're still really behind, but I was the only therapist for the Acute Care side of the hospital so I only got to go to ortho today. I can only do what one person can do. So I spent my day making people with bilateral knee replacements, back surgery, and neck surgery walk up and down the hallways. :)

I left relatively on time, a bit early actually, and came home and took a nap because I was so tired.

And that was my weekend. I will thoroughly enjoy my day off tomorrow catching up on sleep. :)

Camping out at the Hospital

Well, it's 4:30 and I'm just finishing up at the hospital and I can't see out the window. It's snowing SO HARD!!! I live too far away (25 miles) to make it safely home and back at 7:30 in the morning in a blizzard, so I'm camping out here in the hospital. Not ideal, but betterer than getting stuck in my car and freezing, or getting into an accident. I called the administrative peoples this afternoon and explained my situation and they said I could stay and offered me a place to sleep etc.

The National Weather Service had this to say: (I highlighted and bolded the really interesting parts.)

... A BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH SUNDAY MORNING...
SNOW WILL MOVE IN LATE THIS MORNING. THE SNOW WILL BECOME VERY HEAVY LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING..AND MAY MIX WITH SLEET TONIGHT AS WARMER AIR MOVES IN ALOFT. TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS WILL BE 14 TO 21 INCHES BY SUNDAY EVENING. IN ADDITION TO THE SNOW... NORTHEAST WINDS WILL INCREASE THIS AFTERNOON... AND WILL BE QUITE GUSTY TONIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING. WINDS MAY GUST UP TO 50 MPH LATE TONIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING... ALLOWING VISIBILITIES TO DROP TO NEAR ZERO AT TIMES. THESE WINDS WILL RESULT IN SIGNIFICANT BLOWING AND DRIFTING OF SNOW AS WELL AS POWER OUTAGES. WIND CHILL VALUES WILL BE BELOW ZERO AT TIMES.
A BLIZZARD WARNING MEANS THAT SUSTAINED WIND SPEEDS OR FREQUENT GUSTS OF OVER 35 MPH ARE EXPECTED WITH CONSIDERABLE FALLING AND OR BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW. VISIBILITIES WILL BECOME POOR... WITH WHITEOUT CONDITIONS AT TIMES. THOSE VENTURING OUTDOORS MAY BECOME LOST OR DISORIENTED... SO PEOPLE IN THE WARNING AREA SHOULD STAY INDOORS.
ANY TRAVEL IS STRONGLY DISCOURAGED. IF YOU LEAVE THE SAFETY OF BEING INDOORS... YOU ARE PUTTING YOUR LIFE AT RISK.
THIS IS A LIFE-THREATENING WINTER WEATHER SITUATION! PREPARATIONS TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY SHOULD COMPLETED BY NOON TODAY!...

So to be on the safe side and not threaten my life I'll take the uncomfortable bed in the pediatric unit being offered to me. I'm glad I brought a change of clothes and a book etc. with me this morning.

I'm sure it'll be an interesting evening.... But I'm glad that the hospital cares about my safety enough to put me up for the night.

Snow

Mostly I dislike winter. The storms, and crazy drivers, and dirty muddy snow, and sandy streets, and salted sidewalks. I hate being cold.
But during the storm, while the snow is falling, there's something magical about it.

I love the snow. I love the cool brisk feeling of being outside while it's snowing. Of being cold but warm all at the same time. I love to bundle up and take walks in the storm. I especially love walking in the snow at night. I love to watch it falling, glittering in whatever lights there may be. I love how it crunches under my feet, I love the shimmering glisten of an undisturbed patch, like there's something secretly special hidden in it all. I love to watch the trees catch it and become coated in white like a frozen fairy forest.

I love the feeling of the snow falling onto my face, and how it looks on my jacket. I love to catch the flakes with my gloves, marvelling at the simplistic complexity of each small piece of wonderment. I love to look up at the sky and watch it floating gently downward at the earth, making things bright and shimmery.

I love walking in the snow at night. I love being out in the storm. I love the quiet peacefulness of it. Even in a city things seem so much more still. Not so many people are out there, all huddled in their homes. It's quiet and freeing, silent and loud all at the same time.

I say a bracha,
Baruch atah adoshem, elokeinu melekh ha-olam, oseh ma'aseh v'reishit. Praised are You, Lrd our Gd, King of the Universe, Source of Creation.

I stare in wonderment at the falling snow and I amazed at the beauty of the world, how perfect Gd has made it for us.

You only need to take the time to see the beauty in the simplistic.

I love snowstorms.

Another Loopy Patient

Poor thing, she had a stroke and was a bit loopy from it. But she was cute too. She was alert and oriented x3 (person, place and time) but it took her awhile to get there. She had to reason her way through it.

Where are you?

Not at home.

Ok so where?

In the place I don't like, they won't let me go home.

Where is that place?

The hospital with the chains.

(Unfortunately she was also having hallucinations, she thought chains were put on her the other day, it was kinda sad.)(I ignored the statement, because I and her sister had already attempted multiple times to reassure her that there were no chains)

What's the name of the Hospital?

It's named for the city.

What's the name of the city?

Oh wait, I live here, its Bridgeport Connecticut!

So what's the name of the hospital?

Bridgeport Hospital!!!

What day is it today?

Hmmmmm, well do the kids have school today?

I don't Know, do they?

I think so, so that means today is... Monday, no the kids were off Monday today is Tuesday.

Why were the kids off on Monday?

It was that black guys birthday!

What was his name?

Hmmmmmmm, Martin! That's my nephew's name too!

What was his last name?

Luther.

What was his other last name?

He had another last name? Why would someone have two last names?

Well Martin was his first name, Luther was his middle name, what was his last name?

Ohohoh, I know! Like Elvis, THE KING!!

(I didn't worry about the Junior)

And so that's basically how it went. She was very cute and while her eval took a lot longer than normal, it was kinda fun and made me smile. Loopy patiets always make me smile. It's kinda sad but also kinda entertaining. Is that bad of me? I dunno. They're just usually the cutest and most fun to work with.

Ok, time for work! Have a good day!! Keep warm! If I was cold yesterday, I'm FREEZING today!!!

I'm SOOOO COLD!!!

As of 7AM from the Weather Channel Website

Current Conditions for Stamford, CT

Partly Cloudy
9°F, Feels Like-8°F
Wind: From NW at 17 mph

I'm COLD!!!! We turned off the heat in the middle of the night because we have electric heat and it's inefficient and expensive. So we warm the room up before we go to sleep and then when you wake up it's FREEZING! I felt like we left the window open or something! I DISLIKE cold cold weather, especially without the heat in the morning. Unfortunately it takes some time to warm up the rest of the apt, and by the time it warms up I'm out the door so I don't usually bother. But it makes for cold morning ADL's. Plus my hands feet and nose get so cold all the time and have trouble warming up. I'm always warming my feet on Rob, it's like I have no blood or something.


I think this is the coldest it's been all winter. We're heading for a high of 18°F today, a low of 5°F tonight. FUN!!

Oh well, off to work while thinking warm thoughts. For any of you in warmer climates, send some sun my way..... :) Thanks! :)

It's been awhile..

Over a week in fact. Well, I've been busy. Work is, extremely crazy and nuts. We’ve done some calculations, and we’re something like 65% OUT of compliance. It’s NUTS! Anyway, I’ve been working long hours and crashing when I get home. I usually get home, have a bit to eat and then I read a bit to unwind and then I go to sleep.

I’ve been devouring books lately. I haven’t read for pleasure in the longest time. I went to the library a few weeks ago and got out some books. J Some of the ones I’ve enjoyed the most…

Burn Unit, by Barbara Ravage. This book I read in like 3 days. It’s REALLY interesting, discusses with Burn Doctors, nurses, therapists, patients, families mostly from Mass General Hospital in Boston. That’s one of the premier burn units in the country. And the book goes into the history of burn care, past and present treatments used and why, what happens physiologically to a burn patient and why, it was really very interesting. As someone relatively new to working with burn patients, it was really cool to read exactly why and how things happen in the body, why there’s so much swelling, why certain treatments are used, all with great detail, yet in lay-mans terms. I loved it. J But then again I love that kind of stuff. Biological, medical, and gory. If you have any medical interest or want to learn more about what I do, and what goes on in a burn unit, what patients and families go through, read this book.

The Power of One, by Bryce Courtenay. This one is about a British boy growing up in South Africa during the WWII and post WWII eras, about his life, learning, relations with people of all races, German, Afrikaans, British, Zulu, Shaangan and other tribes, etc. It's about his life, relations, his love of learning and of boxing, his views on equality, the meaning he had to all of the different races and tribes and groups in South Africa. A movie was made out of it, which is what got me to read the book. But as usual, the book was much better.

The Ladies Auxiliary, by Tova Mirvis. This one is about the Orthodox Community in Memphis, Tennessee. And what happens when someone different, yet the same moves to town. How the community reacts and what goes on. I really liked it. I really like this author. I love her quirky writing style, it almost always brings a smile to my face, the Jewishisms that pop up, and I love how well she writes characters, how well I can relate to them. Her second book, The Outside World, which I own, and actually read before first, I REALLY enjoyed. I related to every single character in this book. Every thought, feeling, fear, hope, dream, etc. I’ve read that one many times since I’ve gotten it and I really enjoy it. I love the way she writes, and how she creates characters and happenings that just seem so real and relatable. Again, highly recommend these two books.

So that’s what I’ve been doing with my evenings to unwind from the stress of overwork at work. I love to read, I used to be such a bookworm, but when I was in school, I was doing so much reading and studying, I found it hard to read for enjoyment because I was so tired from reading all the PT stuff. Now I’ve found my way back into getting lost in a book, in the characters, in the story. I had forgotten how enjoyable it all is. J

Anyway, time to go to shluff, gotta be at work early tomorrow to do the schedule.
Nite Nite, and Happy Reading!

Shabbat Shalom

I've missed candle lighting by about a half hour, but that's ok. I've had a busy day and I'm just settling into the Shabbat mood and spirit. I'd rather miss it by a bit than rush and feel that Shabbat is a burden. Because Shabbat is most certainly not anything like a burden, it's absoloodle the opposite. It's a time of joy and peace and relaxation and I hate to start it with the opposite feeling. Before I settle in for Shabbat, I wanted to say Shabbat Shalom to the internet world. I'm happy for this Shabbat, it's been a long week again, and I had today off to run errands etc, and I have tomorrow off to rest, and I'm spending Sunday with my sister and cousins so I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend, with Shabbat and it's restful peace to start it off. Hopefully this will be a good end to a long week and start next week off on the left foot. :)

Shabbat Shalom. Have a Peaceful Weekend. :)

I know it's been a few days...

Well they've been busy and tiring days. Friday I went to work. I was on the Rehab unit, which was fine. Went to bed early and slept through New Years. Went to Shul Saturday morning. Went to my Aunt's the rest of Saturday and also again on Sunday. We finished Shiva Sunday night. It was a looooooong and tiring week.

Been at work this week, CRAZY schedule as usual. So I'm tired. I've ben getting home, eating supper and then I read or watch TV for a bit and then I'm asleep early. I've been so tired, emotionally, mentally, physically. It's been a long week.

Hopefully things will look brighter for the future, my family will get each other through our emotions, work will get better when they hire more therapists, I'm having dinner this weekend with my sister and cousins from my Dad's side of the family, and I have my annual review and get a raise (hopefully) this month. I know it'll be minimal, 3-4% but every little bit helps. :)

Anyway, have a good rest of the week, it's time to go to work!!!