September, 2007 Archive

i am tired, but guess what, i will not whine about that. 

i choose to  focus on the positive and express my sincerest gratitude to all of you who wished me and my family well, when we moved. thank you guys. from the bottom of my heart.

anyway, i am on leave for two weeks, but last week, i had a  few of those work stories or thoughts that are just itching to be blogged, so in between arranging things to clear up the garage, i will bore you with those stories.

in the coming days, i will tell you why i am scared to death about giving patients Ambien for the first time. literally scared to death, i will go to the extent of suggesting that we just let the patient stay awake the whole night just so i can’t give it. that scared.

also, i will tell you why one night, i swore on not helping one of my coworkers ever. never ever.

and when i have finally processed it in my head, i will tell you how it boggles me to no end that in my heart, i still deeply love my dad when my head reasonably screams that loving him is not a very good idea. sometimes, i hate it that my heart is so stubborn.

for the meantime, in the next couple of days, i will bloghop and see what is going on with your lives so i can recover from my week long blogging withdrawal.

imagine the withdrawal suffering!

anyway, there’ll be no internet connection for a few days. that means, for a while, i’ll be without my daily dose of blogging due to this moving situation. when you see me sweating and pacing, it’s not really that bad, it’s just me craving. hopefully, packing, unpacking and arranging will divert my attention and lessen the symptom

Dr. Anonymous (THE attending of all blogaholics), do take a break from your blogtalkradio programs and send me the “cocktail” prescription. please?

seriously, see you all in a few days. i’ll miss stalking your blogs, but will definitely catch up when things settle down in our new place. also, my sincere THANKS to all of you who shared my excitement, and wished me and my family a happy/great life in our newly borrowed house. thank you guys!

as for the last post, i don’t really know the rest of the story. thing is, even with that fact, i was still uncomfortable with the way HE interrogated the patient about her previous nurse. in my personal opinion, it was none of his business.

there will always be patients who would say things about other nurses. sometimes, they have good things to say. i usually smile and agree with them, even if that implied i may not be as good as the previous nurse. sometimes, they have bad things to say. to that i say something to this effect: “i’m sorry you had  some problems with your nurse today, i’m sure she/he had reasons. sometimes, we do get crazily busy around here.” this is not because i am some sort of a saint or a hypocrite or something, but i just think it is unprofessional to fire up negative issues. there are a lot of real issues we need to deal with, and nurse bashing, or the implication of it, in my opinion, should not be one of them.

then again, maybe it’s just me.

overheard conversation between nurse and patient, who happened to be my patient’s roomate:

nurse: how was your day? did the AM nurse treat you well? was she okay?

patient: she was okay.

nurse: i mean really, was she nice to you?

patient: she was nice, but not as nice as you.

nurse: oh. how about the dressing change? was she gentle? were you comfortable?

patient: she was okay i guess.

nurse: did she do it properly?

patient: she was fine.

me, in my head, to the nurse: what is YOUR point?

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seriously, am i the only person who finds this conversation weird?

because if i remember correctly, when we assess the PATIENTS, we’re supposed to know how THEY are doing, not evaluate how good/bad their previous nurses were.

goodness, what is wrong with me?
why am i always overanalyzing these trivial things?

we got the key to our newly “borrowed” house this afternoon. as of now, and for the next 30 years, Bank of America owns it. when all those 360 monthly payments are in, in 2037, we can fully call it ours.

who knows what tomorrow brings? somebody said “i do not know what the future holds, but i know WHO holds the future”. i completely agree. i might not live that long to see the the house when it is fully paid, or i might. we’ll never know, but that fact didn’t stop me from being emotional about the whole thing. when we stepped inside and inhaled that newly painted scent, i had to fight back tears.

i know some of you may find it annoying that i make such a big deal out of this news. i do not blame you. after all, borrowing a brand new house is not something out of the ordinary for most americans.

if i tell you however how when i was little, we used to live in a house with no floor, with walls made of large recycled cans, and with roof that rains inside when it’s raining outside…you’ll have an idea why i am making such a big deal out of it. this is a blessing that i didn’t even imagine i deserve, and i am very grateful.

this blessing is also emphasized by the fact that my husband and i started this dream together even before we got married. some of you may not find any sense of romance in that, but i personally find it very romantic that OUR simple dream is now a tangible reality. it makes me feel warm and fuzzy all over. so please, pardon my melodramatic mood.

don’t worry, i will eventually stop talking about our new place. before i finally do that, let me just say this, with the hope that it will be helpful to future home buyers: 
     Countrywide Home Loans, you really think we will not notice the extra $11,000.00 origination fee? as if delaying our move in for almost three weeks by messing up our rates and terms were not enough, you told us we will NEVER get a better deal! we are very disappointed. you’ve proven every bad rumor as truth, and then some.
     Bank of America, 5.8% for a 30 years fixed term? as if very efficient loan officer and assistants were not enough, you also closed our loan in one day! we are very impressed. now i see why you have what it takes to be called THE bank of America.

anyway, i still have four nights scheduled within the next ten days, then i’ll be off for two weeks. we don’t have a lot of stuff, so packing and moving will hopefully be a breeze.
or not.

thanks for your thoughts on my last post. you have given me ideas and courage. i told myself i will not make any excuses anymore. if something like that happens again, i will be ready. if i mess it up again, i’ll make sure you will not hear any of it here.

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on a totally unrelated topic, but for a good cause, september 21st is World Alzheimer’s Day. if you are interested to help in finding a cure for this depressing disease, please go to this site. you can also go directly to their consumer site, to help raise a million. thank you.