As mentioned in a previous post, at 7:10 on a Saturday morning, I assumed the care of two Trauma Intensive Care patients.  In bed #3 lay a restless, unkempt, dirty, alcohol-addicted Hispanic male, 42 years old, whose eye was kicked out by a bunch of young thugs. The contrast between him… Read full post »

It's Saturday morning, 6:55 a.m.: Eight nurses sit around a conference table bemoaning the selection of rotten assignments on the Trauma Intensive Care Unit.  Not a posh assignment among them. Everyone paired; two rooms are empty for admissions. The charge RN gives us a quick rundown that goes l… Read full post »

At 5:39, I was dreaming. At 5:40, hoping the alarm was only a remarkably realistic dream feature, I tried to resist awakening. I failed.  So I crawled out of my queen-size haven and headed for the coffee pot.  Waking early is actually a good thing; today I'm working in the Trauma… Read full post »

Undoubtedly you've seen the Nurse Jackie ads occupying every sidebar and banner ad on the Internet.  Perhaps you've read my previous posts about the inadequacies of the popular media in representing nurses.  All of those less-than-completely-truthful rearrangements of electrons notwithstand… Read full post »

I cannot stomach television medical dramas. I cringe as gross misrepresentations of handsome doctors, submissive nurses, absent clerks, transporters and housekeepers spew forth rapid-fire from across my family room. I roll my eyes at physician omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence, cackle knowing… Read full post »

Another Day in the Life of an Intensive Care Nurse

7:10 a.m.  I got report on a 43 year old alcoholic, comatose from liver disease, and a 73 year old woman with emphysema and heart failure brought on by an adulthood of smoking and obesity. When she stopped smoking, she got… Read full post »

No more white stockings.

Silly cap and starchy dress

are hard to run in.

Ignore the lobby's

shining glass, ferns, waterfalls.

Hands do the healing.

  Read full post »

Mr. Nailor came to me about six months ago from the senior assisted living facility where he resided. They had a  large communal kitchen, a well-equipped craft room, and raised beds for gardening outside in the summer.  He'd lived there independently, generally sound but for a few chronic i… Read full post »

It was 7:30 a.m.in the medical ICU.  My shift, one that promised to be busy, was just beginning when I entered Mrs. Paysons' room. Her daughter was softly speaking to her of matters I decided were not meant for my ears.  Trying not to eavesdrop, I checked alarms, verified  intravenous… Read full post »

1. Cats, in chronological order:  1) Ducky, 2) Crystal (the sweetest girl ever), 3) Tillamook, a.k.a. Mookie, a.k.a. Mr. Mook, a.k.a. Mooker, a.k.a. The Mookster, 4) Elmo a.k.a. Elmer, a.k.a. Mr. Elmer, a.k.a. El-Amir, and 5) Ormont Boy a.k.a. Monte, a.k.a Del Monte., a.k.a Montego, a.k.a. Tego.… Read full post »

I mourn for the demise of nursing care. I really miss giving back massages, changing linens merely for comfort, and sitting down to talk with people. I especially miss the value placed on caring as critical to quality health care.

Since my career began, gradually, it seems quality has been… Read full post »

A friend of mine had a baby in August. She credits me as her inspiration for studying nursing; now she's working on her PhD, studying hormonal aberrations in elite female athletes. So my baby gift had to be good. To purchase it, instead of patronizing Babies R Us or Target, I… Read full post »

In the Trauma intensive care unit, tragedy abounds. People wind up here after shooting each other in trivial disputes; they get drunk and smash  their cars and bodies; heart attacks make old men plow Cadillacs into trees; feckless pedestrians get broken by careless cell phone talkers.  We s… Read full post »

Teresa and Dave's modest suburban home was reaching the age where it might be considered retro-funky instead of merely outdated, as it was when purchased 15 years ago.  The silver foil striped wallpaper,  looming oak-and-glass chandelier and burnt-orange tiles were long gone - even our long… Read full post »

Monday morning

My two assigned patients for the day were a developmentally disabled Latina whose lungs had failed (we thought because her brain had failed, but no one really knew) and a very lovely older woman who was too well for the ICU. I had the pleasure of saying good-bye to… Read full post »

Proctor  and Gamble has funded a study, just published in the esteemed New England Journal of Medicine, on the benefits of testosterone patches for women suffering from lack of sexual desire.  They had to search intensely for study participants, I am guessing, because although about 40% of… Read full post »

You've no doubt heard the statement before: U.S. health care is  broken. We spend more of our GDP on health care than any other country in the world, but our outcomes are inferior.  Much widely- cited top-tier medical research takes place on American soil, with American minds and American m… Read full post »

Part I

It was June 3, 1976, when my sister Joan and her husband Ted went on their very first outing as a couple after the birth of their son. Aaron had been born nine months earlier, to the great joy of all of his family. He was the first local… Read full post »

 I.  The blue dress

Because of her untimely death, Ada never met Stella.  Eventually their lives  would entwine in stories retold between daughters and mothers clearing  tables after guests had gone.  In truth, Stella and Ada had little in common.  Ada was feminine… Read full post »