The Welcome Mat ...

Part of my job is to set up patient rooms for the patients we have coming the next day. Without putting too much information out there, I think (for the purpose of this blog) it's important to the story to explain a little about who our patients are and where they come from.

The unit that I work on has the number one doctor in her field in the world and the hospital I work at is also a globally rated facility for the care of certain conditions. The unit I work in is particularly special because of who we treat. We treat patients that have been diagnosed with a certain, rare, strain of bacterial infections that include a few really well known (but rare) infections and some that aren't well known, but all in the same bacterial family. The idea is that the patient comes and stays for five days and in those five days they are given very thorough testing, both traditional and nontraditional, and amazing care from doctors and nurses that specialize in exactly what is wrong with them. Often they

Unfounded Resentment ...

For the purposes of some back story on blogs I will soon write, this is re-posted from my old blog and was originally published April 10, 2012 ... 

So, I have had an issue for a while now with my mom ... I live with her ... long story if you haven't been following ... and just today my boyfriend had a similar issue with another relative ...

People around us have started building resentments for things that they take on themselves ... in my case ... one example is how my mom always cooks breakfast every morning ... nobody ever asked her to do it ... in fact when I first moved in many times I was on my way to do it and she already was ... then one of two things happens every now and then ... the first is that out of nowhere she blows up at me about how I "never" do breakfast and how I am not pulling my weight ... the second is that one morning she just doesn't do it, but doesn't tell me she isn't going to and then it causes issues ...

In my case, what needs to be understood is that I had been living without a parent for eleven years ... and I've been  a mom for just as long ... I know how to

15 Days ...

Originally posted on my "old" blog ... November 12, 2010 ... although I added extra information at the end ...  and appropriately this is being scheduled to post on my son's birthday ...

My five year-old son spent 15 days in the hospital, including two surgeries, six in-room procedures and countless tubes, IVs, pokes and other fun things ... so here is the entire story.

First off, I will preempt this by telling all my lovely readers that my middle daughter has a history of chronic illness, and usually when these kinds of things happen, they happen to her. My son does have a history of Reactive Airway Disease (RAD) and has had pneumonia three times, but two of them weren't bad at all and the third was associated with lab-confirmed H1N1 last fall. He did end up on in-home oxygen with that one, and they talked about hospitalizing him, but never did.

So, here is the story of our little adventure this fall ....

On Wednesday October 13, my cute little five year-old boy started off a cold with some sniffles and a little bit of a cough, but nothing seemed too bad, according to his dad (sidebar- my kids go every other month and every other weekend between their father and me, October was their month with their dad). Saturday morning his dad started getting more worried about him, he was spiking high fevers, throwing up almost everything he ate (including medicine), and had a really good, unproductive cough ... Sunday morning my son was taken to urgent care, they said that he sounded clear, his O2 Saturation was in

What I Meant to Say Was ...

So ... when you decided to be a total and complete asshole and comment on my status on Facebook ... I responded ... but in a nice way ...

I'm glad that you decided that my completely innocent post that had nothing to do with you or your job became your place to decide that you would throw out your superiority ... your casting of inferiority on the rest of the American population ...

Don't get me wrong ... I'm thankful for what you do ... freedom isn't free and men and women that are all over the world doing it are all deserving of thanks and honor ... and you are far from my only friend that is currently doing it ... far from the only person I know that has been there ... and definitely not the one with the worst story to tell ...

What I meant to say when I commented back was ...

It's a good thing you and your family never needed help from us inferior healthcare workers

The Downside of Selflessness ...

Selflessness is a good quality right? ... Especially in a man? ... you would think ... and really it is ... the situation that the lemon man and I have going on right now though makes me question the value of selfishness ... I mean we all have to be a little selfish once in a while right? ...

This is the blog post that will make me feel guilty as all sin ... the one that will bring my religious roots up to bite me in the ass as I even say some of what I'm going to say ... and I will preface it all with the fact that I adore what he does ... I adore his commitment ... I adore ... well ... him ...

I knew this coming into our relationship ... we were friends for a long time first ... I knew where his loyalties were ... and would be ... I knew the commitments he had made ...

His grandfather suffers from a debilitating disease that will eventually be fatal ... he actually has surprised most of the medical field in how well he has been over the last few