You'll probably die from heart disease, stroke, or a diabetes-related morbidity, usually hastened by obesity -- which also hastens heart disease and stroke. The idea behind reading this is that I assume you're not in a hurry to die and have a passing interest in feeling good while you age. It ought to be common … Continue reading What Kills Us and Why That Should Matter to You Now
Category: Uncategorized
Emails, TVs and Cell Phones, Oh My!
Everyone likes a responsive nurse. After every visit, managers argue, field clinicians should read their emails and respond to those meant for us. I tend not to take this advice. I too like prompt service -- for take-away coffee, for pharmacy orders. But when standing in front of the coffee queue, they see me; or … Continue reading Emails, TVs and Cell Phones, Oh My!
Euphemisms
Every day we face challenges letting go of something. In these hoarding, COVID19 pandemic times, are we ready to let go of anything? If we name something, acknowledge it, that's not necessarily painful, but in our imagination of it, it's painful. Pain of perception: "We close our minds to many difficulties because of the painful … Continue reading Euphemisms
On Hoarding
Medical supplies aren't exactly groceries. The TP/flour/sugar/Sani-wipes that the fear-crazed have been climbing Cosco shelves to knock down stacked boxes of, or filch from other shopper's carts, to get one more of something: O me! What fray was here?/Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all./Here's much to do with hate, but more … Continue reading On Hoarding
What You Aren’t Told About Hospice
I listened to a Jan 21 npr radio story while returning from a day of home hospice visits. It wasn't really news, and precious little investigation is in this misguided "report" from a couple of families. The families spoke wisely about hospice, which when first presented to them appeared a welcome alternative to the prospect … Continue reading What You Aren’t Told About Hospice
How to be Sick
I'm sick today with a head cold. Scratchy throat, hoarse, malaise. I was sick yesterday but worked eight hours from home, documenting. Yesterday was our team meeting and didn't prepare for it the day before. Today I'm taking most of the day off. I'm taking PTO, anyway. It started out with sleeping in. I don't … Continue reading How to be Sick
Death Surprises in Human and Political Realms
Few things are as prepared for as the actual arrival of death. We have all our lives to prepare for it, and yet how often I witness surprise once it does occur. If not with the dying one, then the spouse is coming apart, or one of the children can't cope, or one of nieces … Continue reading Death Surprises in Human and Political Realms
Metrics
In the first few minutes during a visit an experienced nurse encounters 30 to 40 clinically pertinent measurements, adding up to about 150 within 20 minutes. The trick is how to consistently record these. Most of them are not recorded.
The “M” Word
Morphine: there, I said it. Some people can't be in the same room when it's discussed. And then it comes the day after hospice sign-up, shows up in a FedEx bubble wrap bag while the family is still second-guessing their decision, in one of those small cardboard boxes about the size that you'd let your … Continue reading The “M” Word
Gift Cards
If you're like me in several human tendencies - and I think we're similar - you circulate among people who give and receive prepaid so-called gift cards that are "good for" something at specific businesses. What these gift cards are good for are stimulating the momentary delight in being thus gifted. Seldom any benefit exceeds … Continue reading Gift Cards
Hospice Nursing 1 Day at a Time 