just another day at work...

 this is the scene i saw upon awakening friday morning.  this is what i see out my window. i love to wake up with a view.  this time of year the sun doesn't rise until 9:30 so i even got to sleep in!!  this is why i love clouds...they make a beautiful sunrise spectacular!

 i got thursday night on call.  didn't sleep well.  when i'm on call for the adult unit i rarely do.  there is just a higher chance of getting called in.  i still enjoyed my night home.

 these were taken on my walk friday out at campbell airstrip.  i took this little side path that follows along the creek on the way back . so beautiful.

 still cold and lots of ice to enjoy.  each winter has it's own feel and this one is chilly and with little snow.  happily there is a base coat of snow which makes all the difference on these dark days.

 friday and saturday nights in the adult icu i was precepting one of the new interns.  i think she will do well.  hopefully, i was helpful in her training process.  they leave at 3 am so then i take over the patient that the intern has cared for until that point.  i thought it all went well.  nice to have help and get paid that extra buck/hour or whatever it is these days.

 my patients were both nice with disasters for guts.  a bad gut can really make you sick.  misery.  so one patient was pleasantly confused and the other was tearful and stressed.  there was a lot of hand holding between cares.  trying to help them cope with the changes in their lives.

 one has a new trach and the other has a new ostomy.  those are probably two things that everyone wants to avoid in life.  even nurses are apt to moan and roll their eyes at the care of these two things.  for the new nurse i could see she was nervous of the trach.  i think  i  convinced her that her patient was not going to die when the trach disconnected.  it's easy to train people who you feel are competent and intelligent. i admit to having less patience with those who i fear will not be successful and should find another area to work in.

 there are many people around us who live with ostomy's.  i tried to explain this to my other patient.  i also tried to reassure her that there are nurses whose entire careers are focused on the care of ostomy's and helping people adjust and adapt to life with ostomies.  surgery was emergent and she didn't even know she'd gone to surgery, let alone several surgeries and all that that comes with being septic and critically ill.  it's hard to wake up and realize that you've lost 3-4 weeks of your life.  overwhelming.

 more ice crystals...some of the ones i saw that walk were the size of feathers.

 had a little incident that bothered me at work.  i know i can  be overly sensitive, but it just didn't sit well...was someone being purposely mean, was it a joke gone bad, was i being overly sensitive.

 in the fall i put up signs announcing the monday walks and inviting all who want to join to come out.  it started as a way to make new friends and encourage people to get out and socialize and walk in the dark and cold of winter.

 last night i noticed one of my little signs had been drawn on.  i have a picture of blossom coated with snow. someone had drawn in a collar and put my name on the dog tag...like i was the dog.  i don't know, it just seemed not a nice thing to have done.  chances are it wasn't anything personal and that someone was trying to be funny, but on my second trip to the bathroom i removed the sign.  who needs that?

 it didn't help i think that he guy i followed, who always leaves a mess, had made one of his typical insensitive,trying to get a reaction comments.  did he draw on the sign cause he's a dick?  who knows.

 he had commented that he'd gone ice fishing with his dog and that he was worried his dog would tear it's acl on the ice and he'd have to kill it.  i mentioned that my dog had had a knee issue and i'd had a brace made for her and she did well.  his response was something like, "i wouldn't do that, some people like their dogs, it's just a dog, i would just kill it".  jerk...

 ice and rocks.

 the sun again is lovely this time of year.

 no walk today.  it was a day of rest.  still have to put the recycling out to the curb.

 it doesn't look like i will get called off tonight.

 we walked out to this second bridge that had previously flooded.  this hole still exists in the ice on the trail.  could be  bad for someone if they didn't notice it.

 here are the feather sized frost.  so pretty

 this section had sink holed down...it looked pretty cool

 heading back

 miss blossom ended up being part of a photo session.  some lady was out there taking pictures and she just had to take a photo of blossom.  blossom was very obliging and the lady ended up taking many photo's of her.  she asked for my email so she could send me pictures.  like i need more pictures of blossom...right?

 i have an entire blog of pictures of my dog.  she is adorable and hard to resist so i guess i can't blame the lady

 these are on the creek path on the way back.  so many cool water/ice features.

 even a small creek goes through major changes due to the cold temperatures...frost, ice dams, flooding

 much more frost along the banks of the creek that out on the trails in general

 loved the reflections in these.

 more people out on the trails, lots of people off work and obviously not everyone was shopping.  i just refuse to deal with black friday..i don't care what deals there are to be had, it's not worth the crowds and blatant consumerism.

 little waterfall.

 just hit the bog yesterday.  it had been awhile.  not many photo's yesterday so i'll just add those in later.

 after my walk i headed over to amy's to check on the baby and meet amy's mom before she heads out.  the baby is adorable...of course!!

 amy seems to be settling into her new life as a mom.

guess i better get off the computer and get ready for night four of work.