it's well below zero...does your heater work???

tossed in a picture of the horseback riders from a monday walk a few weeks back,before snow. always looks like a fun ride. lucky for us we didn't see them this past week when we had so many out there. the next bunch are from campbell airstrip trail with blossom. the creek is partly frozen.

blossom is partly frozen as well.

campbell creek bridge at the begining of rovers run.

these are taken at campbell airstrip trail...rovers run-moose meadow. i went with blossom and then we went up the road to another trailhead to take the sunset picture. i always love the blue skies against the twisted tree branches. below i snuck a shot at some moutain bikers as they cruised across the bridge. i had no idea how it would turn out as i held it by my belly and just aimed it in the direction of the bikers. i just think it's cool that people bike all year here. even in temps below zero you will see some diehard commuters out there with thier big studded snow...bike tires and they have these big mitts that attach to the handlebars to keep your hands warm. i am not a bike commuter, but anchorage does have loads of trails and there are people who bike and ski to work and school. kinda cool really.

got a nice note from dr gitomer. he'd made a comment to me after i told him about the graphics sheet incident about writing a note to the physician action line...i really had no idea what this is. still don't i guess, but the note got passed along to the director of nursing and back down through the adult icu management. it was a general note..."the acc nurses providing sledd care to the patient XXXXXX in the picu demonstrated excellence in aspects of nursing care. they performed with outstanding skill, calm demeanor and cool confidence in the setting of a tiny child who was critically ill. they were excellent team players with the picu staff and all of them demonstrated the true professionalism i have come to expect in the acc nurses". anyway....always nice to get kudo's. it doesn't happen all that often in nursing.

took this picture looking down into campbell creek ice and water. oh and a leaf! below was one of the pictures i took near sunset...that would be around 3 pm for those who live south.

ms rio loves her coat and booties! such a sweetie! she got the zoomies again...she just gets so excited in her winter gear. went to the bog a few times these past few days and yesterday was out at the dog park. ran into my dog park pal jack and his dane, chloe. there are a few dog parkers that i've known since a few months after i moved to anchorage. he's one of them. nice guy.

i think it's super cold out there right now. i'll be bummed if i get called in and have to brave the cold...however, i already had to brave the cold inside. the heater is having some issue. i hope it's just a filter issue. anyway, i was chatting with jeff and when i went downstairs the temp was 55 F. brr!! not supposed to be that cold inside the house. outside the temps are below 0 i believe. should be a chilly walk tomorrow.

they have me on call tonight. i am hoping they leave me be. just finished 3 nights in acc. they were actually pretty laid back nights. the only problem with that was that i had a picu trainee with me. she ended finding other interesting and exciting patients. i decided i was more like her sponser down there. she is nice, does have a few social skill lapses and i spoke to her about being more helpful with the seemingly dull stuff in order to get called for the cooler stuff. i think she had fun...it probably convinced her that picu isn't going to be her cup of tea. she seems to like the crazy stuff so er or the adult unit will probably suit her more....unfortunately for her, nursing isn't always crazyness...often it's minute to minute, monitering...some patience can be helpful. in an icu though, the craziness will always show itself. hopefully, i was able to help her improve her skills. she did comment about me being a drill sargeant. i think she meant it as a compliment?? hmm? a new job is always hard, and her having some social skills make it harder to meld in. she seems nice enough and smart enough. just needs to get more focused and stay with the situation.

there was a post open heart that ended up passing the next night so she stayed over with that nurse much of the last 2 nights. the lady was 82 and knew that she had little chance of living through the surgery. i don't think she was going to live without it either. i guess her husband of many years passed a month ago and she said she was okay...had a good life...so whatever the outcome she was going to be fine with it. i love when people have had a satisfying life and can pass away without trying to fight it, but with peace.

checked in with my brother jeff. he wants me to get skype...i guess he took a job full time up in sacramento and since his partner and child are in southern california it's a great way for him to tuck her in each night. i was thinking of heading south for thanksgiving but i got too late of a jump on it. i'll have to clean the house and have some folks over maybe. he's gotta figure out what thier plan is anyway...can his partner find a job up in sacramento and then just rent out their place in southern cal or will he continue to commute.

also spoke to another brother tom, he was in florida on business. always great to check in with the relatives.

well, i'm going to take a chance and close my eyes. lots to do tomorrow. get a new filter for the heater, arrange for a check on it, maybe get my health screen if i still can, chiropractor, monday walk...i'd take stuff to the recycling, but i finally signed up for curbside. it's in my hood finally. $8/month. that will be nice, will take me a few weeks to catch up...it's only every other week. i also need to get my pals book to study for a class this friday.

veterans day blizzard...

the girls get rawhide treats...the equivalant of a nerf ball for them i guess. just a way to keep them from getting to bothered by sitting around. i did toss the tennis ball for 20 minutes or so outside for blossom as i shoveled the back deck and picked up the doggie remnants. for some reason blossom is more enthusiastic about me throwing things for her if i seem busy. if i'm totally focused on her she gets bored.

after i shoveled the deck....it snowed and blowed so these are blossom's tracks on the back deck. i actually like to shovel. below is northern lights blvd before the major rush...the red tail lights are headed into lake otis. it's a bit rough out there, but better than it had been a few minutes earlier...slippery though.

the day started windy so i stayed in bed a little longer reading the paper and watching snow blow around. went to see my friend jessie for my "spa day". i actually haven't had a haircut since last novemeber...it was time to pamper myself a bit. he just opened a new salon. looks great. always awesome when someone makes thier dream happen. just gotta make the leap sometimes i guess. my hair is now 6 inches shorter and has some blonde highlights back in.

i had blossom with me with the intentions of taking her for a nice walk, but as he worked on my hair the snow started really coming down and the wind was howling. in the end i opted to just miss the worst of the traffic and head home. it can be tough to see the lane lines. still, some people try to speed ahead on the right turn only lane and then slip into traffic at the last minute. at lake otis ( a busy intersection) a woman tried just that. she was ticked that i didn't let her in and did the double flip off...i just laughed. it was her own fault. they said there were 60 wrecks between noon and 5pm...so no point messing around with it. i just take my time, don't rush and i made it home without event. well, other than getting flipped off i guess. people really can be idiots.

that lady that was drunk and killed another motorist was in court. she looked like a school marm. anyone can be a drunk. she was 4x the legal limit.

it's veterans day...thanks to all those who have served, those who serve now and to the families who sacrifice for our freedom.

other news....the swan that was shot with an arrow is now in washington...she got flown south by alaska air...thanks alaska air and will now be some sort of sanctuary or reserve i guess. tomorrow president obama will stop in and give a speech to the military in anchorage en route to asia.

sink hole on the trail....

getting my hair cut and highlighted tomorrow. how much to cut off. hmm...always the question. i could chop it all off, it's been quite awhile since i've done the lop off. it's winter so if i hate it, i can always just keep a hat on for several months.

watching letterman before i crash. he is loving that video clip of that nasty soccer player who grabbed the byu player by the hair and yanked her to the ground.

another beautiful day here in anchorage. sunshine and blue skies!! finally dragged myself out of bed and got moving. took rio and blossom to the bog for a standard stroll. then off to n. bivouac with blossom. i should have taken more pictures...oh well. i took a different loop than we took yesterday. we headed out the dog trail on the gasaline trail...you walk through a creek and then catch the tank trail back. there is more climbs and it warms you right up. it was a bit scarey though as by the creek was a section that was all roped off with orange cones and fencing. it was a big sinkhole and in the center was a circle of water that was bubbling up from below...? i would have taken a photo, but i got a bit nervous that more of the land would disappear beneath me.

i have been figuring out meals the last few days so decided i should stop at freddies for some real food. i had to drop off a bunch of cat beds and stuff at the shelter so i hit the south store....way more upscale than the one in my hood...what's up with that??

had to stop in and look at the pups in the shelter. mostly pit bull mixes. a cute long legged sled dog/husky. no puppies. not that i'm thinking of bringing one home, just seems like you gotta look at the poor pups if you are there. lots of empty kennels. i guess that's good.

really need to get unlazy and start on the to do list...i suspect that i'll crawl into bed early with a book. it's winter now...one can use the cabin up excuse!!

our winter snow arrives.....

we had another fun and successful monday walk. we had 10 dogs and 9 people. wow!!! lets see...tanya, andrea, sandra, melissa, gail, karen, kelly and her friend, katie and me. the dogs...i won't get those all. blossom, boddhi, indy, mandy, buddah, zoey, oscar, duke, and melissa's 2 dogs...i totally am blanking on their names. i'll have to ask again. they all did pretty good getting along. duke is the old man so he likes to put the other dogs in line a bit, but you figure 10 dogs and no fights....they all had a great time chasing each other, finding sticks and just running about being dogs.

tanya holds boddhi..she won't be able to do this for too long. i remember when blossom was a puppy in winter, she'd get tired and i'd put her little self in my down coat and she'd fall asleep in there. now she's 70+ pounds. also shown is andrea and sandra. i was trying to get a group shot, but the group was on the move still. i was too slow.

the group is on the move...this is an early picture with gail in the lead....well i guess melissa and i were in the lead at this point, since i took the picture. dang..i should have taken a picture of melissa. haha . below...well i gotta say that malamute pups little butt end is really cute. only a dog butt could be cute...those little human babies can have cute butts too i guess. so this is a picture of indy and boddhi's butt. ;-)

wait...i did get melissa. she's in the blue. tanya, andrea, melissa, kelly and katie. oh and a bunch of blurrs which are happy dogs. can you see all the tails waggin?

karen and sandra bring up the rear. the snow isn't packed underneath so the trail was a bit rough out there. very slippery. i probably should have put on my snowshoes and packed down the trail a bit. there are still roots that are exposed beneath and we all slipped around a bit. it was really pretty out though so i really don't think there was too much complaining. everyone is so excited that the snow had come. i suspect that was why we had such a big turn out. it's snowing a little bit more tonight. i have a fire in the fireplace....always relaxing.

blossom is a bit sleepy. she is very sweet and checks on all the walkers. she kept running back to sandra and karen to check in...and to rub her face in hopes that the snow balls would fall off.

with a large group. we get spread out a bit. i've yet to get pictures of melissa or her dogs as they tend to lead the pack, especially by the end. i'm so happy that she's made the drive in a few times, especially on a snowy day like today. traffic can be nuts on snow days.

we didn't see anyone else on the trail today except one biker and his dog...probably good seeing as we were a large group. below is karen, tanya, andrea and sandra. after the walk several of us headed to the coffee shop. i brought another loaf of the pumpkin bread that i made the other day to share. it was tasty as always. they just dropped a load of pumpkins to the street below on letterman. one didn't break...of course, i was saddened by the loss of potential pumpking bread.

i had another chiroprator appointment. it was busy there. i'm still not sold on it all and not sure if it's making any difference. i guess i haven't had a big headache since i started, but really i don't note any dramatic improvements. from there i headed to the gym.....finally trying to get back on track. i headed to the pool. got in nearly 50 laps. half with the kickboard. the jacuzzi felt great on a cold day like today.

lots on the news about the shooting in texas...was it just a random act of violence of an individual or was it related to extremism. frightening to think how easy it could be to infiltrate the military. will have to see what evidence comes up and what if anything the shooter has to say about what happened and his possible motives.

a nasty college soccer player taking out everyone in her path..including pulling a girl down to the ground with her ponytail or braid...that had to hurt and could have really injured her.

on a local note, a hairdresser called police to report a client had left and gotten into a car and appeared drunk. they sought her out, but sadly, they didn't get to her before she got into a wreck and an innocent person was killed. she was driving without a license as she has multiple arrests for drunk driving. i think all cars should just come with a standard breathalizer...not start if alcohol detected since so many can't figure out when they shouldn't get behind a wheel, even if told by society not to.

healthcare, economy....it can be tough to watch the news. rather head out for a dog walk.

here is the snow falling as seen in the streetlight last night. i love to watch the snow coming down. the flakes got bigger and bigger as the night passed and the inches were building up. i watched a movie from net flix while i watched the snowfall. so peaceful...

the movie i watched was called, "greenfingers". it's based on a true story i guess of an open prison in england with mostly lifers. these guys end up building a garden and gaining some self esteem and pride in themselves. enjoyed the movie.

took blossom and rio to the bog this morning. rio's stroll as it has become. they were both totally excited about the snow. the tennis balls get packed for the most part as they get lost in the snow so the frisbee's come out in force. blossom is a great catcher and the old man didn't seem to be out yelling. she caught some great air!! love watching her race about and leap for the toys. the snow attaches itself to blossom...by the end of the day she would be caked with snowballs. we have to stop and get the ice balls out from between her toes and pads. gotta be uncomfortable...doesn't really stop her from enjoying herself out in the snow.

love how the snow collects everywhere...just looks so pretty outside. all clean.

right after we got to the bog trail rio got jiggy...she gets super excited sometimes and just has to do spins and twists. i'm sure it's horrible for her knees, but how does one stop such glee!! she was so excited by all the snow she just couldn't contain herself...it's really quite hysterical!! i think in the shot below she is making a quick turn to spin the other direction. no way to catch this activity without video. i've never been too good at video, but this would be a fun one to catch one day. video would be great for blossom frisbee catching as well. blossom was just watching rio's spinning antics.

if there are any dog mushers out there, there is a fun job available in denali national park. apparently, the federal government employs 19.7 million people, but only one of those is a dog musher. they had a nice write up in the anchorage daily news about what the job entails and all. they have had the same line of dogs since the park was created. the job sounds cool, would be a dream for some people who love the outdoors and dogs. the current ranger is leaving after 10 years on the job. it's a demanding job that means thousands of miles of mushing in the winter, paperwork and shows for the tourists in the summers. i'm not a dog musher, but traveling all over denali national park in the peace and serenity sure sounds like a dream. i'm not tough enough...i used to dream of being a marine biologist, but the truth is days in the field are mostly just rough...but the beauty they get to see is enough to make me dream. i would have loved to study the intertidal zone. now i just explore when i get the chance.

IT'S SNOWING...!!!!

got a call from sharon this morning so blossom and i met up with she and cooper for a walk in palmer. it's halfway between us since she lives in sutton. i'd never been there, but there are lots of lakes there and a several walking options. it was a nice day as it turned out. snow really started falling as i was just getting home.
first i took rio and blossom up patterson. rio got to visit with her husky friend up the road. she gets so excited. she's limping a bit this evening.
above is cooper pinning blossom. they had fun in this open area romping. blossom is much quicker and agile than the bigger cooper, but he managed to pin her a few times.
below is an eagles nest we saw along the trail. i guess we walked 4.7 miles. it was a really pretty out there with blue skies popping out at various places highlighting the snow covered mountains. the drive out was super pretty. i stopped a few times to snap off a photo.

see how pretty it all is. tomorrow the world will be white. below is sharon with the dogs. look how pretty they are sitting for her....could it be the treats? later she leashed up cooper and blossom must have known she had the upper paw. she took off and started teasing cooper. he was about to drag sharon across the field so i put her on leash as well. they ran alot though and blossom is pretty sleepy...though she keeps waking up and wanting to check on the snow situation. they dogs get silly happy when it snows. i guess we all do.

we are finally getting snow. it started a bit this morning, but it's building. not sure how much we'll end up with by the morning. i took the opportunity to load my car up with skiis and snowshoes.

was watching a show on noah's ark. apparently there are loads of people out looking for the actual ark. seeing arks from the sky on mt ararat and seeing boats in rocks on the mountains in the region. it occured to me that religion is faith based and perhaps not finding proof is more in gods plan. faith is the test, right? maybe these people looking really are trying to find proof so they can have faith...maybe really they aren't the believers they desire to be and finding proof will not only prove it to others, but to themselves as well. the ark and noah are a story of faith. ironic really.

do i believe a man and his family built a boat big enough to hold 2 of every animal literally...guess i don't have enough faith to believe that. it's no doubt based on something that did actually happen, but has been made larger over the years. stories tend to grow with time. that i can believe. i believe noah was a man of great faith and he may have built a boat and put some animals and his family on it for a journey he felt directed by God to take.

always found it funny when people would get up in church on fast and testimony meeting and say they "know the church is true". of course, knowledge is based in facts and the truth is, these people don't know really, they believe in thier hearts. they may believe so much in thier hearts that to them it becomes fact, but it's still a leap of faith to believe one faith or any faith is the truth. though at times it seemed like some of those testifying were really just out to prove they had more faith than others. i mean....you may think this is the true church, but i know. i think the real proof of faith is action though. how one lives thier life. what you put out there, how you interact with the people in your life. not just the ones you live with and love, but also those who share this earth with us and the creatures and plants that grow around us.

well on to less deep subjects. my tuna helper is almost finished..so that means dinner. yep..i'm eating tuna helper. it's actually pretty tasty.

i'm the sledd b*%^%$!!

since it's cold and dark here and there isn't any snow on the ground i thought i'd toss in a few pictures from a kayak trek of harriman fjord a few years back. we had lovely sunny weather and tons of glacier activity...scarey at times. those things can creat some impressive waves when they calve. but it was beautiful.

yesterday my niece had her twins. saw some cute pictures of them. they were both over 4.5 pounds so that is good and they looked healthy. all are well. so shannon is the last one waiting for baby. she still has some time though not much. that brings me up to 14 great neices/nephews. i spoke to claire my neice today to get more on kelly's babies. sounds like everyone is excited and the babies are great.

joy brought in the leftover pumpkins they didn't use for thier contest so i made some bread tonight. it smells good. i attempted the seeds too , but those just got a bit too toasty. i've never really gotten into the taste of pumpkin seeds anyway, but seems like you have to try.

sad stories in the news this week. in the summer some idiot shot a swan with an arrow. they had caught up the swan, removed the arrow and put it back in with it's mate. they mate for life and the two swans immediatly made a beeline for each other. sadly, the injuries to the swan have now prevented it from being able to make the flight south for the winter. it's mate kept circling, but she just couldn't fly well enough. eventually, he flew off with the other swans and she was left behind. so sad....! the seward sealife center went and caught her up again, but she'll no doubt spend the rest of her life in captivity. maybe they could put her out there for the summers?? hmmm.

3 nights of work done. one was overtime. they put a baby on sledd. he is just 1 1/2 years old. it's always so stressful doing sledd on these tiny things. there is just less room for error and we don't do babies much so we aren't trained for the young ones. so i just run the machine and i have another peds icu nurse in there to take care of the majority of the cares. lucky for me i got to work with joy and tiffany. the first night with the machine was a bit nuts as the machine kept alarming. turns out i just needed to switch the ports out on the hemodialysis cath. trouble shooting is not as easy with the peds tubing and my lack of experience. i was very stressed. in medicine they tell you to first, do no harm. it's hard when you aren't sure whether you can guarantee that. it was a relief to get him off the machine in the morning. he gets a different type of dialysis in the mornings and then goes back on sledd. so i shut it down after like an 18 hour run. it also meant i got to leave work a bit early.

that first night too was frustrating as the one doc is such a bother. she is totally moody and her moods change minute by minute. she'll bite your head off for no reason. i think ultimately the freak wants to be buddies with everyone, but her social skills are so horrid that nobody wants to be her friend. she treats all the nurses with no respect. anyway...i was primarily running the machine so i was working with the renal doc, who is great. he likes to have these graphics filled out so he can see the progress of the patient for the entire hospital visit more readily. i understand that...of course, the thing hadn't been filled out as they rarely do anything with that in peds. knowing he likes it and having respect for him i took the time to sort thru many flow sheets from different departments and after about 45 minutes i had some semblence of the in's and out's graphed out.

anyway...ms nasty doc comes in and starts going off on me for filling it out saying he knows he's in peds and he doesn't care about it. i had actually clocked out so i just turned and walked away. i guess she started heading to the trash with it and made the motion of ripping it up. joy convinced her to just leave it. i made a comment to the nice doc later the next night and he said she was all telling him how great the graphics were. total freak!! i just ignore her and only speak when she asks me a direct question. i know she knew i was ticked at her.

we all had fun despite being stressed...i think laughter gets people in medicine through alot. often families complain that they can hear the talking and laughter at the desk, i know it probably seems odd and unprofessional to an outsider, but our job really can be majorly stressful and we'd all go nuts if we didn't have some way to release the stress. last night tiffany and i totally got the giggles somewhere in the middle of the night. who knows what we were finding so funny, but we entertained everyone else around us. the sledd ran smoothly the next two nights. for me that mostly means that i work about 10 minutes on the hour doing calculations and reprograming. my day replacement was thrilled as she got to sleep in every morning and then get called in for overtime each day.

they had called me to run the sledd tuesday night. it was a strange morning though as i woke up, fed the dogs, crawled back in bed and then felt nauseated and started salivating. i totally just started puking. as i hovered over the toilet the phone rang. it was work in desperate need for my sledd services that night. as i had just puked i passed.

because of the stress underlying i woke up frequently and got very poor sleep worring about the baby and all that i could do wrong. that whole do no harm thing was really weighing on me.

we managed some bog walks and today we went to the dog park. anchorage has frozen up quickly. the lake is mostly frozen. blossom took a few short strolls out there which scares me and i start being a nut trying to get her back on solid ground. there was a guy out walking on the lake...not a smart one i'd say...it's still a bit early to trust the newly formed ice out there. i'd hate for blossom to fall in. she did find a few open areas where she could still swim around. dogs are impervious to the cold it seems sometimes. she was all happy, but i put her in a doggie time out for disobeying me. that really just means she got put back on the leash.

well...i'm very sleepy so i think i will crash. sorry...life was not dull for me at all this week as work was what it was...but it can be tough to bring what i do to life i think. it's a crazy world...though i did get a good idea for a book...a compilation of tales of medicine in the alaska bush. would be an interesting book to research and put together. as usual i will probably be far too lazy to make it happen. i think the tourists, especially those in the medical field would eat it up.

halloween in the twilight zone!!

another monday walk...always fun. blossom gives loves to sharon and kelly. i think she is actually checking out sharons pockets. she always has hot dog treats as she's still training her malamute. blossom is always first dog back for the treat when she calls cooper, she's such a good girl!!

there is cooper. such a fine looking pup!!

i guess this main loop is 3.7 miles according to sharons pedometer. i really thought this little creek would still be free flowing, it is, but it was covered with ice and there were just a few spots for the dogs to get water. obviously, there had been a little dam break and the bridge got covered with ice as well. it seems to happen every year. paula helps blossom locate the water hole for a sip of water.

of course, as you can see, blossom found another water hole further up the creek and tried to take a soak. she's a water dog, that is for sure.

so here is the crew for this monday's walk...paula, sharon, sandra, kelly and i. we had fun and got some coffee afterwards. i brought some cupcakes as it was sharons birthday a few days ago. i guess i missed kelly's birthday in sept...i put it on the calender now so hopefully, i won't forget next year.

spent alot of time in the bog this week. that cheney, n.bivouac...my usual hangouts. now that the bog is frozen i tend to let blossom off to chase her tennis ball more. in the summer the open water is just too disgusting.

lots of frost around so i tried to take pictures. most didn't turn out very well. photography is always a trial and error and a learning experience. above is a magpie. they stick around through the winter. they can be annoying birds, but i think they are pretty.

watched a good movie from my netflix. it was called, "sunshine cleaning". i was thinking i wouldn't like it and put it off a few days, but in the end i really quite enjoyed it. sometimes you triumph, sometimes you fail...but you gotta keep plugging away. i also watched, "music and lyrics" last night as i was on call. it was on tv. i've seen it a few times and i really find it a fun flick. hugh grant is always adorable and charming. gotta love the accents.

thought i was going to have to mufasa to sleep the other day. he didn't eat his dinner, which is shocking and a sure sign to me that he is distressed. he began walking with his hind end down, was sore all over back there and i noticed the cats penis was stuck out...for hours. i called and chatted with my vet friend carla in california. i still have no idea what was up with the whole penis thing. we worried that there had been some trauma...most likely that rio had stepped on and broken his pelvis or something. rio is blind and frequently steps on the old and slow cat. i gave him some of rio's metacam and continued chatting with carla. by the end of the conversation the cat's penis was back inside where it belongs and he felt much better. perhaps he's been sneaking himself some viagra. so the ancient cat has yet another cat life up his sleeve and he still lives. the next am, the same thing happened and i gave him more metacam...he's back to eating and cruising about the house. who knows???

i worked halloween night. as i got ready for work i noticed this pretty full moon...i became afraid. halloween night, saturday night, full moon and we had to work the extra hour for the daylight savings changeover. i seem to always work this 13 hour night. it's brutal. not sure that one hour should be so painful, but it really is. as we came out for report a mortician was there picking up a body...his guerney collapsed on one end bringing the dead patient crashing down. the poor guy was so upset and sweating profusing by the time the patient was back loaded. luckily no family about and the person was in the bag already. at one am...the clocks start going bizerk, i guess they can't go back an hour and must therefore go forward 23 hours. it takes a few hours for those to work again and it did feel a bit like some sort of halloween twilight zone. i had brought my halloween ghoul friend with the screaming and flashing red eyes. we played a little trick on the e-icu. it was pretty funny. we clicked the button for the e-icu and then left the ghoul on the bed screaming and all. they got a big kick out of it.

i had a different assignment every night i worked. first night i had yet another possible h1n1 and a crabby ex-nurse. she was kickin at me and trying to pinch me and just cranky. both were ventilated. it was steady, but nothing bad really...aside from cranky. the lady was big with these tiny hands. i know at one point i was in my other room all gown, masked and gloved and i kept hearing the vent alarm going off. the respiratory chick was sitting outside my room doing nothing. i finally came out to look in my other patients room. crabby had slipped her wrist restraint and had her hands at her endotrach tube. i asked the resp therapist to check her. she moved as slow as molassas...so i was all, "she's going to extubate herself". she still moved slow...luckily my co-workers down the hall heard me and i think they beat her there. i suspect this may have been the same rt that i heard forgot to turn on a vent after attaching a patient to it. sometimes i wonder.

the pictures above and below were taken in n. bivuoac park. we've had lovely clear and cold weather. no snow at my place yet, but it's definitly frozen now.

had sledd patients the next two nights. the first night was a 25 year old with some chronic renal issues...she'll probably have to start on dialysis soon. for now she was fluid overloaded. we slowly removed 7 liters off her through 24 hours. she was oozing blood tons by morning from all over because of some anticoagulants she was on. in the evening i returned to see her room empty. i worried something horrible had happened...but no...she'd been extubated, the sledd stopped and she was off to another unit. wow!! crazy...so they sent me around to take care of another sledd patient. turns out i knew him from a few weeks ago. he was on the oscillator vent from the h1n1 and now he's still vented, but a conventional one and is in renal failure. they had sent a picu nurse down to learn with me as it's so slow in picu and she is having a hard time getting trained. i think there are loads of benefits to the hospital that i've been doing this every other week picu/acc. i think for some of those learning in picu it's opened the door for them to come learn in acc. the girl is a bit odd and at times i could tell she wanted to start talking about her little life drama's. i've learned to not let those doors open. once you listen to peoples drama's they think you are always willing to listen.

spent time in the bog as usual. a few days back blossom cracked through this bit puddle to find her precious water...today she was unable to get through the ice of the bog...much to her dismay.

was able to join my friend maria for lunch finally. always fun. she lives out in eagle river so we met at the new ihop as it's somewhat between our homes. from there i had this evaluation at a chiropractor. i'm still not sure i'm sold on the whole chiropractor thing. seems a bit like a car salesman or gym membership in that they get you in there and then are all...well, you'll have to come back 3x weekly for who knows how long. he took xrays that show some pretty impressive scoliosis of my lumbar region and a straight cervical area that is supposed to be curved. i was always told to sit up straight. i asked dr gitomer about it and he said everyone has scoliosis and it wasn't much to be too concerned about. i'm kinda with him that probably massages and maybe some acupuncture would be better than the chiropractor. i figure i'll try a bit this week and then see what i think. some people really love thier chiropractor. i guess i have aches that come with aging, but i'm not too uncomfortable for the time being.

so i survived another week and another trek to this chiropractor. i'll give it a bit and see what if anything happens with the tweaking. right now i should feed the dogs and head for the gym for some laps and maybe some weights. it's been awhile since i've done weights. i do enjoy them though.

oh...at kaladi's we discussed a nurse we work with in peds. she is 78 years old, still works full time night shift and has worked for providence for 50 years. sharon put her in for a nurse award that united way?? gives out. i'd love to see her get that. i can't imagine working 50 years in one place or still working at my job when i'm that close to 80!! some people are just amazing though.