Cheyenne RN,BSHS

(((((((((rehab nurse)))))))) i am so sorry. my heart goes out to you.

my kitty tigger, evidently got into a cat fight this past week. i had him at the vet for an i & d of several large lumps. once they shaved the areas i could see the bite marks, but until then all i could do was feel these "lumps." naturally i was afraid that they were tumors and my imagination was running wild. you could not tell he had been in a fight at all, i just noticed him licking one of his paws a lot and when i checked it his dew claw was red and infected. on the way to the vet to have that checked i found the "lumps" i tell you what, cat bites can sure leave a nasty smelling infection. he is on antibiotics and i have the joy of getting the pills down him tiwce a day. pic of tigger and flicka

i have read the book and several others about the holocost and the survivors. i lived in germany until after i was 10 as my father was stationed there. the concentration camp at dachua was not far and there were many people at that time (in the 1950's) who did not want to talk about what had happened at all during ww2. dachua had been opened to the public but had not been rebuilt and opened to tourists like it is now. when my parents and i went through the gas chambers to view them, you could still smell that "funny" odor there.

i ordered the book and i am now approximately 3/4 of the way through. (chapter 8 part 2) i really like her presentation that nurses are the last line of defense in keeping patient's safe and that as nurses, we have a duty to rescue. that has struck a core note in me. to quote susan: "one of the major roles a nurse plays in the health care system is to make sure those defenses don't fail and that treatments, medications, and procedures don't kill or harm patients." (page 96) most of what i have read is so true. even though i think that i am rather assertive in advocating for my patients and not allowing a doctor to talk down to me, i am guilty of playing the verbal nurse-doctor word games that exist in order to obtain what i need/want for a patient. i wish that i could say otherwise but i can't. for me the essense of the book is in this one paragraph susan wrote: "hospitals have to have enough educated staff to recognize a problem when they see it. that staff must be with patients enough of the time to know the patient and observe and detect problems before or as they happen." (page 97) wow! that covers staffing issues and patient acuity and bedside "presense" all in a few short sentences.:selfbonk:

wow, i was feeling like the odd one out and cannot tell you how good it is to know that there are others in the medical field going through the same thing. i wanted to keep working and find that focusing on the problems and all of the patients helps me not stay so focused on myself. it just is hard some days more than others. the fatigue and hot flashes are the worst part. (and the mood swings on a bad day.) trying to keep up with the rest of the staff with a full load has my butt seeking a chair to sit on and chart more than i used to, but then our facility has the computerized emar and charting systrem and does not want their nurses "sitting at the nurses station."

i kind of have a question. i had a uterine biopsy and was diagnosed with adenocarcinoma right before christmas.(yeah, what a holiday that was) i had surgery in january and since the cancer had not invaded the lymph system i do not have to have chemo. i do go for check ups head to toe every three months. ( it is like having a stress test every 3 months.. lol) i still work the medical floor and carry a full patient load. i find that i do get tired easier and have lost about 38 pounds all together now. (but i did need the weight loss.) instant menopause has made the hot flashes a reality and the moods swings have me sometimes holding onto the end of a rope trying not to fall off. i was just wondering if there are any other nurses out there who are cancer survivors. also, i lost my son when he was almost five years old to a childhood cancer, retinoblastoma. i think that is what makes dealing with my own cancer a little harder.

rn2be nj wrote: sometimes i think about getting a dog after school - i need a running buddy , but i'm not sure because they are a huge commitment...i love weims and border collies, but i would adopt from a shelter and probably get a heinz 57. heinz 57's usually are the most well rounded and loving of the dogs to me. at least they seem to be with every one i have ever adopted. pet shelters and the animal pounds are the best place to get a loving pet and save a critter at the same time. lol. tweety, your babies are beautiful. uro-rn wrote: italian greyhounds are like miniature greyhounds? i dunno anything about this dog breed. actually italian greyhounds are the "toy" breed of the sight hound group. sight hounds include the graceful and lovely afghans, the salukis, whippets, and of course the greyhounds themselves. i am sure there are more that i can't recall right now. ig's or iggy's, which is what a lot of the owners of italian greyhounds call them, are 13-15 inches tall according to breed standards. they are really all legs and chest. i would l-o-v-e to come back in a next life like that. lol i also have two cats and my room mate has one. they have all blended into one big happy family and one of the cats was raised with the dogs and thinks he is whatever they are. i think a greyhound would be super if they were cat tested and passed. it is so sad because so many of the greyhound rescue groups end up rescuing dogs from race tracks and they are taught to chase little furry things to race and cats are very much something to chase to them. i still donate to the rescue groups as i love greyhounds. actually i love all animals...with the exception of spiders and snakes.

you all may get a kick out of this one. i didn't at the time. my smallest ig flicka is the "baby" and the diva par none. she is wayyyyy past spoiled. well, my cat likes to catch live things, ie lizards, birds, moles, snakes(these he usually has dead thank heavens) , and chipmunks. he also likes to bring them into the house where i have to catch them and get them back outside. i suppose that is his entertainment...watching me catch things. lol chipmunks are the fastest little critters i have to go after and rescue and really hard to catch too. the last time my cat brought in a chipmunk i had managed to corner it in the bathroom behind the trash can and after shutting off all the escape routes .... i had a towel ready to throw over it and thus pick it up without getting bit and take outside. well, that was the plan anyway. flicka, my ever present velcro baby, was with me and i never thought about the nature of the dog and instinct etc. as the little chipmunk started to dart out and between my feet and before i could throw the towel over him, my little innocent diva flicka snatched that chipmunk up and snapped it back in forth in a flash and killed it. i was like "oh my god no." she was so proud of herself and i was left to pick up this poor lifeless little "prize". it is hard to watch your "baby" regress into their natural state and "kill."

looks like i will have to order that book from what you are saying. sounds good.

wow. in a dog that small i would think a blood sugar like that would be terminal. it sends adult patients into comas so it's a miracle that your poor baby was still alive. i hope all goes well. do you think you will be able to give the dog shots? how would you monitor the blood sugars? keep me posted. on another note, my room mates cat has been sick and the vet checked him. bb has a positive antibody for heartworms, which is rare in felines. poor baby can't keep any food down and stays so hungry. :o

my room mate and i went to the dog show this past weekend and took the ig's. they had a blast sniffing booty and wagging tails with all the other canines there. i love getting to see all the breeds and the what-nots at all the vendors there too. it looked so funny to see my smallest ig standing up on her back legs to sniff the great danes or the irish wolfhounds. they are b-i-g but gentle. lol. we also had their eye certifications done to make sure they didn't have pra. both dogs were so exhausted after being out all day they conked out on the way home in the back seat and then jumped on the couch when we got home and slept through supper.

dutchgirl, i meant to ask this. did your iggy develop any bad habits while they were in the cast?:madface: my little flicka not only enjoyed chewing the stuffing out of her cast which required many re-castings, but she developed a habit of chewing into my furniture and removing the stuffing out of that!:idea: she isn't so bad now that she is older and out of the cast, but if there is even the tiniest hole in a bedspread or piece of furniture, she will revert back and pull the tufts of stuffing out until i cover the piece of furniture or get it repaired where she can't see and get to the stuffing.:nono:

Poor Rudy and bless your heart too. It is so hard to watch the a little IG with a leg in a cast. My Flicka had a 4th degree luxating patella and had to have knee surgery when she was about Rudy's age. Our vet is really super working with sight hounds and doing minute detail ortho surgeries. She was able to operate and fix Flicka's leg and she has not had any trouble with her knee since and runs and jumps as high and as fast like my male IG. Of course I cannot count how many casts we went through once she learned how to chew the stuffing out of them LOL. Good luck with your baby.