Wednesday, June 16, 2010

A Cloud of Blackbirds

The person you are dating is a vampire. Hilarity ensues.


If you ever forget how many cats you have, simply open a can of tuna. Then count them.


I was hanging some IV antibiotics for a patient and I overheard the family members talking. One lady was telling a younger male visitor that Jesus was coming soon and recommending that the man get close to God before this occurs. "I'll be glad to get by God if he allows me to smoke weed," said the young man. They then agreed that Jesus was a stoner. The young man claimed that there are neuroreceptors in the brain that are specific to THC bonding, and he suggested that The Creator made it this way.

The patient himself had suffered a hemorrhagic stroke. One pupil was fixed and he had a facial droop. That was nothing really. During a trans-esophageal echocardiogram he had sustained a perforated esophagus. Later he developed a collapsed lung which required chest tubes. His swallowing was impaired so he was fed through a tube. He was unable to walk or even sit up on his own. Yet the family held to an unshakable faith that he was going to get better.

That's probably not going to happen. He's probably going to go through a series of infectious processes and eventually die of pneumonia or something. I've seen it happen a thousand times before.

I gave that patient everything I had. I gave the family everything I had, too. They loved me. But the patient is still going to suffer a prolonged, very expensive, and miserable death. It's too bad.

A miracle could occur, but it would not be that the patient amazingly recovers. The miracle would be that the family members get some sense about them and see what is really going on. I doubt that is going to happen.

I knock myself out trying, anyways. That's what nurses do. I do not judge. I just work.


Statistics show that mothers earn less and less money with each child that they have. This is part of what we here in America call "family values."


Phoenix is a "horse town." If you have enough room on your property, even if you live smack in the middle of the city, you can have livestock. We were jogging along Central Avenue today and ran by a house that had a goat in the yard. Is Philadelphia like this?


Whoever first said that "necessity is the mother of invention" got it precisely backwards. First things are invented, then everyone has to have it and cannot live without it.


"You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear." My spouse just said that. I am listening in on their phone conversation. My dream for some time now has been to open an internet cafe called "The Pig's Ear." We would serve tasty and nutritious snacks and beverages and feature live jazz on the weekends. Like a 19th-century lyceum, we would also feature guest lecturers on important topics of the day.


Can you love that which is unseen?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, if you sense its existence and if a person has integrity to strive to express themselves, such as yourself, you can absolutely love that which is unseen.

WinnyNinny PooPoo said...

Sorry my dream business is to open Cafe Elvi where everyone dresses like Elvis and all the food is deep fat fried. You can be young Elvis old Elvis Fat Elvis Drugged Elvis, but we won't let Elvis with the Nickle Plated Revolver in the door....the food will kill you quicker...

wstachour said...

Speaking of the Pig's Ear, I ate at a restaurant in Warsaw called Inn Under the Red Hog. They specialized in pork dishes, each named after a murderous dictator and indicating whose dictator's relative's recipe it was. I had Nicolae Ceauşescu's Hog Leg, his granny's recipe supposedly. Awfully good wherever it came from.

Anonymous said...

I really enjoy reading your posts. I'd love to read more postings but your job sounds very time consuming not to mention stressful.
I can empathize with the goings on with your day job. My mom is 94 and in and out of hosp. which creates an alternate universe for me called "crazy trainin". I see how hard nurses work to take care of the elderly... thnak you!!!! by the way. And my hub works in behav. health (smi pop.). Your blog reminds me that there is beauty all around us despite the harsh realities of living. I will keep reading!

woolywoman said...

That is the essence of being a nurse for me: I do not judge: I just work.