Beaded Pins and Broach Contest

The Sassy Art Goddess is having her fourth annual beaded face pin contest. Click on her link and see the darling entrants from the 2007 exchange. All you need to do is send in one "faced object" of any medium and $5 in return postage, and you will get back a whimsical piece of art someone else has created in exchange for your own.

This is such a fun idea. More information about this contest can be obtained here; then click on the Yahoo Group to join.

Here is one broach submitted by Maggie Robinson last year that would be fun to wear:

A Note from Denver International Airport

Julie is in stable condition.

This marks the last leg of the United Airline return jaunt from North Carolina.

I'm sitting at United's Gate B92 using the DIA "free" wi-fi for connectivity. Other than a tight keyboard, the Little Asus Eee PC works fine for travel. It is short on memory, so toggling between windows makes it difficult to make links. That is a problem easily solved by adding a few extra dollars to the memory for an upgrade.

And I was disappointed that the hospital which I visited had a strong firewall which made emailing a hassle.Otherwise, the Eee PC worked fine.

A few random thoughts while on the plane from Chicago to Denver:

My cell phone was virtually unusable this trip because I brought the wrong phone battery charger, so this trip was similar to traveling 20 years ago without cellular service. My bad for not getting the correct charger. I heard yesterday that Cindy McCain has three blackberries to keep up with her seven children. I could not manage even keeping one cell phone energized.

Sarah Palin puts down her IPhone and picks up the breast pump at any given hour in her life; I barely wended my way back and forth from the motel to the hospital without making lots of wrong turns and missteps on exits. Speaking of Sarah Palin. I. Love. Her. Can you image relating to H.R. Clinton on that level? Uh uh.

Much more later; my flight is boarding.

Reflections from the Bedside

Update on daughter Julie: lab reports are good, appliances are working, except for her shunt which diverts CSF (cerebrospinal fluid) for her hydrocephalous.

Chair side observations IMHO:

1) Nurses are overworked and stressed;
2) Hospital food is generally tasty;
3) The general public does not understand the importance of hand washing;
4) Hierarchical symbolism in the hospital has changed over the past few years -- every direct patient care provider slings a stethoscope around their neck and wears scrubs. Therefore, doctors distinguish themselves as "physicians" by wearing a sport coats over their scrubs, and leave steths to the assistants
5) RN's are the only nurses employed here at Carolinas Medical Center; LPN's are a thing of the past;
6) 12 hr. shifts are the norm for RNs; charting is half their workload;
7) Lab results still get misplaced/lost. (Julie's most important CSF labs are still "missing" after five days, and the risk of tapping her shunt for more lab work is risky.)
8) Drama is constant; one does not get too excited over minor crises;
9) Common courtesy is often overlooked by patients; a sense of entitlement often pervades the patient's outlook;
10) Ensure that the patient visitor can take care of themselves in all ways before "visiting" the patient, or the visitor will be a burden to all concerned;
11) An hallucinating patient can almost make one believe an outlandish story, simply because they are so convinced of their own reality;
11) In general, people surely do complain about minor annoyances;
12) Pain control is better managed.

Update on daughter Julie: lab reports are good, appliances are working, except for her shunt which diverts CSF (cerebrospinal fluid) for her hydrocephalous. She is to have more x-rays this hour to determine the amount of CSF fluid around her lungs.

Julie is stapled all the way from her clavicle to her bottom. She is quite coherent and the hallucinations have abated. She is not in pain.

Hurricanes, the Republican National Convention, and life goes on.