Rice Krispies

Same Stuff, Different Day

2011-11-13T16:27:00.000-08:00

I don't know why it took me so long to realize (or perhaps just remember) that the ingredients for exciting opportunity are the same as the ingredients for overwhelming insanity. Solomon was right, there is nothing new under the sun! All of life problems boil down to the same few themes and no matter were you go here on earth, you'll be met with the same kinds of challenges. Yep, it really is same stuff, different day!
A friend of mine told me she hated it when I would say that, apparently it sounded depressing? I for one, am happy that if there's nothing new, at least it's a different day. I am happy that each day is a NEW day and new opportunity to put my trust in my Maker that He will bake those ingredients into the most grand and exciting adventure of them all!

Still Here With 10 Months to ABD!

2011-11-06T21:07:00.000-08:00

No, I didn't fall off the face of the planet. I've been adjusting to my new job at Evergreen and working on my PhD stuff. The job is a little crazy right now as we are preparing for a JCAHO visit and we have a year's worth of competencies to catch up on.
School is as busy as ever, I'm just doing my best to keep up. I'm counting down the ten months (if all goes well) until I'll officially be ABD (all but dissertation). So until then, I'll just keep plugging away.

New Adventures

2011-09-08T08:11:00.000-07:00

This week marks the start of my new job as clinical nurse educator at Evergreen. So far it's been full days of sitting through orientation. Yesterday I finally got my email sign on, when I checked my email, I had 3 weeks worth of messages in there. Apparently there has been scrambling to get my office ready? I was cc'ed on a bunch of emails regarding it's condition and dump like qualities since it has been vacant for so long. So, thank you to the environmental services person who spent hours making it sparkle. If only I could take you home with me!
For everyone who's been asking about how I like my new job or what I'm doing, I don't really know yet as I've only been sitting in orientation. Next week I'll be working with some of the people in education department, so I should have more of an idea of what's going on then.

Que Hubole?

2011-08-15T10:02:00.001-07:00

Starting at Cruz Roja

2011-08-15T09:17:00.000-07:00

After a nice relaxing weekend,we will begin our time working at Cruz Roja today. The group will be split between two clinics, I'll be at Zona Norte which is in a poorer neighborhood. The plan is to rotate the students between the two sites so they can see a little of everything. The students are excited, we'll see how they feel tonight. So far so good.
We're having some great times of fellowship with our host families. It looks like our social calander is booked up for the weekend with dinners in people's houses and parties with pinatas. Good times, God times...

In Mexico City

2011-08-12T22:28:00.000-07:00

Hello to anybody who still reads this blog. I'm currently in Mexico City with 8 nursing students. We have been out in the mountains in Oaxaca for the last few days doing free medical clinics. We've finally made it back into Mexico City tonight and are hoping to get some sleep before we hit the ground running tomorrow.
I'm hoping to be able to post some pictures soon and to share more specifics about the trip but I have very limited internet at the moment. More to come...

Lorazepam

2011-06-20T21:49:00.000-07:00

During the first few nights in Rwanda I was suffering from jet lag and was unable to sleep. Lisa so kindly offered me her ipad so I could listen to her "sleepy time" play list to see if some soothing music might help. As I scrolled through the playlists on her ipad I cam across one title "Lorazepam." For all you non medical folks, lorazepam is a sedative and is also used to treat anxiety. Of course I found the very idea of a lorazepam playlist quite amusing so I took a listen. It didn't take long before I was hooked, it really worked! The power of music is pretty amazing. When I got home I made my own "alprazolam" playlist.
I love this idea and I think I might suggest it for some of the new grad nurses I'm mentoring when they work their first year in practice. Here is one of my songs from Lisa's lorazepam list: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXywFuTf65I&feature=related

The Finished Product

2011-06-19T21:10:00.000-07:00

One of the main reasons for my most recent trip to Rwanda (although, who needs an excuse)was to deliver the complete and final version of the trauma curriculum. It only took me four years to do it, but I finally finished the entirety of basic trauma curriculum that I wrote specifically for the resources available at Kibogora Hospital. The lectures are all recorded on video complete with skills demonstrations. Each module has a case study, assignments and a unit exam. It felt pretty good to hand the whole thing over to Sheila. I even took a photo as proof!
Now maybe I can start concentrating on that dissertation...

To Hell and Back

2011-06-14T08:53:00.000-07:00

It was the weekend before Easter Sunday and I was scheduled to work at the hospital for a 12 hour shift. The assignment I got was a single patient, a woman with stage four cancer and aspiration pneumonia on a ventilator. She didn't sound too terribly complex in comparison to some patients I have had, but I would soon find out why she was singled.
As I walked into her room that morning the first thing I noticed was the number 666 tattooed on her forehead. Though she was on a fair dose of IV sedatives, she was still quite agitated and thrashing about in the bed. As I proceeded with my routine assessment I noticed two other satanic tattoos on each of her arms, additionally I found one that said "Property of ______" (fill in the blank with a name).
Upon the neurological assessment I found her to be able to respond to yes and no questions by nodding her head, she was also able to follow basic commands.
As I was charting I felt God prompt me to approach her and ask "Do you know there is a God who loves you?" When I asked her this, she began to cry. I spoke with her about it a little more and asked if I could pray for her. She nodded (or maybe she was just getting restless) so I did.
Because she was so restless and thrashed about, I couldn't leave the room as she ran the risk of extubating herself and pulling out all of her IVs. In between medications, dressings and charting I did my best to find out the story behind this woman's tattoos.
Long story short, her mother had died shortly after she was born. She was hospitalized with a head injury at age 4 which resulted in her being labeled as developmentally delayed and having almost weekly seizures. She was molested as a school aged girl and homeless by high school. She showed up in a different state several years later as homeless with a drug and alcohol problem. She had a history of multiple suicide attempts.
Later I looked up the name written on her arm and found that he was a convicted sex offender who had been imprisoned for kidnapping young girls and prostituting them at truck stops around the country. I saw a photo of the man who was also, ironically, covered with satanic tattoos.
When I got home from work, I continued to think about this women and the interaction that we had. What was it like for her to find herself restrained to a hospital bed with people hovering around her giving her interventions that she likely didn't want and probably couldn't understand? My stuggles can't even begin to compare with many of the things she has gone though. Did anything I had to say to her mean anything?
As I prayed and pondered these questions that evening this scripture came to mind: Isaiah 55:11 "So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it."
If the words I said truly came from God, then they are His words and He gives them meaning and purpose. He then reminded that aside from being God, He had been to hell and back for her and for me. What a wonderful reminder of the redeeming power of God, I am humbled.

Muzungu Moments '11-4

2011-05-27T21:23:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've been a little slow with my updates. It's been a busy week with a lot of things to do so I'll just give a short recap.
Yesterday Dorothy and Melba went to visit the Batwah Pygmie village with the hospital chaplian. Apparently it was quite the amazing experience but I have yet to see their pictures as yesterday afternoon and last night were so full.
Lisa and I finally got the 12 lead EKG machine working properly. The radiology tech is the one who does the EKGs here so we spent some time with Xavier showing him how to use the new machine. It will be interesting to do some follow up and see how often it is used and what kinds of patients are getting EKGs ordered.
I also had the opportunity to go out with the ambulance. We went to a nearby health center to pick a woman in labor with possible fetal distress. I don't really know much about OB so I couldn't really offer much in that department, but I was able to learn more about the actual ambulance, it's equipment and the transport system.
In the afternoon, my class did some ambulance drills. I think it's safe to say that everyone had a lot of fun. Our assigned pretent patients did a great job acting sick or injured and there was a lot of laughter involved. We drew quite the crowd!
It's now time to start heading out to Kigali where we will visit the Bourbon (Rwanda's Starbucks with the most wonderful Rwandan coffee ever!) and perhaps visit the genocide museum. We fly out to Kenya tomorrow afternoon. It's hard to believe that the trip is almost over.

Muzungu Moments '11-3 Ambulances in Africa

2011-05-23T11:05:00.000-07:00

This morning after I finished my class I went down to the ER just to see what was going on. Communication is starting to get a bit better and I managed to get the point across that I needed to look at/in the ambulances. When I went out to the first ambulance I was pleasantly surprised to find a nearly full oxygen cylander, a working portable suction unit and a fully functional transport monitor complete with EKG cable and and SPO2 monitor, score!!!
Nobody seemed to know what the oxygen tank was or what to do with it so I'm assuming that is how it remains full. I found a few electrodes for the EKG monitor and we tested it out on John, the driver, who had never before seen an EKG. It was like Christmas for all of us! We couldn't stop smiling and laughing all over a simple EKG tracing. I must have spent about an hour in the back of just one of the rigs showing John and Dr. Bora how to turn off and on the O2 tank and what to do with all of the other exciting finds of the day.
The next time the rig goes out when I'm not teaching, I'm supposed to tag along. I guess I'm teaching an ambulance class at the end of the week.
Melba is having a good time with her quality improvement group and Lisa taught a clas about heart failure to the doctors today. Dorothy's got the backboard strap situation almost completely covered. We've been keeping busy here, I just wish there more hours to the day.

Muzungu Moments '11-2

2011-05-21T08:57:00.001-07:00

Lightening is Striking Again...
Last night after my class session I went down to the emergency room to track down Lisa and to see what was going on. As I was walking down the hill, two ambulances went speeding past me. As I got down to the ER entry there was a lot of commotion. All of the ER beds were full and there were crying babies, and people moaning on stretchers all over. I couldn’t find anyone in the ER who spoke English and Lisa was nowhere to be found so I ran back up to house to see if I could find her and we could all go to the ER to help.
As it turns out,5 people who had just been stricken by lightening had been brought in from a village clinic; two little boys and three women. One of the women had a baby strapped to her back at the time of the strike and had been thrown to the ground baby and all. We examined all the patients for signs of arrhythmias and burns, looking for entries and exits of electricity. One of the boys had burns on his neck while another women was found to have burns on her back and yet another with burns on her legs. The infant was assessed for potential injuries from the mother’s fall but checked out as normal.
All of the patients were admitted for observation overnight. Lisa was able to do a little education about rhabdomyolysis and the importance of administering fluids and assessing labs. This morning when we went to round on the patients, no labs were available. We also had difficulty even finding the patients as nobody seemed to know where they got transferred to. Fortunately, when we found them, all of the patients appeared stable but the overall experience of watching how this situation was handled was quite interesting. The doctor we were working with had never seen lightening strike victims before and I had only seen one under very different circumstances. What an interesting day!

Muzungu Moments '11:1

2011-05-20T10:42:00.000-07:00

I taught the trauma assessment class yesterday and used Melba as my patient for demonstration. Everyone thought she was my mom! Things went fairly well and in the afternoon session we had opportunity to practice, which is always fun to watch. It was the lone midwife in our class who seemed to pick up things the most quickly, a sharp woman she is!
Lisa and I were able to round with one of the doctors in internal medicine. We are seeing quite a few respiratory infections, cases of ascites and case of heart failure.
It would appear that our next assignment is to fix (figure out how it works) an EKG machine, teach basic EKG interpretation and prepare a basic curriculum on heart failure. This wouldn’t be a problem accept for the fact that poor Lisa is only given 2 hours to present 5 subjects! We shall see…
Dorothy is having a great time working with the malnutrition program. She may even get to go to a village to see the community nutrition programs! We have also charged her with the task of designing some backboard straps for the two new backboards that have been made here a Kibogora since I was here in 2008. (See blog posts of May 2008 to truly understand the excitement of this). Lisa also had the brilliant idea of making pinwheels for the patients to blow on (because there are no incentive spirometers) for pulmonary hygiene; another great way to put Dorothy’s creativity to work!

Hats off to Kibogora

2011-05-19T10:39:00.000-07:00

We've made it to Kibogora with 323 crocheted or knitted hats! The hats were made by various women (including my mom, my sister, my old high school Spanish teacher and Julie's mom) around the state of Washington to be given out to children being treated for malnutrition at the hospital program. Before we left, people just kept loading us up with hats. We were able to vacuum pack them and take every hat we were given. When we got here, Dorothy counted 323 hats for Kibogora!

Mediwe From Rwanda!

2011-05-18T06:14:00.000-07:00

Mediwe from Rwanda! Melba, Lisa, Dorothy and I made it safely to Kibogora last night. We have now had a good night's sleep and are being filled on the happenings around the hospital. This afternoon's assignment is to fix EKG machines! It looks like I'll be teaching the nurses the trauma curriculum in the mornings with practicum in the afternoons. I will also be working in the ER and with the ambulances. Apparently there is a need for some training regarding patient triage and transport in the ambulances, sounds like a fun project to me!
Lisa and I will be working together fairly closely on the teaching projects and we might just whip something up about cardiology also. Melba will be working with the nurse managers on quality improvement issues and she will also be working with Lisa and I in developing a disaster plan. Dorothy is already happily working away in the supply department and later she will be working with the child malnutrition program. She might also get to go to the villages to work with a community nutrition program as well. All in all we are doing well and are excited to get started working on things. The projects however, just seem to be getting bigger. I guess that just means that we'll have to come back again to continue them!
The internet here is a little scetchy so I don't know how often I'll be able to update this, but I hope to do it frequently. Thanks for reading and thinking of us on our journey!

Slumber Party in Kenya!

2011-03-29T17:23:00.000-07:00

I just bought 4 tickets to Rwanda! Unfortunately we have an 11 hour layover in Kenya but I anticipate that we will all be so tired that at that point we'll be at the "everything is funny" stage. Looks like we'll be having a slumber party in Kenya!
So it appears that I will be returning to Kibogora,Rwanda with a wonderful team of health care professionals. The team consists of a family medicine doctor, a fellow nursing professor and a nutritionist. I will be delivering the completed trauma curriculum. My friend Lisa (the doctor) and I will be developing some teaching materials on basic cardiology for the hospital staff as they just recently got their first EKG machine.
Melba,the other nursing professor, will be working with the nurse managers on quality improvement strategies and Dorothy (the nutritionist) will be working with the child survival program. I also plan to do a little networking and note taking for possible future work on my dissertation. Stay tuned for another round of "Muzungu Moments."

They Should Put a Warning Label on These Things

2011-03-12T07:36:00.001-08:00

I think there should be a warning label on graduate education, esp. doctoral education. I've heard that doctoral education is less about learning certain things and more about becoming a certain kind of person. It's true... Doctoral education is an experience that will change the way you see the world, think about the world and communicate with the world forever. I can't say that's a bad thing but it's not an entirely good thing either. There is danger of becoming indecisive; instead of becoming more concrete, many things become more ambigous. The people who make up degree programs and decide prerequisits, objectives and requirements; the people who accredit these same programs are people no different than you and me. This a scarey thought in my mind. Embarking on this process also has potential to affect the way you are able to relate (or perhaps more likely, not relate) to others. How do you make your new paradigm compatible with function in the world you live in? It would be interesting to do a study on students persuing a PhD to examine the life changes they experience during and immediately after PhD journey. Did they experience any major changes in their relationships with family, friends and collegues? Did they change jobs? What would they put warning labels on?
I asked one student what she would put a warning label on and we ended up having a really interesting conversation. What life experiences would you put a warning label on and why?

I Love It When a Plan Comes Together

2011-01-29T20:39:00.000-08:00

The other day a student came to my office with questions about clinical paperwork. Somehow the conversation went from paperwork to prayer and ended up lasting and hour and a half. We talked about the things we were learning about prayer and the things we didn't understand about it. We talked about how prayer "changes things" but more importantly how prayer changes us.
At the end of our conversation, I mentioned how I felt God was calling us as a campus community to prayer. She said that she had been thinking similar things. Long story short, for post clinical conference we ended up back at the school at 10pm doing a prayer walk through the building. When we made it to the offices, each student stood outside a faculty members office and prayed. Turns out that God had been stirring each one of their hearts to the same thing. I'm excited to see what God is doing.

Friends and Fortune Cookies

2011-01-26T20:59:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago I was eating Chinese food with my sister. Of course there were fortune cookies involved. Truth be told, I actually think fortune cookies taste pretty awful, kind of like those waffle cones that fancy ice cream is served in. I can't waste food, so I ate it anyway. The "fortune" inside said, "You will be visited by a dear friend from afar." Conveniently, it just so happened to be the Christmas season. The chances of friends visiting "from afar" had just increased exponentially.
As I reflect on my last several weeks, I am blessed to have such wonderful friends from both near and far.

Carlos and Carrie, friends and missionaries from Mexico City, came to visit us in Seattle for two weeks in December. We had a great time full of exploring the Pacific Northwest, fellowship and of course food. We were able to have a reunion of previous "Mexico Goers" which proved to be a wonderful time. It was pretty amazing to see how our work with Carlos and Carrie in Mexico City has grown and how it has positively impacted so many people. Yay for "sappy teacher moments!"

Olie's Graduation

2011-01-19T20:58:00.000-08:00

I've been feeling a little guilty because I haven't posted anything for a while. I had a mental list of blog worthy topics but for some reason, they escape me at the moment. I took a look at my phone and caught a glimpse of Olie's graduation photo. I haven't written about that yet.
Olie and I signed up for an 8 week session of puppy classes. Most of the time he went wild and barked a lot, but did manage to learn a few things. He sits, lays down, shakes, comes and occasionally walks on leash without pulling. Go Olie!

Olie's First Christmas

2010-12-27T20:32:00.000-08:00

This year was Olie's first Christmas. He ended up being the life of the party more than once and his gift count was right up there with my mom's! Among his mountain of gifts was a "chuck-it mini," a dog sausage treat, a squeaky toy, a stuffed gafelte fish that when squeezed says "Oy Vey" (a Hanukkah gift), and a hand made doggie quilt to match the one his mommy got.
Christmas evening, my mom, my sister, and I took Olie and went to visit Grandpa at his retirement center. Mom had brought him a home cooked Christmas dinner which he wanted to take to the dining area. Animals aren't allowed in the dining area so I stayed with Olie in grandpa's room. He was a little squirmy so I closed the door and put him on the floor to let him roam about a little. A few minutes later my sister came to the room and opened the door. Of course Olie ran out and headed straight for the dining room. He's a fast little wiener! As we chased him around the tables and into the activity room and down the halls all of the other residents where smiling and laughing. I'm glad we could provide them with some amusement... I finally caught him by diving and tackling him across a hallway.
I'm seriously considering entering him in the wiener dog races at Northwest Wienerfest this year! The winning wieners get to race for Seahawks half time show to raise money for animal rescue.

Gong...

2010-11-16T21:20:00.000-08:00

I was in my car the other day lamenting over some difficult interpersonal communication issues I've been having with a certain individual. I'll leave most of the details out except to say that the situation has caused a near constant undercurrent of tension. Of course I thought I was the one in the right...
I was beginning to feel that the situation was hopeless when for some reason it finally dawned on me to pray about it. As I drove across the lake I admitted to God that I was clueless on this one and needed Him to give me the answer. You know what He said; love, the answer to everything is love.
Of course I couldn't just accept that at face value, I had to test the hypothesis to see if it was really true. A retrospective study design would be sufficient... So I thought of a situation and then the answer. Yep, it was love... I tried it again a few more times and each time came up with the same answer, it's true!!! (1 John 4:8 says "God is love.")
The next scripture that popped into my head was 1 Corinthians 13, aka the "love chapter."

Love is patient: Oops, missed that one...
Love is kind: Oh man...
It does not envy: hmm...
It does not boast,it is not pround,it is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth; it always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

I was 0 for 15, God help me!

I Corinthians 13:1 says, "If I speak in tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

This song by JJ Heller says it all!

Lord, keep me from being a gong!

The Creature Gullom

2010-10-15T20:37:00.000-07:00

Miss Myra (not her real name) was an 88 year old visually impaired woman with a history of stroke that caused her to have impaired judgement and impulsive behaviors. The other day I went into her room to help a student check her blood sugar. We found her crawling on her bed screaming profanities. Miss Myra was rather "uninhibited" in both her speech and her actions and had no trouble making her thoughts and opinions known. People dreaded her because of this. In some ways she reminded me of Gullom from Lord of the Rings.
As we left the room after checking her blood glucose, I reflected on the experience. What do people like Miss Myra have to teach us? How can we remain cool and composed when she constantly hurls insults and threats at us? How can we have compassion on her and love her as Christ loves us?
The most repulsive thing about Miss Myra is not her insults, it's not her threats, its not her disheveled appearance, it's that she reminds us of ourselves. Looking at her is like looking in a mirror. The truth is that deep inside we are all like Miss Myra. "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks." The difference between most of us and Miss Myra is that we can filter what we are thinking to make what comes out of our mouth socially and culturally acceptable. That doesn't mean that we don't have those same wicked thoughts. Unmasked, we are all like Miss Myra; our hearts are black and shriveled. We need God and His Holy Spirit to cover us with His grace and transform us into His likeness.

Let the Games Begin

2010-10-01T18:58:00.000-07:00

Clinicals started again this week. Thursday was my students' first day of taking care of real patients in a nursing home. Fortunately, not a tear was shed and nobody (I kept counting them) hid in the bathroom! Sometimes it's the little things...
Today as I was wondering about the units on my usual rounds, I saw one of the students hurriedly carrying a large stack of towels down the hall. I figured she was on her way to a "code brown" so I followed her to see if she needed help. We were probably 5 feet from the room when I noticed that the carpet was damp. As we approached the room we found a lady standing with her walker in inches of water and an overflowing (and I do mean overflowing) toilet. In the few minutes it took for the maintenance man to come, the entire patient room had become a lake. It was a double room so the poor woman in the other bed was literally on an island. We managed to evacuate the lady with the walker to "higher ground."
I'm thinking this is probably the only the first of many awkward bathroom stories with students. Let the games begin!

Why Pets are Therapeutic

2010-10-01T18:40:00.000-07:00

-Research shows that petting an animal can help with relaxation, a sense of well being and lower the blood pressure.
-God created Adam and gave him charge of all the animals. It was his job to wander about the garden of Eden and name them. Humans have an innate desire to care for animals.
-Animals mostly live in the here an now. My dog Olie lives every moment to the fullest. He seems like he thinks every moment is "the best ever." Every day I get home from work he acts like I've been gone a month, it never gets old. He doesn't hold a grudge. He'll give me puppy kisses minutes after I scolded him for chewing shoes. Olie doesn't worry about tomorrow and he doesn't care if he eats the same thing everyday. Ah, the things we can learn from dogs...

God's Puppy

2010-09-02T21:58:00.000-07:00

My friend Lisa and I seem to routinely discuss our animals... She has two cats (that she got while completing her medical residency which strengthens my argument about the pursuit a doctorate driving one to pet ownership) and I of course, have Olie (the puppy) and Kosha(the cat). Sometimes I can hear her cats purring in the background if they happen to be sitting her lap when we're on the phone.
She was describing how nice it was to have a little animal who is content just to sit next to her purr enjoying the closeness and security she provides. "I want to be God's kitty," she said. "I want to be able to be content just to be in his presence and to rest peacefully there."
"I want to be God's puppy," I added. "I want to be excited to see Him and follow Him wherever He goes walking by His side. I want to learn to take joy in pleasing Him."
The cool thing is that instead of God's puppy or God's kittie, we get to be God's children.

Puppy!!!

2010-08-17T06:33:00.000-07:00

I've always wanted a dog but I have always been able resist getting one by telling myself my schedule was way too crazy to accommodate one, until now that is...
I was carpooling with my sisters back home from the family reunion at Lake Crescent when we happened upon a pickup truck on the side of the road with a sign that said "Puppies."
Becky, being the big sister that she is, told me I needed a puppy and promptly pulled the car over. I tried to resist, I really did; but when she handed me a puppy I knew it was all over. Before I knew it, we were making an emergency stop at WalMart in Port Angeles for puppy supplies.
Two weeks later I'm still totally captivated by this puppy. He's just so darn cute and therapeutic. In my opinion, every PhD student needs one! Even my dad thinks he's cute.
Introducing Olie:

Graduate School is Like Anesthesia...

2010-07-09T21:15:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine recently finished her schooling to become a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA). She described her job as bringing people as close to death as possible (without actually killing them [most of the time]) and then waking them rudely to the reality of post-operative pain and disappointment. This is how I'm feeling about the PhD program right now...

Exciting Provision

2010-07-02T21:38:00.000-07:00

I did it, I passed calculus! It was an adventure I will never forget. I don't know that I learned a whole lot about calculus in the process, but I certainly will say that it was indeed a valuable learning in experience in other respects.
In short, this is what the adventure looked like:
Four afternoons with my good friend Sharon (and her three young kids) eating "grown up candy" (chocolate truffles) making up stories about my students to facilitate learning about derivatives.
Several evenings with my dad (who incidentally told me he had gotten a 'D' in calculus his first time) eating his purple Skittles while discussing infinity and beyond.
Countless late afternoons at school hunting down any students might be lingering in the halls (there was one certain Ukrainian girl who I could always count on) to assist with matrix algebra.
A much needed but impromptu tutoring session on a Sunday afternoon with a friend's fiance who just so happened to be an engeneer.
One Skype session from Mexico City with dad.
A 2 am calculus session on a floor in Mexico City with a "Philikrainian" (Philipino/Ukrainian) student discussing probability, Democrats, Jews, Democratic Jews and/or?
Frantically sent iphone pictures of my homework assignments to my professor from an airport tarmac in Phoenix.
Locking my computer in a room where I had no immediate access to the key the night before my final. (remember there was no textbook...)
Borrowing my dad's laptop but finding out the plug-in wasn't in his computer bag and his battery was dead.
Waking up sick on the morning of the final.
The calculator died mid final and I spent a sizable amount of time calculating by hand log base 3 of 81 thus not finishing within the timeframe.

I must admit that when I finished taking the final and left campus, I was sure I had failed. Only a few days earlier I had driven to Spokane for the orientation to the PhD program at WSU. During my long drive I had listened to some audio books by C.S. Lewis and had spent some time in prayer. One thing that God had brought to my mind was this: The persuit of goals and hard work are good things. Many times the goals we work so hard to achieive are even God given, but we often miss the point and loose focus. The question that was left lingering in my mind was this: How do I make the journey of getting a PhD (or the journey of anything else) into an act of worship that honors and pleases God?
As I left campus on that final day of class, I asked myself "How do I make flunking calculus into an act of worship that honors and pleases God?" I came to the conclusion that it wasn't the "flunking of the calculus" but the reaction to the "flunking of the calculus that would be the act of worship. What reaction would be most honoring and pleasing to God?

Catching Up

2010-06-09T12:50:00.000-07:00

Wow, I haven't posted a LONG time!
With all of the graduations, new jobs, new babies, weddings etc... I've been thinking a lot about firsts and lasts. They are milestones and worth being celebrated. Here is a photo of what my most recent clinical group did to commemorate their last day of clinical. I must admit that I was tempted to join them, or I could just go jump in the lake now...

Exciting Provision

2010-04-18T07:28:00.000-07:00

Nope, I haven't fallen off the face of the planet, I got in to the statistics class that I needed. Did I mention that I've never been good in math?
I left class with my first homework assignment totally overwhelmed. Well wouldn't you know it, when I was working on it in my office, one the students stopped by. She just happens to be amazing in math. Suddenly, here I am getting math help from my student.
"Did you ever have a left sided brain injury, that's the area that processes math; that would explain a lot. We just learned about math disorder in our psych class." Hmm... Thanks a lot! We worked on the assignment for a over an hour and then she had to leave.
In walks another student. She tries to help and we make it to the last couple of problems before she gets to a certain part. "Hmm, I don't really remember this part very well but my little brother is totally good at it; let's call him up." So here we are with Daniel on speaker phone. He's apparently at a family gathering with lots of people and it's noisy in the background. He goes and hides in the bathroom to secretly help us with the "it's just algebra" problem. "I'll take a picture of it with my phone and sent it to you guys."
With the help of a blunt Ukrainian student, a little brother hiding in a bathroom,and an hour long phone conversation about logarithms with my dad in a parking lot; I got a 100% on my first assignment.

Thank God...

2010-03-30T21:23:00.000-07:00

I was right, it really is exciting to see how God provides... My acceptance to the PhD program at WSU is dependant on my completion of a graduate statistics course. That means I have to take such a class THIS QUARTER. Unfortunately there is only 1 such class being offered this quarter that fits the bill and it's on Tuesdays. The problem, I work 12 hour shifts on Tuesdays at the hospital.
I've frantically looking for trades to make it work but I couldn't find any coverage for 2 of my shifts, today being one of them. This morning the assistant manager called and said she would come in for 3 hours to cover my patients while I went to class. The charge nurse arranged for my patients transfer to happen early, before my class, and another nurse took over my other patient so that Tami (the assistant manager) didn't even have to come. Yay, I owe 5SE one PhD!
Well, that might be a little premature I guess; but I certainly am very thankful that I have such supportive co-workers. Now I just have to register for the class and hope there are still spots. I have a to register as a non-matriculated student so I can't register until everyone else has.
Stay tuned for some exciting provision!

It Will Be Exciting To See How God Provides!

2010-03-24T11:00:00.000-07:00

With the budget cuts, the State of Washington has been chipping away at our tuition credits for years. As I was researching the latest set of restrictions, I found out that my PhD program is not eligible. I have already formally accepted a spot in the cohort. The question is so I look at all of these things as doors closing, or do I just sit back and say, "it will be exciting to see how God provides?" Thus far, I'm voting for the latter.

A New Adventure on the Horizon

2010-03-21T21:37:00.000-07:00

So much to update, so little time... Last Monday I got a letter in the mail from Washington State University. I've been accepted into the PhD Nursing program! Classes begin in June. I am excited about starting a new chapter but a little nervous as well. I recently found out that the full time position at NU that I was anticipating has been eliminated due to budget cuts. UW is also no longer letting employees cut their FTE and I need to maintain benefits. Yikes, I'm not sure if I can continue to work two 70% jobs and go to school at the same time. I suppose I should be excited for that too because then I know that something HAS to change. Good times ahead!

Me Too...

2010-03-03T21:39:00.000-08:00

As I was sitting in the break room with the student from the previous post she turned to me and said, "I hate cancer. It never plays fair, I just can't understand it. My mom had cancer. She surgery and chemotherapy and radiation. She's in remission now but it was so scary. I absolutely hate it!"
I hate it too!
From the first time I had met her in nursing school as a close friend's mother, she had been battling cancer. Mrs. V. was an amazing lady, so full of God's grace and peace. I remember once when I went to visit my friend, I ended up sitting on their couch for hours sipping tea listening to Mrs. V talk and tell me stories about God's faithfulness in her life. In many ways she became like a second mother to me. She even tried to put me to bed once. :)
Over the past few months Mrs. V's health had declined. The cancer had spread in her brain. I learned on Sunday morning that she had passed away only hours earlier. She did leave an equally amazing daughter but she will be missed and always fondly remembered.
Boy, do I hate it too!

A Thousand Firsts

2010-02-28T15:28:00.000-08:00

I recently mentioned to one of my fellow nurses that I loved being a teacher because I could have the same experience for the time a thousand times. Teaching and performing even the most basic of skills never gets old. It's so much easier to remove surgical staples when you get to do it with somebody who's so excited about it you know they'll be talking about it for days to their roommates.
This week it was a little different however. One of my students experienced her first death. The patient was a middle aged Chinese woman. Cancer had caused her body to waste away so that she looked like a skeleton with skin lying in the bed. He husband was so attentive, he had been at her bedside for days.
I had gone in to see this patient a few times and had had a brief discussion about end-of-life care with my student. On Friday morning as I was assisting another student with IV medication, I saw the first one standing outside the room. I quickly finished with the medication and went out to talk with her.
Tears streamed down her face as she told me that her patient had just died. "She hadn't taken a breath for several minutes so I listened to her heart. I could faintly hear something at first but then it just faded away. What do I do for her husband? Is it OK to cry with a family? I'm trying to pull myself together..."
Yes, unfortunately as a nursing instructor you experience death a 1000 times for the first time too. They ask questions like: "Why did this happen? What will they do now? This just doesn't seem fair. It seems odd that in a few minutes I will have to see my other patient in another room and carry on like nothing has happened when I know their whole world has changed."
All my "teacher words," no matter how true or how profound, can't take away the pain and shock of losing your first patient. So there we sat in the break room behind the door. After few minutes of sobbing and a bit of talking, she fixed her makeup and went back into the room just in time to help her husband dress her in a beautiful Chinese robe before the rest of the family came to bid her farewell.

There's and App For That?

2010-02-11T14:43:00.000-08:00

This morning while traipsing across the hospital I noticed signs announcing the new Da Vinci surgical system that had just arrived. The sign said that they would have the machine on display for demonstration in the hospital lobby this afternoon. My nursing students are on Medical/Surgical rotations and are rotating through the operating room. I thought they would be excited to learn about the new system so I snuck downstairs and asked the company reps if I could bring them by. Of course the reps are excited to talk about their product to anybody who will listen so they had no problem with it.
I arranged for the students to meet in the lobby for post clinical conference. They played with it for a few minutes and managed to complete the tasks of displacing and replacing a series of rubber bands on tiny cones in a matter of minutes. My one and only male student says, "That's cool, now what are we doing?" Another one says, "There's an app for that!"
A quiet Chinese student just stands staring, "This is the cool thing you wanted to show us? I'm shuddering as I picture all the video game geeks becoming surgeons."
Well, you win some and you lose some... I let them go home a few minutes early and I stayed the extra time to play with the "robot surgeon."

Peanut Butter Milkshake and a Walk in the Park

2010-02-09T16:04:00.000-08:00

A peanut butter milkshake and walk in the park, those were my "self care" activities of choice following my phone interview for the WSU PhD program this morning. I had been dreading that interview for over a week, why couldn't I just drive to Spokane and do the interview in person. It doesn't matter now... at least it's over.
Since for some odd reason I don't have a phone in my office and the functionality of my cell in this building is rather dubious, I used the dean's office to make the call. I think in some ways sitting at his huge desk surrounded by all of his post-it notes to self and numerous degrees made the process more intimidating.
Now we wait...

Ineffective Individual Coping on Whose Part?

2010-02-01T16:45:00.000-08:00

He came to us around Thanksgiving, he was on death's door. Mr. Jones (not his real name of course) had been dealing with a congenital heart abnormality all his life, and now at age 50 something it was catching up with him. I remember the evening he came us. With his breathing and circulation were controlled by machines, it appeared that his only hope was a heart transplant.
After several days in intensive care, Mr. Jones recovered enough to breath on his own. His prognosis was starting to look a little better. It wasn't long, however, before he experienced another setback, a massive stroke, a major risk for patients with ventricular assist devices. By Christmas his brain function was very minimal. Even so, his wife Sue, faithfully sat his bedside. Because she wouldn't "pull the plug," some of the nurses had her pegged as "in denial" and gave her a nursing diagnosis of "ineffective individual coping."
I found myself as his assigned nurse on several occassions. On the days I wasn't too incredibly busy I chatted with Sue as I changed dressings and IV lines. I found out that she was a high school language arts teacher, that she was a mother of 3 young women, that she had met Mr. Jones while they attented college in Canada... I found Mrs. Jones to be a very pleasant woman with a great head on her shoulders who just happened to be going through a very difficult time.
Last week I was assigned to a different hall. I was charting and watching monitors when Mrs. Jones walked by. We greeted one another in passing and I asked how she was doing. She told she that she had decided to see a counselor as a way of taking care of herself so she would have someone to talk to. "I'm doing it to be fair for my girls. They are already greaving enough over their father, they don't need to worry about me too..."
She told me about how when she went to meet with the counselor, she noticed that the counselor seemed uneasy. "So basically you're greaving over your husband before he's even dead?" Mrs. Jones was a little surprised by this unexpected response from a "mental health professional" so responded to this remark by asking, "You don't like me, do you? Am I making you uncomfortable."
The counselor responded with this: "I don't like myself when I can't help people."
Wow, that really hit the nail on the head. It isn't Mrs. Jones who has the "ineffective individual coping."
"I'm trying to keep at least one foot in real life. I want to do what's best for my girls and those I have left," she said as we finished the conversation and parted ways.

That's What Christmas is All About Charlie Brown...

2009-12-27T22:37:00.000-08:00

Since all of my students are on Christmas break I have been working a lot more at the hospital. I have to admit that while I do generally enjoy my work, any sort shift in the schedule upsets the extremely delicate balance I have worked so hard to make it that way.
Last Wednesday was my random one day off in a long string and I was looking forward to spending it visiting with some good friends. My friends live about 40 miles south of me so I try to take advantage of making such a long trip by adding in other things I need to do in that direction. That morning it was taking the car in for service.
I left the house early as I had accepted the first appointment of the day. Traffic was a bit heavy so I was late by a few minutes. As I hoped out of the car and started inside I suddenly realized my keys were still in the car and the car was locked! Oy Vey!
Fortunately it was only about an hours walk to World Vision where my mom works. It was a cold morning but the walk gave me time to reflect. Of all of the days this could happen at least I had the time to deal with it today. Was it really that bad, more embarrassing that anything I guess. So I spent part of the morning praying as I walked.
I was able to borrow mom's car to drive all the way to my sister's place to get the key to my house and then to my house to get the spare keys. A few hours later I arrived back at World Vision to deliver mom's car to her. Of course with mom being mom, she didn't want me to walk back to the mechanic. "I get off early at 4 today, you can wait here for me." Ahhh... It was only 1 at that time.
So there I sat in the lobby of World Vision with my laptop half working, half people watching. Then I noticed a family outside looking at the statues of Jesus and the little children. As they entered, the children (a boy and girl about ages 8 and 1l) excitedly ran up to my mom's desk. They wanted to buy farm animals for people in Africa.
Of course mom is the receptionist and switch board operator, not the person who takes the donations. She tried to explain this to the family but the disappointment on the children's faces was just too much. As she called around to find a solution, the kids counted and recounted the precious money they had earned for this specific purpose.
They managed to create a elaborate plan to maximize their gift using every last dollar they had. Mom filled out the papers and gave them each a little receipt which their mom said she would hang on their Christmas tree.
"I hope you are rich when you grow up, you would just give it all away," said the mother to the little girl.
As I thought about that statement I thought about all the different ways we could be rich and all the different ways we could give it away. I'm hoping to take that as a challenge.

Christmas Greetings

2009-12-27T19:34:00.000-08:00

Greetings everyone and a Merry Christmas!
The last few years have been full of blessings and new adventures for me.
In May of 2008 I traveled to Rwanda as a part of my master’s thesis to teach a class in basic trauma nursing. I had the pleasure of working with my friend Julie Yerger at Kibogora Mission Hospital. The experience was nothing short of amazing, I am sure I learned much more than I have ever taught.
In June 2008 I successfully defended my thesis and presented the work I did in Rwanda completing my work and officially becoming April Morgenroth RN, MN. It is much more exciting than it sounds however, as all it meant was a change in offices and an increase in responsibility. I suppose I could add to that eligibility for a PhD program, but that of course means many more years of work (and hopefully more trips to Rwanda).
In September 2008 I officially became the Northwest University Medical Surgical clinical instructor at Overlake Hospital in Bellevue. I have truly enjoyed the experience and have been blessed two years in a row with the “Best Clinical Group Ever.” We have had so much fun learning, laughing and growing together and I feel so incredibly blessed by them.
June of 2009 was the first year in 13 that I wasn’t in Mexicali, Mexico on the MOP mission’s trip with the high school students. The trip was canceled this year due to violence in the border cities. I must say there were a lot of disappointed high school students but we’re hoping to resume this year.
Of course I couldn’t let summer go by without any international travels… July found me in Cambodia with a medical team from New Life Foursquare Church. We served the Province of Ratanakiri by setting up a free clinic at a local orphanage. Thirteen practitioners saw over 1600 patients in only three days! We saw everything from Malaria to heart disease and everything in between. The clinic was actually cut short by some political activity but God has His hand on us and everything turned out for the best, even better than we had planned in fact.
Two weeks after returning to the U.S. from Cambodia I left for Mexico City with four students, one nurse and one nurse practitioner. This was part of a pilot program for a summer nursing elective travel course. The class was on trauma nursing and we partnered with the Mexican Red Cross. Fortunately I was able to modify the same curriculum I had developed for Rwanda for the work became a little more manageable.
The trip was amazing and we all made many wonderful new friends. Each team member was also able to bring in an extra suit case packed full of much precious donated medical supplies. An ambulance crew received their very first and only bag valve mask, a clinic was outfitted with a nebulizer machine and oxygen equipment and most of all, everyone was encouraged. The new curriculum has officially been approved by the office of the Provost and we are all looking forward to next summer.
These last few months since the beginning of the school year I have been dividing my time between University of Washington in the intensive care unit and Northwest University with my “9 kids.” The year is going by so quickly, I’m excited to see what the next year will bring.
Merry Christmas Everyone!

A Happy Thanksgiving

2009-12-01T18:25:00.000-08:00

This year for Thanksgiving I had four nursing students with me who lived far away and were unable to go home. Two are sisters from India and two are roommates, both from out of state. We started out at my house baking bread and making delicious curry. In the afternoon we headed over to my sister's house to enjoy the Thanksgiving meal with the rest of my family and some other friends.
The food was delicious and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves and eachother. Lisa and even broke out the Wii. It was a kick in the pants to watch my students play Wii bowling with my mom. Everyone seemed to be getting into it to extent of making sound effects.
After most of the guests had left, we got Priya and Reena to play Guitar Hero; what a hoot! I am so thankful for all the fun loving people in my life!

Celebrating Life's Little Victories

2009-11-22T20:58:00.000-08:00

At the end of the long term care rotation I asked my students to write down three goals they hoped to achieve during the acute care rotation. One student (who can sometimes be especially "giggly") stated that she wanted to work on maturity. This goal came from a conversation she had with another nurse about the skills they had learned in skills lab. Apparently she couldn't say she learned about enema administration without laughing.
One day at clinical a nurse asked her to administer a fleets enema to an extremely constipated patient recovering from a hip surgery. With hip precautions a extra person is needed to help turn the patient in such a manner as to protect the joint. I went into the room to help her. In attempt to put the patient at ease we made small talk with her and found out she was from the Olympic Peninsula. We discussed the elk crossing signs in Sequim and the enema was administered without even a smirk! Sometimes it's the little things...

Patient Hand Off to Eternity

2009-11-22T18:43:00.000-08:00

Over the last few weeks of teaching I have encountered two repeating themes, patient hand off and end of life issues. The Joint Commission (the accrediting body for hospitals) has put a lot of emphasis on patient hand off recently in an attempt to improve continuity of care for patients during the transition between care providers. I have been thinking of ways to discuss this with my students and provide them opportunities to practice patient reports.
A few weeks ago I found myself standing with a student at the bedside of a patient as he passed. Only days later one of my students found herself caring for an extremely ill developmentally delayed young man who was on deaths door. She did a wonderful job providing competent and compassionate care for the boy but unfortunately he died just a few days later.
I fell asleep Monday night reflecting on the last weeks events and wondering how best to respond to the students difficult questions about death. I awoke at 2:30 am from a very vivid dream. One of my junior students was with me at work in the ICU. We where standing at the foot of that same young man's bed. We had come to the place where we could do no more for this boy. We remained at his bedside as he took his last breath. Then we did something very strange, we clapped. It was a long hard fight coming to a gracious end. As we where clapping the boy took flight right out of the bed. I know; odd, cheesy, disturbing, call it what you will...
After thinking about it for a bit I finally realized what it was all about. As nurses we naturally desire to cure our patients, to make them well. We often take on too much responsibility for them, forgetting that in perspective we really have little offer them. While we must carry out our duties as nurses, we must also remember to daily "hand off" our patients to The Great Physician. Our job is to help help set the stage for God's grace in the forms (likely and unlikely) in which it manifests.

"Called"

2009-11-03T19:43:00.000-08:00

The other day one my students asked me if I felt like I was "called" to Rwanda or to Cambodia or to Mexico. Though I genuinely enjoy traveling, cultures and international medicine, I had to admit the answer was 'no'; or at least not specifically. I went to all of those places simply because of open doors.
While I will not deny that God sometimes calls us to specific geographical locations, I believe that more often God is calling us to deeper and deeper places in our faith and in our walk with Him. When our hearts are in the places He calls them, our geographic location matters very little; we cannot help but be a part of His plan.
"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee." Isaiah 26:3

I'm Choosing to Feel Loved!

2009-10-25T15:59:00.000-07:00

Last year the university enforced a new policy that students may no longer call professors and staff by their first names. With a three syllabal last name, I was often called Professor M. One student, however, decided that even that was too long and he began calling me ProM instead. It wasn't long before almost all the students were calling me ProM. It didn't bother me, I don't think it was ever said rudely and I can think of much worse things to be called.
This year I find myself still being called ProM, only this time by former students, new students, the office ladies and even a few fellow professors. I suppose I should feel loved?
Yesterday I went down to the school to make a few copies and do a little cleaning in my office. I went into the nursing student lounge to put some things in the student mailboxes. As I looked up at the white board, I saw this...

I suppose I should be glad that it didn't say "ProM Sucks!"

Living the Dream

2009-09-28T08:39:00.001-07:00

This is written version of the schpeal that I gave in chapel on Friday. Of course I don't really read word for word while I'm giving an address but this is pretty close:

Have you ever had a dream? I’m not talking about the "I showed up late for class one day to everyone pointing and laughing only to find out I was in my underwear” sort of dreams. But have you ever had a time in your life where you know God was saying, "Listen up! There's something important here and I want you to pursue it!"

Each person you see is up here because they had that kind of dream and they went for it! For me this dream started in 1996. I was in Mexico for the first time, meeting my neighbor up close and personal, and God planted a dream that I called "the 3M’s:" Mexico medical missions. In Mexico, God showed me a people that He loved -- a people with an openness, a readiness, a connection, and a need that I felt called to work with.

Dreams are processes, in God's kingdom, and the journey is part of living the dream. One of my favorite memories from this trip was a church service one night, where we were all sharing testimonies. It was awesome to see how God had been shaping each of our ideas and circumstances, for all these years, to bring us to this place. The two weeks you're going to hear about are just the tip of the iceberg.

So what was this trip? Our work began in a village called Aldea, where we set up a clinic below a rock quarry to meet the needs of the surrounding community in partnership with a local church. We covered everything from runny noses, to ear infections, to prenatal care. Some of us even cut hair!

We spent the second half of the trip serving with the Red Cross, focusing on trauma patients. Our team had the opportunity to see life in the streets of Mexico City from a medical perspective. We rode in ambulances, dealt with accident victims, sutured wounds, performed CPR and saw firsthand the needs of the city, which extended far beyond just the physical. Even though we were “living our dream,” the work wasn't easy.

It truly was an amazing adventure, but really it's just part of the ultimate journey. God is at work in each of us, bringing us closer and closer to where he wants us to be – and really, that's The Dream that we should be living every day.

Yay!

2009-09-26T07:08:00.000-07:00

It's official, NURS 4910 has been approved for credit and will be in the course catalogue for this upcoming summer! The students are extatic, as they should be, they worked VERY hard for this class. Since we've been back three different professors have asked my students to share about their experiences in their classes. I have a lot of juniors already expressing interest. Here goes something...

Is it OK if I'm Laughing?

2009-09-02T13:10:00.000-07:00

August 15th marked the date of a good friends wedding, it was also the day we were to leave for Mexico. Fortunately our flight out of SeaTac wasn't until very late during the night, I had plenty of time to go to the wedding, pack my bags, pack the medical supplies and do last minute checks on paperwork before boarding the plane.
That morning I work up early to finish packing my bags and to run over to my sisters house to feed her cats before heading off to the wedding. I had to be there early as I was slated to work in the kitchen helping to prepare the wedding feast. The wedding was held on a farm in Arlington. The reception hall was a converted barn. The kitchen area was quite small for an event like this but we came prepared with crock pots and the like.
The food was well planned and there was a detailed list and timeline to follow as far as when to add the sauce, boil the noodles, etc... All was going well and I was right on schedule with my salad making duty when suddenly I saw from the corner of my eye flames jumping from the stove top! It seems that one of sauce pots on the stove had boiled over and caught the burner on fire. Two other women and I quickly turned off the stove, removed all the pots and attempted to smother the fire with the lid of a pot. By this time the room (and the reception hall) was filled with smoke. Unfortunately my pot lid idea was unsuccessful in smothering out the fire, we had bust out the fire extinguisher. Fortunately that seemed to take care of the problem very quickly but it also covered a large amount of our prepared food in layer of fine powder. Needless to say we ended up having to throw the food away, keep the guests busy and send somebody on an emergency Costco run.
In the end it all turned out OK but I did end up smelling like smoke for the plane ride to Mexico City. All in all it was quite the funny story; or maybe you had to be there...

I just saw that a friend of mine posted this really cool quote, I'm not sure where she go it from but I thought it suited the subject.
"Fire is the reuniting of matter to oxygen. If one bears that in mind, every blaze may be seen as a reunion, an occasion of chemical joy."

More from Mexico CIty

2009-08-23T16:19:00.001-07:00

Greetings from Mexico City! My apologies that we haven’t been able to update you sooner, our schedules have been jam packed with various adventures. Adventures which included a trip to the pyramids, a corn festival, a coffee house, a southern gospel version of “This Little Light of Mine,” stained glass window depicting Spanish Conquistadores wearing Nike and Converse tennis shoes and the list goes on!
The last brigade was held yesterday which was probably a good thing as we ran out of vitamins to distribute to those who came. I believe the last update was written right after the first brigade. I’ll attempt to fill you in starting from that point. Our second brigade was held at a new location, the base of a rock quarry in an area called “Aldea.” Aldea is a very poor area and is apparently notoriously difficult to evangelize (as we were told by our hosts). Worship death and the dead is also prevalent in this area. Overall the day went well, we saw somewhere around 70 patients and had the opportunity to encourage and be encouraged by our host church.
Wednesday was set aside as a “play day.” We visited the ancient Aztec pyramids at Teotihuacan. It was an amazing experience to be able to have team devotions atop the Pyramid of the Sun. As we walked through the ruins of the great Aztec City we were reminded of Isaiah 40. Verse 8 says, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever.”
Thursday and Friday were spent doing more brigades but this time at Ezekiel and Eva’s church (our housing hosts) here in Chalco. All went well with the clinics and many people were served. Our patients ranged from newborns to the elderly presenting with a wide range of problems from heartburn to the more complex problems including diabetes and glaucoma.
This morning at church three of us were able to share testimonies. Zanna spoke about dreams that God lays on our hearts, Alex spoke about God’s purpose in our lives and I spoke about the vulnerability and about how God wants us to know Him and to be known to Him. I don’t think any of us knew what the other was going to talk about but as it turns out they all fit together perfectly, especially with the message that Carlos (our host) had prepared for the service. Carlos spoke about God’s call for all of us to share our hope with others whether in our own neighborhood or other countries. Some are called to be missionaries near and some are called to faraway lands. The church here is just beginning to send out missionaries to other people groups. They have access and unique connections that could make them effective in this work beyond what many Americans have. It was amazing to be able to encourage them in that. After the message we able to pray for all the young people and encourage them to live out God’s purpose in their lives. What an amazing day!
Tomorrow we begin our work with the Red Cross. The students are excited but a bit nervous. It’s the start of the second leg of our journey full of potential for exciting new adventures. We will keep you updated as time and internet access allows.

Mexico City Update

2009-08-18T20:01:00.000-07:00

We’re here! We arrived in Mexico City on Sunday morning after a rather uneventful flight. Customs was an adventure as Janell and Sarah were both stopped and our mountains of medical supplies were searched through. In the end all we lost was a few boxes of syringes but hundrends more made it though!
After the customs fiasco, our wonderful hosts Carlos and Carrie,were waiting for us on the other side and we were able to have first meal in Mexico at lovely little café on the way to the church. We are staying with Carlos’ aunt and uncle, Eva and Ezekiel. They pastor a small church in the outlying area of Chalco. What wonderful gracious hosts they are!
Yesterday we began work at or first brigade. Between Mr. Peck and Dr. Luna we got through about 60 patients, most of them children. Janell did a lot of the translating for her dad while working at his clinic station. Julie and Sarah did a lot of vital signs and triage and also worked with Dr. Luna. Alex and Zanna were “flexico in Mexico” and helped out with an unmet need by cutting hair for school children as the school year here in Mexico begins next week.
After the clinic experience we headed to a pharmacy to pick up some medications that wished we would have had at the clinic during the day. While at the pharmacy, 5 more children showed up needing medical certificates for school. (apparently they do this at the pharmacy?) The pharmacist, a friend of Carlos and Carrie’s, “invited” us to help him out with the assessments. So… There we were assessing school children on the side of the street outside the pharmacy window, why not!
While assessing the children at the pharmacy, Carlos got a call from his uncle who hosts a Christian radio show. He was inviting us to be on his show! I wasn’t quite sure how the girls would feel about this but I thought it would be a great opportunity so I said yes; after all, Mexico is flexico. What a hoot, we were on the Mexican equivalent of Focus on the Family being interviewed about missions!
Thank you to all of you who are praying for us at home. God’s hand of protection as truly been upon us and we are so blessed to be a small part of what He is doing here in Mexico.

Greetings from Taipei!

2009-07-18T16:09:00.000-07:00

Hellow everybody, I've made it safely to Taipei. We are on a 4 hour layover between here and Cambodia. The flight wasn't bad at all, I got a window seat but nobody in the seat next to me. I got to spread out a bit and get some good sleep and still had some time to relax and read a good book. (In His Image by Paul Brand and Philip Yancey).

Right before I boarded the plane I turned to one of my teammates and said, “What am I doing?” “Following Jesus,” she answered. I must admit that I never really had any special interest to work in Asia. When I was asked to consider going on this trip my first thought was ‘no’. Now I find myself in a foreign airport with a team I don’t know, totally “pumped” for the unknown that lies ahead. How did I get here, well I hope my new friend was right, by following Jesus.

This is going to be a very different sort of trip. Not only is it a new place with a team that I don’t know at all, but I’m not in any way shape or form in charge! I never thought of myself as a control freak but I must admit that it is quite different to be placed in this position. I have a lot to learn and I have a feeling that this whole experience is going to be an exercise in listening and being prompted. Praise the Lord for situations such as these where I have no control, no idea what’s going on, don’t know the language and the only thing I can do is listen, wait upon the Lord and following His prompting.

I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane

2009-07-17T02:27:00.000-07:00

Well folks, at this time tomorrow I'll be on plane headed for Cambodia. We'll land in Phnom Penh, spend one night in a guest house, and then head out to our final destination of Rotanakiri. We will be setting up a clinic at an orphanage which will serve the people of the surrounding area. We anticipate seeing 4000 patients during our six clinical days. The team consists of 31 people, 12 of us "practitioners" and 19 support staff.
Last weekend we had a "pill packing" party where 68 suitcases where strategically filled with medications and basic medical supplies. It was a rather huge production which took over 100 people about 7 hours to complete.
Fear not faithful readers, I am happy report that I was able to contribute several boxes of medical supplies from "the stash." Yay for finally sending some stuff out! However, it appears as though the team had way too much of certain other supplies. We ended up pulling off a supply exchange and I came home with more than I had sent out... But in my defense, the stuff I brought home were items that I had very little of that I think would be very useful in Mexico City. I'm not sure if I will have any Internet access at all while I am away, so I might not be able to update until after July 31.

Ratanakiri or Bust!!

2009-06-30T09:44:00.000-07:00

A last minute change in plans, I love those. So apparently this last week the leaders the New Life Cambodia Medical Team have found themselves in quite the predicament. It seems that process to get all the permits to set up clinic in Krava, as per the original plan, was taking much longer than anticipated, hefty bribes were also being demanded. We as a team don't have the money to pay the bribes anyway, so it was off to find another site.
On Sunday we received confirmation from a leader in Ratanakiri that we are able to set up clinic there. Ratanakiri is in the northeast corner of Cambodia on the border of Vietnam and Laos. It is the poorest area of all of Cambodia and inhabited by mostly tribal people. This is great news for us as we will be able to serve in the area with the most need. Unfortunately, this also means that we will need to go through 2 interpreters; one will translate English to Khmer, and one to translate Khmer to the local tribal language.
I am told that Ratanakiri is mountainous jungle, unlike the rest of Cambodia which is mostly flat. Scott, our team leader, describes this trip as an Indiana Jones adventure.

The Talking Head

2009-06-25T07:12:00.000-07:00

This summer is my first attempt at teaching a class that involves distance education. In attempt to make the material easily accessible to all the course participants, it was suggested that I make a lecture/demonstration video.
Some good friends of mine run a sort of media ministry out of their home that includes radio broadcasting and filming. Last night I went down to their place to film the first of my 5 lecture series. In spite of how much I hate cameras, things were going well and I was nearly 2/3 of the way finished when suddenly the camera man says "cut."
What was the problem, I was on a roll? As it turns out the one day I actually wore color, it just happened to be a long sleeved green shirt. What's wrong with that, you ask? We were filming in front of a green screen, I would be nothing more than a talking head and pair of hands! While that might actually be funny for the first few minutes, we decided that overall it would be way to distracting.
"Take 2!"

Top Ten

2009-06-15T07:36:00.000-07:00

A teacher friend of mine is listing her top 10 ten favorite moments of the school year as she counts down to the last day. I thought that was a pretty neat way to end the year. Unfortunately, my school year has already ended, but here are my top ten anyway. (in no particular order)

1. I was once late to my own class, when I arrived I found the students diligently doing clinical paperwork. I apologized profusely and the first response I got was this "Therefore there is now no condemnation..." Wow!
2. On the very last day of clinicals I let the students off early, we went to lunch at Red Robin and then for a walk in the park.
3. During clinical a student ran out of a room to find me in the hall to tell me patient wouldn't wake up. I walked in the room to find the patient nearly in respiratory arrest as she was "over medicated." It wasn't the students fault as she wasn't the one who gave the 2 mg of dilaudid, but we got give narcan! The students then made up a lovely song about it. "Nar-can, you don't have to put on the code light, Nar-can..." It was quite a learning opportunity.
4. A picnic with cheerios and milk at the Kirkland waterfront in the dark after pinning all because we thought the end of year was "anticlimactic."
5. I had my Mexico City students over for fish tacos once to discuss assignments and expectations for the class. One of the students looked her keys in the car and got stuck at my house until 11pm. We ate cheesecake and had some pretty great "rice krispie treat" exchanges.
6. I was rounding the students at clinical one morning and noticed I didn't find one of them on the floor so I asked another student where she was. "Miss M, you just sent her down to the OR about 10 minutes ago." Apparently I asked again a little later that day. Now every time I forget something they just respond with, "Where's Rachael?"
7. The interesting comments the students made during my lecture entitled, "Shock and Awe: Declaring Rapid Dominance Over States of Hypoperfusion"
8. The Christmas party in the skills lab and our clinical evaluations.
9. Hearing, "Miss M., I got the job!"
10. I had spoken in another professors class about my adventures in Rwanda. Later that week I found a bag of coffee from the Bourbon (an amazing coffee house in Rwanda) with a little note, "Ms. M., Just a little to get you by before you go back!"
What an amazing and blessed school year! I will remember it fondly always.

Oh Kitty Where Art Thou

2009-06-06T08:58:00.000-07:00

Thursday evening I had a friend over for dinner. Since it was a really hot day we decided to dine on the back deck. Little Kosha insisted on coming with us. I was a little hesitant at first as heard from her previous owner that she has always been an indoor cat. I finally gave in. Afterall, I would be outside to watch her and I have a six foot fence; during the time it would take her to scale the fence I could run over and grab her.
As we sipped our smoothies and chatted, Kosha sniffed around the yard but finally got so hot that she settled under the porch for shade. As I brought her water dish out only minutes later, NO KITTY! There was a small gap under the gate near the edge of the porch which must have been where she got out.
We looked for her for quite some time and I continued my search the next day, still no kitty! I live next to a large wooded area inhabited to coyotes so I was starting to wonder if she had perhaps become dinner. Afterall, only weeks ago a neighbor's cat had befallen that very fortune.
But alas, very early this morning I heard banging on the back side of the house. I thought it was the wind blowing stuff around on the porch but when I looked out the window there was no wind. As I went downstairs I could see a silhouetted figure hanging from the screen of the sliding glass door, there she was. Too bad she can't talk and tell me all about her grand adventure.

Red and Yellow Black and White

2009-05-31T21:41:00.000-07:00

Last week at church a friend asked me to help photograph (and wrangle children) for her Sunday School class as the main teacher for that class had gone out of town. The lesson for the week included the parting of the Red Sea as the children of Israel where escaping Egypt. My friend had made a "winding path through the desert" out of masking tape on the carpet. In the middle of the path was a pan of Jell-O. The kids walked their Israelites down the path until they came to the Jell-O. Then a miracle happened that the Jell-O Red Sea parted.
I was sitting at the craft table helping the kids (ages 2-5) color the "Children of Israel." I had quite the conversation with one little boy as he diligently colored his picture.

Boy: "I don't like Jell-O."

Me: "You don't have to eat any then."

Boy: "I want some, can I have some? You're just like me."

Me: Handing the boy a square of Jell-O "Oh really, how so?"

Boy: "I'm black, and so are you."

Me: "Really? How fun!"

I'm not exactly sure how I suddenly became "black" but I did certainly find it amusing.

My Summer Classroom

2009-05-28T14:49:00.000-07:00

I have devoted today to an all day curriculathon for our new summer class NURS 4910 and thus far I'm truly enjoying it. I know, curriculathon, sounds nerdy doesn't it? Check out my classroom though! Here I sit sipping lemonade on my newly repaired deck in a lounge chair in the sun with a view of the maple tree and rhodadenderon in my back yard typing away to the sounds of birds chirping. The part I didn't tell you about yet is my retired neighbor wandering around witih his shirt off on the other side of the fence singing to himself. Maybe I should get some headphones...
Most of the class is being conducted online as all of my enrolled students have gone home over the summer and are spred from Chewellah to Medford. They are reading the book "In His Image" by Dr. Paul Brand as part of their assigned readings. They are required to post reflections on the assigned chapters weekly. Thus far I am truly blessed and impressed by their posts. Check out www.bestdaysever.wordpress.com if you feel so inclined.

Patrick's Wedding

2009-05-25T16:32:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago my step-brother Patrick got married in the most unusual ceremony; it took place on separate continents! The story goes something like this:
Patrick goes on a missions trip to Brazil and meets a beautiful young woman. They become friends and stay in contact even after Patrick returns to the US. A year goes by and once again Patrick returns to Brazil on another missions trip. Friendship turns to a deeper interest and the two fall in love. Patrick goes to Brazil again and this time stays for 6 months living with the girl's brother. While in Brazil he proposes, she says yes... Unfortunately he made his proposal on some of his final days in Brazil before his visa expired. Brazilian law requires a person to be outside the country at least 6 months before they can even apply for a new visa, there is also a longer waiting period for marriage certificates.
Oh drat!! What to do now? Well... Here's what happened. Before leaving Brazil Patrick gave his then future mother-in-law power of attorney to sign the marriage certificate for him; marriage by proxy! Patrick came home and everyone waited. Finally Eliza (his new bride) called to say they had secured a court date. The marriage would happen April 18th at 6 am our time. They were married in a bilingual (Portuguese and English) wedding via webcam.
After the wedding Patrick took a trip to Hawaii with his brother Tyler and his mom. So... Patrick's wife married her mother and Patrick went on his honeymoon with his brother. I always knew they were a little "different."
Patrick leaves for Brazil to be with is new bride this Thursday. Congratulations Patrick and Eliza!

Cambodia and Curriculathons

2009-05-24T21:59:00.000-07:00

Hello all, sorry it's been a while since I last posted. How do I sum up the last several weeks? May 8th marked the official end of the school year. I got to wear my regalia at the pinning for the first time. Who knew there was so much involved with putting that stuff on?
After the pinning it was decided that year had come to a sort of abrupt end so Janel and I decided that a twilight picnic at the waterfront with Cheerios and milk was in order. What a perfect way to end the year, it was amazing.
A few days later three of us went hiking at Mt. Si (Little Si). We managed to miss the rain and actually ended up having a great view from the top. On the way back down we ended up encountering some unaccompanied dogs. Long story short they followed us all the way down. One of the then ran off but we walked around the neighborhood trying to see anyone recognized the other. We ended up taking her to a 24 hour vet (it was late by this time) who took her in for the night. I must admit I seriously thought of adopting her if she hadn't have found her home.
The last few paragraphs make it sound like I've been doing nothing but playing since school has been out. Nope, I'm still working at UW; and when I'm not there I can be found either in my office at school or on my couch engaging in more curriculathons. Mexico City is now officially NURS 4910 and has four registered students! I've been working on curriculum maps, grading rubrics, syllubi, international travel policies and like ever since (and before) it's official approval.
Oh yeah... And I offered some of my abundant medical supplies to a medical team going to Cambodia in July. They roped me into going... More details to follow!

Purpose

2009-05-18T11:35:00.000-07:00

Last week at work I was caring for an African-American woman in her mid 40s who had congestive heart failure, a recent MI and left sided paralysis from a stroke. This woman, Sue (not her real name), has been in the hospital since November and her prognosis is poor. She is in dire need of a heart transplant but sadly her left hemiparesis makes her ineligible. The severity of her heart condition has made her balloon pump-dependant, yet she refuses to give up and does not want to be put on hospice. Most of the staff are starting to get tired of working with her as she can be a little particular about her care and also suffers from chronic pain.

It had been a busy day, and we were in the process of admitting a patient to the room next to hers. The new patient was a woman in her mid 60s who had come to ICU from the oncology floor where they could no longer manage her low blood pressure. The woman was confused and frightened, crying out loudly and attempting to get out of bed.

When I went back into Sue’s room to assess her balloon pump, we could still hear the woman in the next room crying and retching. Sue’s first response was,

“I hope that lady is OK over there. Dear Jesus, I just want to pray for that lady that you will put your healing hand on her and give her and her family peace and comfort, and for the doctors and nurses that You would give them wisdom to take care of her.”

When she finished her prayer I asked, “Have you been our prayer warrior the whole time you have been here?”

“Praying for people is just something that God has put on my heart, and what better thing to do in a hospital while I’m lying here in bed?” she replied.

“Sue, maybe that’s why God has you here right now.”

A few days later I found myself taking care of Sue again. Sue’s neighbor has gotten progressively worse and it was feared she would die that day. That afternoon I could hear music coming from Sue’s room. It was Sue and her family and friends singing gospel songs. “We’re having a praise fest in here, come on and join in,” yelled her mom over the accompaniment CD. Only moments later, Sue’s neighbor passed away. They had sung her into eternity.

Mexico City or Bust!

2009-04-25T08:16:00.000-07:00

The president and provost have spoken, Mexico City is a go! I will take with me 4 of the junior nursing students and this trip will serve as a pilot program to explore more opportunities for future such nursing courses. I sent out applications last week and this next week we will be making some decisions. I'm still potentially looking for other RNs who might be interested in going as part of our group.
Now it's on to more long curriculathons! YAY!

Overcoming Blood Part 2

2009-04-23T21:09:00.000-07:00

This week has been the long awaited "IV week" at school. We finally were able to get the materials we needed for the students to learn IV starts. Never has there been a more anticipated yet feared skills lab in all of nursing school history. Do you think the fact the students practice on eachother might have something to do with it?
I asked for a volunteer to demonstrate and IV start on and to my surprize obtained one without difficulty. Only later did I find out that this particular student isn't overly fond of needles. She could have fooled me, she did just fine!
Though I know that this skill can be very difficult for many of the students, there is one who seemed to have a little more apprehension about it than the others. After one of the practice sessions I kicked out my other students and kept this one... First we worked on putting on the tourniquet, then palpating the viens, then drawing blood and finally starting an actual patent IV. She performed the skills beautifuly and left my arm "hematoma free." I'm not sure why but for some reason the most difficult part was touching the veins. But... She was determined and willing to work hard to overcome this and she did! I know it sounds a little strange but I came away so inspired by this!
Just two days later I found myself in a situation that was difficult for me, one that I despirately wanted to overcome. I thought about how she had overcome. I decided to pray and to tell myself "I can overcome because it has already been overcome for me by the blood of lamb."
Throughout this past week I have seen many of the students "overcome blood" but the overcoming blood... Another "happy teacher moment!"
John 16:31
"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

Overcoming Blood

2009-04-18T09:25:00.000-07:00

I was reading a book by one of my favorite authors Paul Brand and came across something very fascinating. The chapter was describing the development of the smallpox vaccination and an expedition sent out by the king of Spain to vaccinate Bogota Columbia in the midst of a smallpox outbreak. They had now to way to preserve the live vaccine during the long voyage so they created a human chain to incubate the vaccine during the months it took to reach Bogota.
The chapter went on to describe how the body's immune system creates antibodies specific to invaders that it has been exposed to. This is how a vaccine works, either by exposing the body to a weakened form of the invader allowing the body to create it's own antibodies or, in the case of immune globulin, by directly giving the body antibodies to protect against a given threat.
The next point Dr. Brand made was what blew my mind... We have a saviour who came to live among us in human form. He was despised and rejected, temped and ultimately killed all so that we could have eternal life. He overcame these things for us so that by his overcoming blood, we too can be overcomers! This brings a whole new meaning to "this is my blood which shed for you and body which was broken for you." We truly are saved by the blood of the lamb.
I took the opportunity to discuss this with my students this week. We ended up having a little Passover Seder in post clinical conference. There truly is power in the blood!

Foleys for the Philippines!

2009-04-11T08:54:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I received a donation of some 700 Foley catheters from a pharmacy in Bellevue. Some of the catheters went to the nursing lab for the students to learn and practice procedures on, the several hundred others have been sitting on shelves in my office awaiting shipment.
Picture this, used urinary catheters washed being washed and hung up to dry on bushes. That's the reality in many places around the world. Studies show that in the US alone approx. 25% of hospitalized patients with indwelling urinary catheters develop bladder infections, 30% of those go on to develop a systemic infection. How imagine what these numbers might be like in places where the catheters don't come out of sterile packages.
A friend of mine from work had been a nurse in the Philippines for several years before coming to settle in the United states with her husband and children. She still keeps in contact with those she worked with and sends several packages a year to friends and family still living in the area. Long story short, we have found a home for our Foleys and developed an unofficial "Foleys for the Philippines" program. We're hoping to be able to start shipping the Foleys in May.
Kind of funny the things you get excited about when you're a nurse... :)

Fruit Salad

2009-04-02T17:23:00.000-07:00

A week ago today was my last day with my first (official) very own clinical group. We've enjoyed some great times over the last several months and they have been pure joy to work with. I'm proud of their accomplishments and how far they have come. All of the nurses we have worked with sing their praises. I truly was blessed with some fantastic students. I think I have learned more from them then they have learned from me.
On our last morning together I made them breakfast, cinnamon rolls and fruit salad...
I gave each student a different fruit and also assigned them one of the fruits of the spirit that I thought he/she was especially gifted in. As each student added their fruit to the bowl and read the Bible verse I had given them I told them the story of how they earned that fruit. The other students were invited to share how they have been blessed and encouraged my their classmate as well. We decorated photo mugs with pictures we had taken during our time together and the verses I had printed for each one. It turned out to be a wonderful time.
However, at the end of the salad they noticed that "faith" had not been added, our group had only 7 students and we all know that God is love. They then did something I didn't expect, they gave me faith! "You had faith in us. We have seen your faith in how you prayed for us and how you have been sensitive and responsive to God's leading with us. We are blessed by witnessing you live your faith." WOW!!!

Presidents and Provosts

2009-04-02T16:56:00.001-07:00

Last week I encountered the dean of the school of nursing while in the copy room. He tends be somewhat elusive at times so I took the opportunity to ask him a few questions. The top question of course was regarding being able to invite students on a medical mission to Mexico City.
The response I got wasn't really what I expected, it was much more... "Perhaps we make it some sort of pilot class that could satisfy the upper division elective." Of course this sounds like something I would interested in so we set up a meeting. The meeting went very well and our gracious hosts Carlos and Carrie have already begun to set some things up for us. But there is always a however...
The proposal is now waiting on approval from the provosts. This apparently requires some rather intense communication between my dean and the president and provost, all of whom are busy people.
My email inbox is now stuffed with CC'ed messages to and from presidents and provosts. It's hard to be CC'ed on conversations between people like this, I have a difficult time not emailing back. So for now I wait, my summer plans hinging on the decisions of presidents and provosts.

All Growed Up!

2009-03-26T20:28:00.000-07:00

Technically I've been an adult for over a decade now, at least by age anyway. Last Friday I had one of those days where I really actually felt "all growed up." I got up at the crack of dawn to teach clinicals at the hospital. After I released my students I headed over to Rainier Title to sign on my refinance for my house.
As I was walking through downtown Bellevue with my wool Pea Coat and black document folder on a blustery day listening to a church bell ring.
After my document signing on my way back to my care I treated myself to a cup of coffee. Then back to the hospital I wen to do some chart audits... I suppose it's kind of bittersweet.

Shalom Y'all

2009-03-17T06:19:00.000-07:00

Howdy y'all from the Mississippi Gulf Coast. So here I am taking full advantage of spring break and visiting some great friends after way too long. I flew into New Orleans arriving on Sunday night after several hours of delays and sitting stationary on tarmacs due to weather and de-icing issues. Once of the plane however, my experience got much better. So far my trip has included dinner at the infamous Waffle House, good coffee with great friends, two burly happy dogs, "Seattle style" weather, a trip to Wal-Mart, a trip with Winn Dixie, theological discussions regarding the "Holy Ghost Weenie Roast" and making the largest loaf of challah I've ever baked. It doesn't get much more southern than that!
I've really been enjoying my time here visiting Jon and Shara, now if I can only convince them to move back. Good times, good times...

Keeping Kosh

2009-03-01T20:37:00.000-08:00

This last Wednesday night while at I was grading papers in my office I found myself to be a recipient of a rather unusual delivery. What was it, you ask; nothing other than a "kitty to go."
A family friend, who incidentally had 5 cats, suddently found herself in a pickle when she recently found out about a medical diagnosis on top of other major life changes including having to urgently move from her home. That leaves 5 homeless kitties. My grandma took two of them in while we found homes for two others. The fifth one, well...that's where the "kitty to go" comes in.
My sister called me Wednesday afternoon asking if I would like "a ministry opportunity." Suddenly I find myself the foster parent of a rather affectionate three year old female cat. I took her home and she hasn't stopped following me since. I'm trying to tell myself it's only temporary, that she's annoying and I don't have to keep her. I did however, make the mistake of calling her "Kosha" which means "kitty" in Russian; "Kosh" for short. I hear that once you name the thing it's all over, they're yours forever. It looks like I might be keeping Kosh.

Laughter is the Best Medicine

2009-02-22T07:45:00.000-08:00

For the last two weeks my students have been taking care of an elderly lady with a recent amputation of the left leg. As I'm sure you can imagine, she has a difficult time getting in and out of bed. Last week my one and only male student came in the room to help her get back into bed from her chair. She was very grateful for his help and apparently hasn't forgotten it...
This week I went in her room to help the students change the dressing on her stump. The male student also came in to help. As soon as she saw him she said, "I remember you, you are so easy to get in bed with!" He immediately turned beet red and the rest of just couldn't stop laughing. It took her a few seconds to realize what she had just said but when she did, she couldn't stop laughing either.
It turned out to be "the best dressing change she'd ever had, and it didn't even hurt." They say that laughter is the best medicine!

Rice Krispie Bricks

2009-02-09T09:28:00.000-08:00

If you know me well or if you have ever read the very first entry of this blog then you might already know what this about; if not I'll attempt to fill you in.
Several years ago in sleep deprived state I asked my friend Angela, "What are your rice crispies saying to you?" It became code for, "What's God doing in your life?" We've been sharing little tidbits of encouragement/testimonies even since and others have joined in! On day I came home to a package on my doorstep, inside... a giant rice crispie brick from a friend in Oklahoma! ;)
This last week I found myself once again the recipient of a rice crispie brick, only figuratively this time... I was blessed to indirectly be a part of something awesome, a gift that blessed and fulfilled the desire of a wonderful dear lady's heart.
I read her message in response to the gift on a day that was especially exhausting. I had worked all night at the hospital and then taught class in the morning and was getting ready to work night shift at the hospital again... As I was on the bus on my way to work that night I remember thinking, "I have no idea how I'm going to make it through tonight. This is almost (but only almost) an emergency." As I was walking up the stairs my unit on the the fifth floor I remembered what was said in the message from my friend, "God cares about the desires the of our hearts, He knows exactly what we need and is faithful to provide it." I prayed a little a prayer, "God I know that you will get me through this shift somehow." When I opened the door to my unit and saw the charge nurse at the desk the first thing she said was, "Would you like to go home on standby?" Praise the Lord!!!
My switch to day shift comes in March but with it I will also lose my shift differential and a significant chunk of my income. With raises being held and the economy what it is, I must say this makes me a little nervous. However, I think it's the right thing to do for health and sanity in general. Once again I was met with a rice crispie brick. My sister called with "exciting news about mortgage rates" and I was able to refinance the house at a much lower interest rate and save several hundred dollars a month. God is so good!

I'm Back!!!

2009-01-26T07:37:00.001-08:00

Hello dear readers, I'm back. Ever since the heavy snow fall around Christmastime I've had trouble with my internet connection. After several weeks of trying just about everything, my sister finally fixed my connnection by disconnecting my wireless router completely and connecting my computer with a 50 foot ethernet cable.
Here's the update:
I put in request to change to day shift at the hospital after 10 years of working nights. It was granted! I will now rotate between working days and nights with the option of working mostly days. Hmm... I wonder how this will impact life in general.
I heard back from my friends Carlos and Carrie in Mexico City. They said that the Mexican Red Cross as well as other groups we have been working with have invited us back. Carlos and Carrie have volunteered to host us again! The hope is to take and alumni/nurse group this summer and deliver some of the medical supplies I've got stored up at the same time. Mexico City here we come!

A White Christmas

2008-12-26T14:01:00.000-08:00

As I was working early Christmas morning I peeked out the window of my patients room and noticed it was raining. YAY, maybe the snow will melt enough so that I can get all the way home and to my sister's house for Christmas!!! Boy, was I ever WRONG... I ended up with about 7 or 8 more inches of snow on top of what I already had and I had to park my car at the bottom of the hill (where it is still stuck). As providence would have it, I happened to see a friend in her truck as I was trudging along the road making my way home, she graciously offered me a ride the rest of the way home.
I napped by my fireplace for a few hours and hitched a ride with Becky, Steve, and the their dog to Sean and Lisa's house. The festivities went as planned (mostly) with the highline being watching my mom try to play guitar hero. What a kick in the pants!

Barefoot in the Snow Up Hill Both Ways

2008-12-18T22:44:00.000-08:00

I took the bus to work last night half anticipating that I might get stuck there in the morning waiting for day shift to come in with all the snow. I had "prepared" myself for such possibilities by packing an extra set of scrubs, socks and three times the amount of food as the usual.
All night long I found myself peeking out the window, each time expecting to see the promised snow. Finally at about 2am, I noticed some tiny flakes drifting sluggishly to the ground by the light of a lamp post. Next thing I knew it was 0730; the day shift was actually HERE and the snow was accumulating quickly.
I checked the sound transit website "just to make sure" and then headed out to catch my bus. We got rerouted on our way home due to road closures, bus spinnouts and thick layers of ice. By the time the bus finally dropped us off, I found myself in the northern portion of downtown Kirkland. So... It was nice morning walk up to the university campus in a winter wonderland wearing scrubbs and clogs. How invigoratine after having worked all night! Unfortunately the snow was little too deep for my shoes and I ended up with a good amount of snow in my clogs. (Yes, I actually had planned ahead for that too, but I had left my boots in the my car at the park and ride. I hadn't anticipated this bus reroute.)
When I arrived at the university, the campus was open and my nursing students were about to sit down to their final. Poor Dr. C. had left his house long before dawn to fill in and administer the test. I also learned (from the students) that he had left his car in Bellevue and walked over an hour and a half to get to campus. Now that's dedication. Had I beat him there I would have called him so he could get back home before he got too stuck and administered the test myself. We had roughly tied however, so it didn't matter; the exam was taken by all who showed up. Afterward I held a little improv. "Cable Chains 101" session with a student's car.
Fortunately I have the only office on the campus to contain 6 beds. Yep... I watched "the blanket show" in my little lab in the bed right next to my intubated Santa mannequin. When I awoke, it was still snowing!

I checked the internet once more before going back out and found that my busses had been canceled and all the other busses rerouted. Once again I had to walk to downtown only this time, no bus! Down to Lake Wa BLVD I went and finally got a different bus which at least got me across 520.

In a Good Place

2008-12-15T15:12:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again... Well yes, it's the holidays but that's not quite what I meant. What I'm talking about is the end of the semester with all it's finals to take, papers to grade, grades to report, etc.. Add all of those things on to working extra hours and the other sometimes not so pleasant surprises life throws at you and that can make for some overwhelming times for everybody!
Just last week I was lamenting over a situation in which I had zero power/ability to fix. I know, it's a nurse's worst nightmare. No matter how much I thought about it, there was nothing I could do to change the situation (or at least for the better). It wasn't longer however, before I was reminded by a friend that when you find yourself amidst (or even looking on) situations such as these in which you realize you are powerless and it looks like there is no hope that in actuality we are in a very good place. It is during these times we can rest in knowing that God holds all things in His hands, even this. (Whatever the 'this' might be.) We are forced to rely on His faithfulness to His promise. These are often the times where God grows our faith, reveals His truth, and draws us near. So... Before you have some "ineffective individual coping" just remember; if you know God you are in a good place.
Jer 29:11 (NIV) "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

The Greater Gifts

2008-11-28T07:45:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving 2006 was the first official holiday hosted by my oldest sister in her then new house. I had invited some close friends to join us, a Russian mother/daughter team. While preparing my contribution to the Thanksgiving meal I received a call from my friends asking if they might bring along a close family friend of theirs "with no other place to go." Of course I said this would be fine as we all know that this is exactly what Thanksgiving is all about.
As I picked up my friend Marina on my way out to the house, I was informed that I was to pick up Oscar (the secondary guest). As she told me the address I immediately recognized it as the Union Gospel Mission downtown. (You can't work 9 years on ambulances in Seattle and not have them all memorized.) As we rolled up to the front door, Oscar was waiting. He walked with a serpentine gait and used a cane; Oscar had cerebral palsy. Oscar also had a PhD in Russian studies and a history of aplastic anemia.
Long story short, we all enjoyed a wonderful meal together. When it came time for the festivities to end, I found myself once again driving Oscar back to the mission. In the car on the way back he thanked us profusely for inviting him and said he had a wonderful time that he will never forget. "How can I pray for you," he asked. Though Oscar had "nothing" he wanted to express his gratitude and prayer was the most valuable thing he could offer. Oh, what a powerful gift it is! We prayed for more of God's love because love is: patient, kind, forgiving, selfless, rejoices in truth, never fails.
I don't know how what prayer does or how it works. All I know is that God tells us to do it and when you talk to God...

EMS Holiday Memories (Part 2)

2008-11-21T15:22:00.000-08:00

It was Christmas Eve and I was working a 12 hour overtime night shift with a guy named J. Culvin. We'd worked overtime together before and had always gotten along just fine, but every time we worked on the same rig we ended up running back to back calls. Holding true to our tradition, we did run back to back calls setting our record at 14 calls for our 12 hour shift!
There is however, one of those 14 calls that really stands out. We were in the Northgate area when we got called by the police department to respond to an apartment complex. We were told that the scene has been secured and that we should go in. When we arrived we found the complex swarmed with at least 8 police cars. We grabbed our jump kit and stretcher and headed up the elevator. As the elevator doors opened at our destination we made the startling discovery that scene was indeed NOT clear. We were met by a man running down a hallway with a kitchen knife taped to a wooden dowel. We attempted to use the stretcher as a barrier between us and quickly closed the elevator doors just as he was tackled by police and sufficiently pepper sprayed. We then restrained him to the bed and hauled him off to "Crisis Triage Unit" (aka psych. emergency funny farm).
Our last call of the day involved picking up a flight crew at the airfield and driving in to the trauma center. When we finally finished our shift and made it back to the station our hearts sank as we realized our stretcher was still loaded with all their flight equipment. Back to the airfield we went!!!

EMS Holiday Memories

2008-11-05T11:14:00.000-08:00

I've heard much talk of holiday memories floating around, it got me thinking about some of my own... I don't remember the exact year, but it was at least 6 years ago, I was still working working full time on the ambulances. It Thanksgiving Day and the family was gathered at my moms house. To my dismay, I was getting ready to head out for my 12 hour shift of ambulance craziness. My brother was the one carving the turkey that year. He took it upon himself to shave me off a few slices and put them in a ziplock baggy so I could have Thanksgiving dinner at work. We even packed an extra portion for my partner too.
When I got work that night we were almost immediately sent to South King County to cover Federal Way and Kent. It was a slow night and we found ourselves sitting at Federal Way quarters watching Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving while enjoying our turkey in a ziplock. I almost forgot that we were at work until finally a call went out and our pagers went off.

Bujumbura, Burundi or Bust?

2008-11-05T11:00:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago while checking my email I noticed a new message from Frank and Carol Ogden, a missionary couple to Burundi. I had met them a few times before, once when I sent supplies with Frank (he's a surgeon) and another time at a missions event when both of us where scheduled to speak. The message was titled invitation to Burundi! As as I read it I could hardly believe my eyes, they were inviting me to go and work at Kibuye Hospital in Burundi, a sister hospital to Kibogora (where I had taught my trauma curriculum in Rwanda)> They wanted the trauma curriculum and anything else I might be able to teach!
The origonal proposal was to go in February. Of course I told them I was interested but I would have to work things out with my own students here in Seattle. I recieved a call from last night with more information. They asked if I would be willing to teach a few classes at Hope Africa University in the nursing and medical schools there. They assured me that dates could be more flexible. It seems that the school year in Burundi begins in February and ends in December. The students at HAU would be in session while my own students at NU are on break. This could work!!!!

The Raven(s)

2008-11-02T05:59:00.000-08:00

As I was reading of the students blog posts, I began to reminisce about nursing school and I starting looking through old pictures and papers. I found several journal entries I had made while I was in Alaska working in the villages there. Here is one them that I seem to have found at quite the opportune time.

We had a meeting at 1pm about the the community health aid program. I ended up not going because Aeromed had a flight for me to go on. Our call was in a village called Tooksook Bay. It located on Nelson Island near Night Mute. On the way to the village I got to sit in the co pilots seat. As we landed I noticed there was an overturned plane lying on the side of the runway. (This was the previous Areomed flight that didn't quite make it.)

After we landed we were picked up by a man on a "snow go" towing a wooden sled. We put all of our equipment on the sled including Tom, the flight medic, and rode along the frozen coastline to the village. Our patient was an infant with probable RSV.
During the flight back to Bethel I was looking out the window and noticing that there was absolutely nothing down there (not even trees) until you reach the village. These people were totally isolated. I was thinking about when God calls people to places like this... As I continued to look out the window I saw a raven flying below us.

I thought about Elijah at the Brook Kereth. The Lord had sent him there to escape the wicked king Ahab who was killing all the prophets of God. Even though God had sent Elijah to a remote and desolate place, He did not leave him "high and dry." God provided for him from the waters of the brook and He used the birds (ravens at that) to minister to him and bring him food.
These ravens did not bring the message of "nevermore" but rather the message of "evermore." Sometimes God leads us to desolate places, places where we think we couldn't possibly have a ministry. We just need to remember that it's all God's ministry, He doesn't need us (fortunately He wants us)to carry out His master plans. God can use even the ravens. In fact, sometimes He leads us to those places to minister to us. If we are faithful to follow God to the ends of the earth, He is faithful to provide for you forevermore.

I Kings 17:4
You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there.

Vulnerability: Naked and Unashamed

2008-10-24T19:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday in post clinical conference I decided to talk to the students about vulnerability. The discussion that followed only confirms that I do indeed have a QUALITY group of students. While I cannot do the conversation justice here in this entry I will try to touch on some of the highlights.
As humans created in the image of God, we have a desire to know and to be known. This takes vulnerability. Vulnerability can be frightening. However, it is in our vulnerability that we grow the most. It is also in vulnerability that the 'self' is overshadowed and the One who sustains us becomes more visible to others. Many times it is in our most vulnerable state that we can bare the most powerful witness.

2 Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

Another student discussed how the position of vulnerability should be respected. He also mentioned how we must see it as an honor to be the one who is present with another "when they're on the floor or in the bed."
"When it comes right down to vulnerability is what makes us as followers of Jesus different," replied another. "In other religions, it's all about appeasing an impersonal god. In Christianity, it's about giving yourself over to Him. It doesn't get any more vulnerable than that, it is in this that we have a personal relationship with the Saviour. Jesus even made Himself vulnerable here on earth, He died naked on a cross all for us!"
"When Adam and Eve where in the Garden of Eden the Bible says they were naked and unashamed. But the wanted "knowledge," so they disobeyed God and ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Suddenly they realized they were both naked and became ashamed. They hid and sewed together fig leaves to cover themselves. It think that today we have a deep longing to be 'naked and unashamed.' The only way we can do that is through Him."

Adults Say the Darnedest Things...

2008-10-19T19:08:00.000-07:00

There is a woman in the secured Alzheimer's unit who is convinced that another male patient is her husband. (Of course this is simply not the case.) At meal times she sits next to him, picks off his plate, and then tries to feed him.
One morning one of the nurses aids was helping the man get out bed and mentioned to him that his "girlfriend" was waiting outside the door. The man leaned over and whispered, "Can you tell me her name? I don't want to offend her!"

Nursing Home Soap Opera

2008-10-11T20:34:00.001-07:00

We've survived another week of clinical, but not without some measure of drama. It's comical really... It seems that one of my male students has found a new "girlfriend" in the Alzheimer's unit. A little lady follows him about spouting out comments like "I'll have me a piece of that" and "Isn't he delicious!" This is also the same woman who takes a drink of water and says "There's something wrong with this, it's not spiked." My other male student rescued a dementia patient from out of the bushes where she had lost herself a few hours earlier.
Another one of the student's patients significantly improved after being placed on hospice and taken off of all of his medications. It seems he now talks, walks and eats all of his meals without help. He couldn't do any of these things before he put on hospice care.
One of my young ladies received highest compliments from for the administrator for getting her severely obese patient with anasarca and terrible venous stasis ulcers on her legs into a recliner. This woman had apparently been in her wheelchair almost constantly for several weeks. She even slept in wheelchair refusing to get into bed which of course made it hard to elevate her terribly swollen legs.
It turns out that another students patient had been a medical assistant in a doctor's office. She coached the student through taking her vital signs and testing her blood with great joy and excitement. Ironically it was the sweetest girl you could ever know that was the one who made her patient cry. However, the bout of crying was brought on by a "goodbye" at the end of the day. It's such a privilege to work with the next generation of nurses, the ones who aren't jaded and haven't developed bad habits yet. How refreshing!

Decreased Intracranial Adaptive Capacity

2008-09-28T02:18:00.000-07:00

I used the student computer on lab on Friday afternoon to download and print some documents off of another instructors coarse website because my own computer didn't have the program she had used to create the documents. Several of the nursing students where working frantically on a paper they have due next week. The assignment was to perform a health assessment on a classmate and then create a nursing care plan based off of the 4 top priority nursing diagnoses. The longer I sat in that room the more questions they asked me.
Nurses cannot legally make medical diagnoses, however they can make what are called nursing diagnoses. Every year a group called NANDA (North American Nursing Diagnosis Association) has a conference to approve the next list of official nursing diagnoses. When I was in nursing school there were only 144, my has the list grown!
As I went through the lists I couldn't help but wonder what it would have been like at those conferences. Here a few new ones that kind of make me go Hmm...
Decreased Intracranial Adaptive Capacity
Impaired Adjustment
Diversional Activity Deficit
Ineffective denial
Acute Confusion
Ineffective Individual Coping
Knowledge deficit
Do they speak from experience? Sometimes you just gotta wonder...

Long, But Worth the Read

2008-09-19T21:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday as I was walking backing into the health sciences building I held the door for a girl coming in behind me. As I was walking up the stairs to the lab, the girl stopped me and asked where she the nursing offices where. She went on to explain that was alum of the nursing program and she needed to talk to one of the professors about a problem she had. As I walked with her down the hall she said "You work at UW don't you?"
I wasn't quite sure how she knew that but of course I said yes. Then she asked if she could tell me about her situation, I of course said yes to that too. The poor girl just fell apart as she began to tell me her story. She had just started a new job in an oncology (cancer care) ICU. A few weeks ago while she was still on orientation she had her first patient code (cardiac arrest). They where able to resuscitate the patient twice that day but the woman died two days later.
She went on to explain that at first she felt OK about what had happened, her co-workers and her manager had congratulated her on how she had handled the situation.
She didn't fall apart until a few days later... Just before her patient (who is extremely sick) had coded she had drawn a blood gas from and arterial line. After she had drawn the blood she noticed a very small bubble in the in the line. The preceptor told her to flush it anyway. To make a long story short the poor thing became convinced that she had killed her patient by giving her an air embolism. She had been tortured by this awful thought for two weeks while on a family vacation, she was about to go and tell her manager this.
We talked for about an hour. I tried to explain to her that it takes several milliliters of air to cause and air embolism, the amount of air in 2cm length or art line tubing isn't enough to cause anything. The patient was on the way out! The question I asked her was "Where did that thought come from?" No one had told her she had killed her patient or that she was a bad nurse or that she couldn't do it. Those condemning and untrue thoughts were coming from the devil, who else wants us to fail? Who wants to disable us with our own thoughts and keep us from being who we are called to be? We can't let ourselves go down that path. While people can and do make mistakes that they need to be accountable for, they cannot take false responsibility. One cannot also be overridden with guilt to the point where they can't move on and it affects productivity.
2 Corinthians 10:5 says:
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Isaiah 55:8-12 says:
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the LORD.

"As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.

As we were talking another professor came in and the three of us had the opportunity to pray these promises. I think we all needed to be reminded to take captive every thought and seek a higher understanding grounding ourselves in truth.

I can't take credit for this picture, it was taken my a person I met in Rwanda who worked for World Concern. The picture was actually taken in Pakistan.

Playing Dolls...

2008-09-10T11:12:00.000-07:00

Last week our nursing students started what is lovingly known as "Boot Camp." Boot Camp is the concentrated time we spend in the skills lab learning basic patient assessment and other fundamental skills such as bed baths, bed making, hygiene cares,etc... Some of these skills are practiced on one another while others are practiced on mannequins. Last Friday I was helping the students practice bed baths when one of them said, "I feel like I'm a little girl playing dolls." Essentially that's exactly what we were doing. Little girls (and sometimes even boys) have been learning the art of how to physically care for others by "playing dolls" for centuries.
One group of students was practicing basic care on the pediatric mannequin when the they noticed that the arm was not securely attached. Needless to say we ended up with a traumatic amputation. I took little Jill (the name they chose for their "patient") into my office for some orthopaedic surgery. I was able to reattach the arm but unfortunately due to some missing parts Jill will have a slightly more limited range of motion in her right shoulder.
In my attempts to find some material for some upcoming class discussions I have been reading a wonderful book titled Fearfully and Wonderfully Made. It's by Dr. Paul Brand and Philip Yancey. Dr. Brand was a missionary doctor at a leprosy hospital in India. The book is written from his perspective and discusses the ingenious design of the human body and it's implications to what that means in the concept of community.
In one chapter Dr. Brand describes how he was able to learn more about the disease process of leprosy by studying the bones found in a 500 year old leper colony. He recalls a lecture he once attended by a famous anthropologist. In her lecture Dr. Mead claimed that the earliest sign of civilization is not a clay pot or tools. She claims that the earliest signs of civilization are healed bones! Such artifacts, she said, are never found in the remains of savage societies. The artifacts left behind by them are always evident of violence and destruction. A healed femur (such as the example she had when giving this lecture) showed that someone must have cared for the victim and provided for him (at personal sacrifice) during his time of recovery.
How fascinating, the concepts of caring and community truly are what make us "civilized."

On Monday when I came back into my office after making some copies I found Jill sitting at my desk!

One Week Down

2008-09-07T07:55:00.001-07:00

So ends the first week of school... I'll say it went well, it really did. Classes are in full swing and the students have already had an "exam." On Thursday I gave a short "schpeal" about blood pressure, what it is, how the body regulates it, what affects it, etc... Friday I tested them on it. They each took turns taking a blood pressure on one another as I listened in with a double stethoscope. Apparently I make the students hypertensive! Their nervousness was never more obvious to me. In spite of this, they all did very well but I'm starting to wonder how things are going to be when we start breaking out the needles!

Let the School Year Begin!

2008-09-01T01:21:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again, school starts in just a few short days. The students have moved into the dorms and the parents have left. Teachers everywhere are making last minute preparations, hanging borders, making word walls, and expanding their classroom libraries.
I had the pleasure of visiting a "teacher store" with some elementary school teachers of mine. I also had the distinct pleasure of writing "Mrs. Baros" inside the covers of all sorts of exciting titles ranging from "Winnie the Pooh" to "Amelia Bedilia" to "The Boxcar Children."
Just last week "Mrs. Baros" helped me go through my classroom library which incidentally had much more boring titles like "Therapeutic Nursing Interventions" and "The Physicians Desk Reference." I must admit that I would rather be reading Encyclopedia Brown than writing my lecture on fluid and electrolytes.
Last Friday morning I had the distinct pleasure of leading the devotion time during the new student orientation. I was reading the passage in Exodus 17 where the Israelites are fighting the Amalekites in the valley while Moses stood on the hill holding his staff. As an illustration I had one of the students hold a box over her head as I read the scripture. After a few verses I would then add one of their text books to the box. Of course it didn't take long for her arms to get tired (as I can be long winded and each of those darn books weighs at least 6 pounds). Her classmates soon figured out that they could help her by holding her arms up. When I finished reading the chapter I asked a few questions about the application of this passage. They seemed to grasp the theme of encouraging one another in the Lord, baring each other's burdens, and standing firm in truth but when I asked them what was above their heads one of them quite seriously said "our assigned readings." Actually I was going for the whole "The Lord is my Banner" thing but...
Later that afternoon I weighed that box and found out that with all it's contents it was 52 pounds! I'll bet our students were wishing they were reading Amelia Bedelia or Encyclopedia Brown too.

Classroom Civility, Manure, and Professor So and So

2008-08-23T01:32:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks have been blur as the summer is coming to a close and the school year is almost here. This week has been marked by my sister's wedding, 60 hours of work at the hospital, and of course the faculty retreat and other preparations for the upcoming semester. As I drove onto the campus this morning I was greeted by the maintenance crew preparing the dorms and classrooms for occupation. In just a few short days the students will begin moving in.
I ended up going to faculty retreat in my scrubs as I had missed my bus and therefore didn't have time to change clothes. During the opening of the meeting the Dean passed out gifts to each one of us; chocolates and a bag of manure (fertilizer). He went on to explain how he had gone to a conference at West Point and visited the site where a part of the movie "Hello Dolly" was filmed. Apparently there is a part in the film where she says "Money is like manure, it has to be spread around to make things grow." Dr. C was encouraging us to spread around our encouragement and expertise as instructors to help our students and each other grow.
I'm going to have to get an office plant now just to use my fertilizer.
Dr. C's presentation of the gift of poo was followed by a presentation about civility in the classroom. I must say it was a little interesting to be sitting amongst a group of women twice my age talking about the lack of respect shown by the "me generation" and their "sense of entitlement" and constant need for reassurance. Sadly I agree with this opinion and sadder still I'm more a part of this generation than that of my collegues. How did we ever get this way, so demanding yet so insecure in ourselves?
What's the answer? There is now a school wide policy that students can no longer call faculy by first names. We must now be called by title and surname, so that's Professor Morgenroth to you! Personally I'm not to crazy about the idea. Why can't we just go southern and be Miss April? It's a pentacostal Christian university, heck I could be Sister April (accept that sounds Catholic); or how about just the last name? Some of these students will be older than me and I want to be approachable. What a dilema... It will be interesting to see how this new policy changes the culture of the University, especially with last years students coming back to Professor So and So. Too bad I can't be Professor So and So...
Any opinions for any of you teachers out there?

AWOL

2008-08-09T16:00:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was our family's annual reunion at the house on Lake Crescent. Sadly, as people don't get transplants at the most convenient times, I had to work at the hospital so I missed it. Wouldn't you know it, the very day following the reunion was the start of a stretch of days off.
Angela and I took the opportunity to run away, we left right after I got off work on Monday morning. Technically I wasn't actually AWOL, at least not from work... We had quite a nice time with a little bit of hiking, a little bit of swimming, and whole lot of doing nothing and it felt good!

Mexicali 2008

2008-07-28T16:51:00.000-07:00

This June marked my 12th year with the Mexicali Mission Team, it's hard to believe that it's been that long! I mentioned a bit about the trip in a previous post but I was unable to share pictures at the time. Somebody finally clued me in to a website where team members had been posting their pictures so thanks to them I can now share a few.

Here are the girls digging a ditch to lay pipes for the new bathroom. The previous "bathroom" was just an outhouse and the sink didn't actually have running water. Did I mention it was 118 degrees while those girls were digging the ditch?

As we broke ground for the plumbing ditch we found layer after layer of clay crusted carpet. The pile in the picture isn't even all of it!

The guys worked for hours to raise the roof, here's part of it.

Appartently I just can't go on an international trip without randomly doing the Macarena with a bunch of students. Here we are dancing on the rooftops.

Also holding fast to tradition was the annual banana suturing event.

The girls were "just trying to cool off..."

Amazed

2008-07-20T16:25:00.001-07:00

Friday night I had dinner with a friend from nursing school I hadn't seen in quite a long time. It was great to see to her, chat and catch up. We talked for hours about everything from grad school to Africa to Sri Lanka to being nurses. It was one of those conversations where the other person is saying exactly what you needed to hear and your saying exactly what that person needed to hear. I love it when that happens!
Of course she asked about Rwanda, but it wasn't until I started telling her the story that I realized just how truly amazing the whole thing was. God did some pretty incredible things to pull this off. Here are few:
~The Rwanda project was not actually the project I had originally intended on doing. ~I had to change my project 24 hours before my proposal was due.
~The project was approved for the proposal writing stage at 4am, just 20 hours before the proposal was due.
~The approval came about through a series of 16 emails between three people: Myself at work in Seattle, Julie in Rwanda, and my professor who was in Japan at the time. Hence we were all on the computer at the same time.
~When I got the go ahead to write the proposal the professor said "If you feel like God is calling you to do this then go for it!"
~About 8 weeks before my departure date to Rwanda, my computer was stolen with all my work on it. A brand new computer was gifted to me not more than 24 hours after the incident.
~I got an entire month off to go, a major feat when you're a nurse in the midst of a nursing crisis.
~The program was for the most part successful but I think that I was one who learned the most.
~I graduated on time when it looked like I might not!
That whole experience was such a gift from God and the story a testimony of His faithfulness. It blows me away just to think about it.

Chili Chocolate and other Chocolate Fun

2008-07-16T22:57:00.000-07:00

I recently stated in a post that I like chili chocolate. Since making that claim I have been asked several times about it. I know that the combination of chili and chocolate sounds a little "iffy" but I think if you tried it you might be pleasantly surprised. I spent an entire 2 weeks in Mexico in search of the stuff once. I recently found it again at an Eastern European market. It's good stuff Maynard!
In my search for pictures of chili chocolate, I also came across some other chocolate fun. Check this out! I've got to admit that it made my night here at work.

Life After Grad School

2008-07-10T10:02:00.000-07:00

Mexico
Hello all, I know it's been awhile but I've only just recently returned from Mexico. No, it wasn't really a vacation, I was with 20 teenagers! We were doing some service projects which included building a roof, painting, and bringing indoor plumbing to a pastor, his family, and his church. We also had two different sites for teaching Vacation Bible School. VBS is not really my gifting however, so a few times I was designated to stay and cook dinner for the rest of the group while they were away. Have you ever tried to make 100 tostadas?
Overall the trip went very well and the students learned a lot and had a great time. They were even glad I made them share testemonies in church. By the end of the week the VBS sites had a total of 90 kids in attendance. The plumbing ditch was dug to specifications in spite of having to dig through endless layers of clay caked carpet (yes, this was outside). No one was seriously ill or injured. We returned last Thursday night and believe or not I actually miss the students! Unfortunately I do not have any pictures of the trip as once I got there I found that I had forgotten to take my camera's memory card out of my laptop! I'm hoping some other kind souls will share their photos with me.
A Social Life?
Naomi, Kate, and Julie would be proud... Just before leaving for Mexico I had a dinner party. Of course this required cleaning the house and cooking, two things I rarely did while in grad school. The menu: lamb, buffalo, and rice stuffed grape leaves (dolma), a lovely salad complete with craisins, and two types of home baked (yes, I made them from scratch) bread. I had to make some for a potluck at work anyway, so why not make a party out of it?
I'm not much of an entertainer however and I don't have a Wii or an X-box or anything to make people play Guitar Hero on or anything. I much prefer actually interacting with my guests anyway. We ended up suturing bananas! Actually, these sutures don't look half bad. I think some of my guests may have missed their callings.
July 4th
The Fourth of July was pretty low key for me. I went to mom's house and sewed with her and my sister. I'm excited to report that after 4 years I have finally completed Operation Rescue Ugly Couch! Stop the insanity, I wonder what's next...

Tagged

2008-06-18T12:40:00.000-07:00

I was recently tagged for a little survey thingy... I can't say I've ever really done this before but I found it slightly interesting. It forced me to take a look at who I am after so many years of neglecting certain parts of myself and/or blindly running about like a headless chicken. I've started asking myself other questions too, it's been eye opening. Reflection plays such an important role in learning and growing. So Shiloh, here are my answers:

Five Things to do on my List today:

Go to the bank
Go to the Department of Licensing to get a a drivers abstract so I can drive the school van
Pack for Mexicali
Do laundry so I have clean scrubs to wear to work tonight
Figure out what I'm going to do for devotional books for 20 kids

Snacks I Enjoy:

Frozen grapes
Almond Joy (this was my food of choice for long curriculathons)
Chili chocolate (yes, you read that correctly)
Raspberries

Things I would do if I were a Millionaire:

Pay off my mortgage
Start a nursing school in Kibogora Rwanda
Get a PhD and not work at the same time
Use my millions of dollars to get Shiloah Health Outreach off and running

Places I have lived: (too bad extended trips don't count)

Des Moines,Washington
Federal Way, Washington
Seattle,Washington
Milton, Washington
Kirkland, Washington

Bad habits I have:

Not taking my trash can out to the curb in time
I'm terrible at making schedules for myself
Not backing up my computer files!
Going through life sleep deprived
Being "anti-social" at times

Jobs I have held:

Lifeguard/Swim Instructor
EMT
Camp Nurse
Nursing Clinical Instructor
ICU Nurse

Masters of the Universe: What's Next

2008-06-16T01:19:00.000-07:00

The master's degree is finally a reality! I completed my thesis defense on June 11th and walked at the UW School of Nursing graduation on June 13th. I had just come off of a 12 hour night shift so some parts of the day are blur but overall it was enjoyable. The best part however, wasn't parading across the stage sporting my new hood; it was knowing I had the support of family and friends.
So now that this part of my life is over, many people have been asking me what's next. I'm trying hard not to be too tempted to start back in school right away. I'm really thinking that now is the time to gain a little balance, take some time to regroup. In the immediate future: I am leaving for Mexico with a group of 20 teen-agers THIS Friday! We'll be working with a church and their youth on construction projects and Vacation Bible schools. This is my 12th annual trip with this group. In the not so distant future: I am accepting a position at Buntain School of Nursing at Northwest University teaching a clinical group and helping with management of the skills lab. I will be decreasing my FTE at University of Washington but plan to continue in clinical practice to maintain a current perspective on patient care. I am hoping that this will led to a more normal schedule and a better balance.
Ultimately over the next year I would also like to concentrate more on the development of Shiloah Health Outreach as a non-profit organization. Also on my list: clean the house, fix the back deck, write the Mexicali Bible studies BEFORE the meetings begin, sew more, sleep more, and the list goes on... Of course we'll just have to wait and see if God doesn't have different plans...

I'm Back...

2008-06-12T08:08:00.000-07:00

It's been a long week. Saturday and Sunday I found myself "practicing" my public speaking in churches and at missions events. All of those things went well but I couldn't help but feel a little guilty that I wasn't working on my thesis.
Sunday night and Tuesday night were perhaps the last all nighters of my academic career. It wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. I talked myself into thinking that these nights were sacred events. I even went down to the store and bought some special coffee beans, a stack of printer paper, a printer cartridge, a new flash drive, and some fruit snacks. By yesterday morning when I left the house for the university, the only thing I had left was a stack of the printer paper. I had used the rest of my purchases completely!
The presentation went well, thank you to everyone who prayed for and/or showed up at my thesis defense. My project was approved for graduation and all my papers were signed. I had a nice lunch with some great friends afterward and then headed home to sleep. I couldn't have asked for a better way to celebrate.

Defender of the Thesis

2008-06-03T23:40:00.000-07:00

Well folks, I finally have a date to defend my thesis! Mark your calenders for June 11th at 9 am and pray hard. Unfortunately I have to work nearly everyday between now and then so I'm a little stressed about having enough time to prepare. Will having my project "critiqued" by a panel of academics somehow desecrate my experience? I hope not! Here goes...