October29
As we prepared for our skill testing this fall, one of the funniest moments was during a review of nasogastric (NG) tube procedures. Our instructor was very very adamant that we not forget to check the placement of the tube before doing anything else like give a feeding or meds. Not that it’s a small point. Patient safety comes first after all. But to help us remember, one of us came up with the idea of a t-shirt saying:
“I checked for placement”
And then on the back,
“Then flushed with 30mL”
We all loved it! Despite the fact that very few members of the population would know what the heck we were talking about. The prof got a good laugh out of it too, though said it would technically be cheating. Ah well.
October26
In the movie Shadowlands about the live and love of C.S. Lewis, there is a scene where Jack introduces Joy to a colleague of his, a one Christopher Riley. This particular colleague happens does not care very much for the world and stories of Narnia Jack penned. When Joy unknowingly asks Professor Riley if has read The Chronicles, he replies that he has not but that Jack reads him excerpts of them as “tests of friendship.”
So, dear friends, it is here that I give you my first test of friendship. Reading being my great passion, there is too much good not to share. Ironically, this one is from Jack too. 
“I have always been able to pray for the other dead, and I still do, with some confidence. But when I try to pray for H., I halt. Bewilderment and amazement come over me. I have a ghastly sense of unreality, of speaking into a vacuum about a nonentity.
The reason for this difference is only too plain. You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you.”
Jack is sharing his feelings about losing his wife. I’m reading his little book A Grief Observed where they are collected. So far, per this example, they eerily reflect my own feelings about losing my Mom.
October1
Fried chicken or deli chicken!
No joke, ladies. Next time you have chicken to go, leave the not-so-juicy breast meat for chicken salad sandwiches the day after. Tonight I used Popeyes fried chicken, skin and all. Chop fine, then toss with mayo, a dash of lemon juice, my secret ingredient – a dollop of cream cheese – and season as needed with garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. Yum!!!
Robyn
cecilia
Kalanna
