Time for change!

Ok folks. Here it is. (If you happen to work with me, do not let this out just yet, I need to make sure it's solid!) I doubt that anyone I work with reads this, but there is a link to our blog on every email I send so, ..... you never know!!!

Well, most of you know that I've been working every night, many weekends, and many many holidays for the last 5 or so years... and before that I worked 'till at least midnight 5, 6 and sometimes 7 days a week; plus just about every weekend and holiday for about 10 years right?

Well, my (and Melinda's) prayers may be answered. I'm just asking that y'all remember us in your prayers too. I have had a couple informal over the phone interviews for a position in the PACU (Post anesthesia care unit... aka: "recovery room") and will have a face-to-face interview on this Wednesday morning. It will be a transfer in the same hospital so there will be no change in pay... in fact, I'll be loosing between $3-$5/hour in shift differentials & etc. but hope to make some of that up in "on call pay". The gig is from 10 am to 6 pm Tuesday-Friday (yeah, that's only 32 hours week, but being on call 1 night a week + coming in early or staying late some days adds up... and I can always pick up a shift or 1/2 shift in the ICU at a moment's notice....they are always in need)... besides, with this schedule, if we find that it's necessary, Melinda can get a part-time job for a while. If Wednesday works out (which in talking on the phone with the manager, it sounds promising) I could be on days within this month!!! That means I can eat and sleep the same time my wife and kids are eating and sleeping, I can function like a real person... You just don't know how bad I need this!!! Hopefully I can lose some weight, lower my blood pressure and cholesterol by having regular sleep patters... and another plus is the fact that there are showers so I can get a bike ride in before work and just lock my bike on the rack. We don't have showers in ICU so I haven't had that luxury... Anyway, we are pretty excited, but are trying not to count our chickens before they hatch. I just wanted to let y'all in on it. BTW, surgeons don't schedule procedures on weekends and holidays, so unless it's emergent and I'm on call (which is every 8th weekend), then no weekend work unless I'm picking it up in the ICU. Pretty cool.
So, the moral to the story: Prayer Works. Please remember us in your prayers.
Later,
Scott

Messy M.E.S.S.

Well, it's Thursday morning, I just got in from work. It wasn't a bad night, my patient was pleasant (my first Muslim patient that I can remember... nice guy)... yes, I did say Patient and not Patients.... that's because in a Cardio-Vascular/Surgical Intensive Care Unit, most post-op open heart and some vascular and neuro patients are 1 on 1 (1 nurse/1 patient) for the 1st 12 to 36 hours +/- depending on acuity... actually, many times the patient may be 2 or 3 on 1 (2 or 3 nurses/ 1 patient) for the first couple hours... until the patient is stable enough to be 1 on 1...
So, enough Nurse talk 101, there will be a quiz next week...

I figured it was time to post again, by the way I fixed the pictures on the "Can you canoe" post... check 'em out. I named this one "Messy M.E.S.S." because looking around the house, I realized that we (M. elinda, E. than, S. tanton, S. cott) are some messy folks... most of the time it's o.k. because we're not Dirty people, we are just unorganized and cluttered enough to be messy. Hey, we don't sweat the little stuff... I have to admit, Melinda does way more than her share of cleaning the kitchen and living room and even the kids rooms, and I probably don't quite do enough (but I take care of the grass cutting, garbage taking out, some cooking, and working... +/- other stuff)... the boys, well, they are a work in progress and I'll report on them later. I'm not posting to complain. I'm just saying that we're a bit messy, that's all. Here's the thing... I've seen folks with twice as many kids as us who keep a spic and span home... I don't get it. I mean, are they like constantly sweeping, mopping, dusting, vacuuming, washing, folding, wiping... or are they just that anal or "O.C.D." that they are super conscious about every little speck, drop, footprint, hair, etc. that nothing gets by them and are their kids the same way?
Frankly, it annoys me. When I walk into someones home and it looks like nobody lives there because everything is so nice and neat and orderly and clutter free... pictures are arranged neatly, no dishes on the table or counters... no shoes, toys, clothes, and papers spread throughout the house... I get kinda nervous. I mean, I'm afraid to walk... "should I take my shoes off?"... "am I allowed in this room?" these are things that go through my mind... if I wanted to go to a museum, then I would have gone to one, but NO! I chose to visit someone in their home, but it appears that I took a wrong turn because there's no sign of life here...(more of my thought process...) All I'm saying is jeez! If you really want to show some hospitality, drop a coke and leave a nice stain in your carpet, leave a load of laundry on your sofa so I can push it aside and sit down, kick your shoes off at the front door so I can stumble on them when I come through... then I'll feel welcome when I visit.
I'm a family kinda guy, my folks were up here this last weekend and yes, we straitened things up before they got here(I actually scrubbed the whole bathroom...yeah, I know), but when they arrived, they KNEW that someone lived here... they knew it was us and I hope they didn't take offense to it but rather felt welcome. Now I know that my sisters may end up reading this and I'm pretty sure that they can and do relate, but to you other readers (if there are others), try mixing it up a little bit... how 'bout helping your kid with a school project and leaving everything in the middle of the dining room table for a few days, then throw a picnic blanket on the living room floor and having dinner in the floor for a couple days. While that's all going on, make sure to invite some of your "Type A" friends over and get them in on the gig too. I think that you may just loosen up a bit and have a better, more rounded outlook on life.
Go on, give it a try.... then report back here and let me know how it went....


:)


(please don't think that people who have "lived in" homes are lazy, we're not lazy, we are just multi-tasking and happen to be on the "multi" part of the "tasking" thing.)

That's all.

Scott

Can you Canoe?

Many of you know that we had our first Grandfather, Fathers, Uncles, Brothers, Bros-In-Laws, Sons, and Cousins' canoe trip up here in NW Georgia last weekend. Dad (Gramps to some) had been planning/hoping to do this for some time now and it finally came to fruition. It was a close call with Mother Nature, but we only had a few sprinkles, some wind here and there and little sun... come to think of it, I'd call it "Pleasantly Overcast". It was a 17 mile Canoe trip on the Etowah River. 5 adults and 5 kids (better make that 10 kids). The put-in point was on hwy 411 half way between Cartersville and Rome, GA and the take-out point was at Grizzard Park on the East Rome Bypass (Hwy 1). There were a few rocky shoal rapids (not real rapids, but more turbulence than your average bathtub) which posed minor challenges as well as opportunities for some to get wet (tipped canoes... no injuries or drownings though)... Fun was had by all and we look forward to doing it again... I had a water proof disposable camera and have developed the pics to a disc and uploaded them to winkflash and photobucket... here are the links: http://sandm96.winkflash.com/ and http://s174.photobucket.com/albums/w106/scottheckles/summer%2008/canoe%20trip/
but in the meantime, here's a few pics for proof: (if I'm not making sense, I'll read this later and edit it... I just got home from work and am in need of sleep)


A view from the Captain's Seat (Ethan and Stanton in front).

Who's the Captain in this picture?



"Where's the TP?"........ ........ ......... ........... Nothing to see here, move along, move along.


Sometimes we made a 4 canoe barge and just hung around.



Other times we stopped and emptied the water from the canoes (they tend to float better when they are IN the water and not with water IN them)


This kinda looks like a "Flood Rescue Picture... a la Hurricane Katrina" (BTW, That's the Birthday boy in the background... Happy Birthday Shane)


There was some kid swapping going on (just to keep things fresh... it was almost 6 hours in a canoe...)



Grizzly Adams was there



It was a dang good time... Maybe some day we'll be good enough sailors that we can bring along some Women-folks.... Sounds like a plan....
There are more pics on Winkflash and photobucket...
I'm tired and am quickly running out of steam.
Thanks for including us in your adventure Dad (if you ever read this)... let's do it again.
Later,
Scott

What's that sound?

I've been meaning to post this one, just haven't gotten around to it yet.
It happened last week some time. I came in from work about 9:30 a.m. (had to stay late for a meeting) so I was very tired. Melinda was up and about, she had places to go, things to do. Well, I remember her kissing me good night (my night-- her morning) 'cause she figured that I would be asleep by the time she gets out of the shower... she was right... only she decides to wake me in a semi-panicked state to get me to investigate this "mysterious sound" coming from the bathroom. So I do. As I get closer to the bathroom, I can hear this "BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZ" sound inconspicuously generated from nowhere in particular. "Hmm?" I thought. I looked everywhere I knew to look: under the sink, in the closet, behind the door, in the garbage, in the medicine cabinet... I could feel the vibration on the wall of the shower, but nowhere else... It was a vibrating type of noise... kinda like you hear next to some high voltage electrical wires... or even the noise a set of Stadium lights make just after you've flipped the switch, but right before the lights come on... you get the picture?
Well, just on the other side of our bathroom and half a story down (split level house) is our kitchen. The exhaust hood/fan for the stove is against the same wall as our shower so I thought to check it out... nothing there of note. I couldn't hear the noise or feel the vibration anywhere else in the house except for the master bedroom's bathroom. I didn't smell anything electrical, but thought I'd go flipping breakers and try to shut off what ever was causing this noise. Meanwhile, Melinda's getting kinda nervous... wants to call an electrician, plumber... someone! I shrug it off and tell her to head on to wherever she's going and I'll take care of it. By the way, I got no results from flipping breaker switches... the buzzing continued with every flipped breaker switch.
So what should I do? I figured that I best sleep on it.... Yep, I just closed the door to the bathroom and went to sleep (hoping that it would go away by the time I had to wake and go to work).
Well, Melinda gets back home just before the boys got home from school. She asked if the noise was gone, or if I'd figured out what it was. So, I go opened the door and guess what? It was still happening... no smell of smoke or anything like that though. She immediately gets worried again so we restart the investigation. This time I look in the attic above the bathroom--- Nothing. Seemed like nothing was causing this vibration/noise. So I say to Melinda: "I wonder if someone left a drill or a battery operated power tool of some sort in the wall when they built this house and somehow, now, it's suddenly running"??? She sarcastically says something like: "yeah, right, this house is like 10 years old".
About this time the boys came home from school and I sent Ethan up to the bathroom to sniff out the sound. He comes back to us and says: "Wow! Daddy, you sure do have good ears!", Melinda and I just look at each other and shrug... "What do you mean?" I asked. He continued: "I couldn't even hear it until I got to the bathroom... how did you hear it way down here?" Still confused by his response, I ask what is it (the sound)? "Your razor!" he says in a Sherlock Holmes kinda way.
We all walk up to the bathroom and the noise is gone... he'd turned it off. "Show me!" I said. He proceeds to open the shower curtains and reach across the shower to show Melinda and me the Gillette Fusion Power shaver that was left turned on from when Melinda took her shower. It had been covered up by a wash cloth and was vibrating against the shower wall. We looked at each other in disbelief while Ethan was all puffed up like some kind of hero. We thanked him for his heroic act and sent him on his way.
I'm not quite sure what Melinda was thinking, maybe something like: "Uh-Oh, he knows I used his razor on my legs again...", but what I was really thinking was: "Wow, I'm sure glad I slept on it instead of calling someone to come out to the house... I would REALLY feel like an idiot if it took an electrician to turn off a stupid razor!" (not to mention that those guys cost $$ just to come out and do nothing)

Well, I know what to do the next time a mysterious noise is lurking in the walls of the Bedwell Fortress!! Thank goodness we were smart enough to have kids, that's all I have to say about that!!!


The culprit.

New Post-- "Junkyard in the Sky"

So, I was checking out our blog, changing some of the layout... figured I'd better say something. My issue now is: what to blog about? I have so many things on my mind that I can't commit to spending time "blogging about them". This last week or so has been pretty busy. I just came off of 4 12's back to back (I worked the last 4 nights 7pm-7am back to back)... Weekend shifts tend to be more "adventuresome" than weeknight shifts... only one set of doctors (the ones on call all weekend), we tend to not move so many patients out of the ICU-- even if they are no longer "ICU Quality" patients--- (you know, if they are well enough to talk, hit the call bell, and get out of bed on their own, they don't need to be in the ICU!)... we always admit a crazy one or two (many times the same crazy, druggie that we admitted the previous weekend)... people tend to die on weekends (no it has nothing to do with the level of care that they are or are not getting from the weekend staff! It's just the way it is... they were feeling crappy all week, put off going to the doctor... by Friday afternoon they tell their husband or wife: "If I don't feel any better by Monday, I'm going to the doctor." Then what do you know, they fall out on their way back to the car from Sunday services and someone calls 911... this is when they get delivered to the hospital E.R. where 10 other folks have done the same thing in addition to the drug seekers in the waiting room, the nursing home patients who get dropped off because the nursing home staff is too low to care for all the patients on the weekend so they make up some story that "granny had a seizure" so they can lighten the load in the ol' nursing home... and all the other runny nose, bumped toes, fits, farts, and freckles waiting in the weekend E.R. front lobby... so they get resuscitated, admitted and then shipped up to the ICU where they proceed to try to die again and again for the next 24 hours all while their family, who is in shock from this sudden chain of events, try to process everything and deal with the idea that grandpa or grandma very well could be gone when they wake up tomorrow and should we keep him/her on life support or shouldn't we....)
Yeah, I know it's sad isn't it? But hey, that's what I do for a living. Sometimes it's hard to be a person and work in this environment. I think we should look at having nurses who's job is merely just to comfort and tend to the family while their loved one is at death's door, meanwhile us 'behind the scenes' nurses are able to focus on patient care, keeping the patient alive and pushing them towards wellness/recovery.
Sometimes I feel like a mechanic. See, we specialize in old cars and moderately old cars or younger cars who've been wrecked or never properly worked before or have been driven recklessly for the most of their functional lives, but now want a fighting chance of just staying road worthy..... see, we don't necessarily "fix them", but we take them from a broken down state and with the guidance of our elusive "master mechanics" (uhm, doctors) we spend countless hours and resources tinkering with their motors or their computers or their starters and water pumps until these cars run well enough to go to the next stage (leaving out of the ICU and going to the "floor")... this stage I would compare to being a test drive or two. Only for some cars, they'll never get a test drive, but at least they'll have their engines started up and revved up a few times, but that's about it. The ones who's engines are now functional and their test drives have been successful... they'll be put back on the highway until their next collision (unless they just drive right off the cliff, then we never see them back in the garage... barring that, most cars come back and stay at the garage from time to time until they either drive off the cliff or end up in that Junk yard in the sky).... Anyway, you get the picture. So, as a mechanic, it's easy (easier) to work on someone's ol' Studebaker (even though they don't make any more parts for that car) and try to keep it running so that they can take it back to their garage or showroom or front yard, than it is to put a new Volvo or Mazda, with a totaled frame and a burnt up engine, up on the rack and try to rebuild it and get it going again... typically, if you can get the Mazda or Volvo back on the road, you know it will never drive like it used to ... I mean nowhere near what it used to. And you say what's the problem with that, you got the car back on the road?... Well, us mechanics, most of us see ourselves as a Mazda or Volvo and it's not fun to think of yourself being broken down into pieces in some greasy ol' mechanics garage... I mean, the ol' Studebaker's and Model T's... they've been around for a while, they've got some miles on them and they really haven't been driving "right" for quite some time anyway, so you feel good when you can get a few more miles out of them and let people enjoy checking out a piece of history... But even if you get a totaled car back to looking like a Mazda or Volvo ... eventually... that totalled car will be a Studebaker... and more than likely sooner than it should...

What's your point Scott? You had me, then you lost me, then you had me, now I'm not sure where you're going with all this... you say.
Well, I'm not exactly sure, I'm probably just trying to work some things out. See, regardless of what you may read on this blog, or hear from my mouth... I really do enjoy what I do as an ICU Nurse. I really do feel blessed to be a part of helping people overcome great adversity as well as being able to comfort those who are left mourning their loved ones whom we were not able to help. I'm constantly amazed at how far we've come in the world of medicine where we can stop beating hearts and lungs, drain them of blood, reroute their plumbing, then re-inflate and restart them so that they can have (hopefully) a better quality of life than they had before or so that they can live to see their grandchildren... etc. I guess what gets me is how many people on both sides of the garage (mechanics, master mechanics, and Mazdas, Volvos, Model T's, and Studebakers) are driving around without their lights on... I mean none of this would be possible or even worth it if not for our Father in Heaven and our Savior's love for us. So, on this note, I'll try to wrap this ramble up by apologizing up front if I annoy or offend any of you when I compare a Studebaker with someone's grandma or a Mazda with someones brother, it's really just one of my coping mechanism. I'm really compassionate and sympathetic on the inside. I firmly believe that we can and will endure all trials and tribulations if we would only do 2 things: Continue to have faith in Jesus Christ, and keep a good sense of humor.... if you don't or can't do those 2 things, then you're on a fast-track to the Junkyard in the Sky!

HiFi!!

Yup!!!! We've added music. Aren't we cool?
We'll talk more later.
Scott

School: Back in action!!!

Well, today is day # 2 for school. Ethan is now in the 5th grade and Stanton is in 1st. They had a great first day and are glad to be back in school. I still can't believe that Ethan's already in the 5th grade and Stanton's about to turn 7 next month. I put the above picture because I like it and I wanted to figure out how to post pictures... it's us in the Smoky Mtn. National Park about 1 month ago.... Well, I just got home from work and need to go to bed. Here's Melinda to finish up.

Later,

Scott

The boys woke up early with crazy excitement. They slept in their clothes the night before so they wouldn't have to "waste time" changing. They had a great first day and were excited to talk about it. This had ended this morning with not being able to wake Stanton up and then the crying jag sets in [his, not mine] and Ethan gets aggravated and runs on to the bus stop leaving Stanton crying in the dust, walking this slow defeated walk, crawl practically, until the big yellow bus rounds the curve and he's running and laughing like I knew he would. All's well again until Monday- ah, school has started.