Holly reminded me today of something that I must put in this blog:
A few weeks ago there was a patient in 8208. He truly was the definition of "scrapper". He was an old man with an amputated leg, a sense of humor and he didn't really care what you thought of him. He was Spanish Speaking, but as usual the communication gap wasn't as broad as one would think. Anyways, one day I was outside of his room when one of the nurses, Alfredo, walked by following his lunch break. I thought to myself "Man, Alfredo smells like he's been smoking cigarettes. I didn't know he smoked."
I moved towards pod 8100 and noticed the smell was incredibly strong from 8208. I was in to see this gentleman sitting in his bed, cross-legged (as much as he could be with the stump) smoking a cigarette. Thankfully, he wasn't on oxygen. I immediately rush to him and say something to the effect of "Señor! No Esta Bien!! No Esta Bien Aqui!" I almost went off in German since I actually know how to say "no smoking" auf Deutsch. As I go to pull the cigarette out of his hand, he calmly puts up with other hand as if to stop me. He takes a good, long drag and then hands me the cigarette completely content.
As I say, the man's a scrapper. He grew on me during his few days at St. Francis. Other than that he pulled out his IV, which I replaced. He pulled out the replacement. I scolded him for that too and secured the second one I started a lot better.
Good Times sans potentially combustible moments.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Community...
A couple of months ago I wanted to do some mid-year reflection on the core tenets of the program I am in. It is a chance for me to see how the program is working for me and it gives a better insight to those of you reading the blog why I chose to do this year of service. I already posted an entry on Service a few posts back. I'm going to use this time to talk about community living.
This is yet another one of our traditional "Family Tree" Picture. This is MM: New Edition, as it has our new, seventh roommate, Jon. It is always the same tree at the DePaul center here in Montebello. Our community is definitely an intentional community. We work, play, eat, pray and learn together. Our struggles and successes are shared. We're brought from all over the country. We all have our own stories, talents and skills. We're unique and we each bring something awesome to the table. I'm going to share a bit about each of my awesome housemates here:
Jess is from Long Island, New York. Yeah, she has the accent. It's great. She loves life and is always looking to do something new. She's our house social chair. She plans the majority of our outings and coordinates a great deal of dates, times and schedules. Most of the fun things in this blog were planned by her. Her educational background is in English and Education. She is currently a teaching assistant at Mother of Sorrows School. She and I took the more grueling course at Echo Mountain. She is constantly challenging herself mentally, physically and spiritually. She has got me trying new things, going new places and not letting fear and doubt get in the way of finding great joy in the unknown. She has a passion for teaching, especially in intercity environments. She will do great things with her career.
Holly is my good friend from back at St. Scholastica. She is from Brainerd, MN. We met in sophomore year in college. We became close friends through our involvement in our campus's social justice center and through the Nursing program. While we have much in common (We are the only two RNs in the program, the only two Minnesotan, we live in the same house, work at the same site, on the same floor, she is a day older than I am, etc...) we are very different and we each made the decision to come to VSC West independently. When we found out we were going to be in the same community we spent a good deal of time talking about how we wouldn't bring a lot of our friendship to the table upfront as to allow for our full community to flourish. Indeed it did. Holly is a wonderful friend and community member. We have a special bond not just because of our time at CSS, but also being the only other RN and VSC at St. Francis Medical Center. Holly is kind, gentle and patient. She is our house's Den Mother. She may be soft-spoken, but make no mistake-when she feels passionate about something she will fight for it. She desires to be a pediatric nurse.
Alli is from Washington State. She studied Nutrition and Dietetics as the University of Washington, Pullman. GO COUGS! Alli loves food and nutrition. She is the grocery shopper for the house. I told her the other day I made a smoothie and put ground flax seed in it. Her face lit up. We can talk about all sorts of foods and new recipe ideas with great excitement. She gets excited about things whether it is the spectacular or the everyday, and I love that about her. There is a picture that Adrienne took and she and I are on the far end of our group. We're looking up, not paying attention whatsoever. I believe our conversation was something like this: "Do you think we're in this picture?" "Eh, maybe..." She is applying for Dietetic internships now as part of the process towards becoming a Registered Dietician. She studied abroad for a year in Chile. She helps me with my Spanish. It is coming along.
Laura is from Ohio. She studied photography at the University of Dayton. She is artistic to boot though you have to see her work for yourself because she can be pretty modest. Laura is so chill-she can get along with anybody. It may also have something to do with her stellar sense of humor. She has a great appreciation for the absurd and we certainly have plenty of that in our house. She is the only one in the house who is seeing someone. She manages her time well between Ted and our community so well. She doesn't miss a beat. She is at St. Vincent DePaul Cardinal Manning Homeless Shelter working as a case manager. She has no social work background but she is both awesome and chill and takes on her role with great finesse.
Adrienne is from The Bay Area. She studied Political Science and English at Dominican University. She is plugged in to what is going on with the world. She keeps me updated. She has a strong desire to advocate for others. Her sense of humor is everything I want it to be and more. She can by dry, dark, goofy-she's got a stellar sense of humor. Her sense of family and tradition are very strong; she isn't afraid to speak her mind. Her service site is at St. Vincent's Medical Center (As is Alli's). Her role is patient advocate and she works with the community outreach department. She brings great joy and humor as well as intellect and thoughtfulness to the community.
We have a new housemate, Jon. He moved in about 3 weeks ago. He isn't on Facebook, so I don't have a picture of him. He is from Orange, CA. He studied US History and Political Science in college and went to law school for a year. We're getting to know him and are excited about welcoming someone into our awesome community.
This is yet another one of our traditional "Family Tree" Picture. This is MM: New Edition, as it has our new, seventh roommate, Jon. It is always the same tree at the DePaul center here in Montebello. Our community is definitely an intentional community. We work, play, eat, pray and learn together. Our struggles and successes are shared. We're brought from all over the country. We all have our own stories, talents and skills. We're unique and we each bring something awesome to the table. I'm going to share a bit about each of my awesome housemates here:
Jess is from Long Island, New York. Yeah, she has the accent. It's great. She loves life and is always looking to do something new. She's our house social chair. She plans the majority of our outings and coordinates a great deal of dates, times and schedules. Most of the fun things in this blog were planned by her. Her educational background is in English and Education. She is currently a teaching assistant at Mother of Sorrows School. She and I took the more grueling course at Echo Mountain. She is constantly challenging herself mentally, physically and spiritually. She has got me trying new things, going new places and not letting fear and doubt get in the way of finding great joy in the unknown. She has a passion for teaching, especially in intercity environments. She will do great things with her career.
Holly is my good friend from back at St. Scholastica. She is from Brainerd, MN. We met in sophomore year in college. We became close friends through our involvement in our campus's social justice center and through the Nursing program. While we have much in common (We are the only two RNs in the program, the only two Minnesotan, we live in the same house, work at the same site, on the same floor, she is a day older than I am, etc...) we are very different and we each made the decision to come to VSC West independently. When we found out we were going to be in the same community we spent a good deal of time talking about how we wouldn't bring a lot of our friendship to the table upfront as to allow for our full community to flourish. Indeed it did. Holly is a wonderful friend and community member. We have a special bond not just because of our time at CSS, but also being the only other RN and VSC at St. Francis Medical Center. Holly is kind, gentle and patient. She is our house's Den Mother. She may be soft-spoken, but make no mistake-when she feels passionate about something she will fight for it. She desires to be a pediatric nurse.
Alli is from Washington State. She studied Nutrition and Dietetics as the University of Washington, Pullman. GO COUGS! Alli loves food and nutrition. She is the grocery shopper for the house. I told her the other day I made a smoothie and put ground flax seed in it. Her face lit up. We can talk about all sorts of foods and new recipe ideas with great excitement. She gets excited about things whether it is the spectacular or the everyday, and I love that about her. There is a picture that Adrienne took and she and I are on the far end of our group. We're looking up, not paying attention whatsoever. I believe our conversation was something like this: "Do you think we're in this picture?" "Eh, maybe..." She is applying for Dietetic internships now as part of the process towards becoming a Registered Dietician. She studied abroad for a year in Chile. She helps me with my Spanish. It is coming along.
Laura is from Ohio. She studied photography at the University of Dayton. She is artistic to boot though you have to see her work for yourself because she can be pretty modest. Laura is so chill-she can get along with anybody. It may also have something to do with her stellar sense of humor. She has a great appreciation for the absurd and we certainly have plenty of that in our house. She is the only one in the house who is seeing someone. She manages her time well between Ted and our community so well. She doesn't miss a beat. She is at St. Vincent DePaul Cardinal Manning Homeless Shelter working as a case manager. She has no social work background but she is both awesome and chill and takes on her role with great finesse.
Adrienne is from The Bay Area. She studied Political Science and English at Dominican University. She is plugged in to what is going on with the world. She keeps me updated. She has a strong desire to advocate for others. Her sense of humor is everything I want it to be and more. She can by dry, dark, goofy-she's got a stellar sense of humor. Her sense of family and tradition are very strong; she isn't afraid to speak her mind. Her service site is at St. Vincent's Medical Center (As is Alli's). Her role is patient advocate and she works with the community outreach department. She brings great joy and humor as well as intellect and thoughtfulness to the community.We have a new housemate, Jon. He moved in about 3 weeks ago. He isn't on Facebook, so I don't have a picture of him. He is from Orange, CA. He studied US History and Political Science in college and went to law school for a year. We're getting to know him and are excited about welcoming someone into our awesome community.
February: A time for Holidays and Celebrations
February has rolled around and we are well into the Festivities! We kicked off with Groundhog's day. I worked that day and didn't celebrate in any special way, which is fine. The following day was Chinese new year. I also recently discovered that I was born in the year of the Rabbit, not in the year of the dragon. Most of '88 is dragon but the Chinese new year fell after my birthday in '88. Who knew? So that means that it is my Chinese Year this year! On the 5th we went to Chinatown (I believe it is the only Chinatown in the U.S. that was actually designed to be Chinatown-the others just kind of happened. This is because they built the current Union Station in what used to be Chinatown thus they re-created. Better, Faster, Stronger.) There were all sorts of activities, vendors, food trucks, a really, really long parade and some awesome performers. There was one guy who essentially tossed around a big ceramic pot...and then later a bigger pot. He'd balance it on his head, toss it in the air, catch it on his fist. It was epic. Perhaps the most epic was this:
Yeah, that's a woman held in the air by an apparatus which is supported by three other women's mouths. She is spinning those red cloth discs. She was awesome! She was doing one-handed flips and all sorts of epic acrobatics!
I led Community night on the 3rd. We had homemade blackbean burgers, sweet potato fries and milkshakes. It was awesome!
The Packers won the Super Bowl Sunday. Some of the housemates went to Westwood to a SB party with some of former volunteers. I declined. I kept updated on the game, but had a ton of things I needed to get done.
Holly's Birthday was the 7th. I worked that day, as did everyone but Holly. She made dinner and dessert that night. Thai Chicken Salad, Rice Medley and Homemade Chocolate Cake with Homemade Chocolate Frosting. It was awesome. She and I both got packages from Kathie and Sr. Camille (Our program directors) with a board game and other goodies for each of us. It was awesome.
The next day was my birthday. I didn't work that day. I went downstairs to discover a wall of boxes and some birthday messages in the dining room, which the housemates set up. I went to the clinic, post office, grocery store and bank that day to get a ton of errands done. I made dinner that night: Spanikopita, Roasted Veggies and Nutella Semifreddo with homemade cinnamon whipped cream. It was pretty good. I was exhausted after the day and went to bed pretty early.
Wednesday was a usual day at work until about 12:30 when Liz, the charge nurse, came to me and pretty much dragged me to the conference room with Holly. The staff prepared us a party. There was pizza, pancit, chicken, soda. It was so nice! We ate food and talked a bit. It was really cool. Lately, I've felt like I am really becoming a part of the 8th floor and SFMC 'family'. Everybody at that hospital is very well connected and I love it. I also got a basket of goodies from Emily, one of the nursing assistants, and Sonya and Maria, a couple of the LVNs we work with got us In & Out burger. How cool is that?!
I picked up an extra shift on Friday because there were 2 LVNs to cover. I had a good gig with Sonya. We transferred a patient to ICU right off the bat for extra monitoring. Thank goodness Mayra, who is truly awesome in every way, was charge and helped me with the transfer! She made sure everything was in order. I got to see the ICU there, it is laid out very well. I'm glad I got to see it.
Later that day, I was covering for Jen M for her break. Right as she was coming back and I was filling her in on what happened while she was at lunch, a family member from bed 16 rushes out and calls us into the room. The patient, a 92 year old man, was in his chair and non-responsive with some drool on his face. Jen says "Call a code!" I respond "He's still breathing, call a rapid response" She runs to call the Rapid and I'm checking the pulse of the patient. The next few minutes tons of staff rush into the room. We get him into the bed, the crash cart arrives, vital signs are taken. Apparently, he has had syncopal episodes before, but none of the staff knew it. The monitor showed his heart rate was slow. Esther, the resource nurse, who is excellent, pushed some atropine. He had some irregular heart rhythms so Jen transferred him to ICU while I kept an eye on her other patients.
It was my first Rapid Response that I was a part of at SFMC. I could have done better, but overall I am happy with how it went as well as the outcome. Friday night I got home and crashed. I was exhausted.
Late Saturday morning we went to Griffith park and hiked up to the Hollywood sign. It was a beautiful day. We had a picnic and then meandered back down and back to The Medal. Later that night, we had a party to celebrate the may occasions of the month. Ann, Connor and Darby, volunteers from last year, came out as did Becca and Emily-two volunteers from the other house. Great fun. Today is a day to catch up on mail, e-mail, laundry and more...like blogging!
We did get closer to the sign, but you can't get right up to it, which was fine. We had quite the hike regardless. Yeah, we're wearing that in February. 80s. Holla.
Yeah, that's a woman held in the air by an apparatus which is supported by three other women's mouths. She is spinning those red cloth discs. She was awesome! She was doing one-handed flips and all sorts of epic acrobatics!
I led Community night on the 3rd. We had homemade blackbean burgers, sweet potato fries and milkshakes. It was awesome!
The Packers won the Super Bowl Sunday. Some of the housemates went to Westwood to a SB party with some of former volunteers. I declined. I kept updated on the game, but had a ton of things I needed to get done.
Holly's Birthday was the 7th. I worked that day, as did everyone but Holly. She made dinner and dessert that night. Thai Chicken Salad, Rice Medley and Homemade Chocolate Cake with Homemade Chocolate Frosting. It was awesome. She and I both got packages from Kathie and Sr. Camille (Our program directors) with a board game and other goodies for each of us. It was awesome.
The next day was my birthday. I didn't work that day. I went downstairs to discover a wall of boxes and some birthday messages in the dining room, which the housemates set up. I went to the clinic, post office, grocery store and bank that day to get a ton of errands done. I made dinner that night: Spanikopita, Roasted Veggies and Nutella Semifreddo with homemade cinnamon whipped cream. It was pretty good. I was exhausted after the day and went to bed pretty early.
Wednesday was a usual day at work until about 12:30 when Liz, the charge nurse, came to me and pretty much dragged me to the conference room with Holly. The staff prepared us a party. There was pizza, pancit, chicken, soda. It was so nice! We ate food and talked a bit. It was really cool. Lately, I've felt like I am really becoming a part of the 8th floor and SFMC 'family'. Everybody at that hospital is very well connected and I love it. I also got a basket of goodies from Emily, one of the nursing assistants, and Sonya and Maria, a couple of the LVNs we work with got us In & Out burger. How cool is that?!
I picked up an extra shift on Friday because there were 2 LVNs to cover. I had a good gig with Sonya. We transferred a patient to ICU right off the bat for extra monitoring. Thank goodness Mayra, who is truly awesome in every way, was charge and helped me with the transfer! She made sure everything was in order. I got to see the ICU there, it is laid out very well. I'm glad I got to see it.
Later that day, I was covering for Jen M for her break. Right as she was coming back and I was filling her in on what happened while she was at lunch, a family member from bed 16 rushes out and calls us into the room. The patient, a 92 year old man, was in his chair and non-responsive with some drool on his face. Jen says "Call a code!" I respond "He's still breathing, call a rapid response" She runs to call the Rapid and I'm checking the pulse of the patient. The next few minutes tons of staff rush into the room. We get him into the bed, the crash cart arrives, vital signs are taken. Apparently, he has had syncopal episodes before, but none of the staff knew it. The monitor showed his heart rate was slow. Esther, the resource nurse, who is excellent, pushed some atropine. He had some irregular heart rhythms so Jen transferred him to ICU while I kept an eye on her other patients.
It was my first Rapid Response that I was a part of at SFMC. I could have done better, but overall I am happy with how it went as well as the outcome. Friday night I got home and crashed. I was exhausted.
Late Saturday morning we went to Griffith park and hiked up to the Hollywood sign. It was a beautiful day. We had a picnic and then meandered back down and back to The Medal. Later that night, we had a party to celebrate the may occasions of the month. Ann, Connor and Darby, volunteers from last year, came out as did Becca and Emily-two volunteers from the other house. Great fun. Today is a day to catch up on mail, e-mail, laundry and more...like blogging!
We did get closer to the sign, but you can't get right up to it, which was fine. We had quite the hike regardless. Yeah, we're wearing that in February. 80s. Holla.
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