Adventures

1.   Space Bags are an amazing technological feat and have forever changed my life!  It took me a bit to recover from my astonishment, amazement, excitement and joy after placing the magic plastic around various items and sucking the air out of them with the vacuum and watching them shrink to 1/4 of their original size!  Somebody needs to invent something that will shrink my tv, pots, pans, etc to 1/4 of their original size too . . . 4 large pillows, 1 full quilt, 1 full blanket, 2 sets of sheets, 4 full-sized towels, 3 hand towels, 3 washcloths, 10 shirts, 4 pairs of workout shorts,  a fleece and 1 pair of hiking pants compared to a Quilted Northern Double Roll  (it was the closest thing I had, ok?!)! 2.  You can pack your entire kitchen into two 47 L sterilite containers. 3.  Apparently, glass breaks when it hits a tile floor or if you pack things too tightly in your 47 L sterilite kitchen boxes. 4.  I have broken 3 dishes. ...

Powell Street, San Francisco I just realized it's been a while since I posted last!  Sorry. I went to San Francisco Sunday through Wednesday to get my fingerprinting taken care of for my California nursing license.  I had to go in person because they have a computerized fingerprinting system I have to use for time's sake in order to be able to start at Stanford the 12th.  It was quite the adventure.  I got to the hotel and learned I lost my driver's license somewhere between security in Lubbock and my hotel . . . . . . . . . . BIG problem!  Very fortunately, one of my friends in LBK was able to get into my house, find my passport and overnight it to me in San Fran.  I still had to stay an extra day (how terrible . . . : ). At Hyde St. Pier I'm in love with San Francisco!  I especially love the WEATHER!  I had to stay in the first day because it was raining (and because I had to workout the photo ID issue as well) but the rest of the ...

I can never decide if I should post stories from the floor (of course all the while maintaining confidentiality!).  They are so heavy, so real, and so heartbreaking sometimes.  Often after the question, "So where do you work?" and I respond with "oncology," and they respond with, "I bet that's hard," and I say, "yes, but it's good too," they don't really know what else to say.  And a frantic search for a new, comfortable and hopefully more pleasant topic often ensues (on both parts). However, I feel it would be a disservice to not honor these who fight so hard or who "give it up" so readily and peacefully.  Or, is this really honoring them?  I don't know.  But, they have amazing stories of courage, faith, struggles with truths, their pasts, and wrestling with what's next.  So, forgive me for forcing them upon you, but hopefully you will be able to see these fighters as well and maybe catch a blessing or lesson from...

I went to Tulsa this past week to take the ONS (Oncology Nursing Society) chemotherapy and biotherapy course at Cancer Treatment Centers of America.  First, let me just say, the Cancer Treatment Center facility was BEAUTIFUL!  They have waterfalls and lavish gardens around their facility and palm trees in the corridor (I wonder if they're fake since you shouldn't be around live plants when you're immunocompromised because they can have bacteria or other pathogens that can cause infection on them, but I didn't think to further investigate it. Darn).  Anyway, beautiful facility and one of the nurses there told me patients helped design their inpatient hospital rooms!  They do not, however, have a stem cell unit at this facility (where they perform stem cell transplants for those with leukemias, myelomas, etc), which I found surprising (ha! Covenant wins that one!).  They also do not treat children there. Anyhow, I completed the course on Thursday.  I had be...

Here in LBK, I've been blessed to work with some amazing women.  I have watched them love their patients, love one another, and love their families wholeheartedly.  These women have given so much of themselves to their work, which happens to be facing those who are facing death day in and day out.  Even if their patients "survive" whatever cancer they have been diagnosed with, these patients face the reality of their mortality, and these women walk through this difficult time with these patients and their families.  These nurses, aids and secretaries are with these patients as they learn the news of their diagnoses, comfort the patients as they cope, answer every question imaginable about the patients' diagnoses and possible impending ends of their lives, and, they are an incredible support to the families of those who are coping with cancer and/or death of their loved one.  These women face often incomprehensible suffering nearly on a daily basis...