Tag Archives: friends

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My Major Award

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A little over two weeks ago I received a daisy nomination from my co-worker Ally for being a resource in endo and the care I have given to patients in the past by following up with them on the floor after procedures. That same day Kelly (she volunteers at Kesem Wash U with me as Nurse Needles) says to me, well I guess you didn’t get the Mission in Motion award. I looked at her very confused and she said I nominated you months ago for your involvement with Camp Kesem and I guess it’s all over with. Three days later Ally texted me to tell me I had won the award. I said oh please go to tell Kelly as I was off and I knew Kelly was working. Later on that afternoon Ally texted me to say Jodi wanted to know if I was working Monday so I said I better make sure my hair is in place for photos.

Monday came and nothing happened so I thought well I will make sure my hair looks good for Tuesday. On Tuesday the Chief Nursing Officer and two others showed up with a gorgeous Poinsettia and read to me what Kelly had said and that I had won this award. This is one of the highest honors a nurse can receive which honors employees who exemplify these values through their exceptional service and dedication to patients and their families both at work and in the community. Sadly, I do not have a copy of what she had written and of course it was months ago so she doesn’t exactly remember. However, it had to do with all the camps that I volunteer at and how much the kids love me. So the CNO then says to me, “you have your award right.” I was like no, so the charge nurse runs over to the managers office who it out sick and it is not there. I crack up laughing and say of course this always happens to me. I shared with them the story of it raining two inches the night before I was to visit Death Valley and the flood washed out roads and I didn’t get to see everything I had planned on seeing. So they assured me they would find it and give it to me.

At the end of the shift Sarah was checking her email and received a weird email so I said let me see if I received one too. Imagine my horror when I discovered the previous Friday was the brick ceremony and I received a brick with my name on it and was not there for it. I walked downstairs and found the brick and took photos. I then came back upstairs and was an emotional wreck. I also learned there was a luncheon that I also missed out on. The next day at work I emailed the CNO and the president of the hospital to let them know how upset I was that I missed that and that no one had told me about this. I heard back from the CNO a couple days later and then the president of the hospital called me personally a week later. When I looked at my caller ID and it said his name, my first thought OMG I’m in trouble. Then I said calm down and answered the phone. He was extremely apologetic and told me my award was sitting on the CNO’s desk. He offered to mail it to me but I said I am working tomorrow I can stop by and pick it up. He said that was fine and I said I would have to work up the nerve because administration is scary.

I told my co-workers all I wanted was a picture of me holding the brick. Clare and I had went down the next morning and discovered the bricks are not cemented in so taking it out would be very easy. I decided we should do this on a Monday when everyone is working including Kelly as I wanted her to share this joy with me.

Ally made a poster on Friday and on Monday she said she was hanging it up in the break room so it wouldn’t get messed up. I was like no one knows who Nurse Red is and she said “that’s ok, we will tell them.” I woke up at 4am as I was very excited and around 11:30 Kelly who was working in the room with me asked if it was ok for if she stepped out for five minutes to take care of something. I said sure but asked her what she was up to. She replied nothing and I said you are acting suspicious. As I was walking past the break room I noticed it smelled wonderful and thought anesthesia must have bought us food. Both rooms finished with morning cases at the same time so I said great let’s go do the brick. When they told me no let’s go to the break room first I became very suspicious. The food was for me and I had a cake and everything. The sneaky snakes I work with got together with the girls that get our patients ready and send home and planned a pot luck. Kelly had ordered pretzels which is why she needed to step out.

Dr. Cockerell joined us for lunch and went down to the bricks. The garden area where the bricks are located is just outside the cafeteria. So Ally is holding the sign she made and as we walked through the cafeteria and is yelling congratulations to our Mission in Motion winner. I like a little attention but this was over the top. I turned bright red but did indeed survive. We went outside and Dr. Cockerell took the brick out and handed it to me. It was so much fun.

No fear of destruction of property. And my favorite CRNA Matt is photo bombing us!
An awesome moment
Matt took the photo for us. I was so excited he could join us!
Ally who made the poster!
Matt, Clare and I
Me returning the brick as if nothing ever happened.

Somehow Nurse Needles did not see us leave so I demanded a photo with her because without her this would have never happened. As we walked back through the cafeteria rest assured Ally was still yelling congratulations to our award winner. I ignored the impulse to hide in the corner.

Nurse Needles and Nurse Red

I have the most amazing co-workers! They knew how devastated that I was for missing the actual award ceremony and created something one thousand times better! I actually love Camp Kesem and all of the kids. I do not do what I do for awards or recognition. I actually do this for the kids. If they do not have a nurse, camp cannot happen. It is also a great excuse to act as a kid as I participate in song circles, scream sing and do the hand motions. It is a nice throw back to when my kids were young and my church put on Kid Stuf. Yes, I would go without them because I enjoyed it so much. I had a really rough time after camp was over this year because someone I thought was a friend had lied to me about everything. I fully believe God inspired Nurse Needles to nominate me to remind me of why I do these camps in the first place.

Mole Moral ~ Good things come to those who wait.

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Do you wanna buy a duck?

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Summer camps are finally over and I’m exhausted and need to consider my age before I attempt to do this much next year. It ended with my favorite in Maine. Every year when my plane lands in Bangor I feel like I’m back home. I just love it up there.

I brought about one hundred ducks with me to camp. I asked Melody to loan me a pillow so I would have room in my suitcase for all of them. This year we gave medicine to campers in the cafeteria. Normally they come to the nurses cabin but due to circumstances beyond our control I did not feel this was a safe option. Anyway at breakfast the first day I brought them with me. Icy and Swiftie asked for one. I said not yet but if you two want to set them on up on the table for me that would be great. That had a lot of fun arranging them for me.

All the kids picked one out and eventually Bambi asked if he could have one. He’s one of the guy counselors who has been there for three years. He’s the one whom all the kids love and pick on non stop. So needless to say most of the counselors have one too. This idea came from Dr. Pickles who brought them to JMU camp and they were a huge hit.

Bambi

At some point during the week Bambi realized how easy it is to pick on me and get me all worked up. I’m pretty sure I told him he was exactly like my husband. He came over when kids were not around and told me that I called him the hard R word. I said absolutely not, my girls banned me from using that word a long time ago. Nurse Pooh (from Texas camp this summer who I recruited to do this one with me) joins in and they attempt to punk me. I said wrong answer I called you gay. That shut him up because he has been dating Moose (the awesome girl who has ran camp the past three years) for probably that long. I said and by the way in my generation gay means stupid. For crying out loud don’t mess with Nurse Red. He teased and tormented me until I threatened to take his duck back.

The night before the talent show Swiftie asked if she could use the rest of the ducks for the talent show. I said yes of course. She is the sweetest and most kind hearted kid I have ever met. She even wrote me a warm and fuzzy and said she enjoyed watching me make friendship bracelets. So the talent show comes and she brings Bambi, Yoshi and Icy up on stage with her. I can’t really hear what they are saying but the next thing I know Swiftie and Icy are throwing ducks at Bambi and Yoshi. Yoshi is another incredible male counselor. He is currently working on his masters in something that is so foreign to me (obviously not medical) that I couldn’t even say what it was. He is planning to get his PhD. He is actually part of a different Kesem but has come to Maine for three years to help fill guy counselor spots. He is wearing his Yoshi costume which is so cute. Anyway the next thing I know everyone is throwing ducks around. The audience is throwing them at the four of them and they are throwing them back. It was controlled chaos and since no one was hurt and nothing was broken it didn’t happen.

Yoshi in his Yoshi costume which the kids love!!

Paper plate awards are one of my favorite part of camp. Everyone gets one and the ones for the kids are usually spot on. As usual so was mine.

I cracked up laughing and will remember it forever.

Some of the camps do this thing that goes

Do you want to buy a duck?

A what?

A duck.

Does it quack?

Yes.

This gets repeated down the line like telephone. I can’t remember exactly how it ends but the kids love it. I find it to be totally obnoxious but if they enjoy it, then I willingly participate.

I’m glad the summer is over. It was a hard one for me but out of difficulty growth occurs. I’m not sure I needed this but maybe in the future it will become clear.

Mole Moral ~ When kindness shows up, great things happen.

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Camp Kesem at JMU

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After what it took to get to camp, I had a feeling it was going to be special and boy it didn’t disappoint!

James Madison University campus was really cool.

I instantly liked all the college kids on admin team and all of the counselors. Reflecting a week later it was just like my very first camp with Washington University.

One of the counselors, Joker was a nurse. He had just taken the MCAT to go to medical school. He shared a lot with me. He didn’t do well in high school but pulled it together in college. He did extremely well and decided he could indeed be a doctor. He then shared he wanted to be a surgeon. I said the exact same thing to him I said to Beaker at that first camp. Nope you are way too nice to be a surgeon. All surgeons are assholes. He smiled and then I told him the story of Beaker. One of the little girls flushed a small bottle of body wash down the toilet. Beaker ran in stuck his hand down into the hole and pulled it out. I told Beaker he’d be a great OB/GYN. I made Joker a friendship bracelet with a note that said put this somewhere that when med school is hard and you want to quit to remember Nurse Red believes in you and you got this. Whether he listened to me or not, I know he will succeed.

I have never sat in on cabin chat. It happens at end of every night and the kids talk about highlights of the day and answer questions. I could attend if I wanted but I felt the kids wouldn’t want some old grandma there. The way this camp did meds, I and Dr. pickles delivered night meds. So I heard some answers to questions. The kids were asked to describe Kesem in one word. Here are some of the answers

Amazing

Powerful

Safe

Magic

Love

Inspiring

Home

Magical

The last evening we delivered meds to the fifteen and up during their cabin chat. I was listening to all they had to say and then I asked if I could say something. They were all like yes. So I said I have multiple people ask me why I volunteer for camp and why I don’t get paid. And because of all that they shared, I finally know the answer. Without nurses, camp cannot happen. These camps need to happen I see how much they mean to all of you. It’s an honor and a privilege to be able to be a nurse for these kids. So it was time for group hug. One of the counselors said Nurse Red get over here and then they all started chanting Nurse Red just like my very first year.

The parallel between my first camp and this one renewed and strengthened my love of Camp Kesem. I think this may be why everything that went wrong to get there was an attempt to get me to say nope and go home. My first two camps this summer were hard. Actually to the point I considered next summer only doing Wash U and Maine. However I have added James Madison to my must do camp list and if I have to bribe one of the docs to take vacation the week of this camp, I will.

Mole Moral ~ Great things happen when one shoves their fear of not knowing where they are going, what exactly is going to happen and not having every detailed planned.

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Nurse Pooh’s Warm and Fuzzy

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Most of the camp Kesem’s I have attended have done warm and fuzzies for the entire camp. So instead of writing Nurse Pooh a small snippet on a piece of colored paper, I’m dedicating this blog to her.

Last winter Dr. Heavey gave his vacation dates and so I went on Kesem’s website to see what camps were available for the week. I stumbled across UT Austin so I applied thinking I was going to Utah. I then conned Ricochet into doing this camp with me. So he informs me we are going to Texas. I’m like it will be 120 in July but I will prepare for excessive heat.

Right before the start of camp they told us there would be a third nurse. Anyone who knows me, knows I don’t do well with last minute change. Her name was Nurse Pooh. Now as an endo nurse I could hardly keep a straight face even though I was positive it was in reference to Winnie the Pooh. Even my husband got a kick out of it and said she was number two. Everyone knows the Moles are real mature.

So Pooh is the same age as everyone else, mid twenties. Within thirty minutes I knew she was one of my peeps. She reminds me of the endo girls whom I love. She attended week one and it wasn’t long before she told us about that experience. I had total anxiety while she told Ricochet and I about it, and will probably have anxiety writing about it.

She was asked to do camp two days prior to the start of camp. There is pre camp training computer modules that are to be completed before camp starts. I did mine back in April and have done them for five years. She didn’t see any of this. She did not receive the packing list and basically went into a camp with 100+ campers blind. I have only done three camps with 75 or more kids and they are rough in that check in and check out is mass chaos. The other nurse she was working with was also in the same boat, had never done camp and received no training. Neither could get out of the nurses station all week because it was non stop campers needing to be seen. This is why week two had three nurses.

After Ricochet and I listened to this we both said you are going to every activity and do not need to be in this nurses station. The best part about camp is being out and about with the kids. She did state she has an anaphylactic allergy to ants so we then said stay out of the grass. The camp had a golf cart for her to ride in to avoid the ants.

I’m so glad she agreed to come back for the second week so that I could meet her. I would be thrilled to be co workers with her. She just moved and will be starting her next job soon. She will be a huge blessing to all of her patients. I had an absolutely amazing week and may just tell the endo doctors one of them will need to take vacation for UT Austin camp next year

Mole Moral ~ Last minute changes to the schedule can bring about huge blessings.

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What’s in a name?

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As I finish up the week with Camp Kesem at Notre Dame, I feel compelled to share Peter Pants story. Peter Pants is on the admin team. The admin team consists of anywhere from 5-10 college students who are in charge of running camp. They do things like set up for activities, actually make the camp schedule, round everyone up when it’s time to change activities and so on.

The first day someone asked Peter Pants what her name meant. Apparently when she was in grade school she had an accident and was called this. I didn’t ask how long because it broke my heart. Why are human beings so mean to each other?

I’ve thought about this a lot this summer. If everyone would treat each other the way they do at camp, the world would be a much better place. No one here cares what your sexual orientation is, what gender you identify as, if you are a male and let the girls French braid your hair, if you let the little kids put make up on and paint your nails. The outside world is so judgmental and ridiculous.

I’ve written about empowerment in the past. One of my favorite activities is the step in, step out. Step in if you have ever been bullied was so powerful. Every single person including yours truly stepped in. When they said step in if you ever lost a parent, it hit me really hard. I had fifty-four years with my dad, some of the kids that stepped in were under ten. It was even mentioned how hard it is to go to school activities where everyone’s dad is there except for yours because he’s dead. Empowerment is hard when you realize how much these kids are dealing with. Kudos to Camp Kesem for giving kids a week with each other!

Mole Moral ~ One should think long and hard before they say mean things. Words do indeed hurt people and can last a lifetime.

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An Amazing Friend

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Since it has been over two years since I parted ways with Mercy, I can finally write this blog. Mercy has rules about not becoming friends with patients and not allowed to be friends on Facebook. I obviously broke that rule and it was a good one to break.

Nine years ago this November Women’s Health was moving from fifth floor to second floor. I came in that day to do what I always did, take new surgeries and admits. Others came in extra to help move the patients to their new rooms. At some point one of my coworkers said Dr. V is on the phone and wants to talk to you. I was like fuck what did I screw up. He never called people while he was in surgery and would get annoyed if nurses called him during a case as it would deflect his attention from operating and wouldn’t you want his full attention. So since I couldn’t pretend I wasn’t working I picked up the phone. He said to me “I want you to go talk to my patient in 2316.” He’s a man of few words so I said ok and that was it.

Everyone was like what did he want. I wasn’t kidding when I said he never calls from surgery. So I said he wants me to talk to 16 so let me at least see what her name is. I’m pretty sure I walked into Melynda’s room and said hi I’m Rachel a nurse here and Dr V just told me to come talk to you but didn’t say what about. I immediately liked her but I don’t remember how long we talked for. She was the first person moved down to the new floor.

Anytime I talk about mesh or mesh removal most of what I learned has come from Melynda. She is extremely smart and very knowledgeable about this subject and many others. I was horrified to learn that training to put this stuff in was a weekend conference using cadavers. Also that doctors that put it in would get a kickback commission for every single one they placed from the mesh manufacturers. So take poor training and combine with greed and disaster ensues. One of the other shocking things about the FDA is their 501k program in which a company can develop a similar device that is already on the market and be approved without clinical trails. Lastly, the hidden database to report complications that wasn’t available to the public until recently. I could go on and on about mesh as the Dr. V patients are about the only thing I miss about Mercy.

So I visited Melynda a few times before she was discharged and we became friends on Facebook before mercy made that rule. Once they did I was suppose to delete her but that wasn’t happening. She’s been back a couple times to see Dr. V and we’ve made sure to see each other. She lived in Florida for quite some time but I never had time during camp to get together. Within the year she moved back to Utah where her extended family is. So once Brian and I decided to visit Utah, I knew we must meet up. We had a wonderful but too short visit so we need to come back sooner rather than later.

If you know me, you will most likely think I am not shy but I am. It takes a lot to just walk up to someone and start a conversation but it was by far the best thing I’ve ever done. I’ve thanked Dr. V. more than once for calling me that day and freaking me out.

Mole Moral ~ Amazing people are out there if one just opens their eyes and their heart!

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Session 2 The Us filter

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Gerald started off the talk with who is your squad, crew, homies, or friends depending on what you call them. My squad is made up of current and past women’s health homies.
Everyone has a filter to choose their friends and some examples are fun, hot, popular, or the same as you. This had me thinking back to my high-school days and what filter I used. I would have to say it was the same filter. Almost all of my friends were in band and everyone knows band kids are the best kids. I think a big factor in this was the group that went to South Africa in August of 1983 Who is this Gary Lindsay character?). That trip and all the fundraising really bonded us together.
Just as we can use filters to include we can also use them to exclude. This then sets up the us VS them scenario. Although this certainly runs rampant in middle school and high school it can also be seen in the adult world as well. In the world of nursing it can be nurse vs techs or management vs the employees.
If we change our view and see everyone as someone God made and someone Jesus died for, it would change the world. When Jesus met up with the Samaritan woman at the well and asked her to give him a drink she said you are a Jew why are you even talking to me. A perfect example of us VS them. By the time he was finished having a conversation with her, she saw him for who he really was, just as he saw her the way God made her.

Mole moral ~ What if we saw “them” through him? It certainly would be a game changer.

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This weekend’s cake adventures

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Yes I am still obsessed with the stl250 cakes that are planted around St. Louis. I have successfully found and photographed 224 cakes while dragging various family members and friends of family members with me. This weekend I conned my niece Sierra into going with me on Saturday and then Bridget with me on Sunday. It’s what happens when my immediate family leaves me for a weekend of fun and I am working on Labor Day.

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Yesterday started out with a bang. We went to the Harley Davidson store to see that cake. Well my sister decided to park in the motorcycle parking because she didn’t see regular car parking. As we walk to the cake all the Harley dudes are inside the place watching us. As we are leaving the owner comes out and gives her crap for parking where the motorcycles go. As we are leaving Sierra yells from the back seat “Mom don’t hit a motorcycle.” We always run into other people who are out taking pictures of the cakes as well. While at the civil war museum cake we asked the cake group to take our picture together.

 

 

 

IMG_5177The cake that surprised me the most was at the youth bridge community foundation. You see above it was a sign that said Haven House. This place provides a place for out-of-town people to stay and is cheaper than a hotel. We use to send the NICU moms there before the Ronald McDonald house was built on Mercy property. It was really cool to see the place after hearing its name all these years.

 

 

 

 

 

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Our 200th cake happened to be at the YMCA where my good friend Meg Barry goes. We attempted to make 200 with our hands forgetting it looked right to us but was backwards to everyone else.

 

 

 

IMG_5193I think the most awkward cake of the day was at Old St. Ferdinand Shrine. There was a wedding getting ready to start so I simply jumped out of the car, zoomed my camera and took a picture as fast as possible. It is the only cake so far that doesn’t have someone in it. I thought it might be just a little rude to say hey wait a minute can you let us bust through the gate and get a quick photo!

 

 

 

 

 

IMG_5199So today Bridget and I head out and our first clue that today was going to be a nightmare was when part of the road to Bevo Mill was shut down for a carnival. We parked and walked to it, and got whistled at on the way. We both looked at each other like did that really just happen. I haven’t been to Bevo Mill since I was a school nurse and we had lunch there at Christmas time. What’s really weird is just yesterday when I was out walking the dog I ran into Anne who was also a Lutheran school nurse at the same time I was. She lives in the neighborhood behind me. The last time I saw her was when she had her daughter who is now six.

 

 

 

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I must say that the Dogtown cake was the absolute worst one to find ever. It said it was located on the median on Tamm Ave. Ok that was total BS. There is no median anywhere on Tamm because Bridget and I drove the entire road twice. The address listed was in front of a church and there was no cake there. I almost got hit by pulling out in front of someone because of looking for the cake. I happened to randomly look up a street not even close to the address and there was the cake. Some guy yells out the window at us not to be taking our picture with the cake or it will cost money. I kid you not, I was about to knock on someone’s door on the street and ask them where the cake was. You see I get super obsessive when I can’t find something or figure it out and no way was I leaving without seeing the cake!

 

 

IMG_5225The next few cakes were uneventful and then we went to fountain park where the cake was located by the Martin Luther King statue. The area was really cool because it was sort of like a round about but with houses everywhere. We jump out and take the picture and head back to the car. There is an older couple outside in the front yard fussing at each other. I am trying to quickly put in the next stop when I accidentally honk the horn. Ok that got like four people’s attention. I was like I cannot believe this we have to get out of here. I have had a couple of people ask me if I would do this without GPS. There is no way. I have zero navigational skills and even if I had directions on paper if I got lost there is no telling where I would end up. I have seen parts of St. Louis that I would have never seen otherwise. First of all I would have never been able to find them and if I did stumble onto them I would never find my way back home. One of the better gifts God ever gave me was the GPS navigational tool. Oh and Siri was getting on my nerves so bad, I changed her to a male voice. But by the end of this day sex change Siri was on my nerves too!

IMG_5230We ran into more cakers at the cemetery who told us about a really close cake so we headed off to the old chain of rocks bridge. Once again the address put us in the middle of a field. Luckily they had given us some direction although they said they drove down the bike trail to reach the cake. I don’t have that kind of nerve so we went down the road farther and found the cake. It also said it had bathrooms and it had been quite a while so Bridget and I said cool. Yeah cool alright they were the nastiest Johnny on the spots I had ever seen. I think we would have been better off finding a bush. The cake was really cool so it was worth the drive.

 

 

 

There is a cake at the airport so that meant we had to park to go see it. It cost us five dollars to park for twenty minutes. Talk about a rip off. It explains why most people use the cell phone lot when picking people up from the airport. You sit on a parking lot that has an electronic sign that tells you when the flights have landed. When the passengers get their luggage they call you and you pull up and pick them up. Anyway the airport had banners that explained the 250 cakes. Hopefully if I post the pictures that I took of them you will be able to read them. It kind of explains why they are all over the place and not necessarily just in St. Louis. They made the trip and the five bucks worth it. I think I missed the 50 places banner. Well bummer!

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