Just Sayin'...

“The clitoris is pure in purpose. It is the only organ in the body designed purely for pleasure. The clitoris is simply a bundle of nerves: 8,000 nerve fibers, to be precise. That’s a higher concentration of nerve fibers than is found anywhere else in the body, including the fingertips, lips, and tongue, and it is twice… twice… twice the number in the penis. Who needs a handgun when you’ve got a semiautomatic.”

—from Woman: An Intimate Geography, by Natalie Angier

Progeny At What Price? (a re-blog)

(This is a re-blog from http://eheavenlygads.wordpress.com/2007/06/12/progeny-at-what-price/)

Progeny At What Price?

June 12, 2007

"Allow me to begin here by thanking my favorite blogger, Jane, for tipping me off to the recent births of two sets of sextuplets in Arizona and Minnesota. I read her postIt’s a Uterus, Mrs. Masche, Not a Clown Car last Friday and preached over the canning jars all weekend. I strongly recommend you read it, too.

Some may view these births as a miracle, but like Jane, I do not. I happen to personally know well the opposite is true. If you happen to view technological advances in infertility as progress, I’m here to tell you it comes at a huge price. At the very least, the incredible escalation we are witnessing in large multiple births is medically unethical; at the top of the spectrum is its undeniable virtual effect of child abuse.

On the surface, the stories of the Morrisons and Masches sextuplets born in the last few days sounds wonderful and glorious. You can’t help but be elated at what appears to be nothing less than a miracle that finally allowed both women to have their own children.

Brianna Morrison, 24, tried to conceive naturally for a whole year, then sought a fertility clinic recommended to them by members of their church. She went through two cycles of Clomid injections that failed (Chlomiphene citrate, the most commonly used drug — typically administered as a pill — to increase the production of eggs and stimulate their release) and then was given Follistim (Follitropin beta, a relatively new synthetic hormone (injected in concert with hCG hormones) to stimulate egg production and used when Clomid fails).

Within a matter of a few weeks, the Morrisons learned Brianna’s ovaries had released ten eggs, four of which were not viable, and six that had fertilized. Without fertility drugs, human ovaries release one egg, or in exceptionally, unbelievably rare instances two.

Mrs. Morrison was dealt Follistim’s greatest side-effect of all: Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome (OHSS). Google that one.

During Brianna’s pregnancy, she took a myriad of medications to prevent miscarriage as well as to help (basically force) her body to handle the enormous nutritional and physiological strains during gestation of an unnatural number of fetuses. In the last three months or so of her five-and-a-half-month pregnancy, she was confined to bed rest and had 24-hour nursing care to monitor the health of Brianna and her fetuses and dispense medication.

As is the norm in large multiple births, Brianna’s infants were extremely prematureas she was only able to carry them for 22 weeks — the EARLIEST gestational age in which infants are considered to have any chance for survival, although that chance at most generous is considered to be a mere 10%.

Most hospitals have a policy against resuscitation of 22-week infants, since survival without profound disabilities is so rare. In fact, nationwide, almost all 22-week infants are recommended hospice care. Did you know that? It’s true. The average human gestation — without obstetric complication — is 40 weeks (calculated from the first day of one’s last menses). With thanks to huge technological leaps made in medical care of premature infants in the last decade, babies are generally considered “full term” at 37 weeks and have every likelihood of survival without having any developmental defects.

Just before midnight on Sunday, June 10, Brianna gave birth to four sons and two daughters. All six remain in critical condition in Minneapolis’ Childrens Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care (NICU). The largest infant weighed merely 19 ounces (appx. 539 grams) and the smallest a terrifying 11 ounces (appx. 312 grams).

Ten hours later down in Phoenix, Jenny Masche, 32, gave birth by Caesarian section to three boys and three girls also premature, but which she was miraculously able to carry to 30 weeks gestation. That eight weeks’ difference in the two gestations was profound and resulted in much stronger, much better developed infants to the Masches. The largest weighed three pounds (appx. 1361 grams), but the five smaller babies required ventilation. All are now breathing on their own two days post delivery.

Jenny and her husband tried for years to conceive and she did, although she suffered two miscarriages. Last year, the couple sought fertility therapy through the nation’s leading fertility clinic, Nevada Fertility CARES Wellness Center in Las Vegas. Jenny was given ovulation stimulation drugs, presumably Clomid, and likely hCG injections. Then, when the timing was just right, she was artificially inseminated.

Jenny’s ovulation stimulation drugs caused many eggs to be released at once. Six eggs were fertilized. And the rest, as they say, is history. Jenny’s babies will hopefully be released from the hospital to head home in six to eight weeks, but no one is dare speculating on when Brianna’s sextuplets will go home…the bare minimum of time likely months.

It all seems wonderful, “miraculous.” I’m a mother and I know these two families are elated! Of course they are! And I wish them every joy and blessing God gives to parents. But when the cameras quickly fade away from these sensational, spectacular births of twelve infants, these families will face nearly insurmountable challenges ahead.

The very least of problems ahead are the medical costs. In 1994, the American Academy of Pediatrics released a comprehensive report on NICU care costsaveraged across the U.S. Back then, NICU-only costs per day to care for an infant with a gestational age of less than 24 weeks was $2,346. Per day. For an infant born between 30 and 32 weeks, the cost was less than half at $945. Per day.

Then, the average cost nationwide of NICU care alone for a very low birth weight baby under 750 grams was $89,946. Today, the hospital costs alone of treating very low birth weight infants (under 1500 grams) is over $1,000,000 per child, per hospital stay from its birth until the child is finally developed enough to be released. That does not factor in costs of doctors, medicines, lost wages, prenatal care (which has been staggering for these families) or the huge sums reaped by the fertility clinics and their staffs.

All US health insurance carriers have lifetime maximums in benefits they will pay and typically cap benefits at $1,000,000. You’ve got a cap — check the fine print in your explanation of benefits, or just call the number on the back of your card and ask. At the most conservative speculation, these babies (especially the Morrison’s) will exhaust their allowed medical benefits long before they reach their first birthday.

The March of Dimes has been beating the drum about prematurity for more than 20 years. I strongly encourage you to poke all around their site and learn why it is the Number 1 killer of infants and the Number 1 problem in Obstetrics. The information they offer freely is amazing and 100% dead-on accurate. Learn, people. Thanks to fertility endeavors, this problem of large multiple births is growing by leaps and bounds.

Also very least of problems ahead are the costs of diapers (both families are soliciting donations), food (both families are soliciting donations), and once comfortable homes now found to be overwhelmingly small (both families are soliciting donations).

Way, way down on the list is the sheer number of PEOPLE who will be required to care for these children once home. Fortunately, both families have church families who are volunteering. That is a sincere blessing that cannot be understated. But even with all the help in the world, the physical and mental exhaustion of merely taking basic care of six infants will be profound to both sets of parents for many years ahead.

The money necessary to support these families over the two decades ahead, regardless of instant presentations of free college tuitions and corporate sponsorships of free food and diapers, is meaningless.

The real cost – an actual crime in my mind – is to be found in the physiological and mental tragedies that have likely been inflicted upon these children, all because their parents were determined to force nature to provide them with their own genetic progeny and, once done, refused the immediate medical advice to terminate some of the fetuses (called “selective reduction) to allow others to achieve a survivable, healthy gestational age.

Unfortunately, the actual level and number of defects and, at very least, learning disabilities will not be revealed before these children reach about eight years in age.

I’m very biased on the subjects of fertility clinics, their inherent prematurities produced in births in quadruplets and greater and, therefore, their inherent and often exceptional birth defects. For nearly a decade of my life, I was a pediatric nurse and manager of a pediatric firm with three providers. I know billings, I know codings, I know health insurance and I know intimately the problems in medical care of low birth weight babies and their common birth defects.

For the Morrison sextuplets, so exceptionally small and young at birth, the risks are tremendous. Those afflictions EXPECTED include:

Intracranial hemorrhaging. Grade 1 or 2 bleeds are exceptionally common in extremely premature infants and Grade 3 or 4 bleeds provide profound learning disabilities and hydrocephalus. Grade 1 or 2 bleeds occur in about 1/3 of babies born before 26 weeks, although there are medications that can be administered to the mother prior to birth to help lessen the chance and severity. Coming through this is Cerebral Palsy and Hydrocephalus.

Feeding problems requiring nasogastric tube feedings for more than 8 weeks (most babies require nasogastric feeding if born sooner than 35 gestational weeks). Since preemie newborns have underdeveloped gastrointestinal systems too immature to absorb nutrients, the most premature cannot even digest breast milk at first.

Necrotising enterocolitis (gut problems needing medical/surgical treatment). See above.

Patent Ductus Arteriosis. This cardiac disorder causes profound breathing difficulties. In the womb during development, an artery called the ductus arteriosis is kept wide open by a hormone called prostaglandin E that allows blood to be diverted from the developing lungs directly into the baby’s aorta, since babies do not breath until birth. At full term, prostaglandin E levels have fallen dramatically and have caused this duct to close, helping the fetus’ lungs to receive blood to finalize their development and function properly in preparation for breathing on their own.

Anemia. Preemies usually have significantly reduced levels of hemoglobin and require transfusions.

Retinopathy (an abnormal growth of blood vessels in the retina caused because the infant’s vascular system in the eye hasn’t fully developed.) Retinopathy causes serious vision impairments.

Chronic lung disease requiring ventilation (extra oxygen) for more than 8 weeks. And the longer an infant is on a respirator, the greater the risk it will develop Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia. (Because immature lungs sometimes cannot withstand the constant pressure of the respirator.)

A very, very high risk of developing Pneumonia and sepsis.

A very, very high risk of developing a myriad of infections. This is one major reason why preemies are placed in incubators and thereby isolated.

Another major reason for placing preemies into incubators is because preemies are born with almost no body fat and immature skin and are incapable of maintaining body heat until they reach the age of near-term.

Presence of recurrent Apnea/Bradychardia for the first seven weeks of life.

A very high likelihood of an IQ below 85

A 99% likelihood of being small in growth throughout life.

A 99% likelihood of having future need for full or part-time special education.

A 99% likelihood for special therapy with physiotherapists, occupational therapists and speech therapists.

A 95% chance of Jaundice needing phototherapy to protect an immature liver.

Last on the short list, but not least: Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Preemies have a much higher risk.

Yes, survival today is possible for babies born at 22 weeks, but these preemies may face a lifetime of health problems. I’ve already mentioned Cerebral Palsy and hydrocephalus, but must also add seizures, lasting neurological problems and, at very least, developmental delays. The lucky, miraculous children suffer only with vision problems or mild developmental delays.

Not all preemies (by definition at younger than 37 gestational weeks) have medical or developmental problems. By 28 weeks, the risk of serious complications is much, much lower. And for babies born after 32 weeks, most medical problems are very short-term.

So, while the media reports the fantasticness of these two large multiple births, my focus is on the children themselves and the medical and mental challenges ahead of them that won’t be fully know for years. Strides in overcoming infertility have been amazing, but don’t think for a second that they come without a staggering price sometimes. And let me assure you the fertility clinics, doctors and medicine giants bear no liability whatsoever in any defects or disabilities these children may develop as the result of their interventions in nature. You should see the disclaimers patients must sign prior to treatment or even consultation!"

World Breastfeeding Week

Beauty

(Got this from another blog)

I love this picture! They look like twins… you certainly can’t see the 50lb+ difference between the two. Just goes to show how meaningless numbers are when it comes to beauty.

The One

Find the one you can be yourself in front of. You can say anything, you can laugh, you can smile, you can cry, you can scream, you can kiss, you can hug, you can fight and always make up at the end of the night, and he’d still be crazy about you.

Luscious

Tim Tebow...yummy

The Government and Childhood Obesity

Okay. I have to rant. Everytime I see something in the media about Michelle Obama and her childhood obesity campaign, I can't help but get pissed off. Not pissed off because I don't agree. I do. As a nurse and a mother, I agree that we need to do something to get our kids to eat less crap and instead eat healthier foods and be more active. My son would MUCH rather stay inside and play on his xBox or Wii.

What pisses me off is that 1) the government is involved and 2) how can she campaign this aggressively when her husband still smokes and eats crap himself? The president's total cholesterol was 209 and his LDL (bad cholesterol) was 138 at his annual physical this year. Borderline high cholesterol starts at 200 and LDL is considered borderline high at 130. A child whose parent smokes is more likely to smoke as an adult. Why can't she clean up her own household first?

Anyway...Mrs. Obama, if I want you to come into my kitchen I'll invite you. Otherwise, stay the fuck out.

(From an email)

If you are 30, or older, you might think this is hilarious!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning....
Uphill...
Barefoot...
BOTH ways… yada, yada, yada

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in heck I was going to lay a bunch of nonsense like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that I'm over the ripe old age of thirty (plus a few), I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!

And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the dang library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!

There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!

Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our butt! Nowhere was safe!

There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal music, you had to walk or hitch a ride with the parents or a friend to the record store and shoplift it yourself!

Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and mess it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car. We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless. Cause, hey, that's how we rolled, Baby! Dig?

We didn't have fancy stuff like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that's it!

There weren't any freakin' cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn't make a darn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". OH MY GOSH !!! Think of the horror... not being in touch with someone 24/7!!! And then there's TEXTING. Yeah, right. Please. You kids have no idea how annoying you are.

And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either. When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was. It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent... you just didn't know. You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your screen guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen... Forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died. Just like LIFE!

You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on. You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your butt and walk over to the TV to change the channel. NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?! Oh, and if the President was on TV, you had to deal or turn the TV off --- there were only four channels (ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS)!! FOUR. There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-finks!

And we didn't have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove! Imagine that!

And our parents told us to stay outside and play... all day long. Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort. And if you came back inside... you were doing chores!

And car seats - oh, please! Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on. If you were lucky, you got the "safety arm" across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling "shot gun" in the first place!

See! That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled rotten! You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980 or any time before!

Regards,
The Over 30 Crowd

My Twenty-Five

1. I was an Army brat. We lived in Germany twice and from being there I got to go to Paris, skiing in Switzerland, tour castles, cruise down the Rhine...pretty cool. Lived in Virginia and toured Washington DC of course, but I don't remember much about that place because we moved when I was in the 2nd grade. After our second tour in Germany, we moved to Tampa and stayed. That's where my parents retired and eventually divorced.
2. I believe in God. Even though He may not make sense to me all the time, I still believe.
3. I love thunderstorms. Tampa's the lightning capital of the world and some of the storms are pretty cool!
4. My favorite color is pink. That's new. It's been dark blue for the longest time.
5. My "lucky" number is 8, and so is my husband's.
6. I've wanted to be a Nurse since I was about 7 when my aunt took me to the hospital she still works at today and where I was born. She took me by the nursery and I remember vividly the babies in open cribs and incubators. Some of the babies in the incubators had on face masks for diapers (it was before Pampers and other manufacturers made diapers small enough). I absolutely L-O-V-E my job and the people I work with! It can be crazy sometimes but it's very fulfilling.
7. I can be quite impatient. Some say it's me being a bitch and at times I agree. I hate driving under the speed limit...really peeves me. If you want to drive in the "fast lane" and go SLOW, please get out of my way. For real.
8. I'm really into Brighton jewelry lately. A good friend, G, has some pieces and I fell in love. I don't normally wear silver, but Brighton is really nice.
9. I don't like change. There's certain things that need to stay the same for me to feel balance in my life. Like if I'm a primary nurse on a baby or two at work, and I don't have that assignment, it unravels me. Maybe it shouldn't but it does. I might stomp my feet for a minute or two, but then I'm done and will accept it.
10. I like to cross-stitch and need to get back into it. It's relaxing. I like scrapbooking too and need to seriously get back into that.
11. I have a MySpace account that I rarely use. I like Facebook a lot more.
12. I want to move back up to the Kansas City area one day but don't want to leave my mom alone. We moved to Florida from Kansas in 2001 and at the time, both my parents, my maternal grandparents, and my brother and his family were down here. Since then, everyone's moved away except for my mom.
13. I hate being late and leave the house 45 minutes to an hour before I have to be at work. I never know what I might encounter on the way, like some big accident or something.
14. At home, if it's a flat surface it's MINE!
15. Speaking of, I REALLY need to organize the house
16. I certainly don't feel as old as I am. It's all in the mind!
17. I love to read. Especially Patricia Cornwell, the Twilight series, and the Sookie Stackhouse series.
18. My first job was working at Busch Gardens in high school. I worked there for a year and a half. We have annual passes and go several times a year.
19. I voted for George W. Bush, both times, and am proud of it. Yes, I would do it again.
20. I worked in a maximum security male state prison for a year; R worked there for 5 1/2 years. It was an experience, that's for sure.
21. I used to be a damn good secretary before I became a nurse!
22. I hate laundry.
23. At home I can sure be lazy. At work, not...totally different. I can be pretty anal at work (and was in college).
24. Psychology was my favorite college subject, after Nursing of course.
25. Up until two years ago, I had bangs for as long as I can remember and I'm still trying to get used to it.

'just a Nurse'

In 2001, Suzanne Gordon (an author, lecturer, and patient advocate) wrote this out of frustration and even outrage from the persistent devaluation of nursing:

How Preemie Moms Are Chosen

(Adapted from Erma Bombeck)


Did you ever wonder how the mothers of premature babies are chosen?
Somehow, I visualize God hovering over Earth, selecting his instruments
for propagation with great care and deliberation.
As he observes, he instructs his angels to take notes in a giant ledger.
"Beth Armstrong, son. Patron Saint, Matthew. Marjorie Forrest, daughter.
Patron Saint, Celia. Carrie Rutledge, twins. Patron Saint ... give her Gerard.
He's used to profanity."
Finally, he passes a name to an angel and smiles. "Give her a preemie."
The angel is curious. "Why this one, God? She's so happy."
"Exactly," smiles God. "Could I give a premature baby a mother who knows no laughter?
That would be cruel." "But does she have the patience?" asks the angel.
"I don't want her to have too much patience, or she'll drown in a sea of self-pity and despair. Once the shock and resentment wear off, she'll handle it.
I watched her today.
She has that sense of self and independence so rare and so necessary in a mother.
You see, the child I'm going to give her has a world of its own.
She has to make it live in her world, and that's not going to be easy."
"But Lord, I don't think she even believes in you."
God smiles. "No matter, I can fix that. This one is perfect.
She has just the right amount of selfishness."
The angel gasps, "Selfishness?! Is that a virtue?"
God nods. "If she can't separate herself from the child occasionally, she will never survive.
Yes, here is a woman whom I will bless with a child less than perfect.
She doesn't know it yet, but she is to be envied.
She will never take for granted a spoken word.
She will never consider a step ordinary.
When her child says 'mama' for the first time, she will be witness to a miracle and know it.
I will permit her to see clearly the things I see – ignorance, cruelty, prejudice – and allow her to rise above them.
She will never be alone.
I will be at her side every minute of every day of her life because she is doing my work as surely as she is here by my side."
"And what about her Patron Saint?" asks the angel, his pen poised in the air.
God smiles. "A mirror will suffice."

Shhhh...don't tell my Lovie (j/k of course)

1887 Nursing Job Description

In addition to caring for your 50 patients, each bedside nurse will follow these regulations:

1. Daily sweep and mop the floors of your ward, dust the patient’s furniture and window sills.
2. Maintain an even temperature in your ward by bringing in a scuttle of coal for the day’s business.
3. Light is important to observe the patient’s condition. Therefore, each day fill kerosene lamps, clean chimneys and trim wicks.
4. The nurse’s notes are important in aiding your physician’s work. Make your pens carefully; you may whittle nibs to your individual taste.
5. Each nurse on day duty will report every day at 7 a.m. and leave at 8 p.m., except on the Sabbath, on which day she will be off from 12 noon to 2 p.m.
6. Graduate nurses in good standing with the director of nurses will be given an evening off each week for courting purposes, or two evenings a week if you go regularly to church.
7. Each nurse should lay aside from each payday a goodly sum of her earnings for her benefits during her declining years, so that she will not become a burden. For example, if you earn $30 a month, you should set aside $15.
8. Any nurse who smokes, uses liquor in any form, gets her hair done at a beauty shop or frequents dance halls will give the director of nurses good reason to suspect her worth, intentions and integrity.
9. The nurse who performs her labors [and] serves her patients and doctors faithfully and without fault for a period of five years will be given an increase by the hospital administration of five cents per day.

Wow. Thankfully times have changed.

Micro-Preemie Power

Micro-Preemie Power, by Scott Wright, is a comic book about the NICU experience he and his wife Jodi had when they found themselves unexpectedly giving birth to a micro preemie. Their son Morgan was born 3 1/2 months premature.

From what I've seen so far at http://team-spectacular.com, it's a nice portrayal of NICU nurses. We (as nurses) aren't the unintelligent, doctor chasing, over-sexed sluts as portrayed on television.

I really like this piece of the cartoon as it shows a doctor (?) saying "All the parents in the NICU are superheroes"...many of them truly are. It takes so much strength to endure having a baby in the NICU.

PeopleofWalmart.com is Great!

I suppose this person JUST left the hospital??

Upcoming Summer Camp for J

J (our youngest) is going to Xtreme Adventures summer camp soon at Busch Gardens Tampa. He'll be gone for 7 days/6 nights and will spend time at Busch Gardens, Sea World, and Discovery Cove getting to have close encounters with the animals and the roller coasters. It'll be the first time for him to be away from me and R but what an exciting time! He'll be with other middle schoolers and it doesn't take much for him to make friends.

UGH!

The latest thing right now to really irk me is I keep getting Medicare offers in the mail. WTH?!? Sure I'm a bit more than halfway to 65 but I'm not even 20 years out yet. Give me a break! The AARP and BCBS-Florida keep inundating me with crap. So...I just got off the phone with BCBS-Florida to ask (nicely) that they take me off their mailing list for at least the next 25 years. How ridiculous.

Yes, I Am

"You're a Nurse, right?....Why are his hands swollen?!

These are the arbitrary-like but serious questions I get asked from my ‘non-medical’ friends and family. Fraught with good intentions and a need-to-know mentality, I somehow get ‘consulted’ to answer the ‘why’ questions for the medically and physically unexplainable signs and symptoms that they or their friends experience.

I don’t know if I should feel blessed or cursed sometimes. I am of course not a doctor, nor do I play one on television. I cannot offer medical advice. It’s not only dangerous but extremely illegal.

I AM a Registered Nurse. Yes, I have specialized medical education and training. And yes, I have treated and cared for many patient’s with many illnesses. But, no I do not have an answer for everything.

I will offer suggestions and can talk of my own experiences, but dodging the flurry of bullet-like questions can be very challenging. I do not, and cannot offer medical advice or give medical direction. I’m not qualified, nor permitted to do so.

My answer always ends with the phrase, ‘You should REALLY have them follow up with their family physician’ (whomever they may be).

And with a perturbed grimace I always hear, ” Well I thought you were a nurse?”

Quieting my offended inner-voice, I calmly reply, “Why Yes, I am.”"

Me in a Nutshell

I am a woman who votes based on issues and values, not the color of someone's skin. I am a mother of two children, one in middle school and one in college. I am a wife of a man who owns his own business. I am a gun owner. I believe in God. I am a person who wants decent healthcare, not government-run healthcare. (Our current system is in dire need of help but if the government can make a total mess of Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, and can't even run "Cash for Clunkers" without a hitch, why should I believe they can fix healthcare?) I believe babies born alive deserve to be held and to live, or held and comforted while they pass, not be left in an incubator or in a corner to die alone. I believe everyone should stand and put their hand over their heart during the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Anthem. I believe that if you come to live in this country, you should learn our language not the other way around...it's what my German grandmother did. I believe we can win the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and I support our troops. I also believe America has become too politically correct.

My loves: candles ~ the dark ~ thunderstorms ~ cuddling with R ~ the smell of rain ~ that cute little giggle J has ~ our dogs and our cat ~ pink and dark blue ~ driving fast with music blasting ~ kisses ~ watching our kids grow and knowing we're doing a pretty darn good job raising them ~ my 10th wedding anniversary ring ~ going to bed after a long day at work in the NICU ~ palm trees ~ calla lilies ~ B's smile ~ my iTouch ~ reading Patricia Cornwell books ~ listening to J play guitar ~ German food ~ Florida ~ helping the littlest of babies survive or pass with care and dignity ~ chillin' ~ Starbucks coffee ~ good music ~ knowing that when R says "I love you" he means it ~ watching a good movie ~ my mom ~ my friends ~ and most of all - R, B, and J.