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22- bloody bandages

Spooky Cookie month continues on Cookie Thursday is a Thing. Today’s make is bloody bandages.

These are operating room folks, and it is hard to gross them out.

No ick matter here!

Bloody Bandages

Sugar wafer cookies, the ones with the cream filling between thin crispy wafers.

white chocolate Candiquik. This is meltable chocolate that comes in a variety of flavors and colors and here in the United States it goes by that unfortunately spelled name, or some craft stores carry it for candy making. It melts fast in the microwave and smoothly.

toppings- for effect I used a combination of green sprinkles, and freeze-dried raspberries

I had to experiment a bit with technique. The first tray I laid the wafers out, melted the chocolate, tried to make a square of chocolate with a spoon, put the toppings on

This works but it gets messy as the chocolate begins to dry.

The second tray I had the wafer cookies in a stack, picked them up, spread the chocolate using a knife, added toppings. This worked much better and I was able to get a more uniform square of chocolate

What makes these bloody bandages is the rectangular shape of the wafer cookies, and the hopefully white square of chocolate. And the raspberry “blood”.

On some I added green sprinkles to simulate infection.

I think they are adorable, and they were very fast to make. I barely got through NPR morning edition podcast, which is about 15 minutes long. Seriously one of the fastest makes yet.

Cookie Thursday 4/16/26- Marmite cheddar cheese straws

Crushingly, the cookies last week were NOT popular. Half the batch was left in the drawer. Which is disappointing. Perhaps I need to scale back Cookie Thursday is a Thing in the operating room and expand to other departments the other weeks.

New week, new make.

The Unexpected Ingredient theme continues. Today, I put marmite in sharp cheddar puff pastry cheese straws.

Marmite, the fermented yeast you either love or hate or hate on principle.

These were unexpectedly yummy.

Marmite isn’t as bad as they would have you believe.

Is it strong tasting? Yes.

Does it smell strong? Yes.

Is it worth it? Yes.

Do I want to explore more taste sensations with marmite?

Yep. Next I will do a butter and marmite on toast.

After I pick up the CTIAT leftovers at the hospital later this evening.

By the way, marmite is an excellent source of B vitamins. But it is also very high in salt and should be eaten sparingly.

Call Secrets of the OR- With great power comes great responsibility

This is NOT a Marvel quote. It was attributed originally to the writer known as Voltaire. François-Marie Arouet adopted the pen name in 1718. This was after his incarceration in the Bastille. But before his smallpox infection. And before his exile into England. Among many other things.

His Wiki page is wild and worth the read.

In the Marvel Universe this saying is attributed to Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben. Who reminded the young Peter Parker that those who were given great power, much is demanded of them. And Peter ignored him and went to earn money by wrestling using his spider given powers so that they could keep their house.

Uncle Ben died being shot by Flint Marko or Dennis Carradine or any number of shadowy thugs.

No spoilers needed.

This is a well worn trope and has been explored over movies and comic books and books and television shows.

But he inspired Peter Parker with his words reminding Peter that with great power, comes great responsibility.

But that isn’t why I bring up the quote.

I had a doctor’s appointment yesterday. A doctor who sometimes does surgeries in the operating room at night. As I was leaving they said if I had any issues to call the office.

Like a silly goose I said, pleased with the good appointment, that I had access to their personal cell number because they had called me to create a surgery in the dark one night.

The fear in their eyes.

I rushed to reassure them that I had multiple doctor phone numbers in my phone as a function of my work as a call nurse. And that I never abused the numbers.

Ever.

This is part of personal code of ethics.

If I need a surgeon for details of a case I will text them or call them. They are aware of this.

If not, the numbers stay locked in my phone.

I never ever ever ever give them out.

Just like I never give out staff numbers without clearing it with the staff first. I’ve been told this is an uneccessary step but I continue it.

That pesky personal code of ethics that I have.

If I need to call a doctor that is not work related, I use the same avenue that everyone else does. I call the doctor on call or I leave a message with the office and patiently wait for the callback.

Having these numbers is a great power. It eases communication about middle of the night cases, or cases for the day shift that I arrange at night. it is my great responsibility to have a personal code of ethics that doesn’t allow me to abuse the numbers.

Ever.

I don’t care who thinks they need the number, too bad. (shrugs)

They can call the office and go through the call system just as I do when it is not work/case related.

Tuesday Top of Mind 4/15/26- Great, now there are known gender disparities for those who receive life giving care (CPR/defibrillation) in the field

I do not watch the Pitt. Many, many, many people have told me that I need to watch the most groundbreaking show that illustrates what hospital life is like on a crazy shift.

No thank you, I live it enough.

I mean, ER started my sophomore year at Creighton. It aired on Thursday nights and all the nursing students would critique it in class on Fridays. That is the goal post that I have in my head and nothing has measured up to it.

But in the latest episode of the second season of the Pitt that aired April 10th, a woman came in with chest pain and coded and nearly died because her paramedics (sad pouty face) didn’t want to disturb her bra.

I personally can handle exposed breasts/titties if it saves my life.

Just saying.

In the clips that I have seen of this scene, Robby (the head MD) asks the women in the room “Hey, ladies in the room, show of hands. Death with modesty or life with brief nudity? Death or Life? Look at that. Turns out women want to live”. He says this to what I presume is the head paramedic.

No bra, no matter what the cost, is worth a life.

It takes me back to my very first ACLS (Adult cardiac life support) instructor (before they got fancy and called it ALS [advanced life support]). She stood at the front of the class and told us that the first thing you do in a code is take your own pulse for a brief second. Now that you have ascertained that YOU are not dead you can help the patient who is.

I use similar phrasing when I run the Call Bootcamp for the hospital. I was asked if the responders from the hospital, from the ER and the ICU, need to put on bunny suits to enter the OR. I said no, the patient isn’t getting more dead. So there wasn’t any risk of infection.

This made me curious so I did a quick Google search. My search terms were are women less likely to receive defibrillation.

Spoiler alert.

Yeah, women are less likely to get bystander CPR and defibrillation.

Of course we are.

There are hits from the Duke University School of Medicine from 2024, from the National Institutes of Health in 2023. From Science Direct in 2026.

From the American Heart Association itself in 2024.

The list goes on and on and on.

Save a life, expose a breast.

That is the very very very very first thing I leaned when I took CPR in high school.

Expose the chest, make sure there are no barriers, or standing water.

It’s like a demented Little Red Riding Hood parody.

But grandmama, what pretty bra you are wearing.

FFS Friday 4/10/26- Forest service fuckery

First they start with firing. Just in time for fire season. 3400 federal employees across every level of the forest agency. T

Then they rescind the roadless rule. This is the rule that prohibits road construction, road reconstruction and TIMBER harvest on 60 million acres of national forests and grasslands. You know, so that someone can make a buck harvesting the timber and laying waste to our national parks.

Then they rape our lands and its national resources in the name of profit. Of course they do.

Animals.

This was also a step in their complete trashing of the United States and all that we used to hold dear. Up to auction to the highest bidder.

Or, you know, the average Friday.

This restructuring of the US Forest Service was announced on March 30. They were going to move the agency headquarters to Salt Lake City. This kind of implies that everything east of the Rockies is trash.

Research was trashed. Of course it was. There is a lot of research done on the forests and, you know, in actual fucking nature that this destroys.

Don’t worry, the propaganda machine is working on spinning this disastrous move. The bots are already hard at work denying, denying and, oh yes, denying.

Of course they are.

We need people to look up from their phones and their computers and their tablets to PAY FUCKING ATTENTION when the administration does shady shit like this.

It’s illegal. Because of course it is. This move was explicitly prohibited by the fiscal year 2026 appropriations.

Congress can stop it. but they won’t. Because they have their heads so far up the administration’s ass as to lead one to wonder how they breathe. Perhaps they have developed gills that can do oxygen exchange through shit. And there’s a lot of shit that everyone should be paying attention to.

The Alt National Parks page on the socials is leading the charge in getting the word out and in advertising which big outdoor companies to petition and what to say. Find them, pick a company and get to the phones.

Smokey the Bear needs us right now. Time to write and call and call and write. Ad nauseum.

Still.

Cookie Thursday 4/6/26- Fudgy cocoa no bakes with potato chip swap

Unexpected ingredient month continues.

I was wondering if I could modify the fudgy cocoa no bake recipe beyond what I already had. I’ve swapped out of the cups of oats for unsweetened coconut before. In fact, I’ve done that several times. But what else can be swapped out for that 1 c of oats?

Potato chips.

You know, sweet/salty combo.

Perfect.

I bought a bag of potato chips and crushed most of the bag to make the 1 c of potato chip crumbs that I needed. I let a few bigger pieces through to see what would happen. And then I proceeded to make the fudgy cocoa no bakes as described.

I discovered several things.

The first thing I noticed was that the color was a much paler brown than when I have made these in the past.

The second thing that I noticed is that the cookies themselves were much more crumbly in texture compared to the standard no bakes.

The last thing that I noticed was the salty sweet interplay when I sampled the cookie.

Exactly what I was going for.

Someone at work suggested that I use kettle cooked potato chips. For better structural integrity. I will definitely do that next time.

But not a bad cookie for something I made up out of my own head.

On to next week. I am very excited about next week’s unexpected ingredient.

Cookie Thursday is a Thing 4/2/26- Devil’d eggs cakes

New month, new theme.

I am not a fan of April Fools’ Day. Most often it is seized upon as a reason to be a jerk. I am also not a fan of pranks. No, thank you. But I am a fan of the mild unexpected. I’m complex, okay?

The April theme is going to be the Unexpected Ingredient.

Take today. I saw a recipe for deviled brownies and I knew I could re-create that using white cake and golden frosting. I considered using blondies for the cake but I didn’t think the contrast was going to be enough. Consider the devil’d egg. White egg, creamy golden goodness made up of egg yolk and mustard piped vacancy left from the egg yolk. I wanted that kind of contrast.

And did I mention I was doing a gluten free version too? With a brand spanking new recipe?

Well, I did.

I also made plain chocolate chip cookies for our new manager. Yes, an entire batch. As a welcome to the department gesture.

For those playing along that is white eggs, gluten free white eggs, gold frosting, and chocolate chip cookies.

Oven #3 got a workout.

After I delivered the make, several of my coworkers expressed amazement that they weren’t actually devil’d eggs. Which was exactly the point of the theme.

These little cakes were tender and the frosting was creamy and luscious. They were the perfect make to kick off April. In a nice way.

Because April Fools’ doesn’t have to be mean.

But frosting still isn’t my favorite thing to make.

The gluten free devil’d egg cakes were saved by the frosting. I found them a bit dry, as a lot of gluten free makes are. Next time I make the recipe I am going to sub in 1/2 -1 cup almond flour. To see if that would give it more moisture.

Call Secrets of the OR- When on call you have 30 minutes to get to the hospital

When you are on call, it is the expectation of the department that you arrive to the hospital, ready to work, within 30 minutes.

Not 45.

Not 35.

Thirty.

I know that it is part of the onboarding at my current hospital and also at past hospitals.

But the recovery room in particular has been pushing it and pushing it.

That is not a Salt-N-Pepa reference.

They leave messages to give them 45 minutes in when calling them in at the end of a case.

I have to keep all surgeons and their preferences for all cases in my head. At all times. For all cases.

And you are telling me that I now have to keep a mental map of all the locations of the recovery room nurses on call? And do the mental gymnastics of making sure I call them at the exact right time during the surgery that I am actively participating in? Because if they are called too early, they complain to management. If they come in after the surgery is completed, the CRNA and I have been functioning effectively as the PACU team.

Wow, this is a much angrier post than I intended.

I do my utmost to honor the requests for a little extra time for call back.

But that is not always possible.

I will end up cooling my heels in PACU until they come in. But when is it too much and merits a talk with management?

Age old question I guess.

Tuesday Top of Mind 3/31/33- It’s still HERE!!!

Yeah, the title is meant to be a call back to Poltergeist.

I am, of course, referencing covid. Always referencing covid. It is exhausting.

The variant this time is tricksy. Wicked, tricksy variant.

Yeah, that was a Hobbit movie reference.

The newest out to kill variant is called the Cicada variant. So called because it waits and emerges to cause chaos when you least expect it. This variant is called the cicada because after emerging in 2024 it laid in wait. And is now the fastest growing variant in the United States. It has been found in the waste water of at least 25 states.

Oh, joy.

Of course there are mutations to the spike protein that allows it to elude immune systems that have been vaccinated. Or previously infected.

Double oh, joy.

The symptoms that are prevalent are the run of the mill respiratory symptoms. Long gone are the tell tale no taste no smell symptoms.

Ever time we are growing closer to the one variant that knocks aside the vaccines and we have to start ALL OVER.

Make sure your vaccinations are up to date. Make sure you wash your hands. Make sure to avoid crowded spaces. And, for the love of pete, stay home if you are sick and test.

We’ve done this since 2020, get a clue people!

Cookie Thursday 3/26/26- Lemon sugar cookies with white chocolate chips

This recipe proves that I can’t help tinkering with a known recipe. I thought as I was zesting the lemons for the 2 and a half tablespoons needed for the recipe why not add white chocolate.

Other changes that I made
1) I added Fiori di Sicilia. This is a lemon vanilla flavor enhancer from King Arthur, There was no vanilla in the recipe as written and a little vanilla is always a good enhancer
2) I added 3 tbs of lemon zest.

And that’s pretty much it.

I just wanted to enhance the lemon flavor.

The white chocolate was for its own sake.

I have been scheming and planning what to make for April. New stove, new themes, am I right?

I have had a lot of fun designing the recipes for the next month.

But I am not sure what to name the theme.

April 1st is the prime prank day. But I hate pranks.

So it has to be something special to go along with the special April theme. And also to celebrate getting back to a regularly working oven.

I can’t wait to reveal,

Wait and see.

The new Archishop of Canterbury is a nurse

Just typing that made me smile.

I read the Canterbury Tales in high school and lived to tell the tale. I couldn’t resist that pun.

Not only that, she’s a woman.

Dame Sarah Mullaly has been enthroned as the Church of England leader. Today, March 25th, 2026.

She is the first in so many ways.

First nurse.

First woman. Women have only been able to be priests since 1994. Women have only been able to be bishops since 2014.

The new Archbishop worked as a senior nurse and a midwife and a cancer nurse. She also was the Britain’s chief nursing officer.

You don’t understand, she is the first.

In 1400 years.

Yes, the office predates the Crown of England. It is older than the monarchy.

For nearly a thousand years, the Church of England was closely aligned with the Catholic Church. Until Henry VIII broke the Church of England away from the Catholic Church to marry Anne Boleyn. To do this, he needed a divorce from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. And we all know what happened after that.

So this is a nice full circle moment from that unpleasantness.

I am sure she has been tasked with modernizing the Church and bringing people back to the churches, and looking after the poorer churches in the nation.

Do the impossible with no money and no time.

Just like a nurse.