Author: dispatchesfromtheeveningshift

I am a 2nd generation nurse. I received my MSN in May 2020 and am now a PhD student. I am the night call nurse and these are the stories from my nursing career.

Tuesday Top of Mind 2/18/25- ripping the wings off of butterflies and laughing about it

There is something laddish about going into government computers and programs and ripping out the guts. And leaving a big mess.

Of course, this time the mess equates to the suffering of many, many people.

It brings to mind the episode of Star Trek the Next Generation called The Naked Now. An affected by the virus that makes everyone act as if they are drunk leads Wesley Crusher to disable the engines just as the Enterprise is in dire straits.

Sound familiar?

It takes Data, the android, who is also affected, to rise to a goad to put the pieces that Wesley has destroyed back in working order.

If that isn’t a metaphor for today’s US I don’t know what is.

A kid gets drunk. Are you with me? Not unlike the teenage and young 20s young men who are playing havoc in our systems. Reminder, the frontal lobe doesn’t finish developing until age 25 or so. Of course, they are charged with this task by an older man who just wants to break things.

Not a perfect metaphor.

A kid disables the engine, leading to peril. If it hasn’t happened yet, see the plane crashes since inauguration day, it will soon.

An android, one who is a valuable member of the crew but one at first who was looked upon with derision and scorn and fear, is the one to right the ship. Oh, and did I mention that he struggles with identity through so much of the series? There is definitely a trans allegory there.

But, I fear, that we will no one who has been othered around to help. Because they have been deported or are living in fear.

They are pulling the wings off the butterfly that is the U.S. And laughing maniacally while doing so.

I wouldn’t be able to plot this and no one would read it because it is so implausible.

But here we are.

Our international reputation is shredding, not unlike the wings of the butterfly.

There is no one coming to save us.

People are suffering. Including people who voted for this madness.

I am trying to find sympathy for them.

I have no sympathy for the government.

But I have a real fear of our standing in the world and the utter trainwreck that Democrats have to right after this. Because it is always up to the Democrats to fix what the Republicans broke while giving billions and billions of dollars to those who do not need it.

School Me Saturday 2/15/26-universities and colleges are scrambling

This is not a drill.

Researchers are being fired.

Research is being canceled, mid-experiment, or even before the research gets off the ground. This is vital research that had to 1) pass the university’s stringent institutional review board to make sure that it didn’t harm the participants and 2) pass an even more stringent grant application process to get the money to do the research. This is vital research that often seeks answers to the things that are trying to kill us.

After doing a two-second internet search using the keywords research topic NIH pulls up many NIH sites. The first one is Research Topics. If you click on that one the resultant page is broken down into 4 additional sections.

  1. Heart & vascular research- arrhythmia, atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, heart attack, heart failure, heart inflammation, heart valve diseases, high blood pressure, obesity, peripheral artery disease, stroke. The latest report, also readily searchable, shows that 121.5 MILLION or 46% of Americans suffer from these diseases and conditions. AKA probably someone you know.
  2. Lung research- ARDS (adult respiratory distress syndrome), asthma, COPD, cystic fibrosis, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, interstitial lung diseases, newborn breathing conditions, pulmonary hypertension, respiratory failure. 33.8 to more than 35-MILLION Americans suffer from a lung condition. This is being made worse every year by wildfire smoke that impacts those with asthma, and COPD and emphysema. AKA probably someone you know.
  3. Blood research- anemia, blood clotting disorders, sickle cell disease. This is tallied at 1 in 76 of us. AKA probably someone you know.
  4. Sleep research- sleep apnea. This is an obstructive sleep pattern that can have a huge impact on your overall health. This affects the fewest at 22 million. But you know and I know that many, many, many people affected don’t bother to go to the doctor or explore why they are tired when they just woke up.

Just for funsies, I searched for how many people suffered from erectile dysfunction. This wasn’t an NIH website search. 30 million. More attention is paid to that than maternal mortality in this country.

This science denial is dangerous. That is what it is, science denial. At the most charitable, I can call it denial of something that doesn’t impact me or mine.

Reminder, just because something isn’t happening to you doesn’t mean it isn’t happening to someone you love. Just because something isn’t happening to you and your loved ones doesn’t mean that it is not worthy of research. Don’t you want an answer when it does happen to you or your loved ones?

Canceling research means they are no longer searching for the answer. Any answer.

Apparently, we have to be content with the research that has been done since Johns Hopkins University opened its doors in 1976.

How has it only been 3 fucking weeks?

FFS Friday 2/14/25- F’ing cowards

Cowards.

Fucking cowards, the lot of them.

I am, of course, writing about the Senate and the Senators and the confirmation of the Kennedy who wants desperately to be relevant.

The man who is a lawyer, is not in the healthcare field at all. But spews misinformation and lies about vaccines and fluoride in drinking water and processed food.

Vaccines save lives and fluoride saves teeth. Ultra-processed food, often the only kind of food a person can afford, is probably not good for humans. But he says nothing about the root cause of the ultra-processed food. Which are food deserts and the price of food.

His insane belief is that covid was engineered to strike Caucasians and black people and not Chinese or Ashkenazi Jews. This has been debunked and is a bat shit crazy belief. He has tried to walk this back.

His non and incorrect beliefs in science and vaccines are getting people killed. And now that he is the Health and Human Services secretary.

Great. (heavy sarcasm)

Only one of the Republican senators voted AGAINST the confirmation of a known anti-vaxer whose misinformation led to the deaths of many on Samoa. When I write many, I mean above 10. Eighty-three Samoans died because of the Measles outbreak directly related to his lies.

And that senator that voted against him? Mitch McConnel. I didn’t have that on my 2025 Bingo card. But he did have Polio as a child. Anti-vaccination sentiment has brought Polio back to the United States. The Iron Lung, which was a treatment for Polio that some lived in for decades, is no longer in production and hasn’t been for years and years. So we are starting from rock bottom there.

Regardless, RFK Jr. is dangerous.

Like so much of this cabinet. But he can impact vaccines and so very much more. BTW- all of the Democratic senators voted against his confirmation.

I will be watching his office CLOSELY. And I will report back the insanity.

Are you paying attention yet?

Cookie Thursday 2/13/25- Ritz cracker caramel chocolate crack

This is the second Thursday of Baking the Baking Pantry theme. This means that I am using up some of my lesser-used ingredients.

Because I was hosting for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, the little voice inside my head ensured I purchased enough crackers for the events. Even though my sister is gluten-free. The other voice inside my head said that I could never only buy one box if they were BOGO (buy one, get one). Twice.

We have a lot of crackers.

Normally, I keep at least one box in reserve in case I make pimiento cheese for a work event.

Yeah, we have four boxes that were unopened and 1 box that was only missing 2 sleeves. One sleeve for each night of the festivities, you know.

And the best Christmas crack crackers to use are Ritz crackers. I know because I’ve tried saltines, Ritz, matzoh, club crackers, digestive, and graham crackers. There is just something about the butteriness of the Ritz that puts the rest of them to shame.

But, of course, I wanted to do a little experiment. I made a ring of unbroken crackers around the cookie sheet, duly lined with parchment paper, and I crushed a sleeve of crackers to fill the center. The ring itself took half a sleeve.

What? I wanted to see what would happen.

I theorized that the caramel would make even a crushed cracker more interesting and the bigger surface area would make it adhere more.

I was half right.

Okay, three quarters.

Yes, the crushed cracker and the caramel interaction was interesting. And weirdly even more buttery.

Yes, the bigger surface area of the crushed cracker edges did make the caramel adhere more.

No, it didn’t adhere quite like I was picturing.

Not a total failure. I must increase the amount of caramel to account for the increased amount of edges.

I give myself a B. With the caveat to try again with more caramel.

Also, I used milk chocolate in the beginning over half of it and it refused to spread evenly while melted. Semi-sweet is the way to go here.

After all, Cookie Thursday is a Thing is all about experimentation.

Tuesday Top of Mind 2/11/25- the SAVE Act

Well, this is a piece of neo-mansophere trash.

If this vote passes the Senate and is signed into law as written, voting by women will be changed.

On the surface, this bill is about voting. Okay, fine. Not a demonstrable problem, no matter what some republicans think.

However, if you read the summary, voting will be permitted only if you are able to prove that you are a United States citizen. How to prove that? The easiest way is to provide your birth certificate. Your certified birth certificate.

Good on the surface, right?

Why did this not pass last year when it was first introduced?

Because it is a huge waste of time and resources. You already cannot register to vote unless you prove you are a US citizen. Usually by driver’s license or passport.

There is already a REAL ID that will be used by airlines starting in May. The SAVE Act is a belt to that suspenders. I got my REAL ID by showing my passport to the DMV. The same passport that I had to use my driver’s license and birth certificate to obtain.

I will note that I have a certified copy of my birth certificate. Obtained from the state where I was born. But what about the people out there whose birth certificates cannot be certified. What if they were born at home? What if they were born in a time before all of this nonsense?

To obtain a passport, you already have to show proof of residency. To get mine I had to have my driver’s license and my marriage license proving that the name change was legit. Same for the social security card.

Because this act shows their hand. 80% of woman who are married in this country take their husband’s name. I did. Does this bill mean that I would no longer be eligible to vote because my birth certificate and my driver’s license do not match?

I am afraid that this is the intention. In all the reading I have done these last 3 months I have come across a phrase in a couple of places that I thought was straight out of The Handmaid’s Tale. “Family voting”, wherein the man, whose name does match his birth certificate, votes for the entire house.

The real question is what exactly is this bill saving? Nothing. It would cost A LOT of money to implement. Imagine the lawsuits. Imagine the outrage the first time a woman goes to vote and is denied because she took her husband’s name.

For something we didn’t even need. Unless that was the entire point. To more than halve the number of women who are eligible to vote.

This is a feature, not a bug.

Are you frightened yet?

More importantly, are you paying attention yet?

Post-it Sunday 2/9/25- table height

The post-it reads “Height of the OR table is important.”

Height of the OR table is important and can be changed for a variety of scenarios.

When a tall person is intubating the patient, the OR table is high.

When a short person is intubating the patient, the OR table is low.

When a tall surgeon is working, the OR table is high.

When a short surgeon is working, the OR table is low.

You with me?

When a patient is on the fracture table or the CHIK table and the hip is being worked on, the table is high. Not only is that for surgeon comfort, but it is also so the C-arm, which is an x-ray machine, can clear the table in order to take pictures.

When a circulator is prepping a patient’s leg, the table should be low. This is for leverage and also changes the fulcrum of the balance of the weight of the leg. This also improves the circulator’s reach to ensure that all the skin is prepped.

I have always known this was important but I didn’t realize that other specialties do this too. Which is odd, because of course they do. I came to this realization when I was in the dentist’s chair going up and down, depending if it was the dentist or the hygienist working on my mouth.

Talk about your flash of the obvious.

Imagine me not even realizing of course it would be the same, even when they are sitting down.

But the number one thing to take home is that after the patient has been moved to the in-patient bed, the head of the bed should never be raised until it has been moved away from the OR table.

Why?

Because I’ve seen OR tables get tipped, a lot of degrees, by the head of the in-patient bed that is being raised.

Heck, I’ve also heard the cysto table groan as an anesthesiologist was raising the head of the patient bed after we moved the patient. And those tables weigh a ton and are not to be moved.

School Me Saturday 2/8/25- This is not psychics 101

I’ve been around this school game for a while now. And I’ve had the full gamut of teachers/instructors/professors. My least favorite is the kind that want you to read their mind.

If teaching was a group project, these would definitely be the ones coming in late with their instructions scribbled on a receipt that has been dipped in coffee. In pencil! Smeared pencil.

Their work is sloppy. Their instructions are haphazard and incomplete. Their assignment due dates are a thing of fiction. Their grading is harsh.

These are the kind of instructors who “never give an A”.

I am sure that 99.99% of learners have had this teacher in their classroom at some point. And you think that complaining does nothing.

Not so. We are not in high school anymore.

Complaining about the teacher who “forgets” to complete their assignment directions and penalizes a student for not being able to extrapolate what they meant is acceptable. After all, this is tantamount to being slapped on the wrist for not being able to read their mind.

I am no Jean Grey or Profession Charles Xavier.

The university or college probably has an office to deal with teachers like these.

Find it. Complain about them.

But it is important to bring receipts. By that, I mean examples.

They will listen. They will know that you are not trying to get a better grade. After all, your classmates might already know and are complaining as well.

Alternately tell your advisor. I hope that the terrible teacher is not your advisor. If they are, go to the head of the program.

Adult learning is hard enough without having to develop a whole new skill that doesn’t exist.

Cookie Thursday 2/6/25- Baking out the (baking) pantry. Andes mint cookies

New month, new theme for February. The theme for this month is Baking Out the (baking) pantry. Today’s offering is an Andes Mint cookie. At the end of last year, I scored several bags of chopped up Andes mints. You know the ones, peppermint and chocolate.

Hence, today’s cookie. The Andes mint cookie.

There’s not much else to write about these. The base cookie is the Tollhouse cookie recipe and instead of vanilla flavoring, I used peppermint.

I also slightly undercooked them to keep them soft.

It is very minty in here.

None for the husband, as we are pretty sure he is allergic to peppermint. All for the department.