24- Stop believing everything someone sees on the internet!

This post is not going to be about school. Or classes. Or going to classes. Or getting ready to go on fall break. Or tests or assignments.

No, this post is going to be about me shouting STOP BELIEVING EVERYTHING SOMEONE OR YOU SEES ON THE INTERNET!!!

For fucks’ sake, stop it.

There is a continuing natural disaster that is happening right here in our state. Hurricane Helene put a serious beat down on Western North Carolina. The death toll keeps rising, people have lost their houses, their friends, their pets, and their livelihoods. Not to mention to lack of electricity, water, and cell service. With no end in sight.

So why do I see so many people spreading the false report that North Carolina has a shortage of body bags? Or that FEMA, who has affected 6 states to cover, hasn’t been on the ground yet?

Did we learn nothing from the natural disaster we just spent the last 5 years living through and are still going through?

Or did we learn the wrong lesson from covid?

The lesson is that some people will believe what they see on the internet. They take it as gospel truth, not the lies that others are spreading. You know, just like with the vaccines.

Enough with the doom scrolling. Especially if you believe everything the internet tells you.

Know that there are assholes out there who will be trying to prey on the vulnerable. They go door to door and lie that they are from the county or even FEMA when they are decidedly not.

Don’t worry, there is a special place in hell that they undoubtedly believe in for them.

The best pieces of advice that I can give you as a nascent researcher-

Don’t believe everything you read or watch on the internet.
Don’t listen to someone who tells you something outrageous with no facts to back it up.
If you do find it believable, find an alternate source of the same facts. To have confirmation from an alternate, reputable source is best.
Stop the doom scrolling.
If you still think that something nefarious is going on, get involved. Donate time or supplies to those who are suffering in Western North Carolina. Make sandwiches for One World Kitchen, or give blood. Do something besides perpetuating the lies that someone else is peddling to make a buck.
Be wary of those who are trying to make a buck off of someone else’s suffering.
Don’t believe everything you read or watch on the internet. And don’t listen to someone who tells you something outrageous with no facts to back it up. It bears repeating.

Have an open mind but do not be swept up in the lies that are around on the internet.

Have an open heart to help those whose entire lives are irrevocably changed and challenged by Hurricane Helene. Donate your time or some goods to aid in the recovery.

Because what if you lived in Western North Carolina, wouldn’t you want someone to help and not hinder you with lies?

I would.

Cookie Thursday 10/3/24- This is Halloween Week 1

This is Cookie Thursday is a Thing and the theme of the month is This is Halloween.

This is a song from Nightmare Before Christmas.

Works great as a theme too.

This week’s spooky make is a candy corn cookie.

Love them or hate them, candy corn is emblematic of Halloween.

Did you know that if you put candy corn instead of chocolate chips into a cookie base and bake it, the candy corn melts and becomes a wonderful caramel addition to the cookie?

The resulting melting candy corn is chewy and delightful.

I usually make it every year for October Cookie Thursday is a Thing.

And apparently I will be making cookies for Cookie Thursday is a Thing This is Halloween with candy inside the cookies.

What will I make next week?

I am sure it will be goulishly delicious.

Best Kept Secrets of the OR #8- Phenomenal technological know-how…itty bitty email manners

“Phenomenal cosmic powers…itty bitty living space.”

This is a quote from Genie in the 1992 Disney movie Aladdin. He is speaking to Aladdin about the genie gig. And that he has immense powers, but the trade-off is that his living space in the lamp is small.

The OR staff have a trade-off as well. We are very comfortable with the ever-changing technology and ever-changing rules of that technology. 99% of the OR staff that I personally know is technologically savvy.

And we do it well.

Despite the surgeon’s grumbling about wanting to move faster.

The big but is that people don’t know how to respond to a group email.

Some people reply all. This means that whatever they meant to send to the original sender was sent to EVERYONE on the group email. So many times I’ve been privy to information I should not have and I do not want.

Or how to respond without shouting. In email parlance, all CAPS is shouting. BECAUSE THIS LOOKS AGGRESSIVE. If you are not trying to be emphatic, cool it with the caps lock.

Another bad email etiquette is using slang. This means not using slang at all. You may know or think that Dog is an address of respect but the person you are writing may not and they feel insulted.

Keep email language clear and concise. Be polite when addressing your recipient. Don’t be formal when writing an email. Always use an informative subject line if you are the original writer.

But the biggest is don’t reply to all unless your message is for the group.

By the way, all of these unwritten rules of email etiquette apply to webinar chats

I write that because in the last webinar, I did, about DEI, someone shouted in the chat that WE SHOULD HAVE MORE MEN IN NURSING. WHY DON’T WE HAVE MORE MEN IN NURSING. It is a little offputting and I now understand why that is a rule.

Stop shouting!

Tuesday Top of Mind 10/1/24- Blame the victim… of course

They are weaponizing abortion bans against victims. Blame the victim is the name of their game and it has never been clearer. In their minds and out of their mouths comes language that says that if a woman hadn’t had sex and sought a medication abortion and had a rare complication and sought care from the state in which they live and was denied actual medical care for a true medical emergency and they shun her and turn her away from the emergency room and she dies it is her fault.

Did you get all that?

It is like holding someone’s arm and using your muscles to slap their face, telling them all the while “Stop hitting yourself”. In no way are they hitting themselves. You are. And blaming them for it.

Because she wasn’t a “good girl” and had sex.

After all, the vagina is the root of all evils. Right?

Twas Eve who ate the apple from the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden.

Twas Eve who tempted Adam to eat the apple.

Twas Eve who got them banished from the Garden of Eden.

Because blame the woman, right?

Some people believe that their holy book forbids abortion. Without actually coming out and saying it. Because abortion is not mentioned in the Bible. Neither the old testament nor the new testament. Not in the Jewish version.

Same thing for birth control. Nowhere is it mentioned that it is banned.

But some people believe it because their god said so. No, no, they say when you point this out. But I know that it is something that he doesn’t want. No, no, not his son when you point this out that their behavior isn’t exactly Christ-like. Not his son. I just don’t want god to be mad at me for a reason I made up in my head.

Do you know what is also not banned? In-vitro Fertilization.

I don’t normally write about essentially the same thing for Tuesday Top of Mind two weeks in a row.

But they need to get over themselves.

Because they are killing women and the potential children they profess to want born. Without any medical support or financial support or legislative support.

No, they want fully-aged people who can work and pay taxes. Because infants and children are messy and demanding. And they don’t have the patience. But they want the money.

And the control.

but mostly the money.

Post-it Sunday 9/29/24- the in crowd

The gown card reads “Drs are a collegial bunch. As if having an MD gets you into a special club.”

My sister is a doctor. A pathologist, in fact. I know all about the years of schooling, the internship year, and the resident years, and the fellowship years (if they do that).

I get it.

I also understand why there is a special handshake doctor club.

I get it.

No one else can possibly understand but another doctor.

However, there is also a hierarchy among doctors. The general surgeons generally look down on the ob-gyns, the orthopedists look down on the podiatrists, and the neurologists and cardiothoracic surgeons look down on everyone.

Bullying between doctor groups is not okay.

It smacks of high school. And all the doctors I know have at least 10 years of post-high school education.

There is also a rivalry between the PhD nurse and the DNP (doctor of nursing practice), for no good reason. The PhD nurse does the research, and the DNP puts it into practice.

Stop acting like a bunch of teenagers!

Did you not learn in high school that bullying and snobbish behavior are not how to treat a colleague?

I was gonna write act your wage, but I don’t think so.

Definitely act your age.

Bullying is not on.

*** As an aside, reading the rest of the notes on the card I wonder if this was not a note about healthcare. The rest of the gown card is about a serial killer mystery I plotted out. And the main characters. The age of the gown card definitely bears this out. But the message is still the same, fictional doctors or non-fictional doctors need to stop acting like a bunch of teenagers and act your age.

Hurricane Helene recap 9/28/24

There was a devastating hurricane that swept through on Thursday and Friday. It didn’t make landfall until late Thursday night but there was rain and wind starting here in North Carolina on Thursday. The rain and the wind continued on until midday Friday.

The university canceled in-person classes but the online class that I am in, my last one, went on.

There were hiccups and classmates that dropped left and right but we persevered.

We never lost power near Charlotte although there were widespread power outages reported all over. We also didn’t lose the internet.

We were lucky here in our little house. There are a lot of leaves down, and I had to chase after the 32-gallon containers that we use for yard waste and bring them back to the garage.

There was a lot of water in the backyard and our neighbor made a trough through his side yard and our side yard to drain the water from the driveways. When they moved in 2020, we gave him permission to drain their yard through our backyard. This is the easiest path to the holding pond behind our property.

We came through pretty well with only 4 inches of water in the mop bucket I left out on purpose to collect rainwater. Our internet has been a bit laggy so no Diablo for me.

Western North Carolina, however, is devastated.

Videos and pictures of raging water dominated the news Friday. Highway 40 on the way to Tennessee flooded, had a landslide, and lost a portion of the road to the water. Entire cities and towns are inundated with water and mud.

The rain has stopped.

The clean-up begins.

Cookie Thursday 9/26/24-lunch lady PB bars with chocolate frosting

This is the cookie that everyone that I told September’s theme to asked about.

ALL of them.

Is the peanut butter and fudge bar gonna be one of the cookies?

The peanut butter bar, right?

I remember the peanut butter fudgy bar. That will be one of them right?

Yes, yes.

It is the peanut butter bars with chocolate frosting.

I hate making frosting but it so iconic I had to.

I also made the frosting yesterday when there wasn’t a hurricane barreling down on us.

This entire month has been about nostalgia. Some people never had a lunch lady cookie and I find that so sad.

I will definitely have to redo this theme in the future.

There are lots of lunch lady cookies that I didn’t get to make.

Next time.

Tuesday Top of Mind 9/24/24-They don’t care about anything but control and money… do you?

I realize that not everyone is as informed about the news as I am.

I realize that everyone doesn’t have the same reaction to the news that I do.

I realize that the reason for this is because some people just don’t care.

They don’t care that over half of Americans are being told that we are worth only what our uterus can produce. AKA the tax revenue that can be brought in by the potential uterine output.

They don’t care that women are dying.

They don’t care that babies are being tortured into existence where they will live their short lives in agony.

They don’t care that medical professionals, those who have gone to school for at LEAST 20 years, and those who don’t want to torture women or the cells that will become the baby, are leaving the red states in droves.

They don’t care that the patients who are left behind who cannot/will not move, are in what we term as an OB desert. This means that the number of doctors who stay in the red states is not enough to care for the women of the state.

They don’t care that women over 50 are still of childbearing age. Instead, they find it easier to mock them and ask why they care about the bodily autonomy of those who can still have children. Never mind that women over 50 can still bear children and never mind their daughters and granddaughters are impacted by the abortion can she or can’t she shell game they have going on.

They don’t care that anyone can be a signatory to an abortion amendments petition without the police/sheriff showing up at their house and interrogating them about it.

All these things they don’t care about. All of these things have been in the news in the last five days.

What do they care about?

It isn’t the unborn. It is money; It is the control of women.

What are they afraid of? Women.

Vote in November like your bodily autonomy depends on it.

Or someone you love.

Post-it Sunday 9/22/24- how the hospital speaks and tells time

The post-it reads “Military time primer. Alphanumeric.”

I am aware that these are two entirely different things.

However, they are how every hospital that I’ve ever worked at communicates. All five of them. Plus the nursing home.

Military time is used so that there is no question as to what is meant by 2 o’clock. Is that morning or afternoon? And do I know that you think it is morning or afternoon?

Well, in military time, that would be 0200 for the morning. And 1400 for the afternoon.

Times in the hospital are mostly for important things like drug administration times. Or surgery times. Or visiting hours. It is important that we mean the same thing.

The best and easiest way to learn military time is to know that it is based on a 24-hour clock. Just like hours in a day. Midnight is 0000, and noon is 1200. What confuses people is anything after noon. All of a sudden we are adding 12 to the hour. 1 pm becomes 1300, 2 pm becomes 1400, 3 pm becomes 1500, and so forth.

The way I’ve taught many people to remember military time is that if it is after noon, just subtract 12 from the number and get the number they are most likely used to seeing. 13=12 is 1 in the afternoon, and 1600-12 is 4 in the afternoon.

I’ve used military time as far back as I can remember. It is second nature to me and how all of my clocks tell time.

Alphanumeric on the other hand is to ensure that a message is not misconstrued.

For example, if you are on the phone with a doctor and they tell you this important heart medication is TID and you heard BID, that can make a patient sick. TID means three times a day and BID means 2 times a day. How often does the patient need the med you begin to ask the doctor. And they’ve already hung up and will yell if you call them back.

The proper way to convey this information is three times a day versus two times a day.

Alphanumeric also is useful when spelling out names of medications or even names of staff or anyone for that matter. M and N sound a lot alike when you are mumbling them into a phone. As do B and T and D. Mike and November sound markedly different. As do Bravo, Tango, and Delta.

It is all about the easiest way to communicate with others in the hospital. Without the possibility of error.

I learned alphanumeric spelling in the Air Force. Because it is how to military communicates as well. Although they love their acronyms as an additional ease in communication too.

As does the hospital.

School Me Saturday 9/21/24- above all else, take care of your health

Being a student is hard.

Like, really hard.

I understand and am suffering along with you.

However…

That is no excuse for not doing the minimum to care for your health.

Eating, hydration, and exercise. Oh, and sleep.

I know that shrinkflation has hit the grocery stores hard and it is sometimes hard to find time to eat, but do your best.

Eat a salad a day, or at least a vegetable. Less fast food and more at-home eating is also key.

I get that fast and easy will win sometimes. Just not every time.

Hydration. Drink that water. Hydration can impact all of your systems. And I mean ALL of them. Make sure you drink water first thing in the morning and try to make it the last thing you drink at night.

Exercise. Go for a walk on the Pomodoro break. Or do desk exercises. There are a lot of really great desk exercise videos and books out there. Your bone density will thank you. And bone density will be important for all the years you plan on living.

Sleep. This is the one that is the easiest to slide on. Aim for seven hours of sleep a night at a minimum. I’m not going to say no screens before bed because I read myself to sleep every night but minimize the engagement with the screens.

After all, you only get one body. Make sure you take care of it.