This is the first book in the newly minted Post-it Sunday Medical non-fiction edition or Post-it Sunday Medical fiction edition.

Year of the Nurse by Cassandra Alexander was published July 19, 2021. I pre-purchased the book May 25, 2021 on Kindle. I did not read this book until the past week.

By any measure that is a fast turnaround for a book. On an evolving and delicate subject like covid.

There are reasons for that. I had just lived through the damned pandemic and am living through the damned thing and I didn’t want to delve too much into it.

But I wanted to be aware of the others who were being our chroniclers. I was doing my chronicling on Dispatches from the Evening Shift and reading the news. All the news, good and bad.

Remember that in spring 2021 the vaccination efforts were in full swing. I have my own notes from working my normal shift from 1430-2300, being on call 2300-0700, and having to get up, hoping that there would be no case called, at 0600 to get ready to drive to the vaccination site in the next county. I worked there from 0800-1300 and returned to the hospital for my normal 1430-2300 shift. Rinse, repeat for at least a week. And then again as my hospital schedule allowed for it.

But reading her book now I realize that she is my people. She is foul mouthed, quick to volunteer, ready to take on anything and sick of the measly mouthed response to PPE in 2020. And also disgusted by the lack of testing.

She acknowledges that the U.S. response was poor. That we were told to reuse masks and PPE. That family members were not allowed at bedside. But she and I both watched as other countries were better outfitted with PPE.

This book is part tweet recall, part diary, and part April 2021 thoughts. It pulls no punches about how bad it was in the early days of the pandemic.

Included, at no extra charge, is the idiot brother in Texas who denigrates the author even as she is sharing information to keep their parents well. Her, not me.

At the end of the book, she writes about when the Great Resignation came for hospital nurses and she volunteered to work extra shifts because if not her, then who. She also touches upon the insanity of the anti-vaxxers and their holier than thou bad attitude. As if their shit doesn’t stink too.

I know that this book ends in April 2021 and the author has zero idea how bad the anti-vaxxers get with their truth twisting bullshit. But I remember.

It is important to realize and remember that we were flying blind. No one, not the NIH, not the CDC, no one had all the answers.

Fabulous book. 10/10 would recommend. If only people who need to read it would.

Now that the weather has thoughts of spring, conference centers are creaking to life.

It is conference season.

Read this and heed some of the advice.

The first point is that conferences are exhausting. This is a marathon, not only for the planners who have been working since last year’s conference to present an exciting program. It is also a marathon for participants. There may be little to no time between events and the rooms that the sessions are in might be a conference center mile away. If you don’t know how far that is… it’s a lot. Most conference centers span multiple city blocks.

At the end of a conference day, which run from 0700-1800 you have to make a choice. Do you go back to the hotel room and think about what you’ve learned? Kind of a brain dump to prepare for the next day’s learning and go to sleep early in an unfamiliar bed. Or do you go out with old friends and new friends that you just met and catch up. There is a bar out there somewhere. Probably very close because a conference loves the booze. And what happens at conference, stays at conference.

Caffeine will be your friend. And whatever sleep you can snatch between partying with your friends and the conference itself, embrace it.

The second point is that conferences are exciting. You get to see people you haven’t seen in, well, a year. Ideas and gossip will be exchanged in equal measure. There is always a new to you session to explore and, in the case of the AORN expo, there will be product demos galore. As well as schools and universities vying for your attention and your tuition dollar.

The third point is that conferences are a marathon. This goes hand in hand with the point that conferences are exhausting. There are multiple educations sessions every hour. Be aware that the 2 sessions that you are most excited about will happen at the same time. Bring a coin to flip. And hope that the conference organizers put the content of the other online so you can live vicariously through PowerPoint slides.

The fourth point is that conferences are not fashion shows. You can always spot the participants who are first timers. They are wearing wildly inappropriate clothing for the sessions and the weather. And you feel for them tottering back to the hotel in the kitten heels that made way more sense at 0700 and less at 1800. The more experienced conference participant knows that, like the OR, comfortable shoes are a must.

Point number 5- Conferences are hard on your feet. There is standing, and walking, and standing, and walking. Your next session of interest might be at the other end of the convention center (see point 1). After standing and working on concrete floors that are covered with convention center carpet with no padding, your feet will likely be swollen and hurt far before the end of the day (see point 4). Hopefully you brought along your significant other for a foot rub at the end of the conference day. Or, at the very least, packed some pain medicine.

The last point is that is not your job to hoard the knowledge that you gained from the conference. Use the information to spark conversations with your coworkers, bring product ideas to your boss. Don’t forget to plan with your hospital nurse scientist any research that you want to do. This also goes for Process Improvement (PI) projects.

Who knows… maybe you can present a podium presentation or explain your poster at the next conference.

Because all the energy you have gained from being with like minded nurses who UNDERSTAND you when you speak has to go somewhere.

When I left the state at 1000 am I was going to write about a different F. In fact I worked on it during the flight.

And then my plane landed and I was able to catch up on news of interest, including the latest stock market numbers.

Free fall.

Yesterday the Dow Jones lost 1600 points

Today the Dow Jones lost a jaw dropping TWO THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY ONE POINTS. And the S & P 500 fell TEN PERCENT!

Collectively, between the two days, the Dow lost roughly 3,800 points.

Ahem. Sorry for yelling.

Swear words deleted here. Many, many swear words.

My husband who has stock share in a bank because of a bonus structure says that his shares went from $44/share to $33/share today. And that was the last that he looked. A 25% reduction in value. In two days.

I will not be looking at my 403B from California or North Carolina. I am not on a secured network and I am not that stupid.

However, I will be looking upon our return next week.

Perhaps with a stiff drink. And my cat nearby. And probably a teddy bear.

Mark Cuban, the entrepreneur and, apparently, television personality, has come out today and advised the purchasing of consumables before the stores have to restock and the prices go up. Way up.

Mark, honey, some of us have been doing that since the election. Because I, for one, expected something like this was going to happen. Hell, he told us.

I had been feeling foolish that the supplies had overrun our dining room but now I look very far-seeing.

Because we bought shampoo, and razors, and dish soap, and dishwasher soap, and hand soap, and toilet paper. And canned goods, and dry goods like lentils and rice and chickpeas and pasta. It felt very 2020 as I was buying these things and stocking them in the dining room.

I had hoped that I could slowly use the supplies and they would be an addition to our usual grocery shopping, not the lifeline I fear they will become.

Kind of puts a pall on the nursing conference I am at. Definitely explains the funk I’ve been in since November.

Fuck this shit!

What is currently happening in the US government and has been happening since January 20, 2025 is appalling. And horrific. And ghastly. And atrocious. And nightmarish. And repugnant.

And…

Well, you get the point. No need to beat you over the head with it.

Entire departments are being gutted. Federal workers who know how to do their jobs are being let go.

Planes are falling from the sky.

Law firms are being shaken down for money.

Legal residents are being caught up in the dragnet under the excuse “searching for illegals” And sent to a brutal El Salvador prison. After they are branded a Venezuelan gang member. Whether they are one or not.

Legal residents are being detained and deported after convictions are “discovered” upon their return to the US after being abroad. Sometimes they are being detained without even leaving the country.

Americans are in hiding because the administration doesn’t believe that people can be transgender. And seek to punish those who are transgender. The administration has cast this very small minority as the bogeyman in their latest horror story.

Foreign aid has been all but stopped. And what is still “allowed” is very piecemeal. HIV medication treatment is still okay, but not education about how to prevent HIV.

In the messages that I have seen from outside of the US, the reputation of this country is in freefall.

There is an outbreak of measles in the US. 483 confirmed cases in 19/50 states.

Research institutions’ grants are being yanked and the institutions themselves are being tasked with NOT researching very real and very needed things. There is a list from the NIH of words that will no longer be allowed for research. Words that we know trigger the government, this government, like women and men and transgender and covid and gender. There are many more; ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY SEVEN banned words at last count.

The imbecile who is running the HHA has announced yet another research into the link between vaccines and autism. Despite it being examined and investigated and investigated and investigated, ad nauseum.

Who is going to tell him that there isn’t one? Scratch that. Who is going to get through the layers of denial and admitted heroin use and convince him that there isn’t one?

All this destruction and “findings” that are not really findings but instead are letting a ketamined up bear in the china shop and letting them break things. Because they can. Because no one in Congress is stopping them.

And for what?

To assuage the very hurt feelings of a grown-ass man?

Because we as a country told him no in 2020.

Sure.

It feels more and more every day like the country has been taken over by a venture capitalist. As if this country is being dismantled and sold for parts.

And the vultures will take apart the rest.

No, what has happened since January 20 is not a joke.

I’m not laughing, are you?

I am not out of post-it notes.

I am not out of gown card notes.

I am not even out of phone notes. I snuck that one in on you.

But I find myself distracted.

Oh, so distracted.

With the never ending barrage of medical bs coming from all sides. And the skyrocketing number of measles cases. The number that is hidden from us. On 3/26/25 the number of cases was 378. On 3/28 the number was 483.

That is quite the jump in two days.

And so I am going to change Sundays up a bit. For awhile anyway.

For the next little while Post-it Sundays is going to be medical fiction book reviews and medical non-fiction book reviews.

This is one of my favorite genres.

And I have so many books and ideas.

And I want to distract myself.

Gee, Kate, have you planned this at all? Maybe read a medical genre book from the towering TBR pile?

Of course not. This is completely off the cuff.

I can’t wait to get started.

This is the last Cookie Thursday is a Thing for March. So far this month I’ve done peach cookies, feta and spinach sconelets, mini Dreamies (glorified grilled cheese).

This week I opened my freezer for inspiration and saw two boxes of puff pastry.

No idea when these were purchased. Delightful.

I decided to thaw them out and see if they were salvageable. And they were. For filling the first one I used pesto and shredded mozzarella cheese and rolled each sheet. After refrigerating for 20 minutes to firm up, I cut into 1/2 inch slices and baked.

The puff pastry puffed perfectly.

Also, they were yummy.

The second one also thawed well. I decided to make a mock octopus with jam as the design. You spread out the first sheet of puff pastry and top with jam and layer on the second piece, kind og making a jam sandwich. Then you cut out the shape for the head and eyes. For the tentacles, you cut 8 4-inch strips. These will become the tentacles after they are twisted.

Then I thought how the hell am I going to transport and serve it.

I chopped the head off and turned it into more strips.

Again this raspberry bar baked up wonderfully.

I am thinking about egg substitution materials for April.

Or Easter candy, which we can all agree is the superior holiday candy of the year.