Litter

If I were to throw a straw wrapper out of my car window (which I would NEVER do), it is littering. Yet people throw cigarette butts all over the place, including the ground when walking into a store. Is that not littering too? That REALLY pisses me off.

ADD

UPDATE: As it turned out, Greg did not have ADD. Imagine my surprise when I took them for their first ever eye doctor appointments only to find out he could not see the board! He had a lazy eye and was in desperate need of glasses. Once his vision was corrected, voila! Problem solved! We never knew he could not see because he never complained about it. Get your kids vision checked. Don't wait as long as we did. My bad!

Greg's been having issues in school lately. It's very odd. The kid is incredibly smart (knowing all of his presidents and which order they are among other things). But this we have been racking our brains wondering why he isn't doing well in some subjects. Actually almost all of them.

This week, his teacher said he is showing signs of having ADD. I will be the first to admit that I always thought ADD/ADHD were just another excuse not to "parent" your kids. Well, if you know Greg, you know he is actually really well behaved. He is very sweet, compassionate, loving, etc. He just gets "distracted". Once I started looking into ADD and symptoms, I could answer "yes" to almost every question.

We have an appointment on Tuesday with our family physician to see what needs to be done. We are absolutely ADAMANT that we do not want him put on any meds of any type. I just don't need my kid to be chemically altered. We are willing to change his diet, or do whatever is necessary to avoid this from happening.

Does anyone have any information on ADD and natural treatments or remedies? I'm not really looking for supplements either. More just "changes" or have you heard anything about those titanium necklaces?

Your thoughts please...

Another Lesson Learned...

My ER career started in 1996. In all my years in the ER, I never learned the lesson that I have this week.

NEVER... get sick at the same time as your spouse or "life partner".

So many times in the past couple weeks, we have gotten people who come in for a "quickie" and want to be released asap because they have an ailing spouse at home that needs them.

Folks. NOTHING is quick in the ER. When you see well over 200 people per day and they all need labs, xrays, ct scans, MRI's, IV therapy, yadda, yadda, yadda... nothing is quick. And it's not like the staff just stuck you in a bed and forgot you existed. Just because we drove a needle into your arm and pumped you full of juice, doesn't mean your lab work is done el pronto. Just because you are back from CT, doesn't mean VOILA! Go HOME! What's the point of having a CT done if you're not going to wait the time to have it read?

Stress tests? Just because you didn't pass out on the treadmill doesn't mean the test is over. All those wires they hook up to you sends readings to a computer that track the electrical impulses of your beating heart. Digesting all that info and disecting your ticker takes a few hours. So plant yourself. Put a smile on your face and plan on spending a few hours with us. We're glad you are here.

Weakness

What are your weaknesses? I'm sure you've all been asked this question during job interviews. I never know how to answer it. However in my short stint with the hospital one has reared it's ugly head. Prisoners. I have NOTHING for them. Zero. No compassion, no caring. Nothing. I go through the motions taking vital signs, drawing blood and that's it. The prisoners come in from correctional facilities for medical treatment. They come in for health problems and for other things, including the ingestion of items that shouldn't be eaten.

In my profession, we are supposed to treat all people equally and with dignity. It is virtually impossible for me to do this when every shred of my being is telling me this person is a dirtball, thug, and is incarcerated for something pretty major, including murder. Today while doing vital signs on one of these "patients", one of the guards stood up and came to the side of the bed. Seeing this huge, brick shit house of a guy stand guard totally rattled my cage. I watched carefully while taking el creepo's temperature just in case he may have the sudden urge to lunge forward and bite my hand off. These people are creepy beyond all get out.

Is my behavior irrational? It is blatantly obvious that I would have NEVER done well in law enforcement.

Cats! Or should I say Pigs!

The cat bowls are separated so that I can control how much each cat is eating. Charlie's bowl is on the stairs to the basement and Pumpkins is in front of the washer (which is upstairs, right by the stairs). At night both kitties are put into the basement (no worries, it's finished - no dungeon feel here). They have food, water and the litter box at their disposal.

I used to have the food on the upper stair, and the water one step down. That is until I kept having to empty it due to food floaties. Now the water is above the food.

Can someone please tell me HOW in tarnations the food got INTO the water bowl last night?