Parkinson's and a Chainsaw plus One Dead Dog.

My mother phones me up in the middle of my night shift sleep to tell me that my brother's dog died up at my sister's farm.

I had asked "What happened?"   in response to her cryptic "Poor Boz" that  she posted to her Facebook Wall. (Yes, my mother at age 81 has a Facebook account!)

Not a good thing to post without explanation especially when the grand kids who actually own the dog are up late at night - see it  - and  post the exact same thing I did.  

She replied with an even more cryptic "Phone your sister and ask her".....

Apparently he was hit by a car. 

Sad story. 

You really don't want to know the details - but here it goes anyway. 

My idiot brother had bought this Leonberger dog with the intention to breed him because he had this wild idea that he could make some quick money (first mistake) and paid an exorbitant price for the dog that he could ill afford (second mistake).

Of course, it was like flushing the money down the loo because no one had time to spend with him (third mistake), and he became an unruly big untrained bear of a dog - albeit harmless. 

It got so no one could handle him, and after a disastrous spill from the back of my brother's truck while driving down the highway (yes, I know. Stupid, stupid.  Like I said...and fourth mistake.) and a broken hip later that he allowed to heal on it's own because a vet was too expensive (fifth mistake), Boz was put on my Sister's farm up in northern Alberta to live out his life.  

As it so happens, his life he lived out was cut short when he was hit by what was probably the only vehicle to drive by during a huge electrical storm.

Thus the cryptic "Poor Boz" on my mother's FB page.

But that isn't the end of it.  In my foggy haze of half asleep/half awake state that we as nurses experience when we get a phone call mid-sleep in mid-day..... I offhandedly asked mom what dad was up to.

"Oh your Uncle is here (Dad's brother, husband of the nearly-drowned aunt) and he and your dad are out cutting wood for the winter."

"You mean.....trees? Those big trees out front??"

 "Your dad couldn't get the chainsaw started. They are using a small saw..."

"Wait....what??? Well thank goodness for that, mom.   He's got Parkinson's!"

"Don't you worry," mom says casually - honestly believing what she is saying.  "He knows what he's doing."

"MOM. I know that he knows what he's doing! But - a chainsaw??? He's got - Parkinson's!! Think about it!  Don't you think that's slightly dangerous??"

I have to admit, the nurse in me had to be amused just a teensy bit at the vision that just flashed through my mind.  I couldn't help it. 

Admit it.  You did too!

Parkinson's and a chainsaw. 

That's a casualty waiting to happen.

Holy Mackerel.  It gives me nightmares thinking about the possibilities.

The bad thing is....it isn't like I could even stop it.

Sometimes we as adult children, have to just stop and take a breath, and let parents be parents.... there is nothing to do but pray they don't harm themselves along the way.

What a reversal.

Wait a minute.  I think I posted about that before......

*sigh*

IF KIDS MADE MOVIES:

If movies were made by your children, this what it would look like: MOVIE

I wish I could just embed it.

It sure gave me a good laugh, though -  especially since I was kept up half the night by the local hooligans, cursing and generally being a nuisance on our street corner.

To think that those teens that threw a huge rock through our window just around midnight were once cute innocent kids at one time, just like the ones in the "movie".

*sigh*

Why did they ever grow up?

High School Moms - TLC

My husband's good friend Richard "Ricardo" Esparza was the principal of a high school in Colorado that supported young moms going back to school to graduate.

The show "High School Moms" is on tonight, August 19 - on the TLC channel.

Try to catch it if you can.



I met Richard in Yakima when I was down there visiting my father-in-law in the hospital a few years back... and at that time he was pioneering a successful program in the school he was teaching at in Washington state - where he made it manditory that parents participate in the schooling of their own children - and thus brought the rate of graduation/level of education in that school from "abysmal" to the highest in the nation.

This is what got him in the Colorado school he is featured in on TLC.

Since then, he has moved on to Oregon state, principal of another highschool, continuing with his excellence in teaching.

The system needs more Richard Esparzas.....

Be Careful What You post! Breastfeeding

I have previously posted a caution on what you should not post on the Internet.

I use Google and various other methods/sources online to vet my renters for my two apartments - successfully I might add.

My lawyer nephew continually admonishes his younger cousins to watch what they post on Facebook because anything you post may as well be published on the front page of a newspaper.

Still, people don't seem to "get it".

There are sickos in this world who will use innocuous video/photos for their own ends.

Take the poor mom who, after successfully breastfeeding, decided that - when approached by a legitimate company: Parent TV - she would participate in the production of a "how to" video for other mothers who were having difficulty breastfeeding.

No matter what the intentions, the video was used in a porn video with her full name attached.

She only discovered this after googling her name. ( I recommend this: do it often!)

She is now attempting, through expensive legal channels to have all video removed and to have the production company held liable for it's alternative use in porn.

Is there nothing that is sacred?



[as you can see, a lot of these videos allow embedding and also downloading]

Head Injuries in Sports

I have posted before on violence in sports - specifically head injuries - and how much I hate the deliberateness of some of these injuries in a game.

Usually I am talking about Hockey. Or Football.

Today it's soccer.




I was as upset as anyone else in Canada with the refereeing during the USA/CAN game the other day.

HOWEVER.

After all was over and done with, I went to youtube and found this:



Melissa Tencredi (Canada) stomping on the head of the USA player Carli Lloyd during that same game. It appears to be deliberate, but who knows? Maybe it was accidental.

If it was deliberate, it certainly tarnishes their Bronze medal win for me.

Mittens and Flip Flops.

Didn't you just love those 2010 Olympic Mittens?



Well, I have myself a really nice pair of Summer Olympic Flip flops!!





So Cool!

Accidental Nursing: It could have been worse I guess.

You may have read my previous posts on "Accidental Nursing" where I have ended up using my nursing skills as a "Good Samaritan".

Here is another "Accidental Nursing" story from this past month.

I was busy working in my office and my husband slips a note under my door.



We had just lost our wonderful BC Ambulance renter to a house purchase, and now a temporary immigrant farm worker (Male, American caucasian with a Master's degree in Organic Farming in case you were jumping to conclusions) making big bucks in Canada was renting our Carriage house.

I put my work on hold and ran upstairs to check it out.

The dog greeted me at the door. "Hey there, pups!" I rub his ears.

Our renter's girlfriend swung the door wide open. "I can't believe it - I fainted!!!!"

Me: "Did you hit your head?"
GF: "No...."
Me: "OK then, where's the patient??"

She pointed to our renter, sitting with legs spread-eagled, slumped over a chair seat and the cupboards - pale as my morning latte. He's holding his thumb.

At this point I am thinking "OMG, he has sliced his finger off!!!"

The offending knife is lying on the counter with a host of veggies.

"Let me see it." I take charge. I need to - they are both near hysterical.

He takes the wad of toilet paper off to reveal this:



Well, OK. This isn't his thumb. He's a big guy.

I drew on my own thumb to illustrate - and re-enact it for my husband and this blog.

My husband went into hysterics when I retold the story. He has had 3 finger injuries, the first where he burned off all his skin with hot 500 degree wax, the second where he had a crush injury with starburst fracture of all fingers and the last where he eventually lost his fingernails.

A tiny superficial cut like our renters was small potatoes in my husband's books....and mine for that matter.

Of course I reacted in the way any nurse would do.

"Of COURSE you don't need to go to ED and get stitches," I laughed. "Steri-strips won't even hold that flap closed - it's only a tiny cut!"

But, like a good nurse, I got out my supply of steri-strips and a knuckle bandage and taped him up, giving instructions to see an MD if it looked infected down the road.

I was trusting his information that he was able to clean it well. Seeing how it was an injury with a knife and not one of his dirty farm implements, I told him he would be OK if he had had his tetanus immunization in the last 10 years.

Within 10 minutes....I was back to work....leaving the patient still slumped on the floor in his apartment, GF helicoptering around him.

Can you imagine this guy showing up at the local Emergency Department? (I'll bet you can!)

They should thank me.

Oh.

And our renter now?

When we had them over the other night for dinner (wound beautifully healed I must say!) and he offered to make a salad, I declined with sincere thanks.

I didn't want him going anywhere near a knife that was going to cut veggies I was going to eat!