Ok...so ... Happy Birthday.

It's time for some "Royal" news.

Today is Prince Philip's 90th birthday.

And, no, we don't celebrate it in Canada. 

We just recovered from celebrating Queen Victoria's birthday....well, we at least all took the day off.  Other than that....we don't really care about Queen Victoria's birthday.

Prince Philip, in case you are wondering, is the Queen of England's husband.   He is also her third cousin.

Ten years after they were married, he was declared Queen's Consort. I guess he pissed her off "royally" by having flings on the side, rumor has it,  so she got even with him by not declaring him equal to her own title, ie. "King".

Although born in Greece, his family was kicked out of the country, and his family took up residence in England - (I guess because there was no more room in Denmark* for one more royal) - where he joined the Navy.  He was 18 and Liz was 13 when they met.  She fell hopelessly in love.

But then, what do 13-year-olds know?

When Phil married Liz, and she became queen, he had to give up his day job and change his own last name - he was not even allowed to have his children take his last name.  His whole life has been spent several steps behind the queen.

I suppose the ongoing resentment from this might be part of his problem because:

He has never been known for his tact.

For instance, during the 1981 Recession, he stated:  "Everybody was saying we must have more leisure.  Now they are complaining they are unemployed".

Sounds a little like "Let them eat cake"** to me.

And, on an excursion to Canada in 1976, in response to someone asking him if he was enjoying the trip, Prince Philip said: ‘We don’t come here for our health. We can think of other ways of enjoying ourselves.’

Well, Happy Birthday to you too and congratulations on another successful trip around the sun.

At least with his advanced age,  there is now perhaps an excuse for his missteps.


********************
*He is of Danish descent, and although born in Greece, doesn't speak the language.
**technically a misquote, as it is disputed Marie Antoinette actually said, or meant these actual words.

The "B" word. Just - Don't say it.

They can get rabid.

Although, they seem to have quieted down a little lately since the last 2 games. But- I predict that will change in the next couple days...when The Game comes back to Vancouver.

They do have their faithful followers.

The City of Kamloops' hospital - the one my Folks go to - needs a new ICU and the community needs to raise $3 million of the $11 million required to build.

So, the hospital chooses the obvious name to put to their campaign....Mark Recchi (too old to be playing - at age 43!!).

Recchi is a big supporter of everything local. There is even a road named after him. He puts his name to good causes and supports local charities. 

He even is part owner of the local Junior Hockey League Team - the Kamloops Blazers.

Unfortunately, the hospital didn't see this coming when they posted the Billboard announcing the campaign:

Vancouver vs Boston in the finals - and it is obvious who the fans of the city supports.


First this appeared:

the mysterious Canucks Jersey appears

And when that was taken down, this went up:

Mark Recchi cheering on the Canucks

And finally, when #2 attempt was removed - this went up:

Canuck's Logo and Finger added

Persistent critters, these fans.

They just can't be put down!



Oh....and remember the change in Boston Pizza's name that I mentioned a few posts back?

Tim Horton's has changed their Boston Creme Donut's name:

It's now a "Vancouver Creme" donut.

Which one is the "Canadian" Team?

Let's look at the lineups:

Boston Bruins

3  Americans*
6 Europeans
17 Canadians, including 2 from B.C.

Vancouver Canucks

6 Americans
8 Europeans
17 Canadians, only one from B.C.


Percentage wise, the Boston team is more Canadian.   So come on guys! Please stop your fighting and chirping and poking at each other. In the end, you may one day be on the same team as that other player!

*one being the Goalie, who, btw - is very good, if I must say so myself, having been a goalie once in field hockey!!!  And I wish everyone would quit hating on Luongo....a goalie is only as good as his defensemen and forwards! Come on!

Concussions in Sports

This hit tarnished this series for me.

You can see the "fencing response" or that "en garde" position that is typical for head injuries. Scientists are using the vast library of YouTube videos to research this phenomenon.

Here is a compilation video:



What it shows is an injury to the mid brain - and if precautions are not taken - will cause permanent brain damage and even perhaps death if the athlete is allowed to go back out and continue to play.

I understand hitting or "checking"   has always been "part of hockey" but....come on guys...stop chirping and hitting at each other and start playing!

I don't like boxing or Mixed Martial Arts mixed with hockey - which by the way, a former Hockey player competed in a recent competition and knocked the other guy down within 21 seconds.

Funny thing. While I was watching the head injury YouTube video...guess what ad appeared?

An advertisement for migraines.....

"Frequent flyers" - at it again....

It seems to me, that if there is a fountain installed for the public's enjoyment at the cost of $11 million, the last thing people should be doing is using it as their public restroom.

Who is doing all this showering, defecating, urinating and washing blood off in the fountain?

They are saying that the people responsible are "frequent flyers". 

That terminology rings a bell.  Hmmm.

Maybe they are the same "frequent flyers" from this blog or this blog???

"The Hangover" - Canucks Version

Well, you know I have been blogging about Hockey.

Not really Hockey per se....but all things around hockey.

Here is a story you have to read.  Four buddies and a trip to San Jose that rivals "The Hangover".


And - to the nurses and paramedics at Santa Clara Medical Clinic:

What with all the idiots that drift into Emergency....all you needed was one more really stupid and drunk kid arrive on your doorstep...never mind all the ensuing shennanigans.

Sincere apologies from Canada.....and hopefully he does pay his hospital bill.....

AIDS: Discovered 30 years ago today

I can remember working on the Medical Unit as a brand new nurse years ago.

I recall taking care of several elderly people that had similar symptoms.....very curious grouping of symptoms.   Inexplicably they were wasting away to nothing, becoming weaker and weaker.

We were forever cleaning up their extreme diarrhea, giving medications and administering tests for an off and on fever, swollen lymph glands,  mouth ulcers and skin lesions.    Unsightly bruises spread over their bodies....  and a hacking cough wracked their skinny frames.

Then came the confusion....which made the cleanup impossible.

We looked after these patients in in an era where the medical world had no idea what we were seeing and lax about the proper disposal of needles and no such thing as universal precautions never mind standard precautions.

Once identified, retrospectively we could see that perhaps those patients we had looked after had contracted the disease from the tainted blood supply - blood transfusions given before there was screening for it.

It had spread rapidly throughout the world, striking a histrionic fear in the hearts of everyone, causing those affected to become the new pariahs of society.

Thankfully, we have come a long way since then.

To date, AIDS has killed 25 million persons.

Presently, 33 million are infected - with 2.6 new infections each year.

In our world it is now considered a chronic illness rather than a death sentence. 

Sadly, in Africa, it is not.

Perhaps it is time to concentrate on giving them at least a chance to live - in a world where women don't often have the means to protect themselves, where children are born with it due to the expense and lack of medication for their mothers and education about preventing AIDS is lagging.

Hockey and Bono - Quite the story...

It seems that there are some people who would give up a chance to attend the Stanley cup finals to attend a U2 Concert.

You have to see this.

A Hockey player from the Edmonton Oilers team was driving in Vancouver and spotted Bono hitch-hiking along the road. 

Bono had gone out for a walk and got caught in the rain, and didn't want to walk all the way back to where he was staying. 

The Hockey player recognized him and turned his truck around and picked him up - letting Bono ride in the back with his dog.

I am like Betsy - I don't have very good face-recognition capability - took the test she suggested and failed miserably - so probably would have passed him right by anyway.....never mind that I don't pick up hitch-hikers.

Anymore that is.

:)

Nursing Convocation: It's the Season or How it was Back Then

In my Inbox, I receive Nursing Medscape news.

There has been a series published on the Nursing cap, the significance and the capping ceremony and all the hoopla around it that Nursing seems to have.

I think this is what my RN cap looked like from. 
what I can remember. I never wore it professionally, and
shortly thereafter gave it to my niece to play with

Just the other day they posted a series of old photos of nurses in their caps that readers had sent in...nostalgic old photos from the 70s and early 80s, and their feelings around the cap and their graduation.

My stroll down memory lane wasn't one that I would care to repeat.

The stories I read on others' blogs about their meaningful ceremony and funny but sentimental speeches with family proudly observing - almost made me wistful for a similar experience, because both my graduations - LPN and RN - were nothing like that.

As an LPN - our ceremony was brief and there was not much that was  "ceremonious" about it. 

It was held outside on the College grounds and my (and other's) parents huddled in a small group and watched (no chairs!) as we were handed our little diploma  - in a "ceremony" that was 15 minutes tops.

Nothing special done, no pinning, no cap or stripe applied.  We already arrived with our gold and green stripes - the College's colors - on our caps.

I think some of us went for coffee after, and I am sure my parents wondered why they drove the 1 hour each way for this.

I had made my own uniform - and it was (at the time) quite a modern one with a longer mid thigh tunic, fitted at the waist/flaring at the hips,  and those wide bottom-leg pants.

When I graduated from the RN program four years later, my folks declined coming to the ceremony, the last one, I am sure,  still fresh in their minds.

"We've been to two of your graduations already" they stated, "That's enough".   In their defence,  there were five of us siblings....so I suppose, after a while, the graduations did add up.

My folks weren't all that encouraging about advanced education anyway so I don't think that they realized the importance of it.  At least, to me.  I had made it entirely on my own - even though sometimes it meant I had to miss a meal or two to pay my tuition.

The RN ceremony was a little more lavish than the LPN one - and I use that word loosely.

We were the 2nd or 3rd Nursing class ever to graduate at the University - and between finishing our nursing program in December -  a whole five months before the general student body -  in addition to inexperience as to what nursing graduation ceremonies entailed -  nothing *official* was planned by the University itself.

Our ceremony took place in the University,  with their permission.

We decided to have our own ceremony separate from the University's because most of our class would be dispersed - working all over the country by the time the Spring convocation came around - and no one wanted to make a special trip back for it.

We could also then make the ceremony "our own".

Because my parents didn't want to attend another graduation, I asked my best girlfriend and her mom to be my special guests of honor.

Once again, I made my own uniform - sort of a coat dress to the knee - and slim-fitting, very much like a business dress suit.  Impractical for working, I know - but hey, I looked great - and professional!

We chose 9 roses* for each student  and we would have our caps already on - black strip already applied.

We never had formal photos taken, but the only male in our class (he didn't make it to the end) offered to take informal photos of us all.

They didn't really turn out very well so I don't really have any photos to show you.

The ceremony was short and sweet. I don't remember who the valedictorian was or what was said - if there even was something said - although I am sure there was.   I don't remember much of any it....except it all took place in the University cafeteria because that was the only place they would give us for the "unofficial" nursing ceremony. 

Not a grand venue at all.  Heaven forbid they let us use the fancy lecture forum with stage and all that they reserved strictly for the *actual* graduation!

We were called up one by one and handed our pins that we paid for.    We weren't formally "pinned" or capped, and we weren't handed our diplomas - because technically - we didn't graduate until spring,  according to the university.  

In their eyes, this ceremony didn't really *exist* - and they did not acknowledge it except only to "allow" it....

They might have handed us a blank piece of paper along with the pin as a diploma substitute. (Funny coincidence - the same thing happened at our high school graduation - except they didn't even attempt to substitute with a fake one)

We had a dance afterwards but I only was there for 1/2 hour when my girlfriend's mom started having chest pains and dizzy spells.

I spent the next 4 hours or so in Emergency with her and my best girlfriend. She was all apologetic about it...especially when it turned out to be a false alarm....but I reassured her that being there in ED with her was where I wanted to be and where I should be. 

After all, isn't this what I went to Nursing school for?

I thought it appropriate to spend my nursing graduation in the hospital....rather than at a Graduation Celebration dance.

Ironic, don't you think?

But, retrospectively,  I didn't regret it at all,  even though my BFF's mom eventually lived to be over 90 and only passed away 2 years ago. 

Today would have been her birthday.

Sure, it would have been nice to have all the pomp and ceremony that goes with graduation, feeling that it was the "highlight" of my life - accentuating the accomplishment. 

But - after the graduation - because the celebration was so minimal, there was none of the "let down" or "disappointment" of everything (meaning Nursing school) being over with.

The one thing not having a Glorious Ceremony did,  for me it accentuated the fact that the real nursing starts after the celebrations.  

Even though there is, and rightfully so,  some Significance to the ceremony itself - really, what counts is what you do after the graduation.


:)


It's all just history and one nurse's experience, for what it's worth.






*When asked "why nine roses only? Is there a significance to the number 9?" - we replied -  the money we raised for our ceremony - that's all we had enough for.  By the end of the year, we had had enough of the bake sales, car washes and the like - having to pay the entire expense of the ceremony and celebrations.....never mind study too!  After all, we were a practical bunch!

Warm Fuzzy for the Day - Motherly love

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