Life is Never Boring

I have a 'day off' today so I should probably update everyone on what's been going on.

Jake had a successful trip to Montreal for the social sciences conference. Connections were made and beer was drunk. He didn't have a lot of time to sight see, so Montreal is on our list of places to visit in the future.

We had our first visit with Turnip's behaviorist on Monday. She came to our home and took walks around the neighborhood with so she could assess the appropriate behavior modification training we need. Our homework is to work on the distraction techniques she taught us so Turnip doesn't freak out when she sees certain things (skateboards, cats and squirrels for a start). Her name is Daphne and we liked what she had to say. For $85/hour, we better.

School is actually kinda fun now. I love love love my new instructor and she doesn't make me feel incompetent when I'm taking care of a patient. I'm still at the community hospital but now I'm on a med/surg floor. I'm so happy to be here and out of the psych unit. All that sitting and talking with people was wreaking havoc on my lower half. Now I get to run around the floor giving insulin shots left and right. Yesterday I helped with a thoracentesis which looked, uh, pretty painful. I was only squeamish when the doctors had a difficult time getting the needle through the ribs. If you want more details, call me.

Last Sunday I did my community health project where I got to tell dozens of people that they either had a high risk for cardiovascular disease or have diabetes. Our group would take their BMI (body mass index), blood for the glucose and cholesterol tests, then interpret the data for them. It was usually bad news and most didn't have health insurance. The next educators they talked to after us would help set up low-cost health care appointments with transportation for them. Our service was free to them so hopefully the little bit of education we gave them will start them thinking about their health.

Tonight I have a chance to cook and use the new oven. I'm making maple roasted acorn squash, roasted onion and mushroom tomato sauce to go over brown rice pasta, and for dessert, baked balsamic pears with goat cheese and walnuts. Yum!

(But first I have to do my lousy homework....)