Today I drove over to the park to do my run (I would have biked...but still need to get those pedals installed). All was fine and good...but around 2K I found myself praying for rain just to break the humidity. Its not hot...relatively...but I am really struggling with the moisture.
Any suggestions out there? It gets to the point that the air is so thick that I can't even breathe properly. I don't carry my water bottle with me...its too annoying...but I don't think that's the problem.
Part of the issue is that I need a running buddy. Someone to distract me from the fact that I am indeed running around in circles. I am on the Tri team at the Y...but I am usually scheduled to work on the days that they run. When I do get to go with them...I find that I accomplish much more than I do on my own.
Tomorrow is swim day after work. I am torn between distance or drills. Guess I'll see what I am feeling when I get there. I will write up both work-outs just in case. =)
Today I am taking my trusty bike for its new pedals. And Sunday will be riding with the Bee Team to learn how to use them.
Hope all is well...Suggestions on this humidity thing welcome!
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
"Home is Where Your Rump Rests"
Quoth Pumba the warthog in Lion King.
Last weekend I went home to Pennsylvania. It had been nearly 9 months since I was last there. This visit, however, was not one of lazy lounging and going from place to place. My mom is moving to Arizona...which by the way is awesome and I can't wait to visit her...and we spent part of the weekend packing up boxes and transporting stuff out of her house.
In the ten years that I lived in Columbus I moved a grand total of 8 times. One of those moves was out of my Bon Air home into the aforementioned home in Portage in the summer after my Freshman year. I remember being pretty cranky about the entire experience...believing, at the time, that it mattered where you lived.
But it doesn't. Home is not made up of walls, knick knacks, dishes and familiar neighborhoods. Home is that quiet place where you return to when the real world is just a little bit too loud. But for me...no one building has offered me the same amount of solace and peace as any of my family and friends. When I am feeling "home sick" it isn't the structural stuff I miss. Its the people, laughter, and random activities.
I remember a discussion in my Palliative Care class last spring about attaching emotion to objects. There is a little exercise that spurs the discussion...but it boils down to really examining what is important. For those who are curious...I have the exercise...really very powerful...shoot me a post and I can email it to you. Basically you have a list of 20 things from various categories that you "treasure" as the exercise continues you are forced to cross things off that list. In the end you have nothing (symbolic of someone battling a chronic illness and eventually dying). I remember two of the "objects" that were on my list. The first was my wedding band (my husband and I were still living in different states at the time) and the second was my Teddy Bear (Victor, who I have had for 25 years). It took me a very long time to cross these things off...until I realized that I would still have my marriage if I lost my ring and I would still have the happy memories of my childhood without my bear.
I could tell that packing up her specially customized little house was hard for Mom. I remember packing to leave PA to move to OH (kicking and screaming) and then packing to leave OH to move to NC (remembering the previous kicking and screaming). It's never easy to pick up and go. But thanks to technology we can always call "home." We can always hop on a plane and be surrounded by "home" if we need it. Or..."home" can come to us.
Its not about your house or your job or your car. Just like its not the ring that makes the marriage. Its the people, experience and memories that make home, and life for that matter, what it is.
As I prepare to move...again...into my brand new home in a few months, I think back to all of the places that I lived. Rarely can I really picture the actual building, but you better believe that I can see the faces of the people, smell the smells and hear the sounds that are associated with them. And though there have been a few bumps in the road here and there...I wouldn't change any of those residences because now they all hold a little piece of my ultimate "home."
Good luck in your move Mom! Save a room for us! As for those pieces of my "home" that are scattered all over the country and world...I miss you all! And for those new pieces that I have just met or are still waiting....I welcome you!
Last weekend I went home to Pennsylvania. It had been nearly 9 months since I was last there. This visit, however, was not one of lazy lounging and going from place to place. My mom is moving to Arizona...which by the way is awesome and I can't wait to visit her...and we spent part of the weekend packing up boxes and transporting stuff out of her house.
In the ten years that I lived in Columbus I moved a grand total of 8 times. One of those moves was out of my Bon Air home into the aforementioned home in Portage in the summer after my Freshman year. I remember being pretty cranky about the entire experience...believing, at the time, that it mattered where you lived.
But it doesn't. Home is not made up of walls, knick knacks, dishes and familiar neighborhoods. Home is that quiet place where you return to when the real world is just a little bit too loud. But for me...no one building has offered me the same amount of solace and peace as any of my family and friends. When I am feeling "home sick" it isn't the structural stuff I miss. Its the people, laughter, and random activities.
I remember a discussion in my Palliative Care class last spring about attaching emotion to objects. There is a little exercise that spurs the discussion...but it boils down to really examining what is important. For those who are curious...I have the exercise...really very powerful...shoot me a post and I can email it to you. Basically you have a list of 20 things from various categories that you "treasure" as the exercise continues you are forced to cross things off that list. In the end you have nothing (symbolic of someone battling a chronic illness and eventually dying). I remember two of the "objects" that were on my list. The first was my wedding band (my husband and I were still living in different states at the time) and the second was my Teddy Bear (Victor, who I have had for 25 years). It took me a very long time to cross these things off...until I realized that I would still have my marriage if I lost my ring and I would still have the happy memories of my childhood without my bear.
I could tell that packing up her specially customized little house was hard for Mom. I remember packing to leave PA to move to OH (kicking and screaming) and then packing to leave OH to move to NC (remembering the previous kicking and screaming). It's never easy to pick up and go. But thanks to technology we can always call "home." We can always hop on a plane and be surrounded by "home" if we need it. Or..."home" can come to us.
Its not about your house or your job or your car. Just like its not the ring that makes the marriage. Its the people, experience and memories that make home, and life for that matter, what it is.
As I prepare to move...again...into my brand new home in a few months, I think back to all of the places that I lived. Rarely can I really picture the actual building, but you better believe that I can see the faces of the people, smell the smells and hear the sounds that are associated with them. And though there have been a few bumps in the road here and there...I wouldn't change any of those residences because now they all hold a little piece of my ultimate "home."
Good luck in your move Mom! Save a room for us! As for those pieces of my "home" that are scattered all over the country and world...I miss you all! And for those new pieces that I have just met or are still waiting....I welcome you!
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Confessions of a Tri Trainer
Ugh...I have not done well this past week. But we all have bad training weeks once in a while right??
Here's to a better week coming!
Here's to a better week coming!
Taking the Time
Yesterday a family member thanked me for explaining what I was doing and why. I paused for a moment (as admittedly I was a little tangled up in some IV tubing that I was trying to prime) and cocked my head to the side. I asked her what she meant. She said that often people come in and out of the room and randomly do things without so much as introducing themselves, let alone taking the time to say what they are doing.
This struck me as interesting...not because I was really surprised (okay I was)...but because she was the 4th person to actually approach me and thank me for that exact same thing since I started working on my unit in February.
To defend my fellow staff members I told her that since I was still new to the field that I often explain things that I am doing as a second check to myself (this is half true...as IV tubing...though rather cumbersome when you are short...really doesn't take much thought). But I did stop to think...do people really just walk into rooms, hand someone a pill or draw blood without explaining what the medication or the procedure is? I can't imagine that they don't at least give a brief synopsis.
Maybe I am naive and just new. But I think that someone deserves to know. We tell patients from the start that they have the right to refuse treatment...but how can they if they don't understand what the treatment is? We as health care professionals have a huge amount of power that we often don't recognize. People come to the hospital and count on us to "just do what's best" without considering that we are human and can make mistakes.
This isn't just a phenomenon in health care. I fall victim to it when my car breaks down or my computer does "interesting things" (and more recently trying to navigate the home loan universe). I am not a mechanic nor am I an IT person. When things break I trust my toys to the professionals, but when they call and say the "thingy that turns the doo-dad" is broken...I appreciate an explanation that does not leave me feeling like the dumbest person that has ever walked the earth (and oh...by the way...that thingy is $600!).
It is no secret that I went into nursing with the intent to be a patient educator. I love to teach and nursing was my way of doing it (people under the age of 18 really are too daunting for me). I truly enjoy being able to alleviate fears and (hopefully) improve health behaviors by taking the time to explain the importance of what I am doing and why they should do it at home. Knowledge is power. I want my patients to feel like they can ask me anything...and I hope that I can give them an answer. If I can't...I'll find it.
Yes, more days than not I am still charting when everyone else has long gone home, but I really don't mind if it means that I spent that extra 45 minutes helping someone understand what they need to do to keep him/her out of the hospital (or worse) next time.
Are there moments when I would really rather get caught up on paperwork instead of sitting down and explaining atrial fib for the 400th time...you bet. Are there times when I have something that is really important that I have to do instead of teaching...yep. Does that matter to them...not a bit.
I think that when people do a job for a long time...they forget that each person that crosses our path is new to the situation. I have seen nearly 100 chest tubes at this point and they are essentially unexciting to me but for every new face that rolls into our unit after surgery...likely this is the first time they have ever had one. It is so important to remember that what is common to some is scary (and painful) to others. It is not okay to go about doing your job and getting through your routine if the person you are serving is left completely in the dark and too afraid to ask for help.
Am I wrong? Is this why I am the last to leave? I would like to think that in the end...I was able to get through to someone...and that would make it all worthwhile. And for the record...I don't believe for a second that I am the only person on our team that takes the time...I see my fellow nurses do it every day.
Cheers!
This struck me as interesting...not because I was really surprised (okay I was)...but because she was the 4th person to actually approach me and thank me for that exact same thing since I started working on my unit in February.
To defend my fellow staff members I told her that since I was still new to the field that I often explain things that I am doing as a second check to myself (this is half true...as IV tubing...though rather cumbersome when you are short...really doesn't take much thought). But I did stop to think...do people really just walk into rooms, hand someone a pill or draw blood without explaining what the medication or the procedure is? I can't imagine that they don't at least give a brief synopsis.
Maybe I am naive and just new. But I think that someone deserves to know. We tell patients from the start that they have the right to refuse treatment...but how can they if they don't understand what the treatment is? We as health care professionals have a huge amount of power that we often don't recognize. People come to the hospital and count on us to "just do what's best" without considering that we are human and can make mistakes.
This isn't just a phenomenon in health care. I fall victim to it when my car breaks down or my computer does "interesting things" (and more recently trying to navigate the home loan universe). I am not a mechanic nor am I an IT person. When things break I trust my toys to the professionals, but when they call and say the "thingy that turns the doo-dad" is broken...I appreciate an explanation that does not leave me feeling like the dumbest person that has ever walked the earth (and oh...by the way...that thingy is $600!).
It is no secret that I went into nursing with the intent to be a patient educator. I love to teach and nursing was my way of doing it (people under the age of 18 really are too daunting for me). I truly enjoy being able to alleviate fears and (hopefully) improve health behaviors by taking the time to explain the importance of what I am doing and why they should do it at home. Knowledge is power. I want my patients to feel like they can ask me anything...and I hope that I can give them an answer. If I can't...I'll find it.
Yes, more days than not I am still charting when everyone else has long gone home, but I really don't mind if it means that I spent that extra 45 minutes helping someone understand what they need to do to keep him/her out of the hospital (or worse) next time.
Are there moments when I would really rather get caught up on paperwork instead of sitting down and explaining atrial fib for the 400th time...you bet. Are there times when I have something that is really important that I have to do instead of teaching...yep. Does that matter to them...not a bit.
I think that when people do a job for a long time...they forget that each person that crosses our path is new to the situation. I have seen nearly 100 chest tubes at this point and they are essentially unexciting to me but for every new face that rolls into our unit after surgery...likely this is the first time they have ever had one. It is so important to remember that what is common to some is scary (and painful) to others. It is not okay to go about doing your job and getting through your routine if the person you are serving is left completely in the dark and too afraid to ask for help.
Am I wrong? Is this why I am the last to leave? I would like to think that in the end...I was able to get through to someone...and that would make it all worthwhile. And for the record...I don't believe for a second that I am the only person on our team that takes the time...I see my fellow nurses do it every day.
Cheers!
Friday, May 9, 2008
Southern Living
So I have been toying with this for a little while and think I may have enough information to make a good list. It's the "10 ways that you know you aren't in Ohio/PA anymore" list.
They are in no particular order...though some are more chuckle provoking than others. Some of them are just little differences that make the south unique.
I will say that overall, people are much more apt to slow down and help someone, or take a few extra minutes to be kind. But...then again...if you look hard enough you'll find those people everywhere.
1. The girl sitting next to me in nursing orientation has a puppy that she named Mason Dixon.
2. Gottawannaneedagetahava Bojangles. Say no more...except maybe job security.
3. One of my patients asked me where I was from...and proceeded to call me "the Yankee" for the rest of the day. He did however say I "wasn't so bad for a northerner" when I popped my head in to say good-night.
4. Sweet Tea. Beware to those who have never tried it!
5. Leaf blowers replace snow blowers in December, January and February (and this year March and April!).
6. Nascar (and all its theme parks).
7. It is 70 degrees at 700am in April and May. And you have the windows open on New Year's Eve.
8. People refer to each other as "Miss So-and-So." (Miss Jess) Which is nice sometimes....but since I am not used to it and don't do it...I often wonder if I am being disrespectful.
9. Grits are a staple on the breakfast trays at the hospital. And people eat them.
10. Religion is much more freely discussed here (but usually its Christian religions). And people do not even hesitate to ask you which church you attend. At least once/day a patient tells me to trust in God and to ask for guidance while I work. I have no qualms with this, but I can see it making some of my friends up north very uncomfortable.
Overall, people everywhere are just doing what they need to do to get through their day. Yes, there is a distinct difference between northern and southern culture, but if you really boil it down to basics, we are all after the same goals in life.
There are aspects of the north that I truly miss (not the snow). But there are parts of the south that are a nice change (flowers all the time!).
This list was in no way meant to be hurtful...just my simple observations. Feel free to add on...but keep it in good spirit!
They are in no particular order...though some are more chuckle provoking than others. Some of them are just little differences that make the south unique.
I will say that overall, people are much more apt to slow down and help someone, or take a few extra minutes to be kind. But...then again...if you look hard enough you'll find those people everywhere.
1. The girl sitting next to me in nursing orientation has a puppy that she named Mason Dixon.
2. Gottawannaneedagetahava Bojangles. Say no more...except maybe job security.
3. One of my patients asked me where I was from...and proceeded to call me "the Yankee" for the rest of the day. He did however say I "wasn't so bad for a northerner" when I popped my head in to say good-night.
4. Sweet Tea. Beware to those who have never tried it!
5. Leaf blowers replace snow blowers in December, January and February (and this year March and April!).
6. Nascar (and all its theme parks).
7. It is 70 degrees at 700am in April and May. And you have the windows open on New Year's Eve.
8. People refer to each other as "Miss So-and-So." (Miss Jess) Which is nice sometimes....but since I am not used to it and don't do it...I often wonder if I am being disrespectful.
9. Grits are a staple on the breakfast trays at the hospital. And people eat them.
10. Religion is much more freely discussed here (but usually its Christian religions). And people do not even hesitate to ask you which church you attend. At least once/day a patient tells me to trust in God and to ask for guidance while I work. I have no qualms with this, but I can see it making some of my friends up north very uncomfortable.
Overall, people everywhere are just doing what they need to do to get through their day. Yes, there is a distinct difference between northern and southern culture, but if you really boil it down to basics, we are all after the same goals in life.
There are aspects of the north that I truly miss (not the snow). But there are parts of the south that are a nice change (flowers all the time!).
This list was in no way meant to be hurtful...just my simple observations. Feel free to add on...but keep it in good spirit!
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Tri Training
So I decided that I would try to ride with the big kids today. I gather up all my new spiffy bike stuff and head out. The leader, who is super cool btw, stands up and says "today will be a challenge" (I like challenges) "we will be climbing 'Mt. Waxhaw'" (I never noticed any really big hills around) "It will be 28 miles" (hmmm...my first time out we only did 12...but I felt great then...).
There are some very important distinctions between mountain and road bikes...the one I dislike the most is the "cage." I haven't gotten clip pedals yet so my feet are wedged into a little harness thingy to...in theory...maximize the amount of energy on the upswing of each stroke. That's fine...unless you have to get out of the cage quickly...which I needed to do...and your foot gets stuck...which mine did. Down I went. I'll say this, its been a long time since I had to pick gravel out of my leg. =) And yes, peroxide still stings.
Mt. Waxhaw was quite a challenge, but despite a few learning curves and being the last person to the top...I did it! Fortunately the ride back was a little more forgiving...or I would have been calling a cab to come find me.
All in all it was a great experience and I am happy that I made the effort to ride with the big kids. This was my second ride after all and I should expect that I won't really be up with the pack until I get more of a rhythm. Fortunately...I don't think my issue is cardiovascular...I think it is technique and not quite being used to the bike.
I will hang with the beginners this Sunday when I ride with the Bee-Team. Not because I am afraid of the distance, but more because I think that I will learn more theory with that group. The rides on Thursday don't have a beginners group...so I will just have to keep at it. They all have a no drop policy which I appreciate! Especially because I still don't know my way around very well.
I survived a 28 mile ride....which means I am 3 miles over what I need. Next week I am going to try to run a few miles after to get used to the transition. I am also going to look into some of those clippy pedals!
On a side note...I have taken about 8 minutes off my mile swim...would still like to get it down a few more minutes. My running is coming along...I am planning on signing up for a 5K soon to see how it goes.
As our coach at the Y says "Gotta....Tri!" And boy am I!
Just Keep Swimmin....
Jess
There are some very important distinctions between mountain and road bikes...the one I dislike the most is the "cage." I haven't gotten clip pedals yet so my feet are wedged into a little harness thingy to...in theory...maximize the amount of energy on the upswing of each stroke. That's fine...unless you have to get out of the cage quickly...which I needed to do...and your foot gets stuck...which mine did. Down I went. I'll say this, its been a long time since I had to pick gravel out of my leg. =) And yes, peroxide still stings.
Mt. Waxhaw was quite a challenge, but despite a few learning curves and being the last person to the top...I did it! Fortunately the ride back was a little more forgiving...or I would have been calling a cab to come find me.
All in all it was a great experience and I am happy that I made the effort to ride with the big kids. This was my second ride after all and I should expect that I won't really be up with the pack until I get more of a rhythm. Fortunately...I don't think my issue is cardiovascular...I think it is technique and not quite being used to the bike.
I will hang with the beginners this Sunday when I ride with the Bee-Team. Not because I am afraid of the distance, but more because I think that I will learn more theory with that group. The rides on Thursday don't have a beginners group...so I will just have to keep at it. They all have a no drop policy which I appreciate! Especially because I still don't know my way around very well.
I survived a 28 mile ride....which means I am 3 miles over what I need. Next week I am going to try to run a few miles after to get used to the transition. I am also going to look into some of those clippy pedals!
On a side note...I have taken about 8 minutes off my mile swim...would still like to get it down a few more minutes. My running is coming along...I am planning on signing up for a 5K soon to see how it goes.
As our coach at the Y says "Gotta....Tri!" And boy am I!
Just Keep Swimmin....
Jess
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