Favorite and Least Favorite "Firsts"

My least favorite "firsts"

~The first time I broke a bone. I was 5 years old, and my best friends mom didn't believe I was hurt.

~The first time I had surgery on my mouth. The only good thing about it was all the ice cream and smoothing I got to eat afterwards.

~The first time I kissed a boy. It was stupid...and I was too young.

~The first time I failed a test.

~The first time I a saw a patient die.

~The first time I was betrayed by a friend.

~The first time I betrayed a friend.

~The first time I lost a $20 bill.

~The first time I lost a game of foosball to Nathan.

~The first time I hurt Nathan.

My FAVORITE "firsts"

~The first time I bought a CD. I was so stoked for the Free Willy soundtrack
~The first time I went on a "real" date with Nathan. Mmmm Sweenys!
~The first time I realized I wanted to marry Nathan. Good thing he wanted to marry me too
~The first time I worked at Kanakuk. Working in the kitchen was a BLAST.
~The first time I tried ice cream. I don't really remember this, but I'm sure it was amazing.
~The first time I got my ears pierced. I was soooo excited!
~The first time I heard Nathan tell me that he loves me. Immediately after this "first," he proposed!
~The first time I got a bridal magazine. I waited to do this until I got engaged.
~The first time I learned a complete song on the guitar.
~The first time I got a pair of Dr. Martin shoes. Those were so cool back in the day.
~The first time I made a coffee drink when working at Solid Grounds.

~The first time I tried on "THE" dress. The wedding dress, that is. It was perfect!
~The first time I wrote a song on the piano.
~The first time I went on a date with my dad. This was in 5th grade. We went to dinner and then saw Father of the Bride part Two.
~The first time I went snowboarding with Nathan. He was such a quick learner!
~The first time I married my best friend. And the only time of course! But this is probably my all-time favorite "first!"

A busy summer...

It's true...I stink at blogging. But truth be told, I've been very busy lately. And another truth be told, things will still be busy until about mid June. My hubbie and I are leaving on Thursday morning to head down to Durango, Colorado...one of our favorite places. (It is where we met after all!) I will be playing the roll of kamp nurse while we are down there. From there we will go to Phoenix, Arizona, where Stephen, (the oldest of my younger brothers) will be getting hitched to the love of his life. After that, Nathan will be heading back to Denver for just one night before he road trips out to Illinois for a class, as I head back to kamp for another 9 days or so of kamp nursing. And no, it doesn't end there. We will both be home back in Littleton around June 7th, at which point we will have 5 days at home before we road trip out to Moab, Utah for another wedding. After the wedding we will hang around to do some climbing/bouldering/canyoneering in Moab. And theeeen, we will be home for a little bit. But probably not too long. we'll have to see.

And while we are home, we will be focusing on our house... the priorities right now include:
1) landscaping/gardening (LOTS to do here...weed pulling, bush pulling, planting, etc.)
2) getting a new driveway...ours is in need of a makeover
3) finish furnishing our front room (long overdue...if you have some cute reading chairs you'd like to give us let me know!)
4) ripping out our deck (or you can call it a slab of wood...that might be more appropriate) and replacing it with a trex deck.

Well there you go... a blog to show you how busy we will be, and therefore excusing me for not blogging as much. =)

We'll put pics up of our house updates as they come!

pow pow and deception

My hubbie and I had one the best days today on the mountain.  Given the conditions we experienced on Monday, we were not expecting this!  Monday= "a little dust on the crust".  The previous week had been true spring skiing, complete with slush and boarding without jackets.  Then Monday came along with some fresh snow.  However, with the dramatic temperature change, all the slush froze into ice clumps, and then the powder disguised the ice clumps.  Looking down from the lifts was very deceiving; it looked like a good day of skiing ahead, and yet we were fooled.  Darn you, deceiving snow.

Tuesday, however, we experienced better conditions.  The mountain had received more snow, and the ice clumps were either groomed out or buried, or something...they weren't there. Yesterday was a much more enjoyable day.  Nathan did a sweet trick involving one tree and one little stump of a tree.  It looked kind of like a mad 360, however, he deceived me as well.  He did not see the little stump of a tree, hit it, and went flying in the air, landing on his bum.  

And then today came.  We woke up with maybe 1-2 inches of fresh powder here in Fraser.  We thought it would be a decent day again with a few fresh inches.  We were deceived again.  When we got to Mary Jane, it only took us one run down from Panoramic to realize that the mountain had received much more than just 1-2 inches.  Throughout the day we were hitting up trails in the trees where we were in knee deep pow pow!!  It was AMAZING.  We repeatedly withstood 30-40 mph winds, ice, and white-out conditions at the top of Panoramic to get the precious pow pow waiting for us in the trees.  To say it was sweet is an understatement.  We then wanted to try some runs off of the Challenger lift, which we found closed.  (Challenger lift is NEVER closed!  What the heck??)  So we found a different way to get to those runs, and since most people hadn't ventured that way seeing that the lift was closed, we experienced the freshest of the fresh pow pow.  Fresh tracks every which way we went.  

Can't wait to see what the conditions are like tomorrow, since it snowed all afternoon and is still snowing some now...  Bring it on, pow pow! 

boys

i just spent this past friday night (and part of saturday) with 16 boys... and enjoyed myself.  I was the only person in the group with two X chromosomes.  Most of my life I have been more comfortable being around multiple guys than multiple girls.  If you think about it, I had three guy housemates growing up (my lovely three "little" brothers), and it wasn't until college that I lived with a girl.  (We're not counting my mom here...).  I've always been outnumbered.  I think this weekend was the most outnumbered I've been though! 

 

I loved growing up with boys.  Typically they are much more easy going, and are usually very entertaining (whether they mean to be or not).  Boys are usually more honest too.  Girls beat around the bush...they try to drop hints...they try to be sneaky.  I'm at fault for each of these myself.  Sometimes I wish I was more like a boy...but only up to a certain extent. =)

 

On the other hand, I love being a girl.  I like being treated like a lady (which my husband does a great job of).  But I also like being challenged with things that girls may not be expected to do well. (I suck at lifting weights, but at least I can snowboard and play foosball well!). 

 

There's a lot to say about boys and girls.  And I'm not going to say it all here...I just thought I'd mention how outnumbered I was this weekend, and this is where I ended up. All that being said, I now live with a boy again...and it is super fun.  He's the best roomie I've ever had!  And maybe next time we go hang out with 16 of his friends I'll have to bring up another double X chromosome just to back me up if I need it.

LAUGH

by now you know i'm obsessed with kids.  thus...another kid video.  what would it be like if we were all this cheery and easily entertained?!?

make sure you have a good laugh today.  it's good for you.

this is cool

i want to be a part of one of these "flash mob" things one day.

Can you imagine?

Guillian Barre. If you watch House you've probably heard this term thrown around at least a couple of times. Well tonight I have a patient who is suffering from Guillian Barre Syndrom (GBS). The patient's own immune system attacks their peripheral nerves (the nerves outside of the brain and spinal cord). The cause is unknown, but appears to be triggered by a viral or bacterial infection in most patients. Long story short, the process is characterized by motor weakness that may progress to paralysis in an ascending nature (feet to face). GBS is a unique disorder. It attacks for a few weeks as the symptoms increase in severity, it plateau's, and then the patient starts to recover and regain motor function. During the progressive phase deterioration can be rapid. Up to 10% patients experience respiratory failure and must be intubated (as my patient is). The plateau phase varies in length. Although the paralysis is not getting worse, the pain can be excruciating from the inflamed nerves, and stiff muscles/joints. The recovery phase starts spontaneously when the body's immune system decides to stop producing the antibodies that destroys myelin. The symptoms gradually disappear and nerve healing begins. Pain is still an issue as the neve cells start to regenerate. The degree of recovery depends on the severity of the nerve damage in the first phase.

Can you imagine? I can't. What would it be like to be a normal teenager (or any age range for that matter), and have complete motor function one day, and then the next you start to loose control of your body, starting from the bottom. My patient (17 years old) came into the hospital saying "my arms and legs stopped working." Just think about that for a minute. You can walk, run, exercise... and then all the sudden you're tripping, loosing balance. And then, your legs don't work at all. You are in a wheelchair or a bed as the GBS moves up your body, looking for the next ability it can take away from you.

My patient is in the plateau phase; she has some movement still in her neck and can shrug her shoulders, but that's pretty much it. Instead of the normal call light (since she can't use her fingers) she turns her head to the left where a big red button is hooked up to a radio. When she hits it, Kool105 comes on, and that lets me know that she needs assistence. That assistence may be repositioning her completely, putting a blanket on, taking a blanket off, turning the fan on, suctioning her mouth, nose or trach, etc. etc. etc. (and I mean ETC!). Another common request is that I merely straighten out her fingers, or bend her elbow a little bit more. Seriously, can you imagine being able to feel your fingers being uncomfortable, but not being able to straighten them out on your own? Although she can barely move, she can feel everything, to a painful extreme. She is constantly complaining of foot pain. They are EXTRA sensitive, but I try my best to make her feet (and her whole body) comfortable. Sometimes this means I'm in there every 5 minutes, or for 30-45 minutes at a time, constantly making tiny adjustments.

I wish I had a magic potion that could put this poor suffering girl into the recovery phase. What a treat it will be for her when she can start to adjust her own arms again, or scratch where she itches, or pull a warm blanket on. I hope I'm around on the day(s) she starts making improvements. And I hope she has complete recovery. Of course she will need therpies to help her regain motor function, but I'll be rooting her on the whole way.