Night Wanderings

The Midlands were my favorite part of Ireland. What I liked best were my evening walks to Kinnity Castle. It's a hotel built next to some ancient castle ruins. It was the woods that surrounded the castle where I spent most of my time.

This is the driveway to the castle. It was dark when I took this picture, but with the long exposure time it looks like daytime, except for being slightly fuzzy.

This is the same driveway when the sun was still up.

This is me wandering around in the dark. Normally, I would never wander around in the woods in the dark, but in Ireland there are no snakes or bears. I felt safe enough. I dropped the camera which created a nice swirl pattern. Below is an old oak tree with a carpet of bluebells beneath. I look like a witch standing beneath it. If you came across fields of bluebells and no one was looking, what would you do? I laid down in them and buried my face in them. I did that every night. I still look like a witch. All I need is a pointy hat.

My Day

Things I accomplished today:

1) Lost my debit card. Again. One of these days, the bank is going to refuse to give me a new one. This time I lost it at the bank. After my transaction, I forgot to take my card back out of the machine.

2) Replaced the fabric in the screen door. Since last summer, I've had a Golden Retriever sized hole in my screen door. If I had known how easy they are to replace, I would have done something about this last summer. I wonder how long it will be before I get another Golden Retriever sized hole in the door?

3) Killed ants.

4) Vacuumed dead ants and the rest of the house while I was at it.

5) Washed Murphy. His fur was green from the pond. People look at you funny when you have a green dog.

6) Tried to print my vacation pictures. It shouldn't be this hard. I ran out of time and will need to work on it some other day when I have a block of several hours to play with it.

Bottom Problems

We have a skin cream at work for diaper rash. It is a whitish paste that is applied in the usual areas that are covered by a diaper. Diaper rash is a major problem with old folks.

Skipping ahead, one of my coworkers went into a room to check on her patient and the patient's normally rosy complexion was now a ghastly, ashen grey color. The nurse panicked. She just knew that her patient had died. The nurse ran over and shook the patient and she woke up.

It turned out that the patient's granddaughter had applied the diaper rash cream to the patient's face. I don't know why, perhaps she thought that it was moisturizer. It was harmless, except for scaring her nurse silly.

Another patient was in the ER with a broken hip. The doctor noticed that the patient had poopy pants and asked the nurses to clean her up. They said that they couldn't because the patient had a broken hip. They told the doctor that they would just send the patient upstairs and that we would take care of it. This conversation was overheard by the transporter who brought us the patient.

It may come as a surprise to those ER nurses, but the patient still had a broken hip when we received her. We have no special tricks for cleaning bottoms. We just do what they should have done, roll, wash and listen to the screams. Lazy bitches.

Same Name, A Trouble-Maker And Pepsy

We have two patients in the same room with the same last name, same diagnosis, same surgery on the same day and the same doctor. They are also close in age and resemble each other. One had surgery on her right ureter and the other had surgery on her left ureter. I'm wondering what the odds are that each patient had the correct ureter operated on. We can't tell from looking what was done inside. I figure that the odds of one of them getting the other's medications is almost a certainty. Ideally, these patients should have been on different floors, or at the very least, in different rooms.

They also have a string dangling from between their legs. On the other end is a stent in the ureter. In bold print, the doctor wrote, "Do not pull string." I laughed. Who would pull something like that? I guess, though, since the warning was so bold, that someone must have in the past.

One confused old lady tattled on the confused old lady in the next bed. She told us, "She drank beer yesterday." We laughed and she said, "She really did." It's unlikely that the patient drank beer, she was in surgery that day and zonked afterwards. Her roommate is a trouble-maker.

We have a patient whose official diagnosis is "pepsy." By a different spelling, that is a beverage. This was a new illness to me. Of course, it was just a typo. They meant to say sepsis. Come on guys, that's not even close.

An Exercise In Logic

At work, we've been told that when discharging patients, we must refer them to our smoking cessation classes. Silly me, I just assumed that they meant for us to do this if the patient actually smokes. But no, they want every patient to be referred, including nonsmokers. Their logic in making this rule is that the patient might have a family member who smokes who might get the referral passed on to them.

So, I'm thinking, we have tons of classes for just about every health problem. There are diabetes classes, heart disease classes, obesity classes and so on. Why don't we refer every patient to those classes as well. After all, the odds are good that someone in their family has a health problem addressed by one of our classes. Why restrict it to just smoking?

And, of course, it's not enough to just give the patients the referral phone numbers, we are also expected to call and sign them up for a class. If we're signing the nonsmokers up for stop smoking classes, than we might as well enroll them in the dozen or so other classes that we offer.

The administrators aren't trying nearly hard enough to create work for us. I'll have to bring my idea to their attention at once. NOT!

Wild About Wildflowers

I've always loved wildflowers. These are some of the ones I saw in Ireland.


This is gorse. I'm not sure of the spelling. It flowers year round and is covered in evil thorns.
These are primroses growing in an old oak forest.
These violets have seen better days. I like to eat violets and so do other creatures apparently.
These are bluebells. I know them as Scottish bluebells, but that doesn't seem right for Ireland, so I dropped the Scottish part.
I don't know what this is, but it was growing all over rock walls everywhere.

These are dandelions. They are much bigger and prettier than the ones growing in my lawn.

This, whatever it is, grows in lawns. It is incredible seeing a lawn covered in them. I wonder if people think of them as weeds?

The Gravity Bar

It not being possible to visit Dublin without doing the Guiness tour, we behaved like good little tourists and went. If you enjoy looking at posters explaining the brewing process, plastic hop plants and seeing shrines to the founders of Guiness that would be more appropriate for the founding fathers of America, then this is the place for you. Of course, the adventure begins and ends in the gift shop and it only cost 14 Euros. That's almost twenty dollars.

It wasn't a total waste, though. The tour ends in the gravity bar which has a spectacular view of Dublin. A pint of Guiness for each tourist does make up for a lot.


It wasn't until a few days later that I learned Guiness no longer makes beer at the plant. No where in the presentation do they mention this tidbit of information. The acres of old brewing buildings are empty.


The shamrock design in the beer was a nice touch. I drank Guiness almost every day while in Ireland and no place else did the shamrock thing. I kept hoping for it each time I ordered a pint, but was continually disappointed.

By the way, the Irish prefer Budweiser. We were horrified. That's swill that's made in Van Nuys and stinks up the surrounding neighborhood. We tried explaining to Bud drinking pub patrons the error of their ways, but it fell on deaf ears. Drinking Budweiser in Ireland, heresy!

At one pub, a Mandarin speaking waitress misunderstood what I was asking for when I requested a Black and Tan. I got Guiness with black currant syrup in it. It turned out to be serendipity. It was good. Weird, but good. After that, I was ordering it on purpose. I brought home a bottle of the syrup so that I can make it at home.

After the tour, we went to a dinner in a pub and of course, ordered more Guiness. It was so cold and rainy that I was wearing a heavy lined rain coat over a winter coat, plus a sweater, gloves and knit scarf. The young female patrons were wearing short skirts, low cut, strappy tops, high heeled sandals and no wraps of any kind. They would go outside to smoke in the cold rain and somehow not collapse from hypothermia. I really wanted to get a picture of me bundled up next to the nearly naked wet girls just to show the contrast, but it didn't happen. I guess the guys like the way the cold girls looked or otherwise the girls wouldn't bother with such nonsense. The things girls have to put up with to attract guys.

Doctor Roulette

During hip replacement surgery, the surgeon collapsed. He was scooped off the floor and admitted for observation. Another surgeon took over, but the patient suffered a massive blood loss. After surgery, the patient came to our floor. We were infusing blood as fast as the blood was pouring out of her. Well, that's not quite accurate. The blood was flowing out faster. Her blood pressure was dropping and she was barely arousable. Anyone could see that she was going into shock and was in serious trouble.

So, why did we have such a hard time getting her transferred to ICU? The first doctor who was called just said okay and hung up. The second doctor wasn't interested either. The third doctor came and looked at her and transferred her. Hey, doctors, I'm talking to you, if a nurse calls and says that a patient is bleeding heavily and going into shock, do something. This is the kind of thing that we get sued over.

It's been a week now and the patient is still here. It's just been one complication after another. The doctor is still off work as well. You never know what is going to happen when you check into the hospital or just show up for work.

A Meme

I am drained.

I want more free time.

I wish that dogs lived as long as their owners.

I hate going to work when the weather is perfect, which is most of the time.

I miss being able to walk without pain.

I fear abandonment.

I hear dog claws walking across the floor.

I wonder how I ended up alone in life.

I regret many choices I have made in life, but there is no going back.

I am not as happy as I should be.

I dance more than I should. I should stop the ballet, because of my hips, but I just can't/won't stop.

I sing not at all. Be grateful.

I cry too often these days. Having a sick dog-child is an enormous emotional drain.

I am not as calm inside as I appear on the outside.

I make with my hands really nothing, except for food.

I write because I need to.

I confuse people's identities. Learning people's faces does not come easily to me.

I need time alone to recharge my batteries.

I should try harder to be more outgoing.

I start most days with complete exhaustion.

I finish what I start.

A Fifth Sense

I don't know what happened. As I walked by each yard on the Murphy walk today, I could smell flowers everywhere. Normally, I can only smell things that are about two inches from my nose. This felt like a different world. Scents add a spark of reality to existence that I sometimes feel is missing.

Then I came to work and was confronted with the colostomy bag. A leak caused an overpowering, nauseating stench to practically suck the life force out of me. Suddenly, I understood why students sometimes drop out of nursing school because they can't tolerate the smells.

Spraying strawberries and cream air freshener did nothing to help. That just made the room smell like sweet candied strawberry poop. I'm kind of hoping that my sinuses get clogged up again.

Garbled English

A coworker mentioned that she bought some snail medication. I couldn't imagine why she wanted to medicate snails. It turned out that she meant to say, snail bait.

Another coworker complained that she needed to get a blood extraction. I'm hoping that she meant blood draw. A blood extraction sounds like she is going to have all of her blood removed.

A chart, dictated by a doctor, said that the patient "wears glasses for reason." As opposed to what, no reason? Even if worn for aesthetic reasons, it is still a reason.

Another patient's chart stated that the patient has a history of mariguana use. I'm not familiar with that type of iguana and I'm wondering exactly how the patient used reptiles?

Wicklow

This is the road to Wicklow, a mountain area near Dublin. We took a bus tour so that we wouldn't have to worry about driving on the wrong side of the road. We faced that challenge eventually, but we wanted to delay the inevitable as long as possible.

Some of the trees were just starting to leaf out after a long winter.

This section below was so cold it was almost unreal. Not much grew there.
The bus made a few stops along the way. This was my favorite stop. In order to see what I wanted to see, I had to run, stop, take a picture and then run some more. Repeat about twenty times. That's the downside of a tour. I prefer to decide how long I will look at something.
There are no shortages of graveyards in Ireland. This was just one of many. Most of the stones were no longer readable.
This was a tiny church nearby. I wish that I had had time to read the signs and find out more about the area and how old it was, but I had to keep running. If I had been smart, I would have taken pictures of the signs and read them later. Next time.

This a shockingly green swath of lawn that was kept mowed by sheep.

Trip To Trinity

Contrary to what I believed, it is not necessary to study to get into trinity College. Anyone can get in for the price of admission, if you're a tourist. What is truly amazing, is that Irish students get a free college education. Imagine being able to go to med school for free. If we had free higher education here, my life would have been different.

Trinity College was built during the time of Elizabeth the first, almost 500 years ago. My college was mostly built during the 1960's, I think, and then built again in the 1990's after it was destroyed in the Northridge earthquake. It's hard for me to imagine a college being built 500 years ago and still, not only standing today, but still being run as a college.


During our visit, we came upon a wedding. Students can marry at Trinity if no more than four years has passed since their graduation. How's that for pressure if you have your heart set on a Trinity wedding?


It's easy to tell who was a wedding guest and who was just wandering by. I, of course, was in the latter category. My favorite outfit was worn by the lady in dark pink. I wish I could have gotten a photo from the front, which was far more interesting, but she kept spinning around. I wish I could have yelled, "Hey you, in the pink, stand still and face the camera."

The bride and groom seem oddly detached from each other. I hope that they didn't rush into marriage so that they could get married at their alma mater.

Dublin After Sundown

Bangers And Mash

This is bangers and mash. Perhaps I have a dirty mind, but the presentation seems a bit odd. I wonder if gentlemen get the same arrangement on the plate or if this is just for the ladies?

Another Crisis

Last night was bad. Murphy was having trouble putting weight on one of his paws when I left for work. He had broken a nail a few days earlier and bacteria may have entered through the bloody nail. By the time I came home, he couldn't walk at all and was lethargic, shivering and feverish. I injected him with an antibiotic and went to sleep next to him on the floor. I knew that he couldn't get up the stairs and didn't want him to spend what might be his last night alone.

When I woke up later, he was on the other side of the room from me. He doesn't like to sleep next to me and had crawled away. I decided that if he was going to be on the other side of the room, I might as well go upstairs and go to bed. When I woke up, Murphy was asleep next to the bed, soaking wet. That means he somehow got through the doggy-door, went in the pond and got up the stairs.

Murph is doing much better now and is able to walk again, although he's still a little wobbly. I'm still injecting him with antibiotics around the clock. His appetite his good and he enjoyed his grilled salmon and roast chicken dinner. I, on the other hand, am finding it difficult to eat. Stress causes me to lose weight.

I haven't told anyone at work about Murphy's condition because I don't want to cry at work, but my coworkers are commenting on the changes in me. I'm blaming it on vacation fatigue, but I look and feel exhausted and can't think straight. People are even starting to wave their hands in front of my face because I look so dazed.

It looks like the antibiotics bought Murph some more time. How much, I have no idea. In the meantime, I'm taking it a day at a time, which is hard for me. I'm more of a months at a time type person.

Different Sugar And Towel Customs

I ordered tea and this was set down on the table. It's a rather attractive set up with the pitcher of milk and bowls of white and rock candy-like brown sugar. The problem is that the bowls are too large to be for single use. I just know that the same bowls of sugar are recycled and given to everyone.

How many people have sneezed, coughed or put dirty spoons in the sugar? I don't mean to sound snippy, but restaurants here would be shut down if they did that.

Yeah, I used the sugar, but I wasn't happy about it. You don't expect me to drink unsweetened tea do you?




In the same restaurant, this was the mna room. (I learned very quickly that in Gaelic, mna is women and fir is men. ) That towel is for use by everyone. That would violate some rules here as well. I let my hands air dry.

Birr Castle

On a day that was one degree colder than the refridgerator at our B & B , we visited Birr Castle. A better name would have been Burrrrr Castle. People still live in the castle, so it was off-limits, but we got to see the grounds. This is the same castle where the henges, described in a previous post, are located. I wish that I could go back and visit the garden, but on a warmer, drier day. It was absolutely gorgeous.

I hope that everyone can see the photos. I still having Blogger problems.

A Dish Best Served Cold

Yesterday was my first day back at work. Walking inside the building, the smell of rubbing alcohol hit me like a ton of bricks. Oh my god, I thought, this is a hospital. How do people work in these places?

My mind was so foggy, it felt like being in a dream. It just didn't feel like I was really there. I had only been gone two and a half weeks, but I wasn't sure I could remember how to be a nurse. I couldn't consciously remember any of my passwords, but when the time came, my fingers remembered and pushed the proper buttons. It's a good thing that not only planes can function on autopilot.

While I was gone, I missed Nurse's Week. That means I missed out on a Dove bar. It's nice to know that nurses are so appreciated that once a year they are given an ice cream bar. I guess if I really want one, I can shell out a buck and buy one. Okay, that wasn't really fair, we also get a present. If they didn't run out, like in past years, I'll be able to collect it. I heard that it's some kind of bag to carry our supplies in. No one was carrying theirs, so I guess they didn't like it.

An earth shattering event did occur in my absence. Someone in management has been relieved of most of her duties. I don't know if this was her idea or if she was busted down, but she is out of my life now. Excuse me while I laugh and do cartwheels. Sorry, but she made my life a living hell when I was new. She treats me fine now, but it's hard to forget what she put me through in the past. It's true what they say, revenge is a dish that is best served cold. The new manager is a fellow earthling. Things are looking up.

Assorted Henges

For reasons I don't fully understand, this circle of faces carved in stone was on the grounds of a castle. I named it Facehenge.





Also nearby, were these uh... phallic symbols in a similar grouping. I had another name for this monument that also ended with a henge. Use your imagination.