Archive for April, 2009
Posted by realityrounds on April 30, 2009
I often wonder if my kids are just plain weird. Much weirder than other people’s kids. Case in point: My daughters were in the bathtub playing, when they yelled for me and my husband to witness the “Sea Hair”.
We walked with fear to the bathroom.
“Look Mommy. It’s our “Sea Hair” Eldest holds up a clear plastic cup full of water with a chunk of human hair floating in it.
“Watch the Sea Hair swim Mommy.” Eldest proceeds to stir water in cup with finger, as the “Sea Hair” swims in a whirlpool in the cup.
Mommy: “Where did you get the “Sea Hair?”
Youngest: “I pulled it from my head.”
Mommy: “Oh”
Kids: “Do you want to see the “Sea Hair” swim some more?”
Mommy: “Oh honies…well…no…this is really creepy……and gross…”
Daddy: “The “Sea Hair” is from your part of the family.”
Yes, I grew up poor and the youngest of eight children. However, to the best of my recollection, I never, ever, yanked out a body part and used it as a toy.
“Sea Hair”. I guess my kids are just worried about the recession.
RR
Posted in moms | Tagged: health, moms, parents | 2 Comments »
Posted by realityrounds on April 29, 2009
Ohh, I hate it when advocacy groups manipulate public fear for their own agenda. They always lose credibility in my eyes when this happens. Case in point: Swine Flu (oops, I mean H1N1 virus, silly me) and home births.
Don’t start bashing me yet mommies. I am not against home births. I believe with all my heart that birth is normal. There is no reason a healthy woman with no risk factors should not be able to deliver at home with a competent provider. I always feel a tad bit jealous when I see pictures of other mom’s home birth experiences. They always look so rapturous and amazing.
But, using the Swine Flu ( I mean H1N1 virus, darn’it) to promote the agenda of home births makes me a little crazy. As quoted from the link:
Colette Bernhard, Vice President of Illinois Families for Midwifery, explained:
Hospitals filled to capacity with flu patients are unsafe and inaccessible places for healthy women to deliver their babies….legal and reimbursement barriers at the state and federal level prevent far too many Certified Professional Midwives, who already have the necessary training and equipment, to utilize their services to the fullest. Given the very real possibility of a flu pandemic, the need to fully incorporate CPMs into our health care system could not be more urgent.
Colette please. I respect your passion for home births, but do not tie it in with the Swine Flu (H1N1 virus, H1N1 virus, H1 N1 virus, repeat ten times and maybe I’ll remember). Seriously, if we are talking pandemics of hospitals filled to capacity with dying flu patients, all bets are off. The more likely scenario is that these pregnant mom’s would be filling up the hospital beds sick with the flu themselves. Remember people, pregnant women are one of the most vulnerable members of the population to become very sick and die from the flu (cdc). They would more likely catch the flu from living their everyday lives, riding the subway, picking up older siblings from school, grocery shopping etc, then from catching it in the hospital during labor. Let’s get real.
Go ahead and fight the good fight for home births based on women’s rights, safety, family etc. But please don’t add to the unneeded hysteria of this overblown epidemic.
RR
Posted in health, infant health, moms, nursing, women's health | Tagged: childbirth, health, home births, midwives, moms, pregnancy, swine flu, women's health, women's rights | 3 Comments »
Posted by realityrounds on April 29, 2009
May is Mom-a-Thon month here at Reality Rounds. I will post a muth’a of a mommy story every day for the whole month of May, and I need your help. I’m calling all readers, bloggers, mothers, grandmothers, daughters, sons, basically anyone with a pulse, to contribute. Send me any mom related items, and I will post them on Reality Rounds.
Need ideas? Here’s a few:
- Birthing story, your own or one that touched you.
- Bringing home baby.
- Breastfeeding.
- Raising a kid
- Patient experiences about a mom that impressed you.
- Photos or art works of mothering that you would like to share (hello Pieta!)
- Pictures your kids drew for you
- Celebrity Moms (hello Angelina and Octomom)
- Mom quotes that inspire you
- Adoption stories
- Tough momma’s
- Religious mother symbols that made a difference (hello Eve!).
Be creative. It does not necessarily have to be a positive story, just one that touched you. Funny is always good though! Feel free to send me stories already published on your site that I can link to (free traffic). Help me out, so this momma does not have to do all the work herself.
Send submissions to: rrcomadmin at gmail dot com
You can remain 100% anonymous, or get credit for your work. The choice is yours. Common sense disclaimer: Any submissions that make my creepy-radar go off will be eliminated. Resistance is futile. You know what I mean.
Happy writing!
RR
Posted in health, moms, nursing, women's health | Tagged: health, mom-a-thon, moms, mother's day, nursing, parenting | 8 Comments »
Posted by realityrounds on April 28, 2009
I can never take for granted the health of my two young girls. Having worked in Pediatrics, OB and NICU for so long, all I see are the worst, most heart breaking cases of infant and childhood illness. Like all parents I want to do what is right for my children’s health, and vaccinations are part of that plan. Of course I dreaded going to the Pediatrician’s office and watching my babies cry while being stuck by a needle. I would cry with them. I would also watch and worry for side effects. In the back of my mind I would worry about autism. The media stories suggesting links between vaccinations and autism are very influential, especially to a post partum brain. But I have to be on the side of science, not skeptics for this one.
I am putting my suit of armor on to talk about one of the most controversial topics in health: autism and vaccinations. Let me get it out right now that I am 100% pro-vaccination. Vaccines save lives. (dont’cha kinda wish we had a pig-vac right now?). Why am I talking about this now? Because ground breaking research has just been published linking a genetic cause for autism. This news needs to be celebrated. Maybe the anti-vaccine furor will die down, and attention can be paid to this real science. I have read a lot of the research and vaccinations have never been correlated with autism. Never. The Jenny McCarthy’s of the world who pin autism on the American Academy of Pediatrics and pharmaceutical companies, are spouting dangerous rhetoric. I will be interested in her response to this new research finding.
RR
Posted in health, infant health | Tagged: autism, controversy, health, jenny mccarthy, vaccination, vaccinations | 18 Comments »
Posted by realityrounds on April 27, 2009
My eldest was tested for a “gifted program” in our local public school. No idea if she will get in or not, and honestly do not care. “Gifted” can be a blessing and a curse.
I have no such worries for my youngest. We really hope she will be good in sports. A few years ago we took both girls to see “The Chipmunk’s” movie (it was a horror flick for those who have not seen it). My youngest sat quietly through the whole movie. As the credits rolled, my youngest whispered sweetly in my ear….”Mom, are they squirrels?”
We really hope she’s good at sports.
RR
Posted in My Kids are Perfect, Yours are not., health | Tagged: health, moms, nursing, parenting | 7 Comments »
Posted by realityrounds on April 27, 2009
Swine Flu is the number one topic in the news and in web searches. I have nothing to add, except to buy stock in Purell.
The CDC has all the information you need.
Stay Healthy!
RR
Posted in health | Comments Off
Posted by realityrounds on April 26, 2009
The nursing blogosphere is on fire with contempt for a new Showtime Original drama called Nurse Jackie. Now, I am not one to criticize a show, movie, book etc., until I have actually laid eyes on it. But I can rip apart the trailer, which is linked above. Nurse Jackie stars the very talented actress Carmelo Soprano Edie Falco. It is a show about her escapades as an ER nurse. Here are some highlights from this sure fire Emmy award winning hot mess of a show:
- Nurse Jackie advises Doctor Man that her patient has a bleed. Doctor Man ignores her. Patient dies. Nurse Jackie indignantly tells Doctor Man the patient’s death is “all on you”. Doctor Man grabs Nurse Jackie’s boob. I can so relate. Just last week I was pissed at our OB resident for leaving his dirty dishes in the staff kitchen, and he grabbed my boob. OK, all he really got was a handful of ribs, but you get the point.
- Lot’s of images of drug addict Nurse Jackie snorting little red balls of some drug up her nose. Yes, yes, yes, we have all snorted. I swear to God I once accidentally snorted an M&M up my nose.
- Nurse Jackie humping some dude in a white coat in a medication storage room. Well of course I have spent my rare break time banging a white coat. However “banging a white coat” to me means beating the shit out of the vending machine when my Twinkie refuses to fall from the rack.
- Nurse Jackie laying in scrubs next to a different white coat while he grabs her boob. Wow. Nurse Jackie’s tits see more action than a mammography machine during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
- Fat nurse in bunny scrubs tells Nurse Jackie she thinks she’s a saint. Holy shit, I’m on a Showtime Original Series! Thank you casting couch.
So, the point of my blog is to bring the “Reality” to medical stories profiled in the media. My freshman diagnosis for Nurse Jackie is a case of serious sterotype-itis. Not very original Showtime.
Honest to blog, would it be so hard to portray a “real” nurse? You know the one’s. The nurse who saves Carmela Soprano’s ass when Tony busts a cap in it for serving him cold cannoli. The orthopedic shoe-wearing, tacky scrub jacket-wearing smart ass, who sits with Carmela Soprano during her upteenth visit to the ER for domestic violence. The millions of ones who are not drug addicted, over-sexed, dead-behind-the eyes harpies, looking to score some Percocet.
The only way to change the image of nurses in Hollywood, is for nurses to pick up the pen. Are you listening Showtime.
Awesome nurse bloggers: Rehab RN, Emergiblog, Nurse Ratched’s Place Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in health, moms, nursing | Tagged: edie falco, health, nurse jackie, nurses, nursing image, showtime, women | 14 Comments »
Posted by realityrounds on April 25, 2009
Copyright Reality Rounds 2009
Posted in Art Therapy, Uncategorized | Tagged: Art Therapy | 2 Comments »
Posted by realityrounds on April 25, 2009
Act 1: Exam curtain raises. Enter Dr. God.
Dr. God, aka senior pediatric neurosurgery resident, enters room. (all hail). Waltzes over to patient, a full term infant of Hispanic descent, status post myelomeningocele (spina bifida repair), aka Bebe Bonita. Little Bebe Bonita is doing well. She is laying on her tummy under the radiant warmer, sleeping comfortably. She has a large dressing taped to her back. Her back is covered in an abundance of soft, black, downy hair.
Dr. God: “I need to change Bebe Bonita’s dressing now.”
Nurse RR: “OK. Let me dose her with some Fentanyl before you start.”
Dr. God: ” I do not have time to wait. It is only a dressing change, it won’t hurt.”
Nurse RR: Running to medication drawer. “No please just wait. It will only take a second.”
Dr. God: Rips dressing off. All the hair on Bebe Bonita’s back is off. All the monitors are going off. Nurse RR is about to go off.
Bebe Bonita wakes up from her nights sleep by having all the soft downy infant hair on her back ripped off with her dressing. She screams in pain. Then stops. Then stops breathing. Then turns blue. Then becomes bradycardic.
Nurse RR bags and masks Bebe Bonita back to stability. She turns pink and is whimpering.
Nurse RR to Dr. God: “What the hell was that? I asked you to wait for pain medication. How would you like it if someone ripped tape off from your hairy ass?’
Dr. God: “That’s sexual harassment.”
Nurse RR: Pointing to Bebe Bonita’s back: “That’s child abuse.”
Dr. God: Mumbles incoherently. Skulks out of NICU
End of Act 1
Exam curtain closes on an infant who is afraid to go to sleep for fear of waking up in pain, and a nurse who lives with the knowledge that she did not do enough.
RR
Posted in health, infant health | Tagged: child abuse, Dr. God, health, infant care, infant health, nurses, nursing, pain medication | 20 Comments »
Posted by realityrounds on April 24, 2009
Before going to work this morning I saw a story on the Today Show about a Miss Universe contestant from Australia. She was skin and bones. A 5″11′ model who weighed a whopping 108 pounds. I was watching this with my two very young daughters by my side. Seeing this anorexic looking model almost made me throw up my cornflakes, but I didn’t, because I hate wasting food.
It just made me very sad. Beauty of course is in the eye of the beholder, but this image of a skeleton looking young woman is extremely disturbing. She is being paraded around as an example of worldly beauty. Who decided being malnourished is beautiful? It seems like the super skinny trend in media and advertising has been around forever. It never seems to go away.
Whether this Australian model is a full fledged anorexic is debatable. Anorexia Nervosa is really a horrible disease. I remember working in a pediatric unit that had a large eating disorder program. During one night shift, I witnessed a stick thin tween, race-walking around the halls of the unit at 3 am. She was very, very sick, and it was frightening.
I just really want my daughters to grow up to be proud of themselves and their accomplishments. I want them to be healthy and happy. I want them to live a life in a home surrounded by family, friends, music, wine and food (as quoted in my marriage vows).
Will the strong superficial forces of the media and pop culture overshadow these spiritual vows? I pray not.
RR
Posted in health, women's health | Tagged: anorexia, australian ms. universe, health, today show, women's health | 11 Comments »
