a dog's life...

does this not look like being totally rotten? dude is the bassett hound that i got for my birthday last year. the other dog is jake...these two are the laziest dogs ever...

had a great weekend...my family was over for a "reunion"...it was so great to see them...some of my cousins i had not seen in over 10 years that is pitiful...i promise it won't be that long before we get together again...i have some pics but i need to ask permission of the people in them before i post them...

busy week coming up...i am going to perdido bay for a social work conference...i hope there will be a little time to play...pics soon to come....

chinese fire drill - geriatric style

most of you have probably experienced some severe weather today...i do not like severe weather...i like nice sunny days...now the reason i do not like severe weather has nothing to do with the fact that i don't like thunder, lightening and such as that...it is that it usually happens in the middle of the day when i am work - at the nursing home...have you ever tried to pull 94 old people out in the hallway, keep them entertained as well as their family members...yall i did this not once today but twice...no i did not do this by myself but guess what happened in the middle of it...yep you guessed it...someone walks in from outside and wants to take a tour...yes while everyone and all their glory is in the hallway...we must not have looked too bad because the ladies are going to admit their mother tomorrow... oh for another day in the life of a social worker....

whatever

i am not real sure what to call this blog...i am just down in the honkin dumps...it seems that the harder one tries to do right, live life to the fullest and all that other stuff that the "professionals" tell you to do...the harder it is to even hold your head up...

nursing homes are not nut houses

this could very likely be the title of my next book! why is it that the general population believes that nursing homes are old people's prisons or nut houses? i am being serious...would someone please help me! now i realize that if you do not work in a certain environment then you are unfamiliar with the inner workings of that environment...what brings this topic up is that i have been wearing an additional hat this week - that would be admissions director...this means that i get to look at all referrals and filter through them - now there is nothing really different about this because all referrals have to come through me first anyway...but oh my goodness - i have never in my life seen so many crazy insane referrals...i received 10 referrals between monday and wednesday...here is the mix i got...homeless man found unconsious in an alley, a man three months out of federal prison, man who tested positive for cocaine and barbituates, man who is actively suicidal, man who has escaped the hospital 5 times in one stay, man who is wanting to kill his wife....need i go on...this is proof that strange things happen when the moon is full!

now i would like to enlighten others about "nursing homes"...i cannot speak for all nursing homes, but i can speak of the "living center" that i work for now...our home does not smell, we have two weenie dogs, bubba joe and sissy lynn that live there, we go out to eat, we have lots of activites that are not coloring books, we have birds that live there, our residents do community service projects, and much more...

yes we have residents who are very sick and we have some that are mentally ill but it is not a prison or a nut house...i would encourage everyone to visit a nursing home, skilled nursing facility, living center or whatever you call it and see how different it is now than the picture you might have in your mind....

foot cramps and farmer's markets...

i have had a great weekend despite foot cramps....i have been battling foot cramps and calf cramps for about a month...i never know when they are going to hit...and when they do it is like ray stephen's song that says, ''the day the squirrel went biserk in the first self rightous church"...the world stops...it hurts so bad...it really does not matter what is in front of you or if you are holding a child...you will drop whatever you are doing or in my case wake from a sound sleep...

anyway, my mom and dad asked me if i wanted to go to the farmer's market on saturday morning...i was excited for a few reasons...number one i could not believe they thought of me...second....it was a beautiful day to get out and third of all....i could get some fresh vegetables...

now if you have not ridden with my dad you have missed a treat or should i say roller coaster ride...you will buckle up the moment you get in the truck because if you don't the centrifical force will not allow you to do so after take off...it is 53.6 miles from his driveway to the farmer's market...and let me tell you when we pulled back into the "station" i.e. his yard - i was so happy....

besides the roller coaster ride...i got some great veggies..squash, okra, collard, turnip greens, fruits to include strawberries, apples, oranges, peaches....

and to top the day off my momma showed out in the kitchen...she cooked up a bunch of this stuff and it was sooooooooooooo good!

how many years will it take?

before you read this blog, please know that this blog is not meant to offend anyone or their profession...

today's thought is "how many years will it take?" now the reason this question comes up is because of my profession - social work. understand that social work began in the late 19th century - we are in the 21st century. so you see this is not a profession that was born overnight, we have had many years to perfect our practice and we also have to go to school to earn that diploma and license that is required to practice. the problem with social work is that you cannot touch or see what we do. you cannot measure what we do - unless you weigh the amount of paperwork the government requires. nurses give shots and pills, doctors "fix" things, teachers teach people, physical therapists teach people to walk again, preachers preach...get the picture.

all of this brings up the one statement that absolutely sends me over the edge. this just happened to be the week that it was the "hot statement". drum roll please..."you are not clinical." Webster's defines clinical as:

clin⋅i⋅cal   /ˈklɪnɪkəl/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [klin-i-kuhl] Show IPA Pronunciation

–adjective 1. pertaining to a clinic.
2. concerned with or based on actual observation and treatment of disease in patients rather than experimentation or theory.
3. extremely objective and realistic; dispassionately analytic;

diseases are not just communicable diseases...there are mental health diseases, Alzheimer's disease, PTSD,

can any of the above mentioned professions that you can see and touch what they do treat any of this? are any of the above mentioned professions trained to treat this? NO NO NO. Furthermore, these issues are treated in a clinic setting, i observe people to formulate a treatment plan, i analyze information that is given to me through medical records and battery of tests that i administer to my patients; therefore, according to the definition of Webster himself, I AM CLINICAL.

now most of you may wonder why i am on such a soap box. if i have been questioned once this week about my judgement in a situation related to the psychosocial needs of my residents i have been questioned a hundred. i don't mind people asking me questions or giving suggestions, but i am sick and tired of people telling me i am not clinical. what this translates to is, no offense anyone, but "you are not a nurse or doctor." it makes one feel as though what they bring to the table is not important and is not respected. i went to school just as long as other people and longer than some to be trained at what i do. it is not something i just pulled out of my butt...i just wish people would realize that just because you can't see or touch what someone does, does not mean that it is not important and play an integral part in the term that healthcare loves so much - "interdisciplinary team." so my question is how many years will it take before social workers are respected and treated as equals? anybody got any ideas

now that is off my chest, i hope everyone has a great week!

who says you can't go home....

ok before anyone freaks out..no i am not moving back to blue river drive...it has been an extremely long weekend..i slept thursday night for the first night in a week...i was so relieved to know that my precious daughter was still CANCER FREE! i slept friday night so soundly...only to be wakened on saturday to terrible news...now understand when my executive director calls you it is usually not good...if she calls you on the weekend it is really not good...and you can bet your bottom dollar that if she calls at 8 am it is terrible...i missed the call...looked at my husband and said, " i guess state is in the building." what i would give if it had been that simple...kim called to tell me that our beloved director of maintenance, preston tollison, had suddenly died of a massive heart attack...my gut hit the floor...i had lost a friend totally unexpectedly...i was sick...why had this happened? his wife kristin is a nurse at our facility as well...this is where they met...he was only 46 years old...my mind was spinning...kim gave instruction for me to go the facility and inform all the residents and do the necessary paperwork...let me tell you in all of my years as a social worker i have never had anything like this...i have been chased out of yards by pigs, dogs, by a lady with a butcher knife...most of my stories are funny at some point...there is nothing funny about this...i had to go tell all these residents that "pete" was gone...he had worked there for over 20 years...he was a fixture...he knew where every screw, every wire, every everything was in that building...so i went to the building told the residents, did care plans for the ones that were cognitive and made notes on the other ones...then had to type a letter to family members explaining what had happened..cause you definately don't want an elderly person telling people that someone has died...you know they will send you out for stuff like that...i worked all day...brought all the letters home to fold and stuff in the envelopes...i would fold and i would cry, i would fold and i would cry...finally stephen said,"give me those you will never get them folded"...he folded and stuffed the envelopes and i put the labels on the front and taped the back...so saturday was over...then there was sunday...i went back to the building to help get the residents ready to go the funeral...all i am going to say is that it is a trip...so we go to the funeral home...there lays our "sweet pete"...that is what we called him...he looked peaceful but it was not real...i had just seen him on friday...he said to me, "bring me the meausrements on monday and i will start on your bookshelf"...he was going to build me a bookshelf for my house...i can honestly say the last words i said to "sweet pete" were thank you...

there is a song that says, "who says you can't go home"..the home i am looking for is not on blue river drive where i grew up or on ridge drive where i live now...we never know when we will be called "home"...who says you can't go home...before you are ready...i really think that pete was ready to go home...he lived his life to the fullest...i only knew him for a short period of time but he impacted my life in many ways...this weekend reminded me of what God says, "life is but a vapor" i love you all and hope that i have been as a good of a friend to all of you as all of you have been to me...let's all be ready to go home when our time comes...