The World As I Know It

Of all the disturbing things done by the Trump administration since it took office, the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil is the most worrisome. He was taken into custody by ICE officers who failed to identify themselves and, essentially, “disappeared”. He was transported across state lines to Louisiana and incarcerated in the infamous Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center. These actions against a legal, resident alien, married to a US citizen, are no different from those taken by other nascent dictators in the 20th century and this first quarter of the 21st century as they sought to destroy the foundations of an open, democratic society. That I did not see the names of EVEY House and Senate Democrat signed alongside those of 14 other Democratic House members at the bottom of the letter sent to DHS demanding his release was…disappointing. To paraphrase Pastor Martin Niemöller… First, they came for the foreigner And I did not speak out Because I was not a foreigner… T...

The coming Trump Congress of Clownfuckery will see a pandemic. The most likely source will be H5N1. Let me tell you how it’s going to go. But first, let me say, be certain you’ve plenty of N-95 or KN-95 masks and hand sanitizer on hand, and be prepared for lengthy periods of self-isolation. It will go much the same way the COVID-19 pandemic went under Donnie Small-Hands. First, there was, “…we have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China…”. Next, it was, “We think we have it very well under control. We have very little problem in this country at this moment — five. ... we think it’s going to have a very good ending for it.” Soon after that, we had Donnie Fuckwit babbling shit about injecting household disinfectants and shoving UV lights up our asses. Then, we had, “The Fake News Media and their partner, the Democrat Party, is doing everything within its semi-considerable power (it used to be greater!) to inflame the CoronaVirus situation, far beyond what...

...But now,the love affair is over. Until about 8 months ago, I worked in a cardio/pulmonary ICU. With the COVID 19 surges, dangerously short staffing, and the physical and emotional pain that followed me home after a 12 hour shift I was done. I had to get out. Travel nursing was just not an option, as both travel and ICU nursing are a young person's gig. Can't afford to retire, and simply quitting wasn't an option.So, I took a job AWAY from the ICU and the bedside. I went to work in our radiology nusing unit. This was, at first, a welcome respite from the insanity of the ICU. I don't gocome home in pain anymore. My wife says I'm not a big ball of stress when I come home from work and,for the most part, I sleep better at night. Win...Win...Win...right? No. I am am masters degree nurse, don't ask why I'm not working as an NP...another story entirely. All of my training and education has been directd at providing care to the critically ill...their famili...

I first learned about fried green tomatoes when I was about six years old. My mom had a bunch of green tomatoes she was slicing up, dredging in egg and flour and throwing into akillet full of Crisco. When they were crisp and brown, she scooped them out of the pan an threw them onto a plate stacked with paper towels and a flurry of Motron's Iodized Salt from the shaker on the box top. SHe offered me one but I made a face and backed up a step. However, she gave me that look I knew meant, "Don't you DARE run away!" So, I gingerly took one and bit into it. And...damn...I was in Heaven. The salty slightly bitter, slightly sweet crunchiness left me standing by the stove snatching one every now and then until she was done. Then, we sat down at the kitchen table and finished off the plate. In the decades since, I've refined the recipe to what I have here. I don't measure exactly, as I adjust the portions depending on how many green tomatoe...

I’m so done with you people. And by “you people”, I mean every one of you self-indulgent, whiny, possessed of an overweening sense of entitlement, self-absorbed ass-hats who STILL refuse to wear a fucking mask or get fucking vaccinated. I was a nurse in an ICU tasked with caring for COVID 19 patients. For nearly a year and a half, we fought for every COVID 19 patient that came through our doors. Many died...some made it to an LTAC to attempt vent weaning and PT/OT. Many of them died as well, mostly from secondary infections and the other sequelae of COVID 19. But after vaccines became widely available, things changed with the Delta variant. We saw younger patients coming into our unit. And the outcomes were much as I described above. But the common denominator was that the most of them were unvaccinated. Those vaccinated patients that did come to us were already immunocompromised and had multiple comorbidities, predisposing them to COVID 19 infection regardless of their vacc...

For months now, the GOP troglodytes infesting the General Assembly have made it their mission to undermine every effort to mitigate the community spread of COVID 19. They have passed legislation which limits the authority of the Ohio Board of Health to deal with this pandemic and will undermine efforts to deal with future pandemics. They have passed legislation limiting the ability of state and local agencies and governments and boards of education, to impose mask mandates. They are debating legislation to ban ALL vaccine mandates. And...of course...Dave Yost has joined 23 other GOP death cult attorneys general in threatening to sue the Biden administration over the COVID 19 vaccine mandates that were recently announced. The depraved indifference displayed by the Ohio GOP to the consequences of their actions is an atrocity bordering on, if not stepping over the line, into sociopathy. Their actions have led us to the point where hospital ED's, ICU's and medical units are at...

In my experinece, the answer to that question is a resounding "NO!" They are simply going through the motions...saying the asked...and ignoring every suggestion offered by frontline hospital staff. Ath which point they embark on whatever stupid, ill-conceived, half-baked, bonus-securing plan they were goinbg to do anyways. But here goes anyways... Firstly, stop treating the frontline staff...nurses, PCT RT, PT/OT, Rad techs et al...like plug-and-play devices for a computer or tv. We're not. Speaking from a nurse's perspective, every unit has a specific skill set that can take 2-3 years to achieve competency. Five, or more years to achieve mastery. You cannot simply take nurses from one clinical setting or new hires/travelers , drop them into another clinical setting and expect them to function at an optimal level. We try mightily, but often leave at the end of a shift full of doubts, misgivings and the stress of caring for patients in a setting we are simply not f...