OMG... My Aching Back...

Quote for the day:

The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.
~Aristotle 

I have spent the morning at the urgent care clinic being seen for my back pain that I've been having for the last 3-4+ weeks or so.  I wrote about it earlier this week...

Last night the pain in my back and right leg was so severe that it kept waking me up...there was no comfortable position.  :(    I've had it with the pain and decided that I couldn't wait until Monday to see my regular physician...I had to have relief NOW!

I am now loaded up on steriods, anti-inflammatories and a little pain pill thrown in there.  At this point, I am off of work on Monday, and will take it from there depending on how I'm feeling once the steroids and anti-inflammatory meds click in.  

It's 2:45 PM and I'm exhausted from the pain and from not getting enough sleep last night.   I'm going to lay on the bed, watch some TV and hopefully take a nap.   

When I am feeling better I will tackle more decluttering...which hopefully will be very soon.

Please check back in 24-48 hours and hopefully I'll be back among the living and back to decluttering.  

In the meantime, leave me a comment to let me know what you have "released" into the wild!

Loretta 

One "Flu" Over the Cookoo's Nest...

Quote for the day:

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

~Benjamin Franklin

Did you know that Ben Franklin is the only person on American money that was never a president?   Now you can "wow" your friends at your next dinner party with that little bit of trivia!  LOL  

Okay...onward and hopefully upward from there...

I used to get sick frequently with viral infections...mostly colds...I could count on getting 2 colds a year...one in the fall when the weather changed, and one in the dead of winter.  

But in 1994 I had a severe viral infection caused by CMV (cytomegalovirus) that caused me to miss a whole month of work.  At that time my infectious disease doctor that was treating my CMV told me that I should start taking the flu vaccine since I was so vulnerable to viral infections.  Ever since then I have been getting my flu vaccine (free to hospital employees) and have never had the flu, but have also noticed that I get very few colds, too.  My own interpretation of this is that because my body is not busy trying to fight off everything by itself, it leaves my immune system more capable of fighting off the germs and viruses that I am exposed to on a daily basis.  

I don't know if my hypothesis is true or not, but I can tell you that since I've been taking my flu shot yearly since 1994, I have had 4 colds...count them..1,2,3,4.  That's it!  

So...yesterday I got my annual flu shot while at work!  Other than a little soreness in the arm when I went to lay or it last night, I have had no side effects.

As a wife, mother, grandmother and nurse...I encourage ALL of you to get your flu shots this year...and may we all have a healthy winter!  :)


Now for some fall color...

Mums I planted LAST fall in my planter...

This particular plant is about 18-24" tall and has about a 3 ft. spread!  It is HUGE!

Now...on to some decluttering...

Today I tackled the third drawer in the armoire.  

before picture

what I trashed...mainly travel guides and some papers

what I saved...

one item for yardsale...

the "after" picture of the drawer...

Yes...I know it is empty.  The items I saved went into the previous drawers I had cleaned out and I am going to save this drawer for when I clean out the drawer that contains all my doilies/dresser scarves.  That stuff really should be divided up into 2 drawers to make it more easily accessible and to keep it from getting so wrinkled.  

Okay...so that's my story for today and I'm sticking to it!  :)

Please leave a comment and let me know what you "released" into the wild today!  

Loretta

Bye-bye to Some Paper Clutter...

Quote for the day:

So, don't ask me no questions
And I won't tell you no lies

~Lynyrd Skynyrd (lyrics)

Don't have a lot of time before I have to head off to work... so I thought I'd clear my desk of some paper clutter today.

Two questionnaires have been sitting on my desk...one since May and one since August.

The first one is a health study that I have been in since it's inception...sometime in the late '80's.  (1989 according to Mr. Wiki!)   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nurses%27_Health_Study

They send out a questionnaire every 2 years and you give updated information about your health and lifestyle.   I never took the time to fill out the questionnaire this year, so after my THIRD reminder coming in the mail the other day, I placed it on the desk with the other two envelopes from them.  :(   Yeah...not so good...  Thank goodness a few years ago they started letting you enter the info online...makes it easier!  So...today I knocked that off my "to do" list.

In August I got a new questionnaire from the University of Buffalo School of Nursing, The State University of New York.  (Their italics, not mine!)  It has questions about why nurses decide to work overtime and other questions about things you encounter during your shift, including nursing shortages.  Grant money at work...LOL.

Anyway...this one had to be filled out on paper, not online.  :(  

I originally received this in August and got a friendly reminder card in the mail last week.  

Since I was on a roll with the first questionnaire, I decided to bite the bullet and go ahead and fill out the second one to get it off my desk, too!  

So, Folks...that's my decluttering for today...

Please leave a comment and let me know what you "released" into the wild today!  

Loretta 

Three Rifle Scopes????

Quote for the day:
Guns don't kill people...dads with pretty daughters do.
~seen on Facebook 

How's everyone doing today?  It's Tuesday...last of my days off till Saturday.  :(

My computer is 6 1/2 years old...ANCIENT as technology goes!  LOL  It's been running REALLY slowly lately.  I've been hearing the fan run almost constantly and it seems to run even SLOWER (if that's possible) when the fan runs.  

Hmmmm...what's a girl to do?  I can't afford a new computer right now because we just bought a new porch floor and that pretty much wiped out our savings.  (Thank goodness we didn't have to touch our emergency fund to help pay for it, though.)

I had been told that when the computer "innards" (technical term there) get dusty, it causes the computer to overheat.  That's what causes the extra fans to come on.  So I decided to take matters into my very uncapable hands!

I took the screws out of the back, removed the cover, attached the crevice attachment to the vacuum cleaner...and sucked MULTIPLE GENERATIONS OF DUST BUNNIES out of my computer today!  

Yes, Folks...many dust bunnies gave their lives today so that my computer will run quieter and faster.

After using the crevice tool, I took canned air and blew out the last remaining bits of dust that I couldn't reach with the vacuum.  I'm ashamed to tell you how bad it was... I did all this on the dining room table...and I'll just tell you this...I had to vacuum the chairs and wipe down the table...TWICE...when I was through!  YIKES!  Yep...we had generations upon generations of dust bunnies in there!  :(

But now...the computer is running fast and smooth and I haven't heard the fan come on once!  YAY for me!!!

My trusty vacuum with the crevice tool...

Today I moved onto the second drawer in the dining room armoire.   Here is the before picture...

This is what I removed from the drawer...

trash...

items to be sold/given away...

Three...count them...3 rifle scopes...*shakes head*...the only gun we own is a pellet gun that we use to shoot ground hogs in the back yard.   I have no idea where all these came from...but I will talk to Andy and I'm sure we'll be putting them on the next yard sale!  The white table cloth and the 3 boxes in the middle of home-perming supplies will also go on the yard sale.  (It's been probably 10 years since I gave Erin a perm!  LOL)  The 2 cans on the right are spray-on hair color that have never been opened.  I will take them to work and ask my co-workers if anybody wants them for their kids' Halloween costumes.

I also found 2 cloth napkins and some doilies in the drawer.  For about a year now, we have been using cloth napkins instead of paper napkins so these will go in the wash and be put into use.  The doilies will come up again when I go through the drawer in this armoire where I keep all my dresser scarves, etc.  I will deal with them at that time.

And here is the completed project...

There are some extra phone chargers that I will keep...you never know when you will have company that has forgotten their phone charger and may be able to use one of these!  (This has happened not only to us when we have traveled, but we have also had visitors that have forgotten theirs.) 

Please leave a comment to let me know you visited and let me know what you "released" into the wild today! 

Loretta

   

 

Thank God for Chiropractors and Other Ramblings...

Quote for the day:

"The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient 

while Nature cures the disease."

~Voltaire 

A day off of work today!  Yay!  I needed it to unwind and get some stuff done after the stress of last week.  

My back has been hurting and going into spasms for the last 2-3 weeks.  I had planned to go to the chiropractor before we took our trip to Tennessee, but we left a day early on our trip and I didn't get to go get adjusted.  :(

Today I was able to go and get adjusted and he gave me some exercises to do to help with the pain and spasms.  They also did some ultrasound to my "old-lady" arthritic elbow.  Since the weather got cold and rainy towards the end of last week, I've been applying ben-gay and aspercreme to it.  I told Andy that it's official...I've become my mother because I smell like ben-gay all the time now!  LOL

When my back gets this bad it usually takes 2 visits to get it back in complete alignment.  I have a follow-up appointment scheduled for next week.  Hopefully, the adjustment today will take care of the pain that has been so bad the last couple weeks.  

Now...onto the decluttering...

We have an armoire in the dining room that serves as extra storage.  It has 6 drawers total, and hasn't been gone through since we moved here 12 years ago!  YIKES!   It is kind of a "catch-all".  When we don't know where else to put something, we put it in this armoire.

Today I removed the top drawer and it looked like this:

I realized when I was uploading these pictures that I didn't get the whole drawer in the frame...there is about 6" more drawer to the right side that got cut off in the picture.

This is what I tossed...

a coin sorter and lots of coin sleeves (because my bank said to just bring in the coins and they will put them through their counter...much easier), about 3 decks of cards that we don't need or use, and lots of AAA tour books from the early 2000's (who needs these??  we use the internet for travel info these days), some coasters that we don't like/use, and some miscellaneous tourist info books we collected from places we have visited.

The result is this...

Much better!  (And I notice again that I cut the last couple inches off the right side of the drawer in the picture!  LOL)  It now holds our maps and printed driving directions to family (instead of printing out directions every time we take a trip to see family, we keep the directions in the manilla envelope between trips...saves money on ink & paper!), Andy's extra reading glasses and extra "doo-dads" that go on the end of ceiling fan pull chains are there in the slot to the right of the maps.  To the far right that you can't really see are some containers of glitter (which I will probably put on the next yardsale because I can't think of what I'm going to use them for) and our extra phone chargers.

Took me all of about 10-15 min. to do this!  It's amazing what I can get done in small chunks of time here and there!  :)

Please leave a comment and let me know what you "released" into the wild!  

Loretta

 

 

News Flash...I'm Not Perfect! :)

Quote For the Day:

I'm knocked out, I've never felt so physically and mentally exhausted, 

I'm quite stupid with it and long only for bed; but I am happy... Claude Monet

Like Mr. Monet, I am EXHAUSTED!!!

Today we moved all the patients from the old hospital to the new hospital, got the last of our supplies and equipment from the old building, and finished setting up, organizing and cleaning our new department and even did 3 surgeries in the new facility!  No rest for the weary here!

I am SPENT!  At this point, I cannot see myself doing any cleaning, decluttering, or organizing here at home, because that is what I have been doing all day at work.  

So, Friends...I'm taking tonight and relaxing at home, psyching myself up for the coming week of work in the new workplace.  By the way, I'm loving the shortened commute!  :)

Thank you all for the comments...I've read every one!  Keep on keeping on!!!

I will return tomorrow with another post on decluttering...until then, have a great evening!

Loretta

New Hospital Pics and a Tossing...

Quote for the day:

"Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress,
and working together is success."  ~Henry Ford

Last evening working at the new hospital was a lot of fun...mostly due to my great co-workers.  

The trucks were supposed to start arriving at the new hospital with our department's equipment and supplies shortly after 3 PM.  However, due to "things"...you know, those "things" that always show up just to throw a wrench into your finely tuned cogs...yeah, those things...we didn't start receiving our equipment/supplies till about 8:45 PM.

But many hands make light work... and when our things finally arrived, we all jumped in with both feet.  By 11:00 PM everything that had arrived was put into it's new home, set-up, plugged in, stored, etc.  We have a great bunch of nurses in our department and we were able to think outside the box where needed and I think we did great job of getting the Recovery Room ready for patients that will start coming through...possibly as early as tomorrow!  :)

Since this new hospital doesn't open for patients until tomorrow, some supplies and equipment were left at the old hospital.  Those last items will be transferred over tomorrow and will need to be put away, too.  That's what I'll be doing there tomorrow...helping to put the finishing touches on the unit.

I thought I'd share some pics of my co-workers and the new department:

 The desk at the nurses station.

Stocking supplies...

More stocking...

And, finally...even more stocking! 

Sunset from the second floor outdoor balcony...

this is an extension of the waiting area for

surgery, endoscopy, and cath lab.

While we were waiting for the supplies to arrive about 5 of us took a stroll through the new hospital and grounds, familiarizing ourselves with our new surroundings.  There are lots of outdoor areas with seating and tables.  It was a perfect fall evening for being outside.  

I have to tell you...this hospital is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!  Inside and out!  Everything is state-of-the-art!  We have heard that that there is one piece of equipment that is so new, that there are only 2 other hospitals in the USA that even have it!  And another piece of equipment is the first one of it's kind installed in a hospital so far!  

I am proud to be a part of this! 

Now...for my decluttering for today...nothing too earth-shattering...just some paper clutter "released".

This is a stack (about 2" tall) of old Christmas cards that we had received...prob. about 6 years ago.

I had kept them and was going to "repurpose" them into a craft...but obviously that never occurred.  Along with the cards are some recipe cards that I have moved from place to place for the past several months.  I don't write recipes anymore...if I want a recipe,  I google it and print it off the computer.  No more handwritten recipes...so they went in the trash with the old cards, too.

Thanks for reading and please leave a comment to let me know what you "released" into the wild today...

Loretta