Heroes

Nicole's school this month is saluting heroes. We went to a night time assembly at the school where the principle spoke and said that they had done a survey with the students to ask who their heroes were and I was shocked to know that the general concesses was that the kids said their parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters were their heroes. I guess I thought that they might name sports figures or movie stars, but it did my heart good to hear that wasn't true.

On the same token I'm not sure I feel adequate to be my child's hero, that's a big bill to fill. But now that I know, it means that I will definitely have to think before acting. But aside from that I know that Nicole says her brothers and sister are her heroes and today she had her brother Derek come to school as her hero.

She asked Derek last week if he could come because it was her week to be highlighted, but he had to work. So since Derek was off today he came early and we walked over to Nicole's school together. He wore his military fatigues and you could tell Nicole was very proud to have her brother walking with her to school because she wanted to be right by him.

Derek told the kids he was active duty for 3 1/2 years during which time he spent 1 year in Iraq and is now in the reserves. He then showed them on the map where Iraq is so that kids could see it was about half way around the world. He had brought some pictures that he had taken over there (which his wife Ashley had put on to pages) so the kids could see what it was like over there.

He answered questions like, "What's your favorite weapon?" (I wondered how he would respond to this one) he said "Any weapon that helps keep me and my buddies safe." "What do you like best about the army?" he said "That they take care of their own and we are a close knit family." " What did you hate the most about being in Iraq?" Derek said, "Most of the soldiers didn't mind being over there but they wished they could freeze time while they were there so they weren't missing out on birthdays, holidays and other special events. It's also hard leaving family behind that worry about you and have no way of contacting you. You hate to have them worrying about you."

Derek talked about giving service back to the Iraqi people in the form of medical care, helping them dig wells, fix buildings and other things to improve their way of life. One thing I learned is that Derek said before the U.S. came to Iraq that girls weren't allowed to go to school but that since then they have been given the opportunity. He did try to impress upon the kids how great we have it here. And in closing he did tell them that no matter what they wanted to be when they grow up that they will need a good education and so it's very important for them to study hard and learn all that they can learn.

I do know that Derek is one of my heroes. That he would give years of his life for our country and risk his own life to keep this country free and possibly bring freedom to the Iraqi people to me is beyond comprehension. I am still grateful that he returned home safely and I'm grateful for the many men and women still giving their time and even lives for this cause.

God Bless America and all of it's Heroes!

Is your Healthcare System letting you down?

I've now been awake since 3:30am with lower abdominal pain, low back pain and painful urination (not good since I didn't get to bed until midnight because I was working on a power point presentation for work). This wouldn't be so bad, but I had these same symptoms three days ago. And being in the medical profession as a registered nurse for almost twelve years now, this is very annoying.

Monday morning I woke up with these symptoms so I went to work as usual and since my doctor works in the same building I went over and asked if they could do a U/A (urine alysis) to see if I had a UTI (urinary tract infection). By late morning the results had come back that I indeed did have a UTI and needed to be placed on antibiotics. I wasn't able to fill the prescription until after work so I started on Bactrim DS 800mg that night.

Now for the frustrating part... When I picked up the prescription, I noticed that she (my doctor) had only given me a three day supply of antibiotic, but by then she was gone for the night. So the next day I thought I would check my lab results and see what the culture on the urine showed (this is the lab result which differentiates which bacteria or microorganisms are causing all my grief). To my surprise there was no culture ordered.

Now one of the first things I learned in nursing school was that when you send either blood or urine for analysis for possible infection, you always should do a C&S (culture and sensitivity) to find out what the bacteria is and what antibiotics will work best to kill it. So I discussed this with the doctor I work with and he was shocked first of all that I was place on an antibiotic for three days (rule of thumb and studies show that to be affective, you need to take the antibiotics for 7-10 days to make sure you have eliminated all the bacteria) and secondly that the urine wasn't sent for C&S.

So I wrote my doctor an email inquiring about these two things and she wrote back as quoted, "i don't see a culture either. sometimes, the lab does not reflexively do culture unless both nitrite and leuk esterase are positive. the typical treatment for uncomplicated UTI is only for 3 days. however, if you are a patient that has a more "complicated" history, then we usually extend it to 7 days. if you are concerned, i suggest we do repeat UA with culture if UA is positive after the 3 days. if it looks like the infection has not cleared, we can certainly extend the ABX to a full 7 days."

Now, I don't know about you, but the thought of having to pay for another U/A because my doctor failed to do her job by ordering a C&S the first time is a little upsetting to me! Especially with the cost of healthcare skyrocketing every day and insurance covering less and less, I'd rather use that money for other important things...like say "gasoline"!

Maybe if I were "just another patient" this wouldn't be so aggravating to me because I wouldn't know that my doctor had failed me. Maybe, for once, it would be nice to be "just another patient" and be totally in the dark. Maybe then I would still be asleep instead of ranting and raving on a blogsight at 4:00 in the morning!!!!