Monday, March 21, 2016

Longevity, what's the point? Interview Number Two

This is a follow-up post to the 2/25/16
preceding post on What's the Point?


Longevity.  What's the point?
Interview # Two
Is it worth the bother and pain?  



2005.  Katrina.
Hurricane Katrina

Where were you when you heard about Katrina making landfall.
Were you there?
Were you involved?

I was far away from the site, but because of real-time coverage, I watched and watched and watched. 
I cannot imagine what a life changer Katrina was for so many people.
It was a life changer for me just watching from afar.

For one thing, watching caskets float up out of the ground, I made a major decision about my burial some day.  As though I get to chose!
But I decided to bag the casket idea and go for cremation and "scattering".

Morbid, yes?  I can't help it!  I'm a nurse.  

Another Katrina life changer for me came in the form of an "interview" with one of my grown sons in the long and horrid aftermath of Katrina.

See, with my additional education in Social Gerontology, the study of aging and the social impact surrounding aging, I was horrified by the media coverage of old old old unwell patients who, in order to be saved, put young and needed human beings, (the care givers) at risk for their lives.  
Some caregivers rose to the challenge.  OMG
Some caregivers made different decisions and opted out. OMG

I withheld judgement as I thought about it.
Yet in an emotional highly charged situation, to withhold judgement is as good as judging.


So I said to my grown son, "If I am ever in a situation as an old old person where to save me you must put your life at risk, please go on without me."


Image result for images of old Indians on trail of tearsclarksvilleonline.com

The look that crossed my son's face was as sad and hopeless as any look I have seen in another human being's countenance.  His voice was wretched, full of an understanding-deficit void, as he softly accused me:  "What kind of people do you think we are?"

I was taken aback by the accusation.  Did I not command the moral high ground here?!

"What kind of people do you think we are?"


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Looking for the moral high ground in all that I do,
missing the boat sometimes, maybe even often,
Riverwatch

PS  Thanks for being who you are.
achhikhabre.com


























Saturday, March 19, 2016

Oceans

Longing






If you want people to build a ship, teach them to long for 

the endless immensity of the sea.

Antoine de Saint Exupery

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                            Where two oceans meet 

                                                           Baltic and North Sea
                                                           https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE9FLSsVrig

Longing,
and grateful for your visit,
Riverwatch














Monday, March 14, 2016

Slinking Into the Dark Shadows



Driven into the Shadows 


Free speech has never been free. It is guaranteed, true, but you always, always, always pay for your stand on anything controversial.

"Free" speech (the right to say what you want to say)  in America is under fierce attack and has been for some time.

So is freedom of religion.

It is becoming clearer and clearer that it will take more and more courage to be openly religious acknowledging there is a Creator .
It is becoming clearer and clearer that it will take more and more courage to “go on the record” about anything.


So why be religious?
Because.  Because life makes more sense when we have hope.

The hope that there is a hereafter, a hereafter that is better than here.
The hope of love that surpasses all understanding.
The hope of peace that surpasses all understanding.

Since we each only have a brief moment to splish-splash through our experiences here, let's make it count, I say.

Christ hung on a cross at age 33, changing the world forever.

If we get to last into old age, let's make it count, I say.

This Easter Sunday as I remember the hope and thrill of the resurrection, I am going to “be brave” and share again with you another true nursing story.
This did not happen long ago and far away.
But its happening in a local emergency room, staffed with outstanding educated medical personnel, was revealing to me of the fact that, yes, Riverwatch, there is a satan.

Satan is as real as you are.

It was a busy busy night and I was supervisor for the hospital for that night. It was the kind of night that ER personnel “recognize” as a humdinger in the works even before they begin their shift!
Our one and only Security Guard arrived on duty, his face pale with some kind of fear.

 “The moon has a cross on it! Look!”
Image result for images of moon with a cross on it


Some of us took a quick peek from the parking lot, but we saw only a full moon.
Image result for images for full moon over citycommons.wikimedia.org

 Only the Security Guard saw a cross, and ….well, you know, we all knew then that he was “ a mental case” and we dismissed him. Easy to dismiss him because we were getting slammed.

As a nursing supervisor, when I wasn't busy running all over the hospital, I hung out in the ER. Certified in trauma nursing and advanced life support, I was “back-up” if the ER became overwhelmed.
We were getting overwhelmed that night.

When the radio call came in from an ambulance on its way with an out-of-control young girl, found alone and unconscious on the street at 3 in the morning, the paramedic revealed that they were bringing her in sandwiched between 2 stretchers because the three of them could not restrain her even though she was unconscious.
The most experienced nurse in the ER turned to me and said, “Don't leave, Riverwatch. You are going to see something you have probably never seen before. Besides, we are going to need you.”

Belinda …..I shall call her Belinda....arrived.
She was a small young teenager, 80 pounds at most. As forewarned, she was sandwiched between two stretchers and her writhing was still going on. As the three paramedics transferred her to an ER stretcher, it took 6 of us to do the job of holding her down and getting restraints on.

She was unconcious and dressed totally in black with long black hair that had obviously been dyed. Blackish reddish fingernail polish. No identification for who she was.

Breathing on her own, Belinda did not need intubated but she needed much care. I was assigned “the head” to hold her head with both of my hands as others tied (and re-tied!) her down in bed as tests were run trying to figure out what was in her system.
A tube was inserted through her nose and into her stomach to pump out the contents of her stomach. There was the prompt return of alcohol...lots and lots of alcohol...but nothing else.
Her drug screen showed nothing but then screens do not screen for everything.
Her blood alcohol was comatose level.
It became a waiting game: hold Belinda down until her system is flushed with IV fluids and the alcohol begins to wear off.

Still at the head of the stretcher, I tried to talk soothingly to her while some of the crew and the police got busy  finding who she was.  Her name was supplied to us by the police.
Slowly she began to come out of the unconscious level, still threshing and writhing but talking.
Three medical people were still at her side constantly: 2 RN's and one MD.
Her voice was “tiny”, the young young female teenage voice.
Here is a transcript of her words:
“Mommy, Mommy, HELP me! He's taking me down. He's taking me down.”
Naturally I thought she must have been raped!
Me: “Belinda, who's taking you down?”
“Help me. Help me. Help me. Mommy, the fire is burning me. Help me!”
Me: “Belinda, we are here with you. Nobody's going to hurt you. We are helping you.”
“Mommy! Help me. He's taking me down.”
Me: “Belinda, we are here with you. You are ok.”

Suddenly Belinda's face contourted into a look I have never ever seen before in any patient. Her teeth were completely bared, the grimace contourting her entire face was not human, but maybe, maybe some kind of animal.
and then from out of the throat of a 80 pound girl came a deep loud male voice: “Belinda is not here. Belinda is dead. I want to kill you ALL and I will kill you!”

Stunned, we three medical personnel looked at each other and then the male RN said, “Enough of this.”
He called one of the medical division units on 4th Floor and had another male nurse come help him and together they prayed over this young girl, demanding that satan depart.

After the prayer, Belinda lay quiet of her writhing as deep gutteral "gruff male" non-human growls came occasionally from her throat.
Eerie scarey growls.  Like nothing I have ever heard in a human.
Her face, having relaxed, occasionally contourted to bared teeth again, but finally relaxed completely.

Her parents arrived on the scene, having been found. Belinda had gone “partying” with a young friend early in the evening. Her young friend was found and said some man "in a truck"  had tried to pick both of them up offering another party “where you can have some real fun”. The young friend declined and begged Belinda not to go, but go she did.

Her mom revealed that Belinda had been dressing totally in black for sometime now
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 and kept talking about demons being in their home, but the mom thought she was just “acting out”.
Incidently, the mom and dad were not speaking to one another. (ER personnel are excellent at noticing those small nuances.)
Belinda made a full recovery. Well, we think it was a full recovery.


I celebrate Easter this year, as always, grateful for my Savior.

As I watch the senseless killing across our globe that is so poorly understood, I have insight as to what is behind that.

And I praise God for the sacrifice He has made for me, for all of us.

I have hope.

Thanks for sharing this moment with me,
Riverwatch


Evil, wherever it is, is made vulnerable by shining a bright light on it.
creatingopenspace.com
Exposure.

Overcoming  with love.









Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Longevity. Interview # One

  
This is a follow-up post to the 
preceding post on What's the Point?

Longevity.  What's the point?
Interview # One
Is it worth the bother and pain?  


I start off my series of interviews with one of my smartest friends.
Jean is in her mid-70's.
She is shrewd about life and knows the difference between apples and oranges.

"Old people cannot be compared to young people".  A lifelong career in education, Jean is adamant about this!
 "We learn differently, we remember differently, we are not on a learning curve.  What we learn as old people we learn in an atmosphere of deteriorating brain cells."

Hard to debate that one!

Jean says, "It doesn't matter if there is a point to longevity or not.  It is what it is.  Some of us experience it whether we want to or not.  There must be a purpose, 
so the purpose must be finding the purpose.
I don't know how people face any part of life, especially old age,  without a belief in God.  I am closer to God as an aging person."

Longevity.
Old age.
The pasture for questing purpose to life and to grow closer to God.wall-pix.net



Too old to "quest"?

I bet you some younger person is looking at you and questing, trolling the mind, wondering!
Jamie Fellner of hrw.org


Perhaps we live for others?

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I appreciate your visit.
Thanks.
Riverwatch