Our 31 year old blessing...

Beautiful
Respectable
Incredible
Admirable
Nice
Noble
Amazing

It's her "Golden Birthday", already 31.... she's grown into this beautiful, respectable, incredible, admirable, nice, noble, amazing young women, who is full of grace, and humility.

A letter to my daughter on her birthday

Since the day you were born you have amazed us. You were born a beautiful baby, perfect skin and alert to your surroundings. You held your head up from a very early age, sat up by yourself at 4 months, walked at 8 1/2 months, and gave up your bottle for a sippy cup at 8 months.

You were a take charge preschooler, who liked to play with friends and be the leader.
Once you started school, your "first child" personality really came out... responsible, organized, and ambitious.

You were (and still are) a great big-sister who loves her little brothers! We are so glad you were 1st...such a good example for the boys, and a little mamma to both of them.

As you grew into a young lady Dad & I were amazed at your maturity beyond years! We did not experience the moody, dramatic, hormonal teenager we had expected and heard so much about. We cant explain it, but we know your heart & mind were in tune to how God was directing your path. You were a "no-nonsense" kind of girl who was adamant in what you believed and very much in-control of how you wanted to live your life!

You blew through high-school at the top of your class taking your education very seriously, which helped carry you through your college years. We never worried while you were away at school, we knew you'd make good choices.

You have become a beautiful young woman with a kind and patient mommy-heart. You are a devoted & loving wife, half-time nurse and full-time mommy!  

You are intuitive & frugal, you amaze us with your ability to figure out almost anything & fix things around the house. You are determined, sensitive and selfless (just like your daddy).

We are so proud of you Brianna, you have taught us much and we thank God for choosing us be your parents. We have been blessed with the best daughter a parent could ask for

May your year be filled with happiness, good health and many blessings.... Love you sweet Girl

Momma

Good old Minnesota fun...

It's truly a blessing to be healthy and still feel young enough 

to enjoy outdoor activities with our grandkids.

We had Audrey and Carson overnight on Friday and most of the day on Saturday. 

We took advantage of the beautiful day to take them sledding on a nearby hill.

 Grandpa and Carson in total control of the sled while flying down the hill

Audrey and I... not so much,

 notice the sled is next to me on the left.

and speaking of control..... check out the video below, 

TURN UP THE VOLUME

She crashed right into me, 

I tried to get out of the way but the hill was slippery and I couldn't move fast enough, 

she took me right out...ha ha, oh we laughed. 

Love making memories with these little ones !

  

...and to fill my heart a little fuller, we got to "skype" with this little one tonight, lucky us!!!

Our sweet Scarlett

LP = Lumbar Puncture / Spinal Tap

Finally... the moment you've all been waiting for...

or not!

I thought it would be fun to explain a little bit about

 my new job as a 

Lumbar Puncture (or as some say) "spinal tap" nurse.

Recently I posted a little synopsis about my career as a nurse 

before I started this new position in November. 

 I said I would be back for more on what I do now.

It may not be for the faint of heart so proceed with caution...

When I went to interview for this job, I totally thought it was a job in which the nurse assisted the doctor by setting up the Lumbar tray, handing him test tubes to collect the fluid and sending the fluid to the appropriate lab for testing. I wrong, within a few minutes of the interview I found out 

WE... THE NURSES actually DO the procedure! 

I immediately wanted this job.

Not only do the nurses preform the spinal tap but we (the nurses) teach and train the residents and Medical student how to do it. How cool is that. It'll be awhile before I do any teaching, since I'm still learning the skill myself. I have done 57 successful "Spinal taps" and have to do 100 before they let me fly totally on my own. Right now I do it all on my own, but one of my co-workers comes in the room and watches to make sure I'm doing everything right, she's also there for moral support  in case I cant get into the tiny space between the vertebrates (and that happens even to the seasoned LP nurse)

* all photos are from Google images, but this first on looks exactly like it could be my hands and my patient.... I love this job!

 The 3.5 inch needle is inserted into the L 3-4 lumbar space in the lower back, this person is collecting the spinal fluid in the clear test tubes

 We go about this blindly only guided by anatomical landmarks  experience and a lot of skill.

I'm getting pretty good at getting the patient scrunched up in the fetal position (like the photo below). 

Positioning is really the key to getting in between those vertebrate.
I sit behind the patient first feeling for the hipbone, then drawing an imaginary line down to the spine, there is a lot of pushing and prodding before I made my mark... 

I want to make sure the needle goes in the "sweet spot" for collecting the spinal fluid.

 My new job is humbling, each day brings challenges, we call these challenges "bad backs" meaning arthritis, narrowing vertebrate, curvature of the spine etc.

All these things make it more difficult to get into the space to collect the fluid. 

In addition to the physical challenges we have the normal fears, apprehension and tears

 that come along with a procedure like this one.  I love meeting with my patients before the procedure to explain the procedure, to get to know them a little , and to reassure them that everything will be ok! After the procedure they are usually surprised at how easy it was and 

 how all horrible things they imagined just didnt happen. 

 I love that.

Just in case you're curious why we even do Spinal taps,
here's a little LINK for you to check out.

I wore white dresses...

January 11, 1982....

The day I started my nursing career at Mayo Clinic

Just a young thing, 21 years old.

 It was back when nurses wore WHITE, and dresses above the knee,  

but not the white hat's

 (I'm not THAT old)

So this week marks my 33rd year a Registered Nurse, 

I've seen a lot of changes over those 33 years.

Computer charting was in the infant stages. 

As a new grad I started right out in the Cardiac Surgical ICU, my first choice. 

The 3D South unit had just been remodeled for computer charting, the North unit still paper charting.

Bear with me for just a moment non-medical friends,

For the nurses out there you might appreciate this jargon...

every 15 minutes for the 1st four hours after surgery we had to record, wedge pressures, RA, LA, CVP, (all heart pressures) on paper, it did not go into a computer automatically like now days. We also had to replaced blood outputs every hour, on kids we replaced 2/3 of what they put out. 

Another fun fact, Mayo Clinic's first heart transplants were being done

 but I was too new to get in on that. 

... a very stressful, touch & go, life or death kind of unit to work in, but being new, this is all I knew. 

The day and night shift were not much different, seemed like patients were always going back to the O.R. for bleeding in the middle of the night, and it was nothing to have to "crack open" a patient's chest right in the room to apply the internal defibrillators right to that quivering heart (all the while trying to keep the blood from spraying out WHITE uniforms)

 Oh those were the days!

Just a little synopsis of my career so far...

2 1/2 years in the Cardiac surgical ICU 

2 1/2 years in the Neuro surgical ICU 

16 years in the Emergency room....oh the stories I could tell  :) 

4 years in the Recovery room  

7 years, in Vascular radiology pushing drugs (sedation nurse) 

and currently.... 

Neurology department, doing Spinal Taps or as they say now, Lumbar Punctures.

I hope to finish out my career here in Neurology, not sure how many years I have left in me, 

I guess time will tell.

Come back in a few days to hear more about my current job... it's quite interesting  :)

A little treasure on my Kitchen window...

Today while standing at the kitchen sink I noticed a bit of intricate artwork on my window, 

it appeared as if someone had etched this beautiful design right into the glass. 

When I was little, I would have given credit to "Jack Frost",

 the mythological boy who is said to be responsible for leaving the 

fern-like patterns on cold windows in the winter time.

But now I know, and give credit to the one who owns the cold, the wind, and the ice. 

The creator of heaven & earth and all that is in it!

 His beauty is all around us,  His handiwork sketched on my kitchen window.

Thank you Lord for this little treasure,

 that warmed my heart, 

on a bitter cold day, in Minnesota.

  

Winter hiking...

Rick and I took advantage of going for a little hike on Saturday before the

 arctic blast struck southern Minnesota. It was a beautiful afternoon,

 warm enough to shed our coats and gloves half way through the hike. 

We chose to hike at Quarry Hill Nature center.

We just picked a trail and off we went.

To add a little challenge to our stroll, we ascended up to this high ridge

 We could see the nature center from where we were (note the pink arrow), now we just had to figure out how to get back down there. It wasn't clear by the trail markers, but with the help of our 

*"hiker angel" we found our way back down in one piece. 

That was one steep descent on the slippery white stuff.

 At one point we hiked up a path that led to a neighborhood bordering the park.

 I snapped a photo of this unique tree fort, someone was very creative.

*hiker angel - on three different occasions while trying to navigate our way back down the ridge, we encountered a man, cigar in one hand and a dog on a leash in the other. He helped direct us back down to the start of the trail in a safe and timely manner. On a side note, we would have made it down just fine, just maybe not in the most timely manner.  Dusk was upon us so it was nice to have a "little hiker angel" to guide us in the right direction.