Connie's Classic Clips: Week In Review

This has certainly been a busy week at work and at home.

Monday evening was last night of the 12 week Weight Control Classes I teach twice a year. This was a great group: very focused and diligent in maintaining their weekly food diaries, writing weekly goals, and overall just being motivated. The 17 participants regularly attended and the total weight loss for the group was 299.8lbs. WOW. That's two whole people. I take the summer months off, rewrite my program and move topics around, add new recipes, and update information for the weekly topics and start again in September.

Tuesday, I started another round of our squad personnel for their FIT testing for their HEPA masks. At least this group was more focused and realized the seriousness of the procedure. Everyone was on time and had their paperwork completed.

Wednesday, I had an inpatient diabetic consult on the stepdown unit at the hospital where I work. The docs are great about writing for a consult on any diabetics they have admitted. I am a Certified Diabetes Educator, so this not only looks good after my RN title, but is great for local physicians in the surrounding three counties to refer their diabetic patients to me. I am also in the process of developing from the ground up an updated 10 hr diabetes group class, but developing teams within the hospital to help me establish all the policies and paperwork needed to get the program American Diabetes Association recognized. This is about a 2 year process and once this has occurred, then I can start charging for our programs and consults. I also had a student physical to complete for a young man that will be shadowing one of our physical therapists for a few months.

Also on this day, Rich had another follow up visit with the plastic surgeon that did all the grafting of the leg wound last month. The new muscle he put into place is looking good, healing well, and slowly beginning to shrink into place. The leg is still swollen and bruised but not near as much as a month ago.

Also, this is the day I saw my dermatologist and he took biopsies and froze some keratosis (age spots) on my face. I look like I've been through battle. I should have waited another week cause we have a wedding to go to today and I still have some good scabs. I also started putting all our numbers into a spreadsheet for taxes. UGH!

Thursday was meetings off and on during the day. I re-met with the diabetic patient and her family to review specific goals. I also have another round of Squad personnel for FIT testing.

Friday was finishing final touches on new forms and policies to get them to the typist for cleaning them up. I had another student that will be shadowing our finance department and had his physical to do. Made rounds on the unit to check on patients for any infections and then left at 1:00 for tax appointment.

Once that was over, I had to go and buy a gift for the neighbor girl that is getting married this afternoon. Her hubby to be is in the military and after his two weeks are up, he will be deployed to Iraq, so please keep him in your prayers as his job is a dangerous one: defusing mines. Amanda will continue to live at home until he returns home and then she will be moving to North Carolina to be with him. What in the world do I get them for a wedding gift? I purchased a large wedding gift bag and started filling it.

I found a kitchen counter holder that has about 30 kitchen items -spatula, grater, whisk, peeler, steak knives, paring knife, etc., a set of bath towels, kitchen towels, dish cloths, and a large pop-up laundry hamper. That should be enough.