Author Archives: Kristine

My old cat

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Erin & Even my old cat makes me think about lyme disease.

You can see from this picture, taken just the other day, that our old cat is not feeling so well these days. She is nearly 20 years old. It’s been nearly 191/2 years since she adopted us. I still vividly remember the day I opened the garage of the house we lived in then and saw the slinking bony creature lurking in the dark corner. The can of salmon that we set out for her then sealed the deal in her mind. She’s been focussed on being fed by us ever since.

But being old is not so much fun, even for cats. She’s needed to spend extra time at the vet’s lately. The experiences have frightened her and have been an affront to her dignity. They have to prepare for her appointments. They need two people, long thick leather gloves, towels and a mask, which fits over her eyes and mouth. They are really good with her, but she just doesn’t understand why anyone should have to do such things to her. So, even though I’ve thought about taking her again, I hesitate. She has started having seizures some days and is not herself then. Today she is herself and all is calm. The day the pictures were taken, Erin has the towel beside her, afraid that she is going to pitch over and start thrashing at any moment. We took the picture because we thought we might have to take her and have her put down soon. Erin is quite attached to her puss. We are grateful for some more time with our old friend.

But when the time comes, I will have to find a humane way to get the old cat to the vet’s again. It will be sad to say good bye, but she has lived a long, healthy life. I wish I could say the same for some of us. They have an interesting map posted in the vet’s office. Across the top in big letters it announces where cases of heart worm have been diagnosed in Ontario. In little, unobtrusive letters, it also tells you blue triangles represent where cases of lyme disease have been diagnosed. There are a few triangles in the Toronto area, lots east of Kingston in the Thousand Island region and quite a number up around Sudbury. I didn’t look further. Sudbury is where we were when David was found by an infected tick. I see that even vets are quiet about lyme disease. Probably they don’t want to create a big fuss with their counterparts in human health. But at least they are straight forward about it. They aren’t trying to pretend that it isn’t happening.

My co worker went on a trip this summer to Cape Cod. She got lyme disease and knew what it was, because she has talked with me about David. Very lucky for her, she had the right bands show up on the antibody test, and went to the doctor’s at the right time to get a positive test result. Public Health in Ontario is quite willing to accept her diagnosis, as it was clearly contracted outside of the province. Very few of the people that I know who have contracted it here in Ontario have been so lucky.

politics anyone??

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Even though David is in bed for much of his time, nothing stops him from keeping up with the news and so we continue to enjoy discussions about current events such as climate change or politics. I learn a lot from them because David is quite astute and gets me thinking. Yesterday’s discussion was about Stephen Harper and his decision to continue the attack ads in Quebec against the Liberals. These ads are apparently based on not trusting a party that has had a recent scandal, despite the fact that Goodale and the Liberal party have been exonerated re the scandal. What does that say about the personal character of Stephen Harper?

Or what about his initial refusal to accept the passing by the rest of the parties that we should keep to our Kyoto Accord agreement? Or how about how he now says that he accepts it but it won’t come to anything? Everyone agrees that the Kyoto Accord isn’t perfect but what do you think of his alternatives? Do you think that they do as well at addressing the issue of climate change?
How do you think the government should create ‘teeth’ in legislation and follow through to ensure that issues of pollution, climate change control or honest government actually happen?
I’d love to hear what you think.
Kristine

Learning Plans and Emotional Intelligence

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I remember some years back Dad gave me a copy of Daniel Goldman’s seminal work called Emotional Intelligence. It was a fascinating read and Catherine has since devoured it as well. The field has continued to develop since then and now there are many companies offering workshops in it and how to apply it to the workplace. Last summer we had one such company – I think better than the average company teaching this stuff- come and do an initial 2 day workshop with us. The fellow, from Guelph, who taught us was really good. They put things in place to help us see our individual needs, integrate what we learned and carry it forward into our daily lives.
For those of you who haven’t heard too much about emotional intelligence, let me give a few quick insights. There is now a recognition that IQ only measures one kind of intelligence, and in fact that are several different areas that a person needs to be intelligent in. Other areas include kinesthetics, or where your body is in space and time( I am kinesthetically impaired, athletes or dancers tend to have a lot of kinesthetic intelligence) and social intelligence. As I am sure you have observed in real life a person can be really smart intellectually but be a bumbling idiot socially or emotionally. People who are quite bright intellectually but not socially or emotionally tend to be ineffective employees and leaders, hence the move to teach the skills in companies. The thing about is that you can learn it- although the older or more practiced your current neural pathways are, the harder it is. It is all based on neuroscience and what we have discovered about how the brain works. You look at how you respond to old fears, perceived threats, conflict, challenges, asking for help etc etc.
Anyways, although I am fascinated by it and took what I had learned back and shared it with my co-workers and some of the patients, I have already forgotten some of it, as there were so many new things to learn last year. So this year, as part of my yearly learning plan mandated by the College of Nurses, I plan to revisit it and really integrate the learning in a way that I can sustain. So I will probably write about it again here from time to time over the coming months. I hope this helps make me more accountable to follow through too!
Kristine

Feeling better

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November sunsetIt has been a very difficult fall for me with David so very sick. I often felt depressed and angry. It wasn’t supposed to go this way in my mind! David was supposed to be almost better, and though we had all changed and grown through the experience, life was supposed to get back on track now. Well, it didn’t go that way. He suffered so intensely and there was so little anyone could do. I was exhausted and I am told I looked ‘gaunt’. I wondered why so many peoples’ prayers seemed to be bouncing off the ceiling.
David is slowly getting stronger now but is still suffering a great deal. Not much has really changed from that perspective. But I am feeling much better- and I was told today at work that I am suddenly looking much better! I think that is partly because I have had a great deal of support and prayer from others over the last couple of weeks- I can feel the difference- and I am ready to listen to God now. I no longer need to be angry and depressed.

eating through the alphabet

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Writing a blog is a very strange thing to me. I am writing for others to read, but I don’t know who will read it. It’s hard for all of us to figure what to write about – except David, who has the quietest life!
So here goes: during the holidays the girls came up with the idea of eating through the alphabet. We started on January 2nd and have kept it up with only a day off here and there. Today we ate ‘n’. At the beginning we only ate foods that started with that letter but that was challenging to fill in the veggies etc. so now it’s the main course and whatever else we can. So far we have had apple pancakes, beef and bean burritos, chicken crepes, dolomathes (the girls weren’t too thrilled)-anybody want a jar of leftover grape leaves?, enchiladas, …… Catherine and Erin have been busy helping plan the menus, looking through cookbooks for ideas. Erin has enjoyed baking some theme letter desserts ( such as ‘ginger’ crinkles). We’ve tried some new things and it’s been kind of fun. We’re looking forward to quiche and zucchini.

Holidays are over

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Holidays are over. I was able to take quite a bit of time off over the last 2 weeks, which was great. I got lots of rest. To finish up the week Simone came in with Sarah and Melanie on Friday. Erin had been asking to see Sarah for a very long time. It was great to spend some time with them.

This week I seem to be making up for lost time. Longer hours have been necessary and now I am on call because everyone else is sick or going to a funeral. I have never had to do call before, so far there is one prevalent issue. Everyone, including me(I’m better) is coming down with gastro symptoms at work. We haven’t had to close the ward yet but it wasn’t looking good at 6:30 this morning when I went in to teach a falls prevention class to night staff and the nurse from our floor who was assigned to come came and told me that he had just filled the med room sink with vomit and now he had diarrhea (ok, so nurses revel in these gross details) so he couldn’t make it! But due to the fact that I have just had a good rest, I am getting extra pay, and it’s all very interesting it is all good.