Celebrating Life

We have had the most beautiful weather for spring.  Everything looks great with the pink and lavender colors.  I have always loved spring as it is a renewal of life for the earth and it reminds me everyday of how blessed we are to be alive.   Easter was suppose to be rainy and mother nature proved the weatherman wrong as we had a warm and beautiful day.  We spent  a lot of time outside enjoying bicycling, walking, and working in our yard.  The flower beds are ready for flowers and we will be planting soon.  Flowers are those beautiful smiles from God.

Speaking of life, my dad turned 87 years young five days ago and we celebrated.  He is still getting around well and he is keeping us laughing with his quick wit. He said he is getting younger and he reversed his birth age to 78.  I do believe that your age is just a number and your outlook on life will determine the age others perceive you to be.  My dad appears a lot younger than he is and I am glad he is an optimistic person.   Happy Birthday Dad !!

Still missing Laney as I sat on the front porch and missed her company.  You never realize how much you miss a pet or person until they are gone.  My whole routine in life is different now.  The house is very quiet.

We have planned to do a lot this summer as my husband turns the big 60.  We definitely will celebrate that mile stone.  He had to jump a lot of hurdles to get to this year.  Everyday is a celebration for life, love and happiness.  He can proclaim to all that he is a twenty year cancer survivor.  Still hoping someday that we can erase the word cancer from our vocabulary.

Life is beautiful !!!
Elizabeth:)

Loving Medicine And Vitamin D

I read something about health care every morning. I remember saying a couple of years ago in the midst of total stress and burnout that I never wanted to be a nurse and yet everyday I am still reading everything I can get my hands on that pertains to health.   Medicine fascinates me and I am happy to be a nurse.

I am amazed at the articles pertaining to doctor burnout.  It seems to be a real problem as health care professionals are expected to see more patients and generate more profits for our over paid CEOs of Medical Centers.  What happened to health care and compassion.  Even without the pressure of the corporate world, practicing medicine can burn you out.  I know I have been there as a nurse.  The last job I had was caregiver for family members.  It was 24hrs/7 days a week.  It was something that had to be done and they are still here with me and give me kisses all the time for taking good care of them.  And they realize the toll it took on me.  The last job I had outside of my home as a nurse in the real world also burned me out.  I was affected by the death of all the people that I cared for on an alzheimer's unit.  It was a daunting experience of watching people loose their minds to a horrible disease.  It was hard work and I had to be able to comfort not only the patients but their families, as they watched their loved ones slip away.  My soul was really broken after that job. I wish I had an answer of how to keep the burnout from occurring.  I guess the only thing you can do is take a leave of absence to care for your own mental health.

What has happened to the health care reform.  It seems to me that it is all about the politicians proving each other wrong rather than helping us get the care we need.  My husband and I have good health insurance at a nice high price to pay.  There are some perks like yearly well visits and vaccines that are fully covered without co-pays.  And yet the total out of pocket for the year has gotten out of reach for a lot of people.  We had one trip to the hospital last year and we had to get a loan for it, because three days cost us our out of pocket for the year which is a lot. I was shocked at the room rate per day and it was not the Ritz Carlton.  A routine test that cost $1500 just three years ago is now $3000 dollars.  As we age the chances of a hospital stay per year increase and it is scary.  Our insurance plan does not have a health savings account.  I have taken upon my self to try and make my own savings plan for health care.  It seems to get a little harder each year as the cost of the health care is growing by leaps and bounds.  Will congress please get over your egos and pass something that will lower the cost.  Please help us all quit worrying about whether the next trip to the hospital will cause bankruptcy.

So spring is here and we actually have had some days of sunshine and warm temperatures.  I hear the sound of lawn mowers and how sweet the sound.   Soon there will be flowers and flip flop weather.  I love the sunshine and Vitamin D.  They should name it the happy hormone.

I was excited to see that the LLS had news of a clinical trial that will be researching Vitamin D and Rituxan on patients with follicular lymphoma.  I also think that Vitamin D is another smile from god.  It keeps our plants and flowers healthy and us too.  Hope the trial is a great success!

Life is beautiful !!
Elizabeth:)

Life Is What We Make Of It

Today was the first time I have read my blog post, "A Perfect Love Story", since I posted it.   It made me cry thinking of how much I miss Laney.  She did help heal broken hearts and bring happiness and love to our life.  I now feel that I am suffering along with my husband from a broken heart over loosing Laney.  I wonder if a broken heart ever really mends or do we just replace memories with new ones.  There is so much happening everyday that we just have to go on living without her.  We still talk to her as if she is here, but the physical absence is difficult.

We decided to take a trip south to warmer weather and ended up with ten days of sunshine. Laney would have loved it.  It was great feeling the warmth of the sun and difficult to come back north to rain and gloom.  There are lots of flowers and things coming up in the flower beds and we are hoping that the cold weather that has descended upon us will not kill the budding trees and plants.  Mother nature in the north is full of surprises one day to the next.  The temperature dropped ten degrees in one hour this morning. We are praying this will be the last of the drastic weather changes and please no more bad storms.

It was quite sad returning to an empty house Sunday night.  There was no Laney to greet us and do her little dance and twirl around in the excitement of seeing us.  I wish she could have lived forever.  My husband has been equally heartbroken and who ever said men don't cry.  We met a couple on our trip that also lost their dog which was also a shih tzu.  The husband admitted he had never cried so hard in all his life and he could barely talk about the loss.  Dogs are really man's best friend.  They are smiles from god just like flowers.

The big question I hear these days is will we get another dog.  Right now we are still grieving over Laney.  I am not sure I want to replace her yet.  I guess time will tell.  I am adjusting to the freedom of no responsibility to take care of a pet or children.  It is allows me to focus more on myself and figure out what I want to do next.  On the other hand I still have my husband who is relishing in the fact that he is number one for attention now. LOL!

So what is next, life is always full of surprises.  Maybe I will have more time to write now and practice my french.  La vie est ce que nous en faisons.

Life is beautiful !!
Elizabeth:)