Hike

More pictures of Nordhouse.

Eikceb

I have this friend (she calls herself Eikceb sometimes) who makes me think. I often find myself coveting her spiritual insight. (Is it still a sin to covet if it is directed at a closer walk with God?) She often teaches me things. We met for coffee the other day, odd if you know that neither of us drinks the stuff, but we had a few minutes, her after work and me before, and we just talked. Now there were no deep philosophical insights shared- mostly we talked about biking to work. But she still taught me. A man at a table next to us got up and moved so he could plug in his laptop. But his hands were full and he left his cup on the table. MY friend jumped up and took his cup to him. Now, there was no reason that he couldn't have come back and gotten it and I'm sure he was going to but she did it anyway. And she does stuff like that all the time. A few weeks ago we stopped at Meijer and ended up in line behind a mom with small kids and a very full cart. While I prided myself on not getting impatient, Eikceb set her stuff down and bagged all the mom's stuff. This Mom was so harried that she hardly even paused from yelling at her kids and she didn't even really say thanks, but my friend saved her 10 minutes. I noticed. Why don't I do stuff like that? It is not about making the world a better place or "random acts of kindness". It is about doing what pleases my Lord. And I don't do it often enough. Yet I complain about not being on the mission field. I pay lip service to the fact that all around me is a mission field yet I don't live that way. I have some things to work on.
And once again, thank you Eikceb for teaching me.

Back on IIU

The pager says a stab wound to the chest and an elevated blood ETOH level. ... I must be back on IIU. I love my new job but nothing this "exciting" happens. (Exciting is tongue in cheek: I don't like stab wounds because nice people don't generally get stabbed and I don't like drunks because, well, they are drunk. I know there are "nice drunks" sometimes that won't curse me out when I try to provide care but they generally try to grope me and I'm more of a DON'T TOUCH ME kind of person. ) Anyway, I'm only on IIU once a week now and that is OK. Oddly enough we haven't had a drunk yet out at Southwest. (Pretty sure we never are either.) I'm getting the hang of it out there. The pace is generally pretty quick as I've discovered I'm working the busiest shifts. We can easily see more than 20 patients in the evening. One doctor and two nurses. Let me do the math for you... that is a lot of things to do in an hour. But I like being busy and seeing a little bit of everything. I'm slowly getting better with the kids stuff... though yesterday I was reassured that I still have no idea what I'm doing. I triaged a 3 year old who was holding her wrist and crying. Pretty sure I couldn't mess it up, I ordered the wrist x-ray and waited for the doc to go in to see her. Well evidently in that age elbow injuries look like wrist injuries and they don't even need films. You just put the elbow back in place and watch the kid for 20 minutes or so. If they start to use it again you discharge them home... I'm learning. (BTW: It is called Nursemaid's Elbow and shouldn't happen after age 5. )

Sticking around a little longer?!

A guy I work with now has really got me thinking and dreaming about being overseas again. I really thought I had improved the "be patient" thing but I guess not. I've started praying with a renewed passion about my next mission field. This new job is doing well keeping me busy and content but obviously not quite content enough. So, I'm back to looking for mission and stocking away for airline tickets....

The good news is that I'm reminded almost daily that I still have a ton to learn. But I can now tell scarlet fever from contact dermitis... if only these were things I would see in Burkina. I have not yet seen malaria or parasites at Southwest. I guess I have to stick around a little longer.