Heart Shine This Holiday Weekend

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Holiday Weekend

Woohoo. It's the holiday weekend and for many people that means time off from work.

Three days off. Time to let your heart and body relax.

Do you have plans?

Hopefully some of your weekend plans include a little "R & R" – rest and recreation.

A picnic or barbecue. Maybe something simple like taking a blanket and a good book to the park. 

Or maybe some time to sit on your back porch with a cup of coffee. Perhaps some time is allowed to set down the smartphone.

Whatever you have planned, you can bring some healing to your activity, whether you're munching at a picnic or resting in a lounge chair.

Relax And Let Your Heart Shine

Use of The Radiance Technique® (TRT®) brings healing and relaxation and is great to use during the holiday weekend.

For students of The Radiance Technique® – you can apply your TRT® hands-on:

  • while you're riding in the car to get to a picnic or an outdoor party – you can apply TRT® hands-on your solar plexus or your heart  
     

  • preparing your food – take a few moments to use your hands-on over your food during preparation
     

  • sitting around with people – it's easy to place one hand on your abdomen while listening and talking to people

When we have a holiday weekend, it's nice to carve out some extra time for extended TRT® hands-on. For example, you can apply 10 minutes in the heart center or 20 minutes in the solar plexus. Focus on whatever hands-on position seems right for you in the moment.

Use of TRT® hands-on opens the gateway to healing and the more healing we experience, the more our heart shines through whatever we are doing.

There Is Virtue In Rest

Relax into the universal energy accessed through The Radiance Technique® and replenish your energy that gets sapped during the busy work week.

Enjoy your holiday weekend.

 

Laughter Is Part Of The Healing Process

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Laughter In The Healing Process

This clever video of a dog "talking" about getting a new kitten makes me smile. I must confess, having watched it over and over, it never fails to brighten up my day.

Medical Screening Exams

As a Women's Health Nurse Practitioner, I often perform screening exams for women. This important part of my patient care includes lab work, mammograms, and pap smears of the cervix. One type of patient I care for routinely – women with abnormal pap smears.

Dealing With Abnormal Results

If a patient has an abnormal pap smear result, the cervix is further evaluated with a microscope procedure called a colposcopy. If the results are mild, we then have a waiting period of 12 months before we test again for the HPV virus (human papillomavirus).

We need that time to allow the immune system to rise up and "clear" the virus. The immune system must recognize the virus is there and then push it back behind a "gate."  Once that takes place, it is no longer detected on the cervix. If the virus isn’t there, it can't make changes to the cervix.

What Can I Do To Treat HPV?

Invariably a patient asks what she can do to treat HPV.

Is there a pill, some kind of drug she can take?

There are no medications for HPV. Instead, we help our immune system to be strong so it can suppress the virus. I always tell my patients about healthy eating, good exercise, adequate rest, no smoking, decrease stress and... laughter.

Take Some Laughter, Call Me In The Morning

Medical research shows that laughter and humor can boost the immune system and promote healing.  Laughter is considered to be a "natural medicine" that lifts our spirits and helps reduce stress and discomfort. The Cancer Treatment Centers of America integrate Laughter Therapy into their care of patients.

 

Healing Laughter

Laughter Therapy, combined with a healthy diet, exercise and adequate sleep, are all part of a healthy lifestyle.

May laughter bubble forth in your healing.

 

San Francisco Cable Car Ride

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A Cable Car Ride In The City

If you're going to San Francisco... not only do you have to wear some flowers in your hair, but you also have to take a cable car ride.

When I attended the Contraceptive Technology medical conference in San Francisco, I stayed at the Huntington Hotel which is perched on top of California Street, just across from Grace Cathedral.

The California Street cable car runs right in front of the hotel.

To My Conference via The Cable Car

On the first morning of the conference I bounded out the door of my hotel, late as usual, and spied the cable car paused on its tracks.  A gesture from the cable car gripman indicated it was okay to come aboard, so I hopped on to profit from a ride, instead of a long walk, to my conference that was being held in the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero.

Of course, this was after a quick check for traffic since you must take care to not be mowed down by a car or truck as you run into the street to climb aboard.

The Rhythms Of A Cable Car

Once on board, I was immediately overtaken by the familiar sounds and sensations of the cable car. The constant humming of the cable running below the tracks was almost a palpable vibration. Like a musical instrument, the grip handle ratcheted back and then released as if playing a rhythmic song.

The gripman applied the brakes and expertly clung to the cable that pulled us along. Sitting on the outer part of the car, l happily inhaled the fresh Pacific Ocean air, rich and full of life. Our departure from a stop was signaled by a tap-tap of the cable car bell, like a sweet cherry placed on top of this feast for the senses.

I couldn't get enough. I gulped in the sounds of whirring cables that pulled us up and down the great hill of California Street. In a video created with only my iPhone 5, I captured this noisy symphony.


Cable cars are not just for the tourists. To quote one travel writer, Kathryn Vercillo: 

“This is a form of transportation, not a ride, and you should treat it with that respect and safety in mind.”
 

This working activity of the cable cars gives them a real substance, a depth to their purpose.

Everyday office workers utilize the cable cars for their commute and to attend business meetings. Native San Franciscans can be seen catching a cable car for shopping or running errands. With a Muni pass, it's easy to hop on and off.

Take a look how this gripman, Val Luiz, describes working on the California cable car line in his blog "Tales from the Grip." May 2005, "California Here I Come".

California street evening view from the cable car

Good Night, San Francisco

Many secrets and sparkling gems are tucked among the hills of our beloved City by the Bay. 

The San Francisco cable cars are just one of many reasons to fall in love with The City.

And you? Is there something special in San Francisco that speaks to your heart?


*video and all photos taken with an iPhone 5

sutro tower at sunset from hotel

 

Your First Nursing Job

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Remember that first nursing job? I know I do even though 1992 was many years ago.

From Nursing Student To Real Nurse

Nursing care plans that I labored over for eight hours in school were behind me. Those care plans would now be put into action as soon as a patient was admitted.

Nursing boards, studied for and passed, were in my rear-view mirror.

It was time for my first nursing job – that moment when school work and clinical rotations stand at your back (you're counting on them to hold you up) and you launch into the unknown.

Time to be a "real" nurse.

Grateful to no longer be a nursing student, I was nonetheless anxious about becoming a nurse on-the-unit with my own patient load and patient care responsibilities.

 
 

First Nursing Job

My first real nursing job was at Johns Hopkins Hospital working in Pediatrics. That being said, this was no ordinary pediatrics unit with the ubiquitous tonsillectomy. In fact, we did not provide care for tonsillectomy patients here.

In this large medical-surgical pediatric unit that included an eight-bed step-down unit, one example of surgery was bladder extrophy repairs that placed bladders back inside the body and required six weeks of recovery on the unit.

What a privilege to work at Johns Hopkins Children's Center. Such an educational opportunity to work on this pediatric unit that cared for ages two to twelve.

Multi-discipline services were available to care for these small patients. We had specialists in areas such as Infectious Disease and Pain Management.

The pediatric phlebotomists were a god-send with their expertise to flawlessly start IV lines and get blood samples from tiny veins.

 
 

Working With Experts

We also had patients who came in for hemispherectomies that were performed by the famous, ground-breaking neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson.

You can read about his life in his book: Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story. Get ready to be uplifted and inspired. 

The nursing staff was always a little awestruck when he arrived on the unit with his team of residents swirling around him.

As a neophyte, I remember initially thinking how barbaric it seemed to remove half the brain of a child.

But then, I saw a child lying in a bed having intractable seizures with no interactive life. This was their life, seizures, nothing more. After recovering from the surgery, children often returned to the unit to see us – walking, talking and smiling – they were living life with gusto.

That's when I realized I was no longer in Kansas. It was my first introduction to the plasticity of the young brain.

 

The Hopkins Family

I loved being part of the Hopkins family. As a proud graduate from the School of Nursing at Johns Hopkins University, my work at Johns Hopkins Hospital deepened my sense of being part of the Hopkins healthcare team.

A Love For Labor And Delivery

Yet, in spite of all the joy of working at Hopkins, I couldn't stay. My heart called to me to work in Labor and Delivery, so off I headed into the world of birthing babies.

The medical-surgical experience I gained from my time at Hopkins was invaluable and prepared me for the world of Labor and Delivery (L&D). In L&D, the nursing rhythm moves from zero to 60-miles-an-hour in a moment's notice.

Working on the pediatric unit at Johns Hopkins Hospital laid a deep groundwork of experience so I could make that jump into the hyper-space speed of L&D.

What was your first nursing job?