Sips, Snacks, and Healthy Hacks-A Nurse’s Blog
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Every once in a while, I’ll go solo camping. I’m talking tents. Campfires. Dealing with huge scary spiders by myself. I love spending time in the woods. I was a girl scout my entire childhood, and went on more adventures than I can count. And maybe it’s because of that, but I still love being…
Decisions Made and Solo Camping
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Starting chemotherapy can feel overwhelming—physically, emotionally, and mentally. As an oncology nurse, I’ve cared for patients at every stage of treatment, and one thing is almost always true: what people expect is not what it actually is. Expectations are based on ideas or stories or movies. Or what happened to your mom’s second cousin. But…
What Your Oncology Nurse Wishes You Knew Before Starting Chemotherapy
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It’s something that’s been coming up for a while. Will Guidara’s book, Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect, is inspirational and food for thought, whatever industry you’re in. If you haven’t read it, it’s the idea of going above and beyond, tailoring someone’s experience specifically to them. He talks…
Unreasonable Hospitality in Healthcare: Applying Hospitality Industry Ideas to the Healthcare Experience
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It can be hard to make a change. I graduated nursing school in the middle of COVID, having gone back after my kids were older and my ex and I had separated. I worked full-time in retail and then hospital pharmacies, going to nursing school part-time. After working for about a year on my unit,…
A Change for the Better
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“Aren’t palliative and hospice the same thing?” No, they are different, but do share similarities! While both palliative patients and hospice patients are facing life-threatening illnesses, a palliative patient can still be receiving curative treatments. Hospice patients, meanwhile, are no longer receiving curative treatments. Palliative Care Both palliative and hospice care are holistic, taking the…
Palliative Care vs Hospice Care
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It’s so subjective. But what I’ve found is that the exercise for me that’s the most fun is the exercise that I do without noticing it. It’s the long hikes in the woods, the 5ks where I’m jogging with lots of other people. It’s the times when I’ve played soccer with my kids. When I…
Are “exercise” and “fun” mutually exclusive?
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First pick-I’d want to be Galadriel from The Lord of the Rings. Because how cool would it be to be a strong and wise elf?! And, she has epic-ly long, golden hair. Second pick-Alma Whittaker from The Signature of All Things. A botanist who spends a lifetime studying moss and travels. Sounds pretty cool to…
If I Could be Anyone…
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He was a good boy. Really. Yes, he wanted to herd anything and everything. He would eat whole sticks of butter and chewing gum with xylitol (which would have to come back up). He’d steal whole sandwiches when you weren’t looking. But he was always up for an adventure. He would go walking with you…
Let Me Tell You About Shep
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There are a wide range of side effects associated with chemotherapy treatments. Some are serious while others are more a nuisance. Here’s a look at seven common side effects and ways to cope. Fatigue Fatigue, or tiredness, is one of the most common complaints that I hear from patients. Depending on the treatment regimen, there…
Understanding Common Chemotherapy Side Effects (Part 1)
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I graduated from nursing school in the middle of the pandemic. Started my nursing career working on a PCU unit, watching people yank their bipap masks off in the middle of the night because they were so confused by hypoxia. To say that I adapted would be somewhat accurate, I suppose. Like everyone, I coped…
Pandemic Adaptations
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