I turned on my computer this morning to find this message: Congratulations on Saving Lives for 50 Years! Today marks the 50th anniversary of our graduation from BMH School of Nursing . Do you have any memories of that day? The greeting came from our committee chair for our fiftieth reunion that we're having next …
Tag: retired nurse
Nurses are Lifelong Learners
It’s August 1 today and my body is automatically going into back-to-school mode. For about half of my seventy years, either as a student myself or as a teacher of nursing students, I’d spend August assessing my wardrobe from next-to-skin to outerwear. Then I’d shop. My wardrobe had to be in place before school started …
Another Retirement Crisis
You’d think I’d be having a heat-related crisis today—it’s the third day in Chicago of heat indexes over one hundred—but instead I’m having my second identity crisis of the year. The first was in May when, after fifty years, I could not give up my registered nurse license and, at the last minute, clicked myself …
Caregivers Write Your Stories (#6) / Living with Fibromyalgia Part III
This post is the last of the series on why caregivers should write their stories, caregivers of others and caregivers of yourselves. Three reasons addressed in this series are: to keep a record, to vent ("scream your words on the page rather than hurl them into the air"), and to educate and encourage others in …
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Caregivers Write Your Stories (#5) / Living with Fibromyalgia Part II
In Part II of my Living with Fibromyalgia topic*, I’ll be telling you about the new “career” I started after retiring early (age 58) from teaching nursing, a new career of “everything” fibro. Starting this adventure, I read everything my library held and everything I could find online. When I started to see duplications, I …
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Caregivers Write Your Stories (#4) / Living with Fibromyalgia Part I
What do you think of the old adage that misery loves company? I’ve found that to be true just so far. For example, I want to be able to share my challenges of fibromyalgia with others who have it, but I also don’t want to get dragged down by too many pity party stories. At …
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Caregivers Share Your Stories
Calling all caregivers. At one time or another, each of us has cared for a loved one or paid special attention to ourselves. Nurses Week is next week, an appropriate time for a program at Palos Heights Library that honors all caregivers. ~~~ From the library's newsletter: Caregivers Share Your Stories - Wednesday, May 9 …
A Late Onset Identity Crisis
May 31st is the deadline for renewing my license as a registered nurse, a license I’ve held for fifty years. For two years, I’ve been preparing myself that my golden anniversary would be a memorable time to let it expire. After all, I retired from working full-time twelve years ago and haven’t even volunteered to …
Living Lighter – Watch Carbs, Walk More
I learned this simple mandate, watch carbs, walk more, last fall from Laura Dion-Jones after I was a guest as a nurse author on her radio show. That encounter led to the blurb I wrote for the Caring Lessons Blog Tour Stop #4 (posted 3/14). When I told Laura about the blurb, she asked if she …
Welcome: Marianna Crane and Nursing Stories
If you've read Caring Lessons, you know Marianna. In Chapter 7, Finding a Friend, she's the "Red Hair" gal I spotted in a class I was taking and determined, immediately, that she " could be the friend I wanted. A friend with an insatiable mind for learning" (p. 78). It was Marianna who first inspired …
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Write Along with Me 