Thank you, Invisalign

I was able to convince my orthodontist that my appointment should be moved up from March 1 (when I should have been done, but will be on vacation), to February 25, so I wouldn't have to wear my last tray for my entire trip. Lucky for me he's pretty laid-back and didn't see the harm. I went in, got the 'ok' from him and had a permanent retainer put on my top teeth.

 Before:

(the small "growth" on the left tooth is added for Invisalign and is not some actual tooth tumor)

After:

 

You might say that the gap I had wasn't that bad, but the gap kept getting larger, and the before photo was actually taken a couple of days after I had started wearing the trays.  Plus, they are my teeth, not yours.  I couldn't be happier. Other than being told I shouldn't bite into a whole apple or raw carrots with my front teeth, I think the permanent retainer is great. No more gross removable retainer (not like it fit anyway). And no more food getting stuck in the gap. Now I'm off to the beach!

It's definitely time for a vacation.

I cried at work today. Within an hour of being there. It was my "third twelve" in a row. I was averaging 5 hours of sleep each night. Yesterday I was there 14 hours. And I walked in today to have the nurse I was getting report from tell me, "I had a night from hell. They are a horrible team [of patients]. They should have split up your assignment." Well, then why didn't you ask the charge nurse to split them up? I had some of the team yesterday and was swamped. I was already exhausted, which means I'm usually emotional. By 7:45 I'd already been approached 3 times for things my patients wanted. I could barely keep it together and when one of the aides came up and hugged me I had to excuse myself to cry for a minute in the bathroom. It felt good. And then I was ready to better face the chaos.

By 8:15 one of my patients was in respiratory distress. I spent two hours in the room getting her stabilized.

I finally saw my last patient at 11am. I had been there 4 hours already. Thank goodness he was stable.

And the madness continued for 8 more hours...

The silver lining is that today was my last day for two weeks! And I'll be enjoying this in 4 days:

Happy Birthday to me.

The scariest show on TV

Last weekend I was at home flipping through the stations. I saw that Hoarders was on. It is a show on A&E about people who can't throw things away and the stuff/junk/food/animals that collects in their house. We had been talking about it at work and I decided to watch. I made a huge mistake. The episode I watched featured a lady whose house had been "cluttered" (that's putting it mildly) for over 20 years.

This wasn't her house (I couldn't find a pic), but it was worse than this. Much worse.

They hauled 8000 lbs of trash from her house.

They found 3 flattened, dead cats in her house-at the bottom of some of the piles.

There were open cans of rotten food.

I can't even begin to describe the bathroom...

They found packages/junk/trash at the bottom of the piles from 25 years ago.

I felt sick to my stomach watching it. Physically ill. I know that extreme hoarding is a psychological disorder and that people need treatment for it. But it was still really hard to watch. And because I was still a little curious, I had to wait to see what happened at the end. My house is not cluttered, but watching it made me feel like I had too much stuff. I wanted to go home and throw everything in my apartment away and then drench my apartment in bleach. Luckily I was in Medina and couldn't go right then or my house would be barren now. I'm shuddering just thinking about it. Don't watch this show unless you want to feel ill.

Not Hoarders. Horror-ders.

How do I love thee?

Socks: $2
Boots: $12
Christa accidentally buying two right boots and being "all right": priceless

I bought a pair of these galoshes in Costa Rica. They were $12. We were in the middle of a tropical storm and these boots were a lifesaver. They're comfortable too. I've worn them a few times in Ohio when it has rained. This week I discovered another use for them: snowstorms. I have shoveled the sidewalks three times in the last 24 hours. I even dug Sarah's car out of my driveway. My feet were toasty warm and dry. I'm pretty sure I'll be wearing them everywhere in the next few days till everything is plowed.  I never thought I'd love a pair of $12 shoes so much and get so many uses out of them.

Action packed short month

This is going to be a great month.

Lost starts tomorrow. The beginning of the end...

 For you Losties, Claire is in the pic. Crazy.

Groundhogs Day

That is Phil in the pic with us

Sadly we're not going this year

My Invisalign is done in 23 days

I leave for Brazil in 27 days

I'm going to Bolivia in August on a humanitarian trip 

(I got accepted on the trip today, so I'm including it in this month)