ah, joie de vivre

hope

2011-01-28T18:51:00.004-06:00

I love this time of year. Its always so cold and dreary yet there always seem to be little signs that give hope . . . the hope of Spring. The bulbs are beginning to sprout. There are closed buds on the trees. There is hope. There can also be hope that I will keep up this blog again :)

This has been one of those weeks that I feel would be wrong not to share. It has been an amazing week.

Earlier this week, a 16 year old girl came in for a pregnancy test with her father. She did have a positive pregnancy test but she and and her family were certain the best option for her would be to terminate the pregnancy. I have seen the effects that has on mothers years after they have made this choice. It made me so sad for that poor little life and for the seemingly insignificant decision this young girl was about to make. A friend of mine was able to see her that day in her office to do an ultrasound for her. She got to see her baby and its beating heart but she was still requesting information about an abortion. My heart was so saddened but our nurse called to check on her a few days later and spoke with the father. The father said his daughter had chosen to keep the baby and since she was his daughter he would support her in whatever decision she decided to make. I couldn't believe it!!

We also have been seeing a family from the neighborhood for a while. We see both of the parents and both of their girls. There is a lot going on with them right now. The father decided to come in to talk for a bit with our chaplain. Our chaplain asked him if he "was a follower of Jesus?" The man replied that he "was not a f@#&ing follower of Jesus!" but by the end of their meeting, the man became a follower of Jesus!

Finally, there seem to be some people that come in and just steal my heart. I'm not sure why they do but my heart adopts them and I pray for them regularly. Most of them are older teenage girls that will either have to forge a new path for themselves or continue down the path of destruction that is so comfortable and familiar to them. One of them this week came in for a pregnancy test. Again my heart was so saddened. This is what I had been hoping to avoid but the test came back positive. She was pregnant. But again there is hope. We have a wonderful parenting class with some amazing young single mothers that have been transforming their lives and the lives of the next generation that they now bring to class with them. I offered the parenting class to this girl but she lacks initiative to get things going. I doubted that she would actually make the effort to come to the class but she did!! I was so excited to hear it. She has at least started to move down a different path. I am certain that this journey will not be easy for her and I'm not sure that she won't turn around and head back to what is familiar but the change is huge. It is a different way for her. I can't wait to see what happens.

So that was our week. I hope each of you has had an encouraging week as well.

Much love.

summertime favorites

2010-07-29T09:23:00.015-05:00

So I apparently took an unintended hiatus from my blog. I keep meaning to write again but the longer I wait, the more I want to write, and so I just keep putting it off more and more. Its been because this summer has been good, though. But today I am going to remedy my procrastination and write about some of my favorite things from this summer.

First, my vacation. Stacey and I went to Jackson, WY this summer. It was beautiful and relaxing. It would be a great place for a family vacation too. Once your there, you really don't have to pay for much. You can just play outside all day. We rode horses in some mountains that looked like they were taken straight from The Man from Snowy River. There were even white bark trees like the movie. That was my favorite thing we did. We also rode bike and hiked through the Tetons and went hiking in Yellowstone. I also went to my very first real rodeo. They put little kids on sheep and let the sheep run and whoever stays on the longest wins spurs. I really enjoyed watching that. Those kids were like 3 years old! I did eat some of the worst food ever in WY. I'm sure there are good restaurants there but I did not eat at them.

And, speaking of food, the has been my wonderfully good new summertime breakfast. I started eating this in Wy and haven't stopped. Its quite simple. Its just fresh blueberries, granola, and plain yogurt. I think I could probably eat it for every meal. It is so very good.

I also got to go home and and spend a wonderful weekend with my family over one of my most favorite holidays (aside from Christmas). My cousins have gotten a wave runner which I had completely forgotten how much fun those things are! But my entire family descended upon my parents and grandmother. My aunt came in from California and me and my brother came home. Its so hard, now, for the whole family to be together but we spent a full weekend together. It really was good.

I also got to spend time with my most favorite niece! But guess what is even more exciting . . . She is going to be a big sister! She is going to have a little brother in December. I'm not too sure what she will think about it. I'm pretty sure she likes being an only child. But I am thrilled.

Also, this may be old news to some of you, but I have found some fun new music. I have finally jumped on the bandwagon and decided that I like Adele but I also found this guy last week. He's the lead sing of some band that I'm too lazy to figure out but does acoustic music on his own. I love it. I like the words and the music . . . which I can't say for Adele. Also, everyone needs to download Thankful by Christabel and The Jons. Its my most favorite song of the Summer.

And in long awaited news, I finally did my first triathlon. It was so stinking hard! But I did it. In case you haven't notice, which I seemed to have, Chattanooga is a very hilly city. I thought I was going to die on one of the hills on the bike. At that particular point, I said in my head that I was never going to do a triathlon again :) Oh, but I was already registered for another one. I did have a really cute guy at one of the aid stations offer to pour ice water down my neck . . .which I agreed to. I was so beyond done at that point. So, I guess we will see what I think about a flatter course. That race is in September at the beach.

This has been my favorite meal I've made so far for the summer. Its chicken and couscous salad. It is so good and so easy to make. Its also from Cooking Light so its good for you. Here's the recipe.

Salad:
1 1/4 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 (5.7-ounce) box uncooked couscous
1 1/2 cups cubed cooked chicken (about 6 ounces)
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions
1/2 cup diced radishes (about 3 large)
1/2 cup chopped seeded peeled cucumber
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
Dressing:
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons extravirgin olive oil
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 garlic clove, minced

To prepare salad, bring broth to a boil in a medium saucepan; gradually stir in couscous. Remove from heat; cover and let stand 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork. Spoon couscous into a large bowl; cool slightly. Add chicken, onions, radishes, cucumber, parsley, and pine nuts; toss gently to combine.

To prepare dressing, combine vinegar and remaining ingredients, stirring with a whisk. Drizzle dressing over salad; toss to combine.

Note: You can toast nuts quickly in a dry skillet over medium-high heat. Stir frequently, and as soon as they become fragrant, remove the nuts from the pan.

A friend of mine gave me this book a while ago for my birthday and I finally picked it up this summer. Its been my favorite book of the summer so far. I highly recommend it. Its about a man that starts building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. It really makes me want to go over to the middle east.

And, speaking of the middle east, this girl, Amy Jacks, used to go to my church but is living in the middle east now. She is an amazing person. She has a huge love for the Muslims. She is also in great need of financial support. So if you are looking for someone to support, let me know and I will send your more of her information. I wish you could here her stories from being over their.

So, aside from work, that's pretty much been my summer in a few paragraphs. I hope you all have add wonderful summers also.

Much love.

he lives the poetry that he can not write

2010-05-20T09:44:00.006-05:00

There are two things I wish about myself . . . well, sort of. I wish I was better at taking pictures. So many of you do such a good job of showing your lives with the camera. I'm not that good a capturing the moment, but then I don't really enjoy being behind the camera so much. Presents a bit of a problem. Also, I would like to be a better blogger but life seems to get in the way. In all honesty though, I enjoy life much more than writing about it. I guess that's why I am not a journalist. So, you we will all have to wait until my sister shows up with the camera for me to post some pictures and will just have to hope for a post to show up one day. It just happens that today is the day for that!

We've had quite a lot going on at the health center lately. Our new pediatrician finally started working. Her name is Dr. Mary Jones and, so far, I am really enjoying having her there. She is wonderful with both the kids and the parents. When I think about her, I think of someone that is fiercely kind. She has both great love and strong passion. I like the mix though. Those kids need a strong person in their lives but they also needs someone to love them well. If you are in town, you should come by and meet her.

We've also had a few harder, but not necessarily bad, things going on lately. This is entirely what I expected when I signed up for this job but pulls on my heart more than I expected. This week alone, I saw a girl that decided to abort her baby recently. I saw another girl that is pregnant and has been taking medicines her entire pregnancy, unknowingly, that can cause some serious damage to the baby (I have no update on her yet), and the mother of a family that is part of the Dream Center died the night before last leaving her two youngest sons without much of anything. Its been exciting to see what and who comes forward to help in each of these situations, but I also long for hope and life for each of these kids and its so hard to watch them struggle to find it.

In lighter news, look where I am heading in a few weeks:

I'm so excited, I can hardly wait. This is a picture of the Teton's in Jackson, WY. I'm going mountain biking, kayaking, horseback riding, and hiking . . . hopefully. But I am planning on being outside regardless of the weather. If you know of any fun things to do there let me know. I am definitely up for ideas. Also, I would love some book suggestions if you have them.

And . . . look at my baby girl. She is getting so big!!

She has apparently just learned to roll over, but since she has such determined parents, instead of just rolling over, she just rolls to where she would like to go now :) She has gone mobile. Let the games begin!

I am also still well on my way to my very first triathlon. Its now less than two months away. I have no idea how I'll do but I've really enjoyed trying it out.

So, that has been my life lately. We (CHC) are having our big benefit this weekend. My mom is coming in to town to go to it with me which should be fun. You are still more than welcome to come if you would like :)

Love you all my friends. I would love to hear how you are.

a different kind of encouraging

2010-04-24T13:59:00.004-05:00

Today has been such a wonderful day. We are having thunderstorms here and I've been house-sitting for a friend's who still has old slamming screen doors. I've been enjoying the weather so much that I forgot how wonderful it is to sit in the breeze, listening to the rain, and reading a good book. That's exactly what I have done today. I sat on a down-filled sofa with the only the screen doors closed and read for hours. I found a good book at their house too. Its called Hope Rising. Its a beautiful book about a women who rescues abused horses, retrains them, and then uses them to encourage abused children.

Its been a good week at the clinic also. I'm not sure if at times, we don't hear the encouraging things people say, or if there really are spurts where people are much more encouraging. I know in my last post I was beginning to write about the encouraging things people were doing and saying. This week it has continued. I've had so many patients tell me how thankful they are for the clinic and all that is provided there and how they are trying to get everyone they know to come see us. There is nothing better (and I don't mean this in the business sense - I don't really have a business type mind) than for our patients to want other people they care about to come see us.

Also, I've decided that some of the things my patients tell me are loving, sisterly type comments. I've never liked my legs so much but I am told over and over again, especially by the women!, of how I have such big, pretty legs :) I've finally just decided that even though I don't agree with them, I can accept the complement. They are also quick to tell me when I have bugger's in my nose. According to the times I have been told this, I must have been walking around all my life with snot hanging out of my nose and no one has told me. I am thankful for their honesty (and for my clean nose.)

We are getting ready to have another fund-raising event for the health center soon. You are more than welcome to come if you would like. I would love to see you all anyway :)

Much love.

along for the ride

2010-04-15T13:34:00.007-05:00

Its been an eventful couple of weeks. Last week, at the clinic, Robert was out of town which made for some very busy days for me. To add to the craziness, on Monday, something far beyond my capability to understand, took out all of the computers in our building. It wouldn't have been quite so bad except that every thing we do is electronic . . . including faxing. It literally shut us down completely. It was one of those weeks that made me hope for the weekend in ways that I haven't in a very long time. I haven't been so glad to finish up a Friday in a while now.

This week has been much less hectic but it hasn't stopped any of the madness that is becoming a regular part of my life at Christ Health Center. For instance, I walked in one room yesterday and saw a lady who is truly poor. She and her husband both work. They don't live lavishly - she doesn't even take Advil because she can't afford it. She was telling me how thankful she was for the clinic and how we provide great affordable health care. I walk out of that room and in to the next lady's room and she was mad at me for how much it cost to come and see me. Some times, I feel like I am on a bit of an emotional roller coaster. I have gotten better about being able to move on from both the great things and the hard things but I still go for a ride at times. Its certainly not, like all things, as glorious as it appears from the outside.

Also this week, somehow my cell phone disappear. I'm not sure if I lost it or it was taken but now it is back at home. Someone saw it in one place outside, in a bush wrapped in a napkin, and then we found it in a different place outside, on the other side of the parking lot under a tree. So, I'm not exactly sure what all happened or how I even have my phone back but I do.

On, the same day as the cell phone recovery, I had one of my patients come in a give me the biggest hug and decided to donate money to the health center. It encouraged me so much.

We also have this patient that wants to die and become the grim reaper. She's quite dark - obviously. I saw her a couple of weeks ago and then she came back in and is so close to realizing the truth. I got so excited when I realized this. I will be interesting to see what happens with her in the next few weeks.

So, that's what's been going on in my absence. I've just been busy with my life.

I love you all. Thanks for all the interest you show in me in the things I love.

Oh, and I almost forgot. Read this. Its one of the best things I've read in a while.

oh, today

2010-04-04T09:27:00.003-05:00

This Is The Christ (lyrics) - Martin Luther

good news from heaven the angels bring,
glad tidings to the earth they sing
to us this day a child is given
to crown us with the joy of heaven

this is the Christ, our God and Lord
who in all need shall aid afford
he will himself our savior be
and from our sins will set us free

all hail, thou noble guest this morn
whose love did not the sinner scorn
in my distress thou come’st to me
what thanks shall i return to thee?

this is the Christ, our God and Lord
who in all need shall aid afford
he will himself our savior be
and from our sins will set us free

were earth a thousand times as fair
beset with gold and jewels rare
she yet were far too poor to be
a narrow cradle, Lord, for thee...
praise God upon his heavenly throne
who gave to us his only son
for this his hosts on joyful wing
a blest New Year of mercy sing.

this is the Christ, our God and Lord
who in all need shall aid afford
he will himself our savior be
and from our sins will set us free.

perspective

2010-03-27T12:19:00.002-05:00

I don't have a lot of news from this past week. However, I did get another great quote :)

My patient, who recently got out of jail leaned over to me and said "I've retired from prison. I'm not going back." I've not had many people say that to me before so I said "That's good." Novel words from me, I know.

So, tomorrow is the day I think I will day. I went an picked up my race packet yesterday for the duathlon in the morning. I'm pretty sure everyone there was half my size. I'm a little intimated and I'm not entirely sure how well I am going to do. There's a good chance a could get disqualified but there is as equally a good chance that we will get rained out. So, tonight as I lay down, I'm not sure if I will pray for rain or not. I may be retiring from something tomorrow too :)

Love you friends.

so they say

2010-03-21T17:31:00.007-05:00

I've been meaning to write this post for a while and just hadn't had the time. More and more things have happened that I've wanted to write about but then that means I need more time to write but then I don't have time and so on and so on . . . and I enter the death spiral of procrastination; and I'm not really a procrastinator.

So, at work, we were given an ultrasound machine last week which was an incredible gift. It also came with impeccable timing - its funny how things work out like that. We got the ultrasound machine and, in one week, saw three pregnant high school girls, for pregnancy tests. Robert knows a lady that is an ultrasound tech and she came over and did ultrasounds for two of the girls. It was amazing to see these girls see their little babies and their little heartbeats. The girls had the biggest smiles and these obviously aren't the greatest circumstances. It was one of the things that made my week.

In exciting flower news, I have flowers galore. I need some photographer action up here. I have buttercups and hyacinths and crocuses all in the front yard. They are beautiful and smell wonderful. And on my deck, if you remember before, I am finally beginning to see success. I truly believe pansies might be from the weed family because you can do whatever you please with them and they just keep coming back to life. Here's a couple of photos to document.

Also, this Saturday, I will be in my very first duathlon. I'm pretty sure I'm going to die and then I find out that on the bike part of the race we all have invisible boxes around each of us and you can't get in someone else's invisible box. It reminds me of those kids that had to wear hulla-hoops to learn about their personal space. But I did get this great new bike this week.

It still needs a little work so I doubt I will get to ride it this weekend, but I am very exciting about my new bike.

I have a couple of fun phrases from work this week.

I was asking one man how many children he had and his honest answer was "6 or 7."

I also have this older lady that I see often. She can't say here "r's" and still pronounces them as "w." So she comes in complaining of a knot on the side of her foot. "I got it when I feel and I bwoke my foot and they put my foot in a casket."

They're definitely keeping it real!

moving

2010-03-20T09:14:00.003-05:00

My blog has moved to a new home. Its still a bit under construction but will be better in no time.

listening

2010-03-04T05:43:00.000-06:00

Its funny how life seems to play out. I have, for as long as I can remember, wanted to work with the poor. At the same time, I have always wanted to work alone. I remember in high school wanted to move to Alaska and become a subsistence farmer - not as a statement really, but just to be alone. The other jobs I considered where engineering, becoming a pilot, being a park ranger - most of which require more work with things than people. Sometimes, I am thankful that we don't know the future. I think it would be too hard and I completely (almost :) trust our Future. All of that is to say, it seems that I am in the wrong job. I enjoy being alone and don't like having to talk all of the time - but then this is how Life seems to work.

In the end, I do really love my job. People ask me often, "Well, how can you do this?" or "How can you do that?" I just tell them that everything changes when you look at and truly see the person; suddenly it becomes not "this" and "that" but a real person with real thoughts, and feelings, and people who care for them.

This week, I got to sit and listen to the stories of two girls who had given themselves to many, many men. Both stories were appalling and in different world, should never have happened to them. There was nothing I could do to undo the past of either of these girls. Both were looking for healing and life - one doing much better than the other. All of the justice inside of me wants to make things right but I can't. Everything in me also believes that God is good. Its hard to reconcile both of those things together but somehow God is equally just and good. Something amazing happening, though, just by letting them tell their story and me listening. There was something freeing for them in the telling. I was able to connect both of them with people who can continue walking through their lives with them which brings me a lot of joy.

So, on the days when I wonder how I got to this place where I am in my life, working with people all day long, all it takes is looking in to the faces of these beautiful women, and I am completely refreshed and reminded why I am where I am.

Also, this seems to be completely off the subject, but through a friend's blog, I was introduced to a blog of a girl whose 4 year old son died. I spent several hours last night reading about her grief and learning about our good God. She does a much better job of conveying the same truths that I am trying to here. I would highly recommend it.

My hope for each of you is that, even in the very hard places, you would know that God is good.

Much love my friends.

wonderful weekend

2010-02-18T08:21:00.000-06:00

It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.

- R. W. Emerson

I have the most wonderful weekend this past week. I got to spend several days with some of my most favorite people in Auburn where I have some of my fondest memories. If I was better with a camera, I would have some pictures to show you, but I'm not, so we will all have to wait on pictures to appear. Hopefully, when I have a little more time, I will share some of our stories with you all.

Love.

its a thursday sort of day

2010-02-11T05:01:00.000-06:00

Slow mornings are one of my favorite things; especially sunny ones. I love making fresh coffee and finding a good book to read. I relish the quiet and the peace. These are rare days but it definitely causes not to miss appreciating them.

Oh, look who's here!

These are forget-me-nots. I've never seen them before but someone gave me seeds so I decided to try to get them to grow. I'm not sure what they look like when they bloom - I'm sure I could find out but its kind of excited to watch them change.

Also, this wonderful COTH family that owns a fabulous little store called Leaf & Petal, decided to send valentines to all the women that came through this week. Well, in case I haven't mentioned it before, I love flowers, and I love giving gifts - so this just made my week. We had little potted primroses to give. I have been hugged more this week than I think ever in my life. We've even had a few women start crying when we give them the flowers. I wish I could do this every day. I know that the patients love them but it has been the joy of my week.

I hope you all have a happy valentines. My love to you.

Oh, if you know my mother, tomorrow is her birthday! Wish her a wonderful one and ask her about the tradition she has started the past two years with my gifts to her :)

randomness

2010-02-04T06:51:00.000-06:00

I can, already, pretty much assure you that this will be a completely random post. I don't have much of an idea of what I want to say and its been a pretty typical week for me. Aside for a few things, this week has just been the normal life of Amelia.

So, Thursday at work (I've had to change a few details of this story), P came in to see me about his heart. It was the first time I had seen her and so I was getting a complete history on her. She admits to me that she uses meth quite often. Drugs, and sex, have unfortunately become very popular conversation topics for me at CHC. So, I tell P about all the horrible things that I have seen meth do to people and reasons why, with her particular health problems, she was terribly at risk of causing serious harm to herself. She admitted that normally she didn't tell this to her doctors but that she didn't feel like lying that day. I thanked her for her honesty and we continued talking. I decide that she needs some testing and I let one of my best volunteers go in to do the testing. I go back in the room a little while later and I can tell that P and L are having a very intense conversation so I just told them I would come back in a bit and I start seeing another patient. The next thing I know one of my counselors is asking me if I referred P to them. At this point, I didn't even recognize P's name; I had already moved on. Our counselor says, "P just got saved." I was completely caught off guard. Later, L and I went to lunch across the street and I see P in the parking lot and she was thanking me incessantly for what I had done for her. I don't know that I have ever felt so inadequate as I did then. I responded to her but I kept telling everyone, "I didn't do anything." When L and I went to lunch, I asked her what happened when she was in the room with P. She told me that she walking in the room and P was sobbing. She asked P what was wrong and she told L that she just couldn't quit doing meth. L asked her if she would like to know how she could have power to not do meth to which P quickly responded yes. L told her about Jesus and the power we have in Him and how we don't get clean to come to Jesus but we come to Jesus and he cleans us. L took P to our counselors and they immediately connected. When L and I were going to lunch P and one of our counselors were also headed to lunch. P is now paying off her debts in the neighborhood and is meeting regularly with all of our people. Our counselor came back and again was talking about what happened and again I told him that I didn't do anything. He said "Isn't that the best thing? We don't have to do anything? God does everything!" which is obviously what happened. I will update you as I here how P is doing.

Also, when I eat lunch at the McDonald's in our neighborhood, I usually try to eat in the corner because people there always know who I am. L and I went back in the corner to eat last week, and this plump old man comes and sits in the booth behind us and says "Girls, its getting cold outside" which we affirmed with a nod. Then he looked at L and said "You got a few dollars to spare?" ,"No", "Well, can you buy me some food? I'm hungry." At which point, I chime in "Well, why don't you go over to the church to get some lunch?" (There is an episcopal church across the street from us that serves free lunch to whoever wants it every single day.) He looked at me, laughed, and said "Because I don't like that food." Who said beggars can't be choosers?! Apparently in my neighborhood, you can. :)

In triathlon news, I am beginning to look like neither of these women :) however, I have successfully completely all of my different distances for each event this week. I rode the tri bike for the first time and didn't die. I have run a bit and am finally getting in pretty good running shape, and the other night I finally made it back to the pool and swam my full race distance. Resuming swimming when you are 15, or 20, or 30, feels quite different. Among other things, even my feet are sore now :)

Lastly, in very exciting news for me, I am heading to Auburn to see one of my favorite families, and another one of our dear old auburn friends, next week. Unfortunately, the last time J and I took a picture together seems to be when her eldest son was a baby :) But I am excited about getting to spend some time with them and their newest little lady.

Much love.

before, after, in the meanwhile, and soon

2010-01-28T12:57:00.000-06:00

[caption id="attachment_423" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="before"]

This post has absolutely nothing to do with anything that I usually write about but is a joy of mine and therefore and I am going to write and post obnoxiously too much. I love flowers. I took this picture almost a year ago. They are flowers that I "collected" :) from the neighborhood.

However somehow between then and now, life happened. I'm not sure exactly what happened to my poor plants. I just decided to do other things and I have neglected them. But my poor plants are hearty little guys and just need a little love and hopefully will be beautiful again in a few weeks. I decided to do before and after pictures and pictures of todays progress. You'll have to come back soon to see the new after pictures.

Just a side note, as most of you know I don't have children. So many of the analogies in the Bible have to do with families, and while I do have a great one, I don't have one of my own, so I am sure that I don't understand what it means to love a child like a parent. What I realized today is there are also a lot about tending to the fields, good and bad soil, and pruning. I had my own little enjoyed moment with those analogies as I worked with my flowers today. I think you should give it a try - having plants that is :)

[/caption] [caption id="attachment_415" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="after"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_416" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="before"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_417" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="after :("][/caption] [caption id="attachment_419" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="before"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_421" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="my favorite before"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_422" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="sadly, after"][/caption] So, I started over. I dug up all the good plants and threw away the dead ones. Put new dirt in all the pots . . . [caption id="attachment_424" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="the goods"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_425" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="ready new homes"][/caption] Now, I wish I had some exciting picture to post of all the beautiful flowers in their new homes, but alas, the "soon" title. So, hopefully, one day in the near future I will have this to look at :) [caption id="attachment_427" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="my dream"][/caption] Much love to each of you - especially if you made it this far this time :)

i'm pretty sure i have spring fever

2010-01-21T05:45:00.000-06:00

From one of my favorite authors:

For thou, O Spring, canst renovate, All that high God did first create - R.W. Emerson

from the frontlines

2010-01-14T05:44:00.000-06:00

Well, I took a little unexpected break from my blog because the death virus came to visit me and there was not one part of that visit that I enjoyed. I got to be off of work for a couple days for the new year which was a lot of fun but then the true flu showed up at my doorstep. If you had seen me, you would have been very much inspired to go get your flu shot :) It's absolutely miserable . . . but I am better now and have made it back to work which has not lost any of its liveliness and vibrancy at all!

These stories are from yesterday alone!

I see this patient, Larry, that was shot and bled so much that he now has what we call an anoxic brain injury (basically from not getting enough oxygen to his head.) He is a young guy and his family is doing their best to take care of him but he is a lot of work. He has no physical abilities at all anymore. He is still able to talk but many times, people with brain injuries also hurt their frontal lobe which is in charge of your speech and personality. It's not a good thing to ding. Many of these people who are still able to function, but become completely different people than they used to be. In the more severe situations, they will still be able to speak but lose all control of what they are saying. Unfortunately, often times, the words they repeat are horrible - even in people who never used bad language at all in their lives. Its kind of strange and I don't completely understand it but it's not an uncommon occurence. But Larry is physically incapable of doing anything, literally, and then he has also injured his frontal lobe causing the above problems.

So, Larry came in to see Dr. Record and the dentist yesterday. I saw him the first time and he was repeating what he said but was not using bad language but recently he came in and saw Dr. Record and the Dentist and just screamed, "B&#%$!, B&#%$!, B&#%$!, B&#%$!, B&#%$!" incessantly. So, we were prepared for his visit ( he has to be brought by ambulance.) Well, the ambulance crew showed up and here comes Larry screaming as loud as he can over and over "You F*&$ing B*&$#!!!" all the way down the hall, to a room, during his exam, etc. Well, Dr. Record asked me to go in his room to do something. I went in and he started say "B*&%$!" repeatedly. (It's so bad that his mother keeps his mouth covered with a rag to try to tone it down a bit.) I had talked to him before so I just looked at him and said "My name is not bitch. My name is Amelia." To which he responds, "Oh, Hi Amelia. How are you?" It just made me a laugh.

Also, yesterday, Savannah, a new nurse practitioner student, started working with me. I forget that some of the things that used to seem so shocking to me, aren't quit so shocking anymore - ie my boarding home patients. You can never be quite sure how they are going to act and honestly I think they really know how they are going to act either :). I asked Savannah to go get our next patient, Ms. B. Well, Savannah, who has already been a nurse for 3 years, takes forever to get her vitals. I thought it must be because she is new. Finally, Savannah shows up and says, in her sweet, soft spoken voice, "I think you've got your work cut out for you." She wouldn't let Savannah get her blood pressure or her weight because "the devil did it." :) I see it's a boarding home patient here's this and says that its my typical patient. Since it was Savannah's first day, she was just going and seeing the patients with me. Normally, when I go in the room, I introduce myself and shake hands with the people - I'm not sure why I started that but I do. I introduced myself to Ms. B and went to shake her hand and she sat there with her arms crossed and said "I can't shake your hand." (Just to get a good picture, she has on a brown flowered dress with bright purple knee highs that don't quite reach the bottom of her dress, sandals, which show her purple knee highs, and a big fluffy green jacket.) I try to ask her history and she kept saying "I just have symptoms. I just have symptoms of these things. I don't have diabetes. They command my blood sugar to be what it will be and it is. This is all a lie. I'm not even supposed to be here. This is a lie." . . . and on and on she went. All in all, she won't let me touch her and she won't let me draw her blood so I can't really do anything. She did, however, come from one of our better boarding homes so I went out to try to talk to someone about her. There was a man who had brought her and he apologized profusely to me and told me that they have a hard time with her and that she is "delusional." I laughed and told him that I noticed. He walks back with me and says, "Come on Ms. B, let them draw your blood." "Ok but as long as they don't give a drop of it to my sister. If she gets even a drop of it, she will be beautiful." I reassured her that I would give it to Howard who has a handlebar mustache, and only to Howard (He picks up our labs every day.) So, in the end, we got some blood from her but I was never allowed to touch her. She's coming back to see me in a couple of weeks :)

And, finally, one of the more beautiful stories I have heard in a while. (I have permission to share this story and so I can use their real names.) My last patient, Ms. Bell, has Alzheimer's and is brought by a caregiver - which usually means they are from a boarding home. Well, I see Ms. Bell and as I am finishing , I asked the woman sitting in the corner if she was related to Ms. Bell, and she said "No, Ms. Bell was given to me by DHR." Well, now I am a little confused so I asked her if Ms. Bell lived with her, and this story just bellowed out of her. (It made my week!) She said, "I used to run an assisted living until 3 years ago when my husband suddenly died. He wasn't sick or anything. He just died. I got so lost. I thought I was losing my mind. I gave my assisting living to my daughter and she runs it now. She came and stayed with me too because I was so depressed. I just lost everything. Then DHR called a few months ago needing help with Ms. Bell. She has Alzheimer's and she wanders and her family had given her up and she was living in deplorable situations. (Because she is a wanderer, she can't stay in an assisted living . . . because she can wander away.) So, I took her in to my home. Ms. Bell has saved me. I'm not depressed any more. I am alive again. (Ms. Bell is a biter but apparently has her moments of lucidity.) Sometimes, I will be sitting in my chair and I will start crying and Ms. Bell, she calls me Sally, will say 'Sally, is that you I hear crying?' and I will say 'Yes, Ms. Bell' and she will come put her arms around me and say 'Well, Sally don't you cry. Everything is going to be ok. Everyone woman needs her own home. I don't know why God has me here either instead of my own home but everything will be ok.' I was also sad when my daughter went back home to my husband and was crying one day and Ms. Bell looked at me and said 'Sally, you remember what it was like to have your own husband don't you?' and I said 'Yes, Ms. Bell.' 'Well, then you let her go home and have her home with her husband. Everything will be ok.'" So, Sally and Ms. Bell live together now and apparently each is blessing the other more than they ever would have imagined I'm sure. I had Dr. Record come in and asked 'Sally' if I could tell her story and Robert looked at her when she finished and said "Do you believe in God?" She said, yes. He said "Is this not what it means to love the Lord?" Sally just looked back through tears.

I love you all my dear friends.

no fun

2010-01-04T10:44:00.000-06:00

I went to bed last night not feeling very well but, unlike most cases, I woke up this morning feeling much, much worse , with a 103 temperature and felt like death. I don't think there was any part of my body that did not hurt. It was miserable and it has been a really, really long time since I have been this sick. I don't feel good now but I feel much better compared to this morning. It's all relative now today :).

Unfortunately with my job now, there was a whole schedule of patients for me to see. Robert was just going to try to see them. I hope it works out ok. We've never had one of us not be there yet. I guess it was inevitable but today is the first time.

So, between my sleeping and reading, I have had quite a bit of time to think today. I have a couple of fun stories from last week and a book recommendation, or two.

Someone gave me a book a couple of weeks ago to read, Four Souls. It is about several guys that have just graduated from college and want to do something different and special with their lives. They decide to travel around the world and work with missionaries for a year. While their struggles and lessons they learn are interesting, my favorite part of the book is listening to the advice and stories of all of these indigenous people from around the world. Their perspective on life is so completely different from ours. It will make you reconsider how we live a bit. It's not the most well-written book ever, but I highly recommend it.

On the same note, I hade "international day" one day last week at the health center. First, I saw an African patient of mine again last week. Last time I saw her, she would not let me increase her blood pressure medicine because her "head was cold." I don't really have any good arguments or education about cold heads :) so I just told her to come back in 2 weeks and we would see if her blood pressure was still up then. She comes back and her blood pressure is still elevated. I asked her about taking her medicine and she is but this time her "head is hot" so I got to adjust her meds. I've never really dealt with cold heads so I guess I just got lucky that her head was hot the second time.

I also got to see a Guatemalan teacher who was a diabetic who was here visiting her family for the holidays. To me, diabetes is not such a complicated thing. Most of the time, if you will spend a little time with someone, they understand why foods affect them differently and the understanding helps them to know what to do if they have problems. This lady's son was translating for me. I gave her a diabetes book in Spanish and I had time so I spent about an hour with them. She got so excited about her book and her new understand. She told me that she was "going to teach all of Guatemala." She was so thankful. It was really fun for me that she gained understanding and that she wanted to teach others. Hispanics have such a high incidence of diabetes so it will be great for her to share her book and her knowledge with other people. Situations like this one are why I love my job.

Well, I hope your week is getting off to a better start than mine.

Joy to you.

longings

2009-12-31T06:16:00.000-06:00

This is a little heavier than my normal post but it seems to fit in a season of new beginnings. All that we long and hope for is Real.

"We were made for God. Only by being in some respect like him, only by being a manifestation of his beauty, lovingkindness, wisdom or goodness, has any earthly beloved excited our love. It is not that we have loved them too much, but that we did not quite understand what we were loving. It is not that we shall be asked to turn from them, so dearly familiar, to a Stranger. When we see the face of God, we shall know that we have always known it. He has been a party to, has made, sustained and moved moment by moment within, all our earthly experiences of innocent love. All that was true in them was, even on earth, far more His than ours, and ours only because His. In Heaven there will be no anguish and no duty of turning away from our earthly beloveds. First, because we shall have turned already; from the portraits to the Original, from the rivulets to the Fountain, from the creatures He made loveable to love Himself. But secondly because we shall find them all in Him. By loving Him more than them, we shall love them more than we now do." - C.S. Lewis from The Four Loves

Also, this is from a friend of mine who is living and teaching in Mongolia. It speaks of hard times but also of Hope. I love this.

"These thoughts sting my heart, and then the passion just runs deeper for me to remain. This passion makes no sense to my mind but only to my heart. In my right mind, I am perplexed some days not understanding why I am here. Am I ruining my chances of marriage, being a mother and wife? How can I miss all the memories of being with my family whom I love so much? And how can they even believe how much they mean to me when I am here? Will I grow old alone? The people here don't seem to want me here either? But deeper still, my heart tells another story. The questions seem to be brought to a place of complete peace and contentment under the Spirit of Him who lives in me. My future is for Him to hold. My dreams for Him to fulfill. I am not wise enough to handle my own future. It is He that has created me for wonderful things that He prepared in advance (Eph 2:10).

Somehow, my heart can't believe one bit their thoughts about themselves or their thoughts about me. Oh, I believe that those thoughts are true to them, but I don't believe that its their destiny or who they are. Not when I look in to my Father's heart and into His Kingdom. He sweeps me off my feet and takes me in to the Kingdom of which is mine in Him, and I feel like a princess in a castle, with not one single need. And what makes sense to my mind just simply doesn't matter anymore; only what makes sense to Him matters. And then in that moment, I feel an inexpressible joy and freedom, that I want to share with everyone. It's a freedom that I could have never shared if it weren't for him allowed my heart to reach those places of desperation where I felt dead and it was up to Him alone to rescue me.

He has taken me to the most awful and terrible places. Places I never knew could possibly exist. I felt like a little girl lost in a huge wild forest. I only hoped in the darkness that lions wouldn't jump out and eat me; that somehow, someone familiar would come and hold me close and take me to the safety of my own home where I belong. But all I could hear were the lions roaring, the snakes hissing, and all of these scary creatures coming after me. My worst fears staring me in the face, me on the bottom, and all of them on top of me.

Hear's the end of this story. It's not a fairy tale; it's the truth. Though my heart had heard of my Prince in shining armour, Jesus rescuing me, I guess my heart was still filled with unbelief. But not now. My heart has experienced him so personally. None of those snakes or lions could destroy me. The feeling of true freedom is riding within me. Now I feel more protected than I ever have in all my life. He brought me through it all, to show me how much more I have in Him. To show me its all small compared to him. To show me He defeated it all on the cross and IT IS FINISHED because of who He is, its done. I am forever free and no one can take away the rights I have in Him. No, nothing in this world, can stop His lover for me or the people around me. In Him, I can get healed faster than anyone can hurt me. In Him, I can keep taking the first move no matter how strong the rejection is out there. And since I know that He is stronger than all my hatred, and all my bitterness, and all my complaints, I know He is that also for those around me.

No, we are not victims with no belongings walking in the wilderness only to one day be eaten by some big lion out there. We are more than conquerors. We can't lose. So I can say I am so thankful that He has taken me on this journey. I will dream on. I'm having fun. I say let's go because You know their destiny and Your blood was already shed for them. We believe together." - Jen Ridley

I long for new hope for each of you this new year.

Again, my sincerest love.

it is well

2009-12-27T06:04:00.000-06:00

The past few weeks have been so good. I have stories galore and have enjoyed this season more than I have in the last few years for some reason. I have gotten to catch up with old friends, spend time with the newest addition to my family, see my dear boys, a relish my family that is doing so well right now.

Last week, my roommate and I packed up and went to the Smokies to go see an old friend of mine from college that lives there now. It was a spectacular getaway. I enjoyed it so much that, having been given the option, I just wouldn't have come back :)

We went on a hike on the Appalachian trail (the first time for me.) The views from it were amazing. I had someone tell me once that he got claustrophobic in the mountains "because you can't get out." While I don't feel the same way as him, it is a good description of what you see. Mountains for as far as you can see. Peak after peak. It was beautiful. The other impressive part of the trail was how quiet it was. There was no wind, birds, talk, planes, traffic . . . anything. The silence made me ears ring. I don't know if I have ever been anywhere that was that quiet.

The second day we were there, it snowed. Ben, my little cousin, was looking at the pictures from the trip and saw the snow and said, "It's the size of 'hell'." I had no idea what he was talking about until I realized that he was saying "hail." The snowflakes were huge and it literally turned the mountains into a beautiful white forest within hours. I haven't seen that much snow since I lived in Nashville. I turned in to a little kid and just wanted to walk and play in the snow.

The next day, we went snow skiing. It was Stacey's first time to ski and I hadn't skied in 15 years. It was so much fun too. It was snowing at the ski slopes too. I enjoyed riding in the lifts and looking at the mountains, trees, and houses covered with snow as much as I enjoyed skiing. It did make me want to go somewhere and ski on some bigger mountains. Any takers?

Its been interesting too, since college, as I meet up with old friends on trips and at weddings and showers, to see them grow and change. Some of my friends seem exactly the same as they were in college; like no time has been lost. You can seem to just step back in time and regale memories. Other people seem to be the same but also completely different; as if they have been refined by Life. (Just like watching my brother become a loving father, all in one moment it seemed.) I enjoyed spending time with my old friend. He has definitely changed and has become a very gracious, kind man.

I got to have Christmas here in town with roommates of Christmas past and Christmas present. We had such a good time! We also continued on our gingerbread house making tradition with the Tippetts. It's so funny how traditions begin, especially with children. You something for fun one year and they expect that you will do it the next year. This year we did break tradition, however, and went to the Tippetts' instead of doing it here. It is so fun to see each of them in action. Hope is so creative and precise. She has amazing ideas and goes off in to her own world in her head when she is creating. Emmy wants to be like Hope and also still wants to be the baby so she requests assistance and copies Hope. She did break out a few of her own creative ideas this year though. I ended up being the one to help Chas this year. The past two years have consisted of him eating almost entire bags of icing. This year he wanted to eat the gum drops but got his own ideas rolling on his little house. It ended with a tree and wreaths on the roof and a set of runny windows and doors but I was proud of him for decorating this year.

I also have been home with my family. Life seems to have such different seasons, and this has been such a good one for my family. My parents seem so happy to be with each other. They have become grandparents for the first time. My brother and his wife have become doting parents. My sister and her husband have bought their first home. I listen and see some of my other friends' families and the stark contrast between my family and theirs increases my thankfulness. It has not always been so sweet but that seems to make the sweetness even sweeter.

(This is such a sweet picture of my mom and dad. Don't you just love the opossum head in the corner? :)

We play this game every year called "Christmas Eve Gift." The object of the game is to say it first to every family member you see on Christmas Eve. This is a longstanding tradition in my family. I know for sure that it goes as far back as my great-grandmother. I don't know past that. This game, however, is very, very competitive :) I remember when I was little, waking up as early as possible to hide in the house so that I could get my parents. This year, for some reason, was an especially competitive year. Everyone was trying to get everybody.

I drove home without telling anyone I was coming. My dad called when I was almost to his house and I told him that I hadn't left Birmingham. I got in the driveway, past his dog, but then couldn't find the right key to get in the house and got found. Then I had dad call mom to have her come home "to get something." She came home and I hid in the backyard. Apparently, my dog came around the side of the house that I was on and so my mom decided to sneak back the way my dog came. I was listening for her and my Aunt and decided to text my sister and tell her I was home. At the very moment that I looked down to text, my mom turned the corner and screams "Christmas Eve Gift!" In one moment of fear and disgust, I screamed and jump and stomped my feet. My mom laughed so hard that she peed on herself. I have never seen her laugh so hard. Then I went up to my grandmother's and tried to run in before I was spied by the boys but they got me too. Then everyone came back to my parents' house and Jon finally got off work and showed up at their house and everyone ran to hide. Apparently, he saw everyone running to hide so he came to the front door and opened and shut the front door and didn't come in. Then he snuck around to the back and came in the back door. Ben and I were sitting behind my parents' bed listening for the onslaught to begin when Jon comes in their room and screams "Christmas Eve Gift." I was so shocked that I screamed again :) I got made fun of for that one :) So, all in all, I did not do well in Christmas Eve Gift this year.

Ben and Wilson also got these airsoft BB guns for Christmas that are made to shoot each other with. They are so much fun. We played with those all Christmas afternoon. I might go buy me some so we can play with them here. There are battle pictures here, the rest of the family Christmas pictures here, and my Birmingham Christmas pictures here.

I hope you all also got to have a very happy and joyful Christmas!

My sincerest love to you all.

its the most wonderful time of the year

2009-12-12T08:58:00.000-06:00

It truly is the most wonderful time of the year! I love the entire Christmas season. I love giving gifts. I love all of the lights but make all of the darkness cheery. I love spending real, quality time with my friends and my family. So, I've again been a poor blogger but its been because life has been so enjoyable.

This would be hugely due to this sweet baby girl who has shown up in my life.

One of the greatest parts, as much a I love her, was watching my brother become a father all in one moment.

I didn't realize until I was at the hospital that he has never even changed a diaper before. But he is going on as a father with all of the zeal in the world.

Also, there have been parties galore. I got to go to the work party for my old job this week. It was so much fun. I got to see all of the guys that I used to work with and was greeted by each of them with a hug. I am missed them and my job so. It was nice to see they felt the same way. We ate and laughed and talked and had a great time.

We also got to a Christmas party at CHC yesterday too. They actually closed the office and we got to all eat together . . . which is one of my very favorite things. I got to see Robert's newly adopted daughter for the first time too.

Coming up, I have Christmas with all of my roommates here, both past and present, :) a trip to hike and possibly ski in TN, Christmas and gingerbread house making with some of my favorite kiddos in the world, and the home to be with my family and my favorite niece!

I have a feeling that I am going to continue to be an unfaithful blogger but I will have plenty of pictures up soon.

I love you all and thanks for being interested in my life. I hope you all have a very happy Christmas if I don't write again before.

Much love and joy.

i love you. don't touch me.

2009-11-28T07:11:00.000-06:00

I had a great Thanksgiving with my family this year. I am officially going to be an aunt in 3 days, so my sister-in-law wasn't allowed to leave home, so me and the rest of my family went to them. I can only think of one or two times in my entire life when we have not had Thanksgiving at my parents has with 5,000 people and children present. And those times, we just moved Thanksgiving and the 5,000 to my grandfather's house who just lives a couple miles up the road. So, for all of us to people a couple hours away from home and totalling only 8 people (and 6 dogs :) was very different, but it was nice. It was very odd to see mom cook such small quantities of food though. I very much enjoyed the smallness of it though. It was very relaxing and we all just enjoyed each other's company. I'm pretty sure we are all ready to meet little Brooklyn too!

Also, as an update, the baby shower for our young pregnant girl at TDC was absolutely amazing. It made both the girl and her mom cry. I wanted to cry when I saw all of the gifts that were there for her. They had to get a 12 passenger van and a police escort to be able to get everything home. The other wonderful thing was seeing the amazing changes in the girl in her mom since that horrible day when I confirmed what they both already knew - that she was pregnant. The girl was so flat that day; didn't cry or say anything. Her mom was obviously disappoint, angry, afraid, and upset. At the shower, the girl was glowing. Her friends and family came to support her and her mother was there with her as well. It was so wonderful to see. She was told that she would be taken care of and she was . . . much more beyond just what she needed.

Needless to say, December will be baby month. Robert will bring his new little girl home. The girl from the shower will have her baby, and I will become an aunt - all before Christmas. It should be exciting times.

Love.

grace see's beauty in everything

2009-11-19T04:20:00.000-06:00

Again, I have been such a poor blogger. I've had to limit my stories about my patients a bit and so it has made it harder for me to write. I love telling stories.

I do have a couple really fun stories that I can share.

Do you remember a while back, I had a young 16-year-old girl who came in for a school physical and we found out that she was several months pregnant? Well, her baby is due in mid-December. She and her mom and the father of the baby are all doing very well. They have been plugged in to the Dream Center and they have taken exceptional care of them. They are having a baby shower for her and her baby tomorrow which I am so excited about. I feel like someone in my family is having a baby. I had the best time picking out gifts for her!

Also, Robert and Leland finally got their travel papers to go get their little girl, Mimi, from China. They are flying out to go get her as I write this. I am so excited for that little girl. She has no idea how much work and effort has been put in to her little life and what magnificent changes are about to come her way. It is such a beautiful picture. I can't wait to meet her.

Finally, last week was a particularly hard week for me at work. During that time, I was thinking about what things I like most about my job and I thought I would share them here. They are in no particular order but are things that I really enjoy most about being at CHC.

1. Our boarding home patients

2. Getting to know and become friends with our wonderful volunteers

3. Our great staff

4. Seeing peoples' lives changed through the work of the health and dream centers

5. All of our counseling office staff

6. Our dentist

7. Seeing desparate people find hope

8. My great students

9. Having my family pop in for visits

10. The hope and possibility of all that is to come.

I love you all and thank you so much for all of your support. If I don't write again before next week, I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

My sincerest love.

blah, blah-blah, blah, blah

2009-10-29T06:51:00.000-05:00

That's about what I have felt like I've had to say for the past couple of weeks. I haven't been a good blogger because I really can't think of much to say; that and I didn't really want to take the time to sit and write :)

Since, I did write last I had my little lake vacation. I have never stayed anywhere alone like that. I stayed down a lonely dirt road in a little house at the back of a slu with literally no one around. I did see one fisherman in a boat come in the slu. I had no cell phone coverage, no internet, and some fuzzy t.v. It was a drastic change from my normal life of constantly taking care of people, documenting on the computer, and responding the mass of phone calls. So, I read, and took a nap, and watched a movie, and slept, and read, and tried to canoe (I was in a two man canoe with a skulling paddle and it was quite windy out. Despite having my dog in the canoe, I didn't have enough weight for such a large canoe and the wind kept blowing me in circles. I just spun around like I was on a merry-go-round. That's one advantage to having no one around - or not. I found the whole thing quite funny and no one was there to laugh with me), read some, took another nap, went on a walk, watched another movie, slept, went on another walk, and then got very, very bored. It was good. I haven't been that bored in a long, long time. Even though that part wasn't fun, I was very well rested.

I came back to work and it was just as I had left it - which is not really surprising but sometimes I am naive and I imagine things will be different. We now have almost 1200 patients under our care and are continually having to change and stretch as we grow more quickly than we imaged. We are planning a "Christmas party" soon to catch our kids up on their vaccinations (too which our dentist replied "That's the worst Christmas present ever!" I hadn't thought of it that way but it is pretty terrible :) We are going to have a Christmas tree and hot chocolate and give shots. Maybe we should have someone dress up in green and be the Grinch - they can administer all the shots and then we can advocate reading by giving everyone their very own copy of When the Grinch Stole Christmas. I am kidding of course but it is an odd combination but a great idea!

I don't have a good quote of the week this time. I did laugh in one patient's face but it was because she kept making up lie after lie after lie about why she hadn't done what I told her. I finally just laughed and told her that I was just trying to help her be healthy and she didn't have to do anything I told her. Then she started telling the truth. Along those same lines, I have had a bit of an epiphany this week. I have seen much more clearly this week how disarming kindness can be. People still flat out lie to me but the longer I am patient and kind to the people I see, the more of themselves they are willing to share with me. It makes sense but sometimes it is so hard.

Also, we do have a big need if you or someone you know can help us. We need volunteer bilingual spanish translators. Yesterday afternoon, I had 3 spanish speaking patients. My spanish has gotten so much better. I can understand most everything that is being said but I still have such a hard time speaking, especially when it come time to teach/instruct the patients about their self care. We desparately need people to help us so that we can serve more and more of the spanish speaking population. If you know of anyone or if you want to volunteer, email info@christhealthcenter.org.

I hope you all have a wonderful week and weekend.

My sincerest love.

people

2009-10-15T06:04:00.000-05:00

Since I was a slacker last week, and didn't want to write, I am a little back-logged in my head with stories. There is a whole lot of good going on at CHC/TDC. Here is some of what I know.

*I've been asked to limit my details/change some details to "protect the innocent" so these are completely made up names. If I use your name, it's because I've run out of names in my head, or I think it is funny to use your name :) *

So, update #1 - A, our young girl that wanted to abort her baby that I wrote about a few weeks ago, is now going and getting her prenatal care at one of the doctors offices in town. I haven't seen here but was able to talk to her on the phone and she is doing very well.

As an aside, RRR posted on his facebook page about the number of young girls from the neighborhood that are getting pregnant at such young ages. There were a slu of posts following that of people who wanted to help. I am so excited! These girls need someone to help guide them along as they become mothers and continue to have navigate being a teenager and learning about themselves. We will see what comes of that.

Now for update #2. Several weeks ago, B, came in wanting medical help. I realized that, like A, he needed someone to step in to his life and help him also. He got hooked up with TIL and now is planning to continue his education and pursue dreams that he has had since he was a child.

Last week, I met C and got the exact same impression from him as I did from B. I hooked him up with TDC and he was beside himself. He has been trying really hard to stay out of trouble but lacked any real guidance. It was like I gave him the best Christmas present ever! and all I did was walk him over to the next building. We will have to see what comes of that one too.

So, finally, after months and months and months of talk, the dentist office and pharmacy are going to open the last week of October. I believe them this time too. Our patients are so excited about have reduced cost dental care and medications. Both of these are going to be meeting huge needs, especially for our adult patients.

Also, for those of you that don't know, I have had several people ask if they are allowed to come to our dentist or to see me or RRR if they have insurance . . . and the answer is YES! It actually helps us a lot to see insured patients - it balances are very reduced prices that our poorest patients pay.

Finally, thanks to RRR and L, I get to be off on Monday and go stay at the lake (somewhere :) I can't wait. I desperately need to get away and have a break. It is supposed to be sunny with a high in the 50s in this weekend. There couldn't be more perfect weather. Thank you! thank you! those of you that helped me get to do this!

Much love my dear sweet friends.

picture pages, picture pages, lots of fun with crayons and with pencils . . .

2009-10-10T10:07:00.000-05:00

Do you remember picture pages? I don't know what in the world made me remember that! I didn't really want to write this week so I thought I would copy Time and publish "This week in pictures."

I began the week with a baby shower for my sister-in-law and a birthday party for my brother with my entire family.

Then this little man FINALLY decided to grace us with his presence.

Then I finally got to meet this sweet little girl. We are going to be hanging out much more now!

And alas, the quote of the week: (I have no idea who T. Magic is but we will just call them the author of this quote :)

"I am not a negative person. I am a positive person. I am positive that I am absolutely miserable."

We had a great week at the health center and dream center; we have a lot of growing and much more impact. Again, it is hard but good.

Much love my friends.

seasons change

2009-10-01T06:52:00.000-05:00

Since I have written, last the seasons have officially changed. Apparently the weather, at least here, decided it would change with the official date and it has been beautifully cool and sunny here. How much I have much the sunshine! and it is back with all of its glory and with gorgeous days. I am loving it.

It seems changes are a theme these days. At CHC, we have no officially been open for 6 months and we are quickly approaching a total of 1,000 patients under our care. It has called for much thought, adjustments, and change; thoughts of how things can be done better and differently and how to continue to provide the best medical care possible to a rapidly growing number of people.

The Dream Center continues to become more of a pivotal part of the neighborhood. It is now hosting classes for women on how to heal and become whole. There are more Saturday activities for the kids in the neighborhood. Sav-a-life is training volunteers to help us with our pregnant mothers. There were also some young white students down at the dream center and they ran into the Woodlawn football team - these kids all met out and now are all meeting together! I'm sure there is much more going on over there than I know about. It is just exciting to hear about it all.

I could share story after story each week, I'm sure. The one that stands out most to me this week is a teenage girl that I saw last week. She started cutting at age 12, had a child at 15, was arrested for meth at 17, and is now 19. She has had such a remarkable (and not in a good way) life so far. I saw her last week and she seemed to be so uninterested in what I was saying. I actually don't even remember why she came in. I talked to our counselors about her before she left. She was completely opposed to seeing them. They gave me a book on cutting to give to her, which I did but I don't think I assumed she wouldn't read it but I never thought she actually would either. She showed back up this week and was much more present. We talked some more but every time we would change to some sort of substantial conversation, she would look like she was about to cry, and she would shut down. I had completely forgotten about the cutting book and she brought it up. She told me that she really enjoyed it and then saw someone with "fresh marks" and she gave the book to them to read. I was completely caught off guard. Then had brought me a small gift. I had no idea that any sort of impression was made at all at her first visit, but she was like a blossoming flower at this second visit. I am very excited about seeing her again now. I gave her some more reading and she is coming back to see me again in a few weeks. It is just a blaring reminder that we have no idea what sort of impact is going to be made with anyone, regardless of how they respond. I will keep you all updated about her.

And finally, the quote of the week. I am seeing this very obese young man who has both mental and psychological problems. He is the sweetest guy though. Currently, he has no true chronic medical problems aside from being overweight. I talked to him at the last visit about walking some. He said he would so on this visit I asked him if he had been walking and he said, "Actually, I did go on a walk yesterday. I walked around the block to Krystal." :) I just laughed . . . at least it is a start.

Much love my friends.

celebrating life

2009-09-23T16:56:00.000-05:00

This has been a big week for us at the health center. We had our six month anniversary today. We had a great "family" lunch together and all shared memories, mostly good, of our past 6 months together. We laughed and celebrated and were all extremely thankful for the past 6 months. We also dreamt together about what we would like to see happen in the next 6 months. I really do love those people.

We saw our 900th patient today! That was exciting news - not our 900th visit but 900th actually person for us to see.

The rest of the week has been pretty tough. There are just a lot of hard things that happen in peoples. This week, I seemed to see more of them.

Again this week, I saw another 17 year old girl that was pregnant except she had already decided to abort her baby. She already had a two year old child. That was a hard one. Lisa was able to come help again and Dr. Nate was so wonderful to provide an ultrasound again. We have yet to see what happens with this girl. She hasn't shown the change like the girl from the previous week. My hope is that the first girl becomes a leader to these young pregnant girls.

I will keep you updated.

Much love.

beautiful, beautiful fall

2009-09-17T06:05:00.000-05:00

So, I've finally made it back but I need a moment. I saw this picture this morning and am in love. Fall will be here next week. It is one of my most favorite things to be outside on a cool sunny day, all snuggled up, with the sun in my face, reading a good book. Could that moment have been captured any better? It makes me happy just to see it.

So, now on to the real post :) and I will start all over.

Now, a beautful photo in anticipation of fall. Despite all my talk, fall is my least favorite season, but it certainly is beautiful.

We have had a good couple of weeks at the health center. We have also had a ton of visitors recently. It has been good because many of these people are either providing services to help us function better, or they are partners in the area that also see our patients. Its been good to put faces to names and build relationships with the medical community in the city and with our other partners in the region.

I have two great quotes of the week and then a wonderful story of our partnership with the Dream Center.

First, I was talking to an older, very well educated, white lady yesterday. She came in complaining of basically panic attacks. She told me it was the worst thing that had happened to her since she "had to shoot my horse in it head." I accidentally started laughing with that one. It was just completely not remotely how I imagined her describing her panic attacks. Then she proceded to cry and tell me about how she killed her horse. I immediately was serious again because she was not joking but it was so funny.

Also, I was talking to a lady over the phone last night about her lab results and her son's lab results and then I saw in their charts that they both had appointments with us today at 10. She then procedes to tell me, "I don't know if _____ will be able to make it tomorrow. He's in jail, but his dad is going to pick him up tomorrow at 8 so nevermind, he will probably be able to make it." Nevermind the "in jail" part. He will be there for his appointment. (For mom who I know will read this one day:) : He is a sweet mentally retarded guy that goes around and picks up cans and someone called the police because he was on private property. I'm ok)

Finally, one of our more difficult and rewarding stories. About two weeks ago now, I had a 16 year old girl come in with her mom for a school physical. Her mom wanted me to do a pregnancy test because she said her daughter was "gaining weight even though she is running." I talked to the girl and did the pregnancy test that her mom requested and then went in and did her exam. I came out and the pregnancy test was positive. I did another one and it was positive. My heart sank. I went and told Robert. He told me that he would help me if I wanted but to also get the dream center involved to help this girl. I went in and told the girl and her mom that she was pregnant and the mom lost it. She was angry, disappointed, sad, and scared all whirled up in to one moment and she let her daughter know. I had Lisa, from the Dream Center, come in and talk to them with me. The little girl did nothing. She didn't smile, cry, frown, flinch, or say a word. It was more disturbing than the mother because she literally did nothing. That went on for literally close to an hour. I was able to get the girl an ultrasound that day thanks to Dr. Nate and Dr. Campbell. I told the girl, who I realized after hearing the mom had lied to me about when she acutally got pregnant, that I needed to know when she really got pregnant to help the doctors help her. She told me, "I think April." Again, my heart just sank. They didn't have transportation so Lisa, who has a Miata, took the girl and her mom, in my car to see Dr. Campbell. They did the ultrasound and she was about 18 1/2 wks along. I haven't seen them since then, but every day since that day, the girl has come and brought her friends to the Dream Center to do their homework. Lisa and Dr. Record went to the schools open house and saw her. The mom is now supportive and the baby's father and his family are supportive and helping financially. Best of all, Lisa says, the girl is a completely different person and that she has come alive. She talks and laughs and is acting like a teenager. She gets to go back to Dr. Campbell one more time for a follow-up ultrasound and then she will start seeing her regular OB doctor. The Dream Center is planning to help this family through all of this. This is exactly why I wanted to do what I am doing!

Much love!

horrible, no good, very bad day

2009-09-10T10:39:00.000-05:00

For some reason, I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. I've redeemed the day a bit, but am going to take a break from my blog today. Hopefully, I will have a post up for you this weekend. Despite my day, that has been a really great week. I have some good stories to tell.

Much love.

mighty oaks

2009-09-03T05:29:00.000-05:00

I feel like this picture is a great representation of how Woodlawn feels about itself. It makes me angry too.

I was talking with someone last week and her children had gone with a camp to Woodlawn to pick up trash. They were told several times throughout the day to "Just put it down. It'll be there again tomorrow."

I don't know how many times I have been told that what I am doing is basically a lost cause; that these people feel entitled to health care, that they can never be taught to come to appointments on time, that they can't . . . . and it will never . . . .

Monday, there was a fight just outside the health center. It was terrible. I remember people fighting in high school, but I had forgotten about the sound it makes when someone in just railing on someone else. There were people everywhere watching this fight. All of them were in school uniforms meaning all of them were still just kids! Later that night, when I left work, the policeman that watches us as we come and go said those kids had gone and gotten guns and were after each other now. Again, I was so angry. These kids were going to try and kill each other over somethine incredibly stupid I am sure.

Everyone on the outside believes that no one in Woodlawn can change. For whatever reason, people in Woodlawn believe that nothing will ever change. THIS IS A LIE!!!

I have been asked by several of my patients if I "will be there" when they need to come back or "when I am leaving"? Right now, no one is going anywhere. We are in this for the long haul.

A friend of mine has a plaque in her sons' bathroom that I love. It is an old proverb. It says "Mighty oaks from tiny acorns grow." This is true for Woodlawn as well. We are simply planting the seeds and hoping and watching (not wishing) for mighty oaks.

I know, without any doubt, that change and growth, is possible in Woodlawn. Just one tiny acorn at a time.

Much love my friends.

everybody needs somebody

2009-08-29T03:49:00.000-05:00

We had a really good week at the health center this week. I am getting much more comfortable doing my new job. Robert is also starting to be able to see more and more patients. We have a little system or two in place, which I am sure are subject to change next week but we are beginning to develop a little bit of a flow :) Its nice.

I do have some good stories from this week. Some funny, some good, and some sad but encouraging. Enjoy.

Thursday, Robert got an urgent call from the high school. They have not been able to have a football team for several years. Its so sad to me because sports were such a big part of my life growing up and in a lot of ways, they are completely inaccessible to these kids. But, this year there will be a football team. In classic Christ Health Center style, Robert got a call from the school on Thursday that the entire football team needed physicals to be able to play their first game on Friday :) So, the entire team shows up, and Robert called another physician friend, and they got the entire football team seen. It was fun yesterday driving in to work because the kids wear uniforms to school, black pants and white polos, and yesterday mixed in, were a few football jerseys and black pants. Change is in the air!! I'll have to get back to you to let you know how they did last night. It almost doesn't matter though. I am just thrilled that they are developing their football program again.

Currently, we are still doing free pregnancy testing. I had a young girl come in this week and her sister thought she needed a pregnancy test. I started talking to the girl alone and found out that she has had as many sexual partners as she is old, that she had been treated two weeks prior to her visit with us for an STD in the ER, had had sex again since having her STD, and then she told Robert that more than half of the guys she had sex with "truly loved her." My heart broke for her. We spent a lot of time with her and now Truth In Love is going to help us out with her. She is actually excited about seeing them. I am cautiously looking forward to see what changes happen in her life.

I also had a lady come in to see me this week that had a colostomy. I won't go in to too much detail because most people get grossed out by this sort of thing, but I good comparison would be to say that getting colostomy supplies is like trying to find a woman a good bathing suit. Its hard! She comes to me needing new supplies but she doesn't know the size or kind of anything she is wearing. So, I decide maybe I can call her supply company and see what she has been getting. I asked asked her what their number is and she spouts of quickly "1-800-999-9999." So I go and I dial the number and I hear "Welcome to the singles hotline. Are you looking . . . ." and I hang up. So, I look at the number and dial it again, "Welcome to the singles hotline. Are you looking . . . ." At this point, I am starting to think this is funny because this little old lady just very quickly, without looking it up, gave me a singles hotline number. So, I am thinking this lady is lonely and is hanging out on the singles hotline but I decided to give it another shot and ask her what the number was again. And she says "1-888-999-9999" (istead of 1-800 . . .). So, I told her what she had done. She just laughed. I asked her if she was looking for a special friend :)

Also, this week, we had a dental sales rep, who had had people over over the weekend and had extra food left over. He decided that he would bring lunch over to our parking lot. It was so fun. He set up chair and we sat outside and ate and people from the neighborhood just started showing up for the free food. We just sat and talked. Some people simply came and got food and left. Others, sat and talked with us and told us what they needed and how much they appreciated the health center and dream center. A GED class may come of that day from one lady's expressed need. I really enjoyed that.

Finally, we have hired two new people. Lindsey Pimentel, who I wrote about a while ago, left to start school again so a huge hole was left that needed to be filled. We hired two of our most faithful nurse volunteers, Karen and Sirena, to job share a MA/nurse position. I am so excited because I enjoy working with both of them. They are completely different from each other but they both do such a good job. I am excited about having them come be a part of our little growing team.

Finally, look at what I got to do this past weekend! Could anything be more fun? I got to spend time with some of my dearest old friends and meet some of their children for the very first time. It was such a wonderful trip.

Much love my friends!

living

2009-08-22T04:32:00.000-05:00

I've not been a good blogger lately but I have a good reason. I promise. I have been playing :) . . . hard!

For those of you who haven't heard, I just got to spend the week, and my 30th birthday, in Huntington Beach, CA, with my aunt and one of my roommates. The trip, again, was more than I expected. We rode tandem bikes from Huntington Beach to Newport, got 2 hour long pedicures, napped on the beach, went to an Angel's baseball game and got to sit, and eat :), in the diamond VIP section, went to California Adventure for free :), took surfing lessons again but this time was successful, and went kayaking off Balboa island. The whole trip was wonderful!

If you are interested, you can see a slide show of our pictures at Snapfish. Somehow, our attempt to get pictures with the sea lions didn't make it to snapfish. I am going to try and fix it though. They are great. Stacey was afraid that we were going to get attacked by the sea lions which made it even more fun and funny for me.

I got back to work and was pleased to find that everything worked perfectly fine without both me and Lori being there. Our real sliding scale was started while I was gone; meaning that our patients are actually charged for their visit based on income. It is a really good thing because it is one of the requirements that we need to meet to become a federal qualified health center. This will enable us to keep our cost of service low and once the pharmacy is running, it will allow us to purchase stock for the pharmacy at a much lower cost.

Aside from that, this week was a good one at the health center. Josh Menendez, a fourth year medical student, finished his month long rotation with us. He is going on to do Neurosurgery and will be an excellent physician one day. Emily Whitty, a UAB nurse practitioner student, started back with us again for her clinical time. She is so wonderful to have and does a great job caring for our patients. Lindsey Pimentel finished working with us. She is starting back her sophmore year at Samford. I was sad to see her leave. She has been such a huge help to me and she is bilingual so she has helped me take very good care of our hispanic patients. I scheduled a hispanic patient for Wednesday next week and realized the Lindsey won't be there and I just looked at her and said "What am I going to do?" She is going to come in and translate for me that day. If you know of anyone that is bilingual and has time, we desparately need a spanish interpretor. I also am going to have a Samford nurse practitioner student that is going to start a clinical rotation with me some time soon. So, alot of movement and change this week but it has been good.

Now, I am sitting in a Hampton Inn in Nashville. One of my roommates from Nashville who is also a very good friend, is having a baby shower here this weekend. It is so exciting! There were four of us that lived together here. Now everyone is married and only one of us still lives in Nashville. The last time we were all together was several years ago for one of their weddings. We are going to get to hang out together all day today! I will definately post some pictures soon.

Fortunately, after this weekend, my life will slow down again and settle back in to "normal." I am ready to slow down a bit but this has been a great summer.

Much love my friends! ( . . . and another one from Cali :)

the most fabulous vacation

2009-08-16T13:26:00.000-05:00

I had the most wonderful vacation. It lived up to all my expections and was so relaxing and fun. I will post more soon but am already dreaming of my next getaway. :)

Much love my friends.

whew!

2009-08-08T06:57:00.000-05:00

So, Robert got to go to the beach with his family this week. I was very glad for him. He has worked so hard and his family has been so supportive. I was happy for them to get to be truly away from work and spend time together as a family.

. . . But, that meant that I was the only provider at the health center this week. I was nervous because we have been so busy since the grand opening. I made it though. I saw more than 60 patients this week and I saw every single one of them. I am so proud of myself. For the most part, it was a good week too. We have a 4th year medical student working with us for the month and our pharmacist started this week. They are both doing a wonderful job.

But now, it is my turn to get to go on vacation. I am going back to California to stay with my Aunt again. I went a couple years ago and it was one of the best vacations that I have ever been on. I love sitting in her house in the mornings with the cold ocean breeze blowing through, drinking a hot cup of coffe and having no where that I have to be. Last time we took surfing lessons, so I am going to see if I've still got the skills to pull that off. Its kind of like skiing though. It wears you out terribly quickly! We are going to see an Angels game, hang out at the beach for a few days, heading to San Diego and SeaWorld, and probably going to California Adventure. Hopefully, it will be another great vacation. The top picture is of the beach near Aunt Tricia's! :)

So, I do have a few good stories from this week.

Yesterday, I put my stethascope on a lady's chest, and she looked at me and said "I think you are listening to my phone." Then she pulled her bra open and looked down and said
"No, its way down there." :)

Another lady was telling me about her life and how her mother had died when she was a little girl and that she had made bad decisions for so much of her life. She looked at me and said "I kept seein' those stop signs and kept goin' right on around 'em" :)

Finally, Jason and I were talking to a guy yesterday and he was talking about how he only prayed when things going wrong but once they started going right he didn't so much care about God anymore. Jason explained to him that that is why we are called sheep in the Bible . . . because we like to wander. He looked at Jason and said "Well, I wish God would put up an electric fence for me then!" :)

Hope you all are enjoying the end of your summers.

Love to you all!

holy cow

2009-07-30T08:41:00.000-05:00

So, the grand opening officially did what it was intended to do. Woodlawn is now very aware of our presence. We were also on the news and in the paper and so those with little or no insurance and/or income are coming out of the woodwork to be seen. They have been referred to us by friends, doctors, the television, and newspaper, family, etc.

To put it in to perspective, we saw 400 patients in 3 months and then saw 80 patients in one week. That' almost 20 percent of our entire business in one week. We are going to see more than that this week.

It has been good though. I still truly love the people that I am working with. We do need more volunteers though. I am sure that almost anything you want to do, we have a need for. If you are interested, email kpenuel@christhealthcenter.org or info@christhealthcenter.org. We can get you hooked up with the job for you :)

Also, the dream center is about to start doing a whole lot more with the kids in the neighborhood. I am really excited about this and wish I had time to go play with them. If you like working or playing with kids, we also have the job for you :)

I've been trying to think of any good stories to tell but so much of the past two weeks has been spent adjusting to the huge change in how we practice and operate our office. Hopefully I will have a good one for you next week.

Much love.

many garcias

2009-07-23T06:09:00.000-05:00

So, we have definately seen more action this week from our grand opening. We set our new record of patients seen in one day on Monday. It has been quite a busy week. Needless to say, I am extremely greatful for my day off today.

Here's a video from ABC that was run on Sunday night after the grand opening. Hope you enjoy it.

Matters of Faith 7-19 - Christ's Clinic

Much love and many thanks.

Ta dah!!

2009-07-19T13:17:00.000-05:00

So, I begin my post today with beautiful flowers as usual. I did not intend for this to be a trend but somehow that is what it has become. Nonetheless, this isn't just another picture of pretty flowers . . . these flowers are in the front garden of Christ Health Center!! Can you believe that?! We have a garden! And it is gorgeous.

Here's taking a step back . . .

Yesterday's Woodlawn festival was amazing. I am afraid that my words are going to fall short here in explaining the day. There were thousands of people that showed up, young and old, white and black, rich and poor. And everyone was together for one purpose. All I can say is that it was much like preparing for and going to a wedding of someone you love.

Here are some pictures of the day, mostly taken by my sister.

[caption id="attachment_254" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Almost the entire family with Dr. Robert Record"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_255" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Side entrance to the Dream Center"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_256" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="The main entrance to the Dream Center"][/caption]

And some of the people that came out for the day . . .

Thanks again to everyone who came. It really did mean so much to me. And to those of you who couldn't come, you are still welcome to come down and see the place.

I love you all. You are each so dear to me.

goods

2009-07-16T12:31:00.000-05:00

Hello my sweet friends.

I have waited until later today trying to think of what I want to say in this post. For some reason this post has been more difficult for me to write. I'm not sure why either because things have been bustling at the health center this week.

We are finally having our grand opening, ribbon cutting, and community festival this weekend. The designers and painters and construction workers and landscapers have all been working constantly trying to get things ready for Saturday. We have gotten wonderful art work to hang in the health center and dream center. They are using both buildings as galleries for the art. They have also been doing some beautiful landscaping outside both buidlings. I have to admit that I am a bit jealous of all the beautiful gardens that we are going to have. I would love to have them here at my house. At least, they are where I will be able to enjoy them.

Our patient is also steadily increasing and as is our ability to see patients which both are obviously good things. We are probably averaging close to 20 patients daily now. I am a little frightened by what our official opening is going to do to how many patients we are seeing daily but then again, the vision has alway been to continue building and expanding as needed so that these people are cared for.

I have loved, and more than that, I just don't have words to explain, having counseling available in our building. They have taken a heavy load away from me and I am very well aware of the loss of that load. It has freed me up to provide for the physical needs of the people we see and know that their emotional needs can be helped if they want it. I have been surprised at how far down people are willing to go before they will go seek help; even if it is just moving to a different room in the same building. I had one of the physicians at our other office tell me that if you can get an addict to come back the next day to get help, then you eliminate over half of the people. It is so true and I see it even more now that we have resources to be able to help these people. A lot of them just don't want help, or don't want to put forth the effort to change, are just afraid. I'm sure there is a myriad of other reasons they don't go as well.

So, here's another quote of the week. This one again is rated R, so proceed if you wish. I have seen quite often in my job that women use their bra as storage. I don't know how many phones have rung and they stick their hand down their shirt and out comes a phone. So, I have just gotten used to seeing odd looking breasts covered with clothes. (It is part of my job examine people and I am looking at them from head to toe while I talk to them.) So yesterday, I had this lady that I noticed that one breast looked significantly larger than the other one. This can be a sign of breast cancer; to have one breast that has changed sizes or that looks a good bit differently than the other one. So, I noticed this and asked her first, "Do you have anything in your bra?" She looks at me, pulls her shirt down and her bra out in one swift moved revealed her breasts, and says "Naw, nothin' but these big ole' titties." Once again, I gotta just keep movin! So on we went talking about feet.

I would love for ya'll to come on Saturday if you can. We will still be there after Saturday and you are still welcome to vist but Saturday should be a lot of fun and it is supposed to be a beautiful day.

Here's the flyer and the link (http://www.churchofthehighlands.com/dreamcenter/ ) for Saturday.

Much, much love.

the slapdash spectacular

2009-07-09T06:15:00.000-05:00

[caption id="attachment_234" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="there is always hope"][/caption]

This week has felt like those first few weeks at the health center again. I was met Tuesday morning, although pre-warned, by the front entrance and main lobby being officially opened to the public and by everything from the previous nurses station moved into random piles of papers in the new nurses station along with a busy morning of patients. I have to admit, it won't go down as one of the most enjoyable days of my job. We didn't know where anything was and we were having to initially use the old exam rooms because the new exam rooms weren't quite ready to be used. It was chaos!

Yesterday, although more organized, we saw 16 patients along with Truth In Love's 7 patients that they saw. It was terrbily busy. We also had ABC news in doing another story about the health center . ABC is also going to be at our grand opening on the 18th.

I feel like we all thought we were hopping on an old coal train and got on one of those extrememly fast asian trains. Things are moving forward so quickly; much more quickly than I think any of us expected. I am still very glad to be there but it does get a bit overwhelming at times.

In one week, we will have our official grand opening of both the Dream Center and the Health Center. I am so excited. I want everyone to get involved because I think what is happening in Woodlawn is amazing! Resources are pouring in. People in the neighborhood and the city are becoming more aware of what we are doing. We are growing our staff but we can't do what we do without all of our volunteer help. So, I would love for you to join us.

Finally, I do have a quote of the week again :) Yesterday I saw a lady who present with left ear pain. When I asked her about it, she told me that she had had the pain for about 3-4 weeks. She then proceeded to tell me that "it was from that sonic boom we had." Thus, I asked her about the "sonic boom." She asked me if I heard the sonic boom. I told her that I had missed hearing it. She asked if I "lived around here" which I replied in the affirmative. Then she told me that the sonic boom was from "one of those storms that we had recently and then there was the sonic boom and it knocked the power out for 3 hours!" I realized at this point that she was talking about thunder!! I don't know where these people come up with these things!

Much love and be sure to keep those ear plugs handy :)

the fowerth of julie

2009-07-06T05:54:00.000-05:00

[caption id="attachment_218" align="aligncenter" width="403" caption="So very close to opening our doors"][/caption]

So, I have pictures available. This is the main entrance to the dream center. It is going to be absolutely beautiful as you can see from here. Also, tomorrow, we should be almost entirely in our new space in the health center, along with our dentist, and counselor!! How exciting is that!

[caption id="attachment_219" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Windows to be hung in the Dream Center"][/caption]

Hopefully soon, I will get some pictures of the completely Dream Center and Health Center. I will post them as soon as I get them. I am so excited because not only am I getting to do what I have always dreamt of doing but the place where I get to work is a beautful building. It gives me pride and those the come in the doors a sense of pride as well.

To follow are a few pictures from the 4th of July. I played MadGab with my family the other night and my card said "Manner Four" which was supposed to be "man-of-war." For some reason instead of reading "four" as 4, I kept saying "fower." :) When Kim realized what I had done, she asked me how many degrees I had :) So now I am calling this 4th, "The Fowerth of Julie."

[caption id="attachment_220" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="My sweet cousins who I adore!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_221" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Me and my sister"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_222" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="My dad who I adore but who couldn't catch a thing this day :)"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_223" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Just about to feel my true age!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_224" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Wilson's big catch of the day"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_226" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Me and my sweet Ben"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_228" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Me and Jon"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_229" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Wilson performing the dance to "Grease Lightening""][/caption]

Hope you all had a wonderful "fowerth!"

Much, much love.

summertime

2009-07-05T13:39:00.000-05:00

I found this picture and it is called, and self names, "Redneck water skiing." It is funny to me for a few reasons. First of all, where in the world did they get this idea?! Secondly, why is the guy completely dressed for a rodeo?! I mean, put on some sweats or something!! It was too great to not get posted though.

I have been skiing and tubing, eating entirely too much, playing at the water park with friends, and ejoying the summer. I will post some pictures soon when I get them.

The health center is barreling along. We are moving in to our new and final spaces. We are getting ready for our grand opening on July 18th . . . you all should come if you can. (I really want you to come in case you can't tell.) We are looking in to having students come work and train under us. His Truth In Love Counseling moves in to the building this week and they will officially start seeing clients under our roof. And speaking of roof, hopefully the roof will be finished soon as well :) Our dentist, Rayne Russell Osborn, started last week.

So things are moving much more quickly than any of us imaging they would. Thank you all for being so interested in my dream and what I have wanted to do for so long. I have been given such a great opportunity and I am getting to do this with wonderful people working alongside me. I am truly greatful.

I love you all and I will post some fun summer pictures soon.

no small dreams

2009-06-26T11:52:00.000-05:00

Isn't this picture beautiful?!

I have gotten a few questions about the dream center, what is going on there, and how to get involved. So, today I got schooled :)

This is what I learned:

For basic information, go the 4th Sunday night of the month to Church of the Highlands to 401 (which is upstairs) and they can get you plugged in with people who want to do the same things you do.

The second option is to call the church (980-5577) and ask for Helen James or Lisa Hollifield and they can get you connected with the right people.

Finally there is the longer answer to "what we are doing;"

The dream center is broken down in to 5 arms :) which are:

1. Health (Christ Health Center)
2. Education (At Woodlawn High School and Gibson Elementary)
3. Recreation (which is mostly being done through Joanne King at Willow Wood)
4. Housing (Split in to financial education and contruction)
5. Economic Development (Partnering with the city and community to get lucrative businesses here locally).

So technically, the dream center won't really be in the dream center and there will be a good bit of fluidity to for new ideas. Like I know right now that Joanne King wants to learn about nutrition so she can teach the Willow Wood kids about making healthy choices and we want to support herin that. I'm sure as The Dream Center opens, more tangible needs will become available. Also, you are welcome to share your ideas at 401. That is what that meeting was created to do.

Oh, and you don't have to go to Church of the Highlands to be able to be involved; just in case you were wondering.

Also . . . my exciting news . . . Lindsey, who I mentioned a few posts ago, and who I was so sad about leaving, is coming to work here for the summer. I am so excited!

Love my friends.

coming soon to a neighborhood near you . . .

2009-06-25T05:53:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, July 18th, we are having the official Grand Opening of The Dream Center and Christ Health Center. That morning, Church of the Highlands (www.churchofthehighlands.com) will be doing work project around in the neighborhood. In the afternoon, we will be having food, games, and giving tours of the both The Dream Center and the health center. I would love for any of you to come. It would be a wonderful day for me to be able to show you around and let you see what I am doing and where we are.

I may have some more exciting news to come but right now I must remain mum :) Fun for ya'll.

Much love.

hello, goodbye

2009-06-18T05:57:00.000-05:00

This week has been extremely busy. It makes for a difficult post . . . you get moving so quickly that it makes it difficult to recall all of the details that make for such good stories.

Monday, we set a new record for the most patients seen in one day. We saw 20 patients with just me and Robert and volunteer nurse (and our amazing front office staff). That day made them start considering hiring more staff. That has always been the intention, but I don't know if anyone expected us to be this busy this quickly. We are still using a side entrance to the building and have not advertised at all! All of our patients are coming by word of mouth. We had one couple that came from about 45 miles south of us to see us on Friday!!

[caption id="attachment_202" align="aligncenter" width="492" caption="Lindsey Pimentel"][/caption]

We have also had Lindey with us for her full amount of hours for school and today is her last day with us. She is a pre-med student at Samford. She is also Cuban and grew up bilingual. She has been a huge, invaluable resource as our hispanic population is picking up very rapidly. I wish we could hire her now but unfortunately she won't be ready to hire for another 10 years! She is a great translator, she is willing to do anything! She will translate, assist with anything, work in the front office, do paperwork, and just spend time with the patients.  She has been volunteering every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday all day long. She says she is going to continue volunteering but she starts classes again soon so she defintely won't be able to be there like she was. I will miss her.

Right now, we have this young hispanic girl that got referred to us. She is basically getting the run around from everyone because she only speaks spanish and she is uninsured. She just keeps getting sent from one place to another and never really gets taken care of. Unfortunately, she needs a specialist and we can't do much for her. Lindsey called her with me yesterday to explain her lab results. She realized from talking to the patient what kinds of mess she was getting from all of the doctors she had been too. Lindsey got so fired up when she got off the phone. She said "If I was in Turkey, and I was sick, I would want to ask all kind of questions too!  She is just getting the run around from everyone!" She was so mad. It was fun for me to see because a lot of times I feel like no one gets frustrated with the injustice that goes on in the world . . . but she did.  I will miss her!

Yesterday we had a lot of people visiting the health center. We had Sister Dinah, the Senior VP of Missions, at St. Vincents coming to look at our building. We had the interior designers there because we got our furniture in! I got to pick my desk space too. I was so excited. I have a little desk by a huge window and door. I love my little spot that can be my space to get away!! We also had a pastor that came to visit from Nashville. He just got a new church and was coming to see how we were doing inner city work. (For you Nashvegans, he got that beautiful old Methodist church in downtown!!)   We also had a couple who are finishing residency coming to look at the health center. He is an ER doc and she is a pediatrician. They are friends of Roberts. A pediatrician would be a huge assest to the health center.

I am so ready to have new pictures of the health center. It is looking more and more beautiful each day. I am so excited to get to do the work that I am doing in such a beautiful place. Beauty automatically adds pride and legitamacy to first impressions.   Hopefully someone will take some more soon and I can post them here. Once again, anyone is welcome to come down for a tour.

Oh, I almost forgot! We now are going to have a licensed couselor in the building for sure!! He should be in the building in the next week or two. He is Mark Shaw from His Truth In Love Counseling. I am so excited. Aside from a dentist, we have needed this more than anything.   It also feels like one of the really heavy bags of burden that I have to carry around is being given to someone else. It is also being given to someone who knows how to deal with this things. The stories that I hear from my patients are just terrible. There is no other way to described them. I am not equipt with the skills or knowledge to undo the messes they are in now because of the horrific life they had as a child.

We also have our psychiatrist coming again tomorrow. I really enjoy working with and learning from him. We now have a fully integrated mental health team . . . and only three months in.

a little jiggly

2009-06-11T06:52:00.000-05:00

So once again, my day off has rolled around again along with time to update my blog. For those of you who ask about my flower pictures, they really have nothing to do with my blog or anything in them. I just think they are pretty :)

So business is definately picking up. Monday was a really busy day. I had a nurse practitioner student with me which I really enjoyed. It really keeps you on your toes having to teach and explain the reasoning behind doing things. I really like our student. She is in the group picture from the CCHF conference. I would love for her to come work with us one day . . . that's not really my decision but she does a great job and is very easy to work with.

Also on Monday, we had one of my patients show up with a broken hand. He had pictures on cd from the ER of his broken hand but nothing had been done with it. He showed up wanting us to do something. When the urgent care closed and we got all of those supplies, we also got casting materials. We had all of the casting materials except for the cotton they wrap under the hard part of the cast. Robert worked with an orthopedic group in residency and called them and asked if we could have enough cotton to do one cast. He sent me over to their office to get the stuff. It was absolutely crazy there. They are huge and have their office down to a fine art. It was pretty impressive to see. When I got back, Emily and Robert got to put together the cast, but we had a hispanic patient there that I needed to see so I didn't get to participate with the cast. The guy was so greatful that we could do the cast for him. I've broken so many things that I know how much better it feels to have something hold your broken bone still.

I got to see my hispanic man and I got so excited because I am getting to where I can understand a good majority of what the patients are saying. I am still not doing so well at speaking it, but my understanding has improved probably 300% just in the 2 1/2 months I have been working there. I am determined to become fluent.

We also have a patient scheduled on the next Monday that was referred to us by HICA which is the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama (http://www.hispanicinterest.org/). I am really excited because I really love seeing the hispanic patients. Getting hooked up with them is really going to get us in to the hispanic population in town which is severely underserved. I have always enjoyed working with them for some reason. It makes me excited about the possibility of that really getting ramped up.

Finally, two quotes from this week :) One is PG-13 so beware again . . . I have to talk about these things with patients to get a good initial history and this is what happens.

First, I had a lady tell me that she was involved in a hit and run last year. She was obviously a pedestrian in the hit and run and was hospitalized, had surgery, etc. She kept talking about her hit and run and I questioned her about it a bit more and found out that her "hit and run" was a person running, litterally, who ran in to her and kept running :) So, quite literally a "hit and run." She was not happy with that man in the least bit.

Also, I had a younger guy in and I was doing a review of systems and asked him if he had any problems urinating or any funy penile discharge and his answer was "Sometimes when I walk they jiggle a little bit." He got my "well" answer again :) Sometimes I just don't have any comments to make back to these answers.

Also, for those of you on facebook, check out either my page or the Christ Health Center page to see a short video made for the CCHF conference about the Health Center. It is pretty good. I'll see if I can get a link to it for those of you not on facebook.

Love again to you all.

a new do

2009-06-07T11:11:00.000-05:00

http://www.christhealthcenter.org/

Our website has been and is being redone. Stop by for a visit.

windows in to my world . . . mixed with a little bubbly

2009-06-06T09:49:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was probably one of the most fun days I have had at the health center yet. I had my first drug rep lunch yesterday from Olive Garden and got to eat the salad and bread sticks . . . and they are in my top five favorite foods.

Also, we have been working with Vaccines for Children the Health Department to be able to get vaccines for children :) ( creative name, huh) that we can get and provide for free to children with medicaid or those that are uninsured. The vaccines have been slow to arrive but we have gotten two shipments this week. Its is really exciting because we will be able to provide at a huge service at such a low cost to this kids.

Well yestereday, we got our shipment of the chickenpox vaccine delivered on dry ice (It has to stay <-5 F degrees or else the vaccine is no good. You would have thought that Santa Clause just dropped in to the hood. I started throwing dry ice at people. It scared Lori to death . . . she had never seen it before. Ramsey filled a coffee cup with hot water and we put dry ice in it and was boiling and smoking. Lee, our nurse for the day, decided to put the ice in her hand and pour water over it but that didn't go so well . . . it burned her. Had we thought at all prior to that we probably could have figured it out. We also learned that dry ice sizzles on platinum. Anyone know why? We can't figure it out. We played with that stuff until after we were closed and then Lori took the rest of it to the Bessemer Clinic to play with their and then took it home to give to some of her favorite kids. It was the best toy ever and every adult in the building acting like they were about 3 years old.

And finally the question of the day from yesterday . . . and just a warning, this is rated R, so don't read on if it will offend you.

This was an actual question asked by an actual patient to me yesterday that, like the dry ice and platinum, I don't know the answer to. They don't really teach us these kind of things in school, or in clinicals, or really anywhere for that matter. So, the question of the day was, "Does masterbation prevent cancer?" I think all I said was "well . . . " Really, I have no idea. I'll have to read up on that one :)

So, things are going really well right now. As we move over in to our new space, things are going to get much more stressful and hectic again. It will be good in a bit but we are all anticipating a bit of a challenge ahead again. You are all more than welcome to come by for a visit. Things really look great and it is very exciting.

Oh, I get to go to the retirement home across the street on Monday to talk and let them know what we are doing and what resources are available for them. I am really excited about that. I miss my little old people. I don't know what keeps them away from our clinic but I haven't gotten to see too many of my old folks that I love so dearly since I left the hospital. So, that will be really fun for me.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

these last few days

2009-06-04T04:59:00.000-05:00

Its been fun to be back at work after being at the CCHF conference. There are a lot of new ideas in my head and a lot is starting to take shape at both the health center and the dream center. Construction is finishing up in both places and the painting crews are in the both buildings are looking so beautfiul. Any of you that are nearby should come over and see both buildings. It is really exciting.

We received another grant this week which is very exciting. Things have been moving so quickly and our need for more resources is so huge that it is such a blessing to have more financial resources to be able to bring in these resources. We are being able to do more and more with people that literally have nothing. I wish I could share more specific stories here but I can't because patient privacy. You are welcome to come volunteer if you want and you can see everything at work. It really is an amazing place.

We also have our first Samford student with us. She is pre-med and is going to be volunteering with us this entire month. She is wonderful with the patients and is such a quick learner. It is so nice to have her there. She just jumps out and helps with literally anything . . . even the most menial tasks.

Finally for those of you not on facebook, I have a few pictures from the conference in Nashville.

This is our Nashville crew minus one. Anna Meador who is a pharmacist was also with us but had to head out of town early and didn't make it to the group picture. I really do get to work with a wonderful group of people. So from left to right, first is Emily Whitty. She is a family nurse practitioner student that is doing her preceptorship with us. Then there is Dr. Record, then Matt Hall who is our amazing volunteer. He is there pretty much Monday through Friday from 8-5 and does everything. He has been my chaperone in the rooms with men which is not really his most favorite thing to do :) but his is always willing to help. He is doint a lot to get us our federally qualified health center status and is working on the policies that we will need to have in place for when we are muich larger. He is such a huge, huge help to us. Then there is Jason Cooke. He works with counseling. We send a lot of our patients there for many reasons but they have made counseling an availabe resource to the poor. It is a terrific resource to have available because I am not trained as a counselor and we have been completely inundated with people who desparately need counseling and healing . . . much more than what I can provide in the exam room. Then there is me and Lauren and Derek Webber who are Emily Whitty's sister and brother-in-law. And finally, Ramsey Duck who is our COO. He works extremely hard on the administrative end so that me and Robert are able to do our jobs. We couldn't do what we do without him. So that is our crew. We all had a great time up there. It was fun to get to learn and to hang out with each other outside of work. I also got to see several people that I have met along the way in my life. That was really fun for me.

[caption id="attachment_181" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Me and Dr. Perkins"][/caption]

Also, thanks to Ramsey and Jason, I finally got to meet Dr. Perkins. He is an amazing man. You really should find his podcasts and listen to them. He is so wise and so funny. He has several really good books out too. You don't really get to see his sense of humor in them though. He is coming to town in a couple of weeks and is going to come to the health center to see us. I am really excited about that!

So, that is my upday from these last few days. Things are going really, really well.

My sincerest love.

amazing

2009-05-31T04:53:00.000-05:00

So, I went to the Christian Community Health Fellowship (CCHF) this weekend. I was a little stressed about the time involved but it was absolutely amazing. I don't know that I am able to put in to words yet what all I learned while I was there.

We did get to hear Dr. John Perkins and Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner speak. They were absolutely fiesty but completely amazing. For those of you that are a little internet savy, they both have free podcosts on i-tunes. They will be well worth your time to listen to. If you don't know how to get a podcast, you should get someone who does know how to get a podcast to help you. I promise that it will be worth your time.

Dr. Williams-Skinner has a website: http://www.skinnerleadership.org/

and Dr. Perkins also has a website: http://www.jmpf.org/content/

They are all worth looking in to.

Also, more exciting news . . . we should be able to move in to our full space at the health center and dream center in June. Once we get the furniture delivered, we will be able to move in to the full health center. I will try and post some more pictures of the progress on it very soon. It looks amazing. I am so excited to give the people in the neighborhood a beautiful place to come to receive their health care. The beauty automatically shows a respect and acknowledgment to the "unimportant" and overlooked people in the world. I am so excited about that.

Also, my dear sweet roommate is moving out today. I am so happy and excited for her. She is continuing to follow God and pursuing growth and healing. I am very sad to see her go but I know this all part of what she needs to do. It would be selfish of me to want to keep her here. I will love her and miss her a lot.

I love you all and I hope you find the people as interesting and encouraging as I have.

do not pass go . . . do not collect $200

2009-05-25T06:30:00.000-05:00

FREEDOM!! . . . in honor of Braveheart :)

I am free though! We got to be off for Memorial day and it has been wonderful. I have been at the parentals and have been "dark" (no internet access) as I like to call it. I was able to get my hands on a schmansy little i-phone and check in. I don't think I realize how much I love the internet until I can't have it. I guess that's pretty much how all addicts work :) "I can quit anytime!" Apparently that is not true for me, although I did take a facebook hiatus a few weeks back.

[caption id="attachment_158" align="aligncenter" width="402" caption="Wilson"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_157" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Ben"][/caption]

So Saturday, I got to go eat lunch with my favorite boys . . . my cousins. We went to Trowbridges, an old soda shop at home. They have completely stolen my heart. Right now though, they are having to pay their mother $1 for every mean comment they make to each other. Mary Ann made that rule and Ben immediately got his wallet out of his pocket, handed Mary Ann $1 and then proceeded to yell at Wilson :) Feisty, quippy little guy. I taught them about reflexes at Trowbridges. They thought I was faking it but then I was able to make their legs jump. Mary Ann thanked me after church on Sunday because apparently Ben practiced finding his reflexes through the whole sermon at church on Sunday. Sunday they came over for lunch and we had 4 dogs at mom and dad's this weekend, so Ben and Wilson made a "Hotel for Dogs." They had the best time with all of the dogs. I have a check-in/check-out list for all of the dogs. I love them!

[caption id="attachment_159" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Will and Kim"][/caption]

Its rare now that my whole family is at home. My brother and sister-in-law got to be home and they are pregnant with my "neicew." I am so excited!! I've got a few more weeks before we find out which one it will be. They are looking for girl names . . . if you have any suggestions, you can leave them in my comments. They have the boy name decided already. Currently, they have nicknamed the baby "TC" because Kim wants Taco Casa every day . . . literally. Yesterday we had this humongous lunch, and after it was over Kim was already thinking of Taco Casa. Mom asked Kim what she liked there and Will answered "A Messy Nachos, two mild tacos, and a snack burrito." :) I love them.

[caption id="attachment_161" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Ruby"][/caption]

We did have four dogs at home this weekend. Will and Kim have two puppies that are adorable but very full of energy and Mom and Dad have and older dog. Ruby is dead today. She walked in the house last night and went straight to Stacey's bed (her favorite place to sleep) and slept until my alarm clock went off this morning. We went out and she hasn't been up since. The sad thing is, Stace and I are dog sitting this week. So Ruby better get rested up this morning because she is about to be inundated with more buddies again. I love getting to housesit for this family. They have a huge screened in porch that looks out over the water. It is beautiful! . . .and they have a Wii. I make myself sore every time I am there from playing that thing :)

[caption id="attachment_162" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="http://www.cchf.org/"][/caption]

As far as work goes, this is going to be a pretty busy week. We are leaving Thursday to go to the Christian Community Health Fellowship Conference (http://www.cchf.org/conf09/) in Nashville. CCHF was originally started to connect people who were doing what we are doing at Christ Health Center with each other . . . to encourage each other, spread ideas and services, and to grow together. The national conference starts Thursday in Nashville. So, I'll be busy seeing patients until we shut down to go to the conference. I doubt I will be able to post again for several days. It will be fun though to get to connect with other people who are doing what we are doing.

So that is all my news for now. I am heading over to unpack where I am housesitting and then over to some friends' house to cook at for my day of freedom.

I love you all and hope ya'll have a great Memorial Day!

lost in translation

2009-05-20T16:37:00.000-05:00

So, yesterday a patient came in to the clinic. He was pretty sick and came in using one of our wheelchairs. When I got him in the exam room, I found out that he is normally able to function like a regular young man. I realized that something was wrong with his belly and the guy seemed pretty sick and since Robert was in the building I thought I would I would get his opinion.

So I briefed Robert quickly on the situation and he came in the room and started asking the man more questions. This is how wonderfully the conversation went . . . and what practicing medicine has done to me :)

Robert - "Is your scrotum swollen?"

Patient - "What?"

R - "Are your testicles swollen?"

P- "What!?"

Me, realizing things are going well, - "Are your balls big?"

P - "Oh . . . no."

R - "Ok, good." . . . . and off we go into more questioning.

From the old Reader's Digest, "Its all in a day's work" :)

photos for you non-facebookers

2009-05-16T09:13:00.000-05:00

Here are some pictures Ramsey took of the renovations in the health center. We should be able to open up the new side some time this month!

[caption id="attachment_133" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="New entryway tile with the main lobby and gallery wall."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_134" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="The main lobby looking out toward First Avenue South."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_135" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="The main administrative work area, behind the check-in and check-out windows."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_136" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Nurses' Station Number One."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_137" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Nurses' Station Number Two, looking back toward the provider work area."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_138" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Lobby for Nurses' Station Number Three."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_139" align="aligncenter" width="403" caption="The current vitals and triage station."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_140" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Phlebotomy room and lab."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_141" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="A typical exam room."][/caption]

Also, these are our professional pictures taken by Jason Wallis and edited by O2 productions and Roger Ellengberg. All of the people that work with me are in these pictures, except Lori who is our wonderful front office "everything" person and Ramsey. There are pictures of him but I guess since he originally posted this pictures, he left himself out.

[caption id="attachment_142" align="aligncenter" width="320" caption="Dr. Fischer, Dr. Russell, me, Dr. Record"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_144" align="aligncenter" width="320" caption="Lee Morgan"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_146" align="aligncenter" width="320" caption="Dr. Record"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_147" align="aligncenter" width="320" caption="Dr. Russell who is soon to be not be Russell any more :)"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_148" align="aligncenter" width="320" caption="Dr. Record and I"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_149" align="aligncenter" width="320" caption="Dr. Fischer and Dr. Russell"][/caption]

. . . and since I don't own a camera, that is all of the photo tour for now.

Love.

rebuked

2009-05-16T07:15:00.000-05:00

So, I got rebuked yesterday for "not writing all week" which isn't exactly true but it has been since Monday. So here's to you all you vigilent readers. I have slept in late, had my coffe, and now have my i-tunes going and am rip-roaring and ready to go. If this post is too long, just blame my "rebuker." :)

So Tuesday, Robert, my doctor that I work with, was gone to a golf tournament to raise money for the magnet school that is in our neighborhood. He was out of cell phone range and my covering physician that I can call when I can't get Robert was out of town, so I was truly managing the patients alone. I saw a guy with terrible pink eye. I prescribed him eye medicine to make his pink eye better. He called the next day wanting to know what to do with the medicine :) He wanted to know if he was supposed to put it in his eye, on his eye, or around his eye . . . apparently we should have had a longer discussion :) I also saw a young lady a few weeks ago that I thought had cancer and I had sent her to an oncologist. She showed back up sick as stink and my first question was "Did you go see the dr. that I sent you to?" She had so I called to see what work-up they had done. They had done several things but the patient did have cancer that had spread everywhere and no one had told her . . . so I had to tell her. It was terribly sad. She is only in her 30s and has children. When I told her she just said "They didn't tell me that." I just said "Well, they just read me the results over the phone." She got admitted to UAB and I got a report that she is now scheduled for chemo for the next 6 months to a year but her outlook is pretty bad. Miracles do happen and people to make amazing turn arounds at times, but I will not be surprised if she is dead in a matter of weeks. Its so sad because I have seen her a few times, I have seen her mom, and we see her children. Its like we have gotten to know her whole family and now we are going to have to watch them lose their mom and daughter. My heart just aches for them.

Wednesday, my little red-headed girl who I would adopt if I could, finally showed up to be seen. I had seen, and I think written about her, a couple weeks ago. She came in for a pregnancy test and for some reason we immediately clicked. She is too young for me to see . . . she is technically a child, despite her actions, and needed to be seen by Robert. I was so glad to see her come back. I let her go last time without getting all her history and talking to her for as long as I could have because I thought she was coming back that afternoon. She can't drive and thus didn't show up for a few more weeks. Lesson learned: don't miss any opportunity you have. I loved on that little girl like no other patient I have had. She felt it too. She hugged me so many times and called me her "new BFF." I can't wait for the dream center stuff to get up and running so that we can get her plugged in we other kids her age and we people to be a mentor to her. I love that sweet little girl.

Yesterday, we had a camera crew in the office filming short video for the Christian Community Health Foundation conference in Nashville that we are going to in a little over a week. Stacey says that I need to have an agent now that I am a movie star. I've got my face on the side of a building and now I am in movies. For all of you who know me we, I will leave you free to imagine how much I love all this :) Fortunately, they just filmed me talking on the phone to a patient . . . unfortunately, I was frustrated with the patient I was talking to on the phone and didn't know I was being filmed :) That was great! It will be interesting to see what that looks like. Hopefully the whole CCHF confence won't see frustration on my face.

Yesterday, we had our psychiatrist come for the first time. It was wonderful for our patients and I really appreciate and like the care he gives our patients. He had been by once and he did the "drive by" consult where he got in the car with one of our patients. Well, yesterday, that patient was back and next thing I know they are outside the back door in the scary alleyway doing their visit :) He is crazy!! He practices great medicine but other than he is like working with a child . . . you really have NO IDEA what he is going to do next. He is such a needed resource though and it was wonderful to get to work with him yesterday. We are also going to team up, where I function as more of a physician extender on the days he is there. He is already booked through September so I will see his follow up patients, get most of their information, discuss the case with him, and he can make recommendations for them. That way he can "see" more patients. I thought it was a wonderful idea. I don't know why no one else thought of doing that.

The patient that he saw in the alley is actually one of my patients. He had a brain injury when he was younger and his sister is trying to get him in a nursing home. He has the mental status of about a 6 or 7 year old. His sister left him while he was at our office and when he finished his appointment, he decided that he wanted to go outside. Our front office let him go because he does give the impression of being competent. I found out that he was outside and freaked out a little bit because I was afraid that he would just go on a tour of the neighborhood and his sister would try and come pick him up and we would have no idea where he was. So, I went outside to see where he was and I found him and more than I wanted to find. He was in the construction entrance to our building smoking a joint :) I just turned around and left. Oh well. I figured he would continue to enjoy himself where he was for a while . . . which is exactly what he did.

So, that is my week in a few brief stories. Thank you so much for being interested in what I am doing. It has been really hard but I am enjoying more and more as I get more comfortable there. I am more at ease with not being able to fix things. I have hope now of resources that are coming but are just not here yet - I can tell my patients to hang on just a little bit longer . . . that help is coming. I'm also figuring out how to best treat these patients with the resources and means that we do have and I am finding new resources a long the way.

all good wishes my friends.

wow

2009-05-12T06:44:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, we almost set a new record for the most patients beingseen in one day. We were one patient short of our record but the problem was we saw them all before 2 pm. There were several points in the day when we had all of our six exam rooms full and a full waiting room. It is pretty amazing because we still haven't even advertised yet!! Its part of being in a close community . . . word gets around pretty fast.

To help me with my speediness, I had three spanish-speaking patients :) I love seeing them but they definately slow me down. I had one guy tell me that he had hepatitis four times as a child and in the hospital where he is from, they gave him honey three times a day. It made me laugh. Kind of reminds me of my hot toddies we got for the croup when we were little. I loved those things. This guy liked his honey too . . . no pun intedended :) One of the other spanish-speakers had such a bad ear infection that he had perforated his ear drum. We don't prescribe narcotics here but he got narcotics! (I thought of you JSW.)

I have my first lunch appointment today. It seems weird. It was kind of like not knowing what to do with my business cards . . . I don't feel like I should be having lunch appointments with people. This meeting is with the director of a drug rehab. So, it may be a great resource to have.

I can't think of any other interesting from the past few days. Thank you so much for all of your sweet comments.

Much love.

q & a

2009-05-09T04:58:00.000-05:00

CHRIST HEALTH CENTER

Q: What is Christ Health Center?

A: Christ Health Center is a full-service primary care health center with board certified family

medicine doctors, dentists, pharmacists and mental health professionals.

Q: Do you take Medicaid?

A: Yes! We welcome all forms of insurance, including Medicaid and Medicare, and we also

accept uninsured patients on a self-pay basis starting at just $30. Also, we are currently

accepting new Medicaid patients.

Q: Can I bring my children?

A: Of course! From babies to senior citizens, we will see every age patient.

Q: When are you open?

A: We are open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. The last available

appointment of the day is at 4:30 p.m.

Q: How can I volunteer at Christ Health Center?

A: Please contact our Volunteer Coordinator, Kristi Penuel; her email address is

kpenuel@christhealthcenter.org.

Christ Health Center

5720 First Avenue South, Birmingham, AL 35212

Phone: (205) 380-9455 Fax: (205) 380-9459

info@christhealthcenter.org.

chance meetings

2009-05-07T06:01:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, we got to meet with the Alabama Department of Human Relations (aka DHR) to talk about seeing all of their children as they are removed from their homes. It was so exciting!! Sweet Bethany got to be there also. DHR wants to keep the kids in their own community so they can continue going to thier own school. The kids have to have a physical within ten days of being taken from their homes . . . and they want us to see them!! There is also a group of child psychiatrists working with us that want to work with the children, their natural families, and their foster families. Also, they are working on starting a mentoring group for the kids because they talked about hwo invaluable it is to have someone to just love on these children. These kids, except the oldest ones, will all be seen by Robert, but isn't this amazing!!!

Love.

old mcdonald

2009-05-05T11:12:00.000-05:00

So, today we had another patient from the group home. One of the patients that I saw last week came back for some additional things that I wanted done. The new patient that came was so sweet. She had the mental status of about a 3 year old but she was so fun. I would ask her questions and she would just giggle. At the end of her appointment, I wanted to get some bloodwork on her. She was a difficult blood draw and the nurse that was with me was not able to draw her blood so she asked me to come do it. I stuck her one time and couldn't get it and then started to try another time. My sweet nurse asked her if she wanted to sing a song while I drew her blood and the patient said "yes." The nurse told her to pick one that she knew and the patient picked old macdonald . . . thus began the singing but when it came to the animal the patient picked a duck which is fine but then roles around the animal noise and instead of "a quack, quack, here and . . . ." there was "a wack, wack her and a wack, wack there" :) It was fabulous!

This afternoon, I had another volunteer nurse. We are terribly slow, thus I am typing this, but poor her, she is just sitting there. The phone crew came through and said that they needed her to move so they could see how the phone cords were done. She got up and went in to our waiting room which has two huge windows. She came back and said "Their are people sitting right out there." I walked over to the window and just below our level of view is a couple sitting outside leaning up against the building. I have seen them many times before. I have been pretty sure that they are homeless drug addicts. This time when I look out at them, they are making out :) It was lovely. This lady wears the shortest blue jean skirt all the time. I found the incident a bit funny and came and sat down and looked back over there and I saw the man throw back is big ole bottle in a black grocery bag (the kind that come from the off-limits gas station.) . . . then I see smoke appear. I have no idea what was being smoked but I am pretty sure, it wasn't legal. They were having a good time out there though. Just as long as everyone is having a good time, we are all ok!! :)

Love.

firsts

2009-05-02T03:39:00.000-05:00

So, if it had to summarize this week, it would be the "week of firsts." Some of it was hard, other parts were good, and some of it was just funny.

We had our first cases of "swine flu" yesterday. It was a mom and her two boys. We had seen one of her sons before. She wanted them tested for the flu. Granted, they were hispanic and the swine flu is from Mexico, but none of them was sick . . . at all. No one had a fever. No one had a sore throat. No one had a headache. I had Ramsey, in his kindest Spanish, explain to them that we would be glad to do flu test but we would be wasting her money since no one was sick . . . at all. So folks, calm down out there. You must be sick to have the swine flu.

I also got our first walking group started. I am really excited about this. I have five ladies that all have something to do with nutrition who are interested in coming down to Woodlawn on various days and at various times to help people with weight loss. I am glad to be able to offer this to my patients since so many of them can't afford to join a gym and are afraid to walk in their neighborhood. I am most excited, though, about being able to provide friends and social support for them. I have had so many overweight ladies crying because they just go to work and come home and have no friends. I'm not sure which happened first, being obese or having no friends, but this new group will both introduce them to people who care, other people in the neighborhood in the same situation, and get them moving.

We had our first patient overdose this past weekend which was really sad. Our patient did not die this time and is ok now but still "has no problems" and will be able to fix them "alone." In case you don't know, that is a lie from the pit of hell!! Some times, I want to give adults shaken baby syndrome. I want to grab them by their shoulders and shake them and scream "Do you really hear what you are saying? It is absolutely ridiculous!!" Of course, that probably wound't work too well :) I have learned through my growing and healing, that things take time and you just have to let people walk in circles in the dark until they are ready to get out. Sometimes the circles are needed for them to be able to see and hear again.

We also had our first medical assistant from the neighborhood this week. She was amazing!! She is a hard working and wants to learn and is able to connect with our patients in a way that I can't just because of my appearance. We had someone in for a drug test and next thing I know, she is getting his whole life story while they were waiting on me to do the lab stuff. It pleased my heart to death! I want so badly for our patients to know that even if we can't fix their problems, we do see them and care about them and hear what they have to say. She is already naturally wonderful at this.

Yesterday was group home day for me. Apparently several group homes have found out about this and are bring their clients in for "check-ups." They are definately an interesting crew. All the patients generally have severe mental/pyshcological illnesses and come in with their case workers . . . and buddy, these patients can talk!! I guess they just want someone to listen to them. The terribly sad part is most of these patients have had terrible lives at a child and were removed from their homes by DHR and then have spent a lot of their adult lives in psych hospitals. It gives me special grace for them. It is kind of like I am working with children though.

One common problem I have with my patients here is that many of them leave phone numbers of family members, or businesses, or even numbers of people that don't like them. I have a patient that needs to have a medicine level checked weekly but we can't get in touch with him by phone. I had one patient call and leave me a message three times yesterday but her phone "is not accepting calls" all day long. I love calling and the person says so-and-so "doesn't live her but I will tell them." I'd go to Vegas on all my savings betting that I don't hear back from them :)

We are also getting so busy. We are already seeing the volume of patients that we were predicted to be seeing in three months. Needless to say, that makes it hard to operate with our sporadic volunteers and four employees. We have gotten a psychiatrist that is going to be seeing patients one Friday afternoon a month but within a week, he was booked through September. We also may have counseling very, very soon. That will be a saving grace for me. I do a lot of counseling right now. First of all, I am not trained to do that, but also, hearing all of these terrible stories takes it tole on me. So, I can't wait for that to happen.

My next personal mission, is to get a group of people, who are willing to make a long term commitment to some of our patients and just be their friend as they grow and heal. Some of this would be for our drug addicts but it is also needed for people who have just had terrible lives and need help getting their lives back in some kind of manageable order.

So, that is all my new for now.

Much love.

workin' it

2009-04-28T11:58:00.000-05:00

I have many more stories to tell from the past few days. We have been terribly(ah, wonderfully) busy the past few days so I haven't had time to write but I thought I would leave you all with a cheery little interaction from lunch today.

I went out on the bench outside in front of our building to eat lunch and two guys walk by right as I choke on my water. That immediately gets their attention and the following downhill spiral followed immediately. Notice how I strongly encouraged further conversation :)

Guys - "You sick"

Amelia - "No."

G- "You lookin' for a husban'?"

A-"No."

G-"You lookin' for a boyfrien'?"

A - "No."

And the kicker . . . .

G- "You lookin' for a good time?"

A-"No."

Apparently, I really am workin' the corner :)

so long

2009-04-26T12:34:00.000-05:00

So, I have had this couple that I have been seeing twice a week since almost day one. I have affably named them the "dynamic duo." They have been quite difficult at times but over the weeks, I have started to take more interest in them. They are trying to get clean and we have been trying to help them as much as we can. They are used to not feeling the effects of life so they want things to be easy and this can definitely be qualified as hard by anyone's definition. They currently don't have anywhere to live, don't have any money, and don't have any social support. A lot of that is the fault of the way they have lived for so long . . . they have burned so many bridges. But I firmly believe they can change and I even more strongly believe that God can take care of them and make the completely new again. Thus, my growing interest in really trying to connect with them at their appointments. Well, this past Monday, they showed up and got their medications. They come every Friday for pill counts and have been faithful to do so. This Friday they didn't show up. Once, again I feel like my heart is being torn even more. Who know what their reason is, but it doesn't matter, because when you create a world of lies, excuses only appear and generally are, lies. It is simply saddening. They can not continue to get help from us and not obey the few rules they have been given.

This is what I am talking about when I say that I like my job but that it is tiring emotionally. I really want the best for these people and I either can't give it or they don't know what do with the help I can offer or, in the worst cases, only see my help as offensive. This is obviously not true in all or even most of the cases. If it was, there would be no point in me being there. But it is still sad to just sit and watch because I have no control over what happens in the end.

I will try to be more cheery in the next post but I have had a rough past few days with several patients . . . just more of the same as above. I needed to share that side as well.

Love, my friends.

windows in to another world

2009-04-23T08:41:00.000-05:00

I am sitting at the front desk answering phones and there is a man probably just 10 ft from me digging through our garbage can. We are seperated by glass and that is all.

another day . . . not another dollar

2009-04-23T07:16:00.000-05:00

So we had two patients scheduled for today. One was a hispanic man that has recently been in the hospital in a diabetic coma. I really, really like this man. I saw him last week and then he showed up here on Tuesday with "no money and no insulin" or maybe I should say "no dinero y no insulina" which no degree is required to say that is a problem. Currently, we charge $30 a visit for patients without insurance, or "private pay" is the more pc way to say it. So, I needed him to buy $23 worth of insulin and he had a visit for $30. So, I saw him on Tuesday in the front office, so that it wasn't a visit because we don't do "free medicine" here. So, if I see a patient in the front office, no one thinks its a visit :) Sneaky little gal, aren't I?! So, then I canceled his visit today. The other visit for today was for a child with a name that no one can figure out how to pronounce and I'm sure that child is going to be in the 8th grade before he figures out how to spell. Well, our doctor, the only person here who know how to treat children is currently at 30,000 thousand feet and will be only the other side of the county by the time you read this . . . so we aren't seeing him today. Except he doesn't know that because he no longer has phone service. That seems to be another problem here. That or "I only have three minutes left so tell me all of my complicated medical instructions in 30 seconds " which makes me feel great as a medical provider. So now we have 0 (zero), none, nada patients.

So I have moved to the front office and am doing medicaid paperwork. That little trail in the picture is how I feel about medicaid paperwork. It is never ending!!! But we get paid by medicaid so we have to play by their rules.

So, a few stories from this week. Our dynamic duo, the married couple who we are trying to get off drugs, were back on Monday for us to continue their drug taper. They, or he I should say, are a little difficult to deal with. They have been homeless so aren't really used to having to operate like "normal people." He paces incessantly and can't stay in his exam room and talks and asks questions without end. One day, I had to have him "escorted" out of the building just because he would never finish talking. They come every Monday and Friday so I am getting pretty used to them. Monday, I was actually able to make progress with both of them . . . give them simple tasks to do to try and rebuild their lives. I will be interested in seeing how that when and if they show back up again tomorrow. It is sad because we are probably the only constant in their lives. Right now, they are living out of their car. I'll let you know how and if they progress. It is definitely slow. Slower than slow. Like time it takes to walk from here to California slow!!

We also had this little 13 year old boy who was hispanic come in with a rash on his face. He is in bootcamp for "I don't know why?" (Yeah, right!!) and was told he couldn't come back until someone did something about his face. He ended up needing a steroid shot in his butt. He fought Robert like crazy. I wasn't in the room initially but then the yelling between them was so loud, I thought I might need to go in their before Robert got a shot of steriods in his own face :) We finally got the shot in the boy. Even though he is 13, kids seem to regress in the doctors office, so I offered him a sucker. He wanted one. His little bother, who was about 4 or 5, was also in the room. I asked him if he wanted a sucker and he looked at me with terror on his face and told me that he did NOT want a sucker. I think he thought it must come with a shot as well. So when I show back up with the jar of suckers, he looks at me and says, "I changed my mind." :) You can bargain pretty good with those things.

I have enjoyed all of the Hispanic patients this week. I really do want to get to where I am fluent in Spanish. Ramsey, my boss, is fluent in Spanish. Between listening to him and listening to the patients, my Spanish is tearing back in my head. Its like someone opening the curtain to a play that I already know. I am working on it some on an on-line program through our library. Libraries are so great!!

We also have had Mexican week here at the clinic. We had Mexican sweet bread which looked and tasted like hamburger buns with dry icing on the top. Won't go down in my top favorite foods. We also have started mopping with fabuloso which smells great but looks entirely too much like a Faygo!! Do you remember those drinks? :) We wonder how many kids have taken a big ole' swig of fabuloso. Can't blame the parents on that one!!

Oh, and we saw our 100th patient yesterday . . . not visit, but our actual 100th patient. I missed it too. I was off yesterday. But we had a cake for it :)

Much love!

yessica

2009-04-19T12:58:00.000-05:00

Fortunately, the point of a silent auction is to make money. Unfortunately, I felt I had money to spend. So last night I spent money that will in turn pay my salary. I can't figure out if that means I got something for free.

I have to say, silent auctions are very, very stressful. I have never been to one before but those last 15 minutes everyone is running around like crazy people trying to get the last bid in. Great for the health center but very stressful for me.

The event was wonderful and Robert gave a beautiful speech that inspired me all over again. He did make me stand up to be introduced, fortunately and thanks to my sister and brother-in-law, I didn't make disastrous wardrobe choices, but he decided that I didn't stand up long enough, even though I stood long enough to smile and wave, that he told me in front of everyone to "stand back up and count to five in your head." That was a joy. He then followed that comment with some very complementary talk about my work so I guess it was ok.

But after it was all said and done, I got this little joy. I love it. Its a picture of an actual little girl in Mexican orphanage named Yessica. The artist talks about her longing for love in her eyes. It gives me courage, makes me want to fight harder, and brings me joy because I know there is hope for that little girl.

Love, my friends.

and the winner is . . .

2009-04-18T10:29:00.000-05:00

So, what did I do on my lazy Saturday afternoon but try on multiple outfits for the silent auction for the health center tonight, take multiple pictures of me in said outfits, and then e-mail them all to my sister who I know is the only person that will tell me that I looks terrible. I heard that I was going to be introduced and that was all it took for me to be a nervous wreck. I had planned on one outfit all week. It was fun and pretty but apparently I needed to have a different body to be able to wear it . . . I got four thumbs down by both my sister and brother-in-law. I tried on another outfit and my roommate told me that she didn't like my "grandmother" shirts. So, out went another one. Finally, I tried on a dress that I actually got for a wedding this summer, and it was a winner by everyone . . . and I am comfortable!!

And . . . the losers are:

The one on the left requires that I be 7 feet tall and weigh 9lbs apparently. The one on the right is the "grandmother" outfit. Oddly enough, my grandmother did buy that for me . . . she decided I "needed" a new Easter dress a couple of years ago.

So, all I have to say is, thank goodness for sisters. I wish everyone could have a sister. I love mine. I'm liking my brother-in-law a whole lot too. Who else has a brother-in-law that thinks "your top is too boxy?" :)

Now, my task is to get some big earrings at Target on the way to the auction. We'll have to see how that goes.

Well, time for a pre-party nap. Buenos noches mi amigas.

your mom is at . . .

2009-04-15T09:51:00.000-05:00

My mom a teacher and is out of school for spring break. She had called a couple of weeks ago and wanted to "spend the night Wednesday and hang out with me on Thursday." It sounded innocent enough so I agreed. As time had gone on, the plans progressed to she was going to cook dinner . . . to she wanted early and go to Whole Foods . . . to she wanted to come see me at work . . . etc. I was actually excited about the whole bit because, one, I love getting a free home cooked dinner, and two, I have loved having her being excited about what I am doing at work.

So, mom shows up today in "my" neighborhood around 9 a.m. It ended up not being the best day for me for her to come because I was quite busy. She hung out with Robert in his office for a bit, and then I gave her a tour of the medical center, and then of the dream center. I came back and saw a walk-in patient sitting at check-in so I left my mom in the front office so I could see this new patient. I get most of the way done seeing my patient and come out and realize I am having computer issues. I called Lori on the phone up in the front office and it took her forever to answer. When she finally answered, I asked her if she was talking to my mom because my mom can talk. She said, and I quote, "Actually, your mom's not here." I'm a bit confused. "So and so came in panicking because she needed three peoople to do such and such at Woodlawn High School and I didn't want to impose on your mom because I didn't put her in an awkward position, but she just volunteered to go." Me - "My mom is at Woodlawn High School!?" Lori - "Yes, but she has a man with her." Me - "I'm not worried about my mom. I know she can take care of herself but I can't believe she is at Woodlawn High School!!!" Lori - "Yeah, she went to judge a social studies contest." Mom showed back up an hour later with a certificate with her name on it and a gold star :)

My roommate did call and I told her what my mom was doing and she said "Your mom is at Woodlawn High School?!" My point exactly! She is even missing going to Whole Foods today because she hung out in Woodlawn for so long.

So, today, my mom took on Woodlawn High School. I couldn't believe it but it made my day!

from blighted to beautiful

2009-04-14T08:38:00.000-05:00

Check this out:

http://www.abc3340.com/news/stories/0409/613013_video.html?ref=newsstory

brief freedom

2009-04-14T04:05:00.000-05:00

I hope you all got to have a good, relaxing weekend. We got to be off on Friday so I had four days off in a row. I didn't hardly know what to do with myself. I was determined to relax but I got bored so then I wanted to paint the kitchen . . . and the bathroom . . . and plant some flowers . . . and etc. But I was determined to make myself relax. My new job has been so hard on me. It is hard to hear so many sad stories and being used to having the resources to make things better and now just saying "we care about you but can't do anything to fix you because neither of us have any money so be on your way now." Its like going from being Paris Hilton to Oliver Twist and a week except I don't think Paris is too much of a philanthropist :) So, I just read and watched Les Miserables this weekend. I absolutely love that movie. I highly recommend it if you havent' seen it; the one with Liam Neason and Uma Thurman.

Also, another reason I was so determine to rest this past weekend was because I have a work obligation this Saturday. It is a silent auction to raise money for the health center which is great since I am now Oliver Twist but sometimes I think I am a high functioning autistic and have no social skills so having to be introduced to a whole bunch of new people as "one of our two providers at the health center" isn't really up my alley (that's for you vcs :) The auction also lasts three hours!! Fortunately Lori has to go too so I do have a buddy. We will both probably prefer the corner but since we currently have four whole employees, I am sure we won't be allowed to stay there. We do have some pretty cool things for our auction though. There is a lady named Melanie Morris that has donated one of her paintings and I LOVE it. I wanted to buy it . . . but then I saw the price tage and remembered that I am not Paris :) You should look at her stuff. It is really good and its at http://www.melaniemorrisart.com/. She also donated a big, bright painting for us to have in the office. I have to say that I am a little jealous of her artistic ability. I'm working on getting there though.

Oh, and I do have a great story and a mamed knee from this weekend. I had taken Ruby to the nature trail with Stacey and Sharon and Sharon's dogs. It had been raining that morning which is one of my favorite times to go because the creek is always so much fuller and faster. Ruby loves to swim to. The nature trail is actually called Boulder Canyon because the creek, in parts, is full of these huge boulders. We get to a point where we need to cross the creek and Stacey decides it would be fun to get Ruby to swim in a new deep part. So she is standing on a big rock in the middle of the creek calling Ruby. Without communicating my idea, I decide Ruby would be more likely to come if I got on the rock too :) So, I step on the rock but it was slippery so I start to fall ( I have no memory of this, but Sharon who was still on dry land, was able to give us a nice play by play) and instead of being a kind friend and just going down I shove Stacey who has no idea that I am even there. Well, I fall onto all fours in the creek. I was completely soaked. I hit all fours and look up just in time to see Stacey, who is much more agile than me, jump off the rock that I just shoved her off of, and land on a nice mossy rock from which she fell into the creek too. Ruby comes to try and save me and Stacey and come up and is licking me in the face and then tries to go help Stacey but steps on the same mossy rock and falls in the water too. So, instead of us watching Ruby swimming in her new pool, we all three went swimming. And I hear Sharon being me saying "I think I am going to pee on myself." Fortunately, everyone thought this was funny and no one was hurt except me :)

Much love.

sometimes

2009-04-10T11:08:00.000-05:00

I was lying in bed last night and remembered on of the funny patients I had this week. It was a man in his fifties who had had a traumatic brain injury. For those of you who don't know much about brain injuries, they usually completely change the person's personality. Some people cuss who never used bad language, some people talk incessantly, some become mean and others become nice. The brain is a weird thing. It is completely unpredictable. Some people get a little "nick" on their brain and they die, others will lose a big piece of their brain and be able to function fairly well.

Well, this main came in and he had had a recent traumatic brain injury. We start taking his history and he has 27 bullets in him that have yet to be taken out :) He showed me a few. His belly looks like a worn out dart board. I'm not quite sure how he is still alive. But then it gets worse . . . he starts to tell me about his brain injury. Someone ran over his head with a car. Not once. Not twice but four times!! Apparently, he had not pleased someone :) He just got out of the hospital a few months ago and is doing quite well. He talks incessantly and repeats himself numerous times and seems to have a bit of ADD but is doing well. I don't know why this man has been given 47 lives but apparently it hasn't been his time to die yet.

I needed to get blood work on him and he bet me $20 that I couldn't draw his blood. Well, I did it! I told him he owed me $20 and he had no idea what I was talking about :) Oh well c'est la vie.

she's got skills

2009-04-09T10:57:00.000-05:00

Just so you know, my picture today has absolutely nothing to do with my post. Except maybe there is a chair in the picture and I sit in a chair at work :) I just liked the picture so here it is. Also, this post is probably rated PG so for those of you who get grossed out by things . . . you may want to skim.

So, it is my day off again, and I have some new reflections from the past week.

Monday was a pretty slow day. It was spend primarily unloaded and putting up all of the supplies and equipment we inherited from Concentra Urgent Care. That wore me out!

Robert has also decided that we are going to provide free pregnancy tests so that it give me a chance to counsel these "ladies." I think the oldest person I have done a pregnancy test on so far was 19! It is absolutely shocking to me how little all of these girls know about sex and STDs and such. I had one girl ask me "So what if the guy I am with says he doesn't use condoms?" I was absolutely appalled!! Someone, this time it ended up being me, needs to teach that girl some self-respect. R-E-S-P-E-C-T! Now for a little lesson from Aretha . . . "Oh
a little respect, Whoa babe, A little respect (just a little bit), I get tired, Keep on tryin', You're runnin' out of foolin' and I ain't lyin', 'spect, When you come home or you might walk in and find out I'm gone. I got to have a little respect!" So I taught that girl about respect. It was a novel new idea to her. So, one down, thousands more to go.

On Tuesday, Robert delivered the news of the bad diagnosis to one of our patients. He is so good at talking to people! The patient cried but now we have them set up for treatment that we can't provide. I just ache for them so much.

Yesterday, we had a lady come in for some STD testing. She was uninsured so basically I sit down and barter with them. Its kind of like an auction, "I've got one for $20, one for $30, no two for $80, or come back later and I've got two for $50." I spend about 15 minutes at auction trying to help them figure out what we need to do. Robert found this lady free STD testing at Sav-a-life which left this lady with only a pap-smear and pelvic exam needing to be done. But . . . the pap smear was $80 so we went back to auction and finaly she placed a bid and I sold! The tiny problem is, I have never done a pap smear before :) I have seen literally thousands of them and have done one on a dummy but never done one on an actual person. I came out and told Robert that she had bid on the pap and that I wanted to do it. The other challenge, aside from my lack of experience, was this lady was quite large . . . enough to max out the scale. That makes things much more difficult when you need an exam from below. I just figured, if I could do one on her, I could do one on anyone. Robert's one piece of advice to me was, "When you're going to go, go." :) So, I went in there and this poor lady had no idea that I had never done this before and I didn't tell her. Robert and I traded roles. I did the exam and he was my assistant. It was quite comically. I did a great job doing my part. I was so proud of myself! I came out of the room and shut the door and started jumping up and down in the hallway. Robert, on the other hand, had much more trouble being my assistant :) I think I had to give him more instruction than he had to give me. It was great though. I ended up doing another cervical exam on a young girl for some STD testing later in the day and I did a great job that time too . . . the little girl told me :) Can you tell I am excited and proud of myself?!

And in honor of my new language I am learning, I had a patient who had something for a "long minute" yesterday but this time I knew what that meant. I also had a patient who had several family members "on the needle." This, I assure you, does not mean what you think. What are you thinking? Drugs? Diabetes? Well, its D. None of the above. It means they're on dialysis. Duh! So, I now have a vocabulary of about 10 words. I think that is where you are supposed to be developmentally at about 14mos. I've got a long way to go. Its probably going to take me a long minute to figure everything out :) Oh, and I also learned yesterday that people don't know what you are talking about when you talk about "meth." Apparently that is a little obscure . . . they don't know if you mean methamphetamines or methadone. So, sorry I wasn't clear on that one. I need to tweak :) my lingo a bit more.

So, that is all if have for today. I do know this has been much, much harder than I ever would have imagined. For lots of reasons. Hopefully I will be able to make it. I sure am trying hard though. So I will try and remember all of my triumphs and all of the people that I teach to respect themselves and also remind myself that we can not make people better and just take one day at a time.

Much love.

sweet emotion

2009-04-04T11:17:00.000-05:00

This week has been full of emotion; both good and bad. Its definitely going to be harder than I thought working here. I didn't expect to feel so much. I have so much joy and sorrow all at once. I don't know that I have felt like this before, or at least for not such an extended period. Someone told me this week that I was going to have to surrender a lot of things; that I can't do things "right" like I want to because of the patients lack of resources and because of our lack of resources. There's a great line from a Dar Williams song that says "Nobody holds you like the hand of God." I guess I am going to have to learn to just sit in that. So, some stories from the past couple of days.

We have one of those number key pads on the door to get into the health center. I know the code, but guess what . . . it doesn't work :) So yesterday, Lori, who I am really enjoying getting to know, were locked outside alone. Our parking lot is the main drive for anyone that is walking anywhere it seems. All the kids were walking to high school and the two white girls where hanging out with their purses in the parking lot; oh and I had a camera too this day to add to my luggage to be stolen. To make it even better, Lori is probably 5 feet tall and only ways about 1oolbs. She is not going to be my protector!! So we decided to walk around. This gas station is apparently a big drug hub. I want to go there and Lori wants to go there. I want to go just to show that things are changing and to show respect for our community. The guys don't want us to go over there yet. Lori had the idea that we could go while no one was there. I told Ramsey, our boss, later and Lori started freaking out saying over and over again, "It was just I joke. I was just making a joke" with her Wisconsin accent. Ramsey told her it was ok to make a joke. I just thought the whole situation was funny. We wandered around for a bit and I took some more pictures of a few things as they were changing. Finally Robert got there and he punched in the code and of course it worked for him!!

I had a 9:00 appointment which I have already learned in my short two weeks of employment there, means absolutely nothing. People just show up when they feel like it. We take walk-ins. I'm not sure why people make appointments. They will come an hour late or four hours early or not at all. I haven't figured out what an "appointment" means yet. I have been working on the other side of town prior to this job which apparently was the 5th most dangerous zip code in the country. That was astounding to me. I learned a bit of lingo over there. Like I used to love to say "We will tweak your meds a bit" until I learned that tweaked mean to be high on meth :) So I have spent the last two years tweaking my vocabulary. But apparently there is still more to be learned. Like this week I learned that a "minute" means a long time. I was talking to this man and he was telling me he had had this problem for a "minute" and then as I talked to him more I realized that we weren't on the same page. I was telling my roommate about it and she informed me that that was jail talk and that there is also a "long minute" which is a really long time. So while I waited on my 9:00 I educated our little staff on the new vocabulary. We could have a word of the day over there :) My roommate told me I talk like a white the list, I not only need to tweak my spanish, I also need to learn to not talk like a white middle-class girl :)

Then after we were having fun in the office, our labs show up in envelopes. We were all laughing and having fun and then we get four envelopes of mail. Robert wanted a letter opener to open those . . . well we don't have one of those, so he handed each of us an envelope to open. I open mine and the sheet on top was a young person I had seen last week who I immediately saw had a pretty bad new diagnosis. It made me physically sick; I felt like I was going to throw up. I felt so badly for that person. I wish I could share more but I can't without violating privacy, but if you are a pray-er, that person needs prayer.

At almost the exact same moment, Ramsey pulls up with the bed of his truck full of boxes. Apparently, an urgent care center (a doc-in-the-box) was closing and they just wanted to get rid of stuff. Somehow they found out about us and dumped all of this stuff off. Previously this was a regular conversation: Robert "I need you to place a TB test" Amelia "Do we have TB needs?" R "No. How about using insulin syringes?" A "Do we have insulin syringes?" R "No. Do we have any little needles" A "Sort of". So when Ramsey drives up with $30,000-$40,000 worth of supplies, it was a miracle. We have everything we could possibly need for years!! We have every kind of needle, brace, medicine, suture and equipment you could ever need. It was amazing! We literally will not need ANYTHING for a very long time.

So I am having to learn to get terrible news and great news all at the same moment. It is a hard thing to allow yourself to feel those things and get to be empathetic and excited and to stay present in this life and not check out.

Oh, I had a little girl see my picture on the front of the building and call me a "movie star." :) I don't think there is much else that could be further from the truth!! But I think my picture is going to be there for a "long minute!!" Joy.

Love.

trade school

2009-03-31T15:00:00.000-05:00

So, I am sitting at work. We are having a bit of a lull. I decided to pull the EKG machine out of the closet and try and put it together. I never have been an mechanic so we will see how well I can follow instructions. I was in Vo-tech for a while. I don't know how well that is serving me these days.

We two more people lose it just by doing a simple history. It blows my mind. Yesterday, I felt like we were running our own psychiatry office. I think it is good. These people need someone to listen and they need to be given the appropriate resources to handle very difficult lives. We have a counseling office that is willing to see some of out patients. We just have to be wise with who we choose to send over there. These people are difficult to see but I am firmly convinced that they can have so much more out of life; that they can be healed and not be so trapped and have hope and become new people. It will be fun and sad to see how they are doing at their follow-up appointments. I'm sure we will have some people that are not willing to put forth the very hard effort to change but I am sure we will also get to see some amazing change out of others. I will let you know about that.

Also, yesterday, we had the Maxx bus pull up in the parking lot. they had me go outside before they unloaded to make sure they "really wanted to be here." Oh, they did!! There was a lady with no legs in a wheelchair in the back and this emaciated little old man sitting up front. I got the little old man, who, it turned out, could hardly walk. Ramsey got the lady in the wheelchair and got to ride the wheelchair lift down in the back. We both found the situation quite humerous. I drug my little old man in and he wheeled the little legless lady in. We endeds up giving the old man a wheely office chair as his "wheelchair" (we still don't have one of those). So we see both of those patients. Robert asked the man who the president was and he said "I don't think its Nixon." I had to draw blood from the emaciated man which I wasn't sure I could do but I did it on the first try in a vein right next to his tattoo of a dagger. I asked him how old he was when he got his tattoo. He said "23." I asked him if he was in the war when he got it and he said "no." So, I quit asking questions. So we "wheeled" both of them back to the front office at 3:15 but the bus couldn't come back to get them until 4:00 so someone got them diet cokes. Those two little old people sitting in the chairs in the front office as happy as they could be drinking diet cokes was the greatest picture ever. I wish I could have actually taken their picture.

So, that is all for now. I just saw a patient, someone I know, and I don't know what is wrong with them. I am waiting for Robert to call me back so I can discuss it with him. So, I guess I'll go back to that EKG machine and see what I can get done.

Love.

please don't urinate here

2009-03-27T21:12:00.000-05:00

So today was pretty busy. We had a volunteer nurse for the morning and then one in for the afternoon. It was great because today was the busiest day we have had yet. I had ask the morning volunteer nurse to show the afternoon volunteer around so I could finish up some charts. They were standing in our hallway of patient exam rooms. At the end of the hallway is a glass door. All of the sudden I hear one of them say to the other, "Is that man peeing?" I turn and look down the hallway and there at the door, facing us all is a man, in red scrubs no less, peeing at the door. He takes his merry little time and finishes up. Then he pulls his pants up and starts tying his scrubs back in no hurry whatsoever. All the while, we are just standing there in shock staring at the man. By this time, Ramsey, our COO, had found us and was watching the whole episode. He then proceded to teach us about urinal etiquette in the men's restrooms. Oh, the lessons learned today!! Someone needs to go teach that man to turn the other way!

forgot to mention

2009-03-26T13:53:00.000-05:00

On day two of the new job, I forgot to wear deodorant AND you could see straight through my shirt and I didn't realize it until I was almost at work. Thankfully, I wear a lab coat these days.

Also, yesterday, I called a lady to tell her the result of her labs. I asked to speak with her, and she respond that I was speaking to her, and I simply asked how she was doing. She said, "Ohhhh . . . I am so sorry!!! I was suposed to have xxxxx in juvenile court this morning. We couldn't come because . . . ." I thought I would stop her there and calm her down. She was so relieved that I wasn't after them that I don't think she heard a word I said. Puts test results in new perspective! Its all relative you know.

beginnings

2009-03-26T11:03:00.000-05:00

I began my new job this week. It has definitely not been like I expected. I thought I would be bored with the lack of patients but nothing could be further from the truth. It takes me so much longer to see patients. I really feel like I don't know what I am doing. I keep saying, "I miss my probables!" In the hospital setting, you can diagnose someone with probable xxxxx and that is it. Its is not allowed anymore. You have to name it and claim it. And to make it worse, you don't get all the lab and image data that you get in the hospital. You just get a patient. It is sooo very different but my sweet physician that I have gotten myself in to this endeavor with, is so kind and patient and just walks me though my diagnoses without being frustrated with me. That part has been great.

So, for some stories. Monday we had a lot of glitches in the system. I felt so badly for our patients but they didn't seem to mind. They were all thoroughly pleased with their care despite all of the faults in our systems.

Tuesday, I was left alone in the clinic by myself for the first time. What was my first patient alone but a rash . . . one of my great weaknesses . . . and no less, on a man's loins. Doesn't get much better than that. Then I drag some poor guy in my room with me to be my chaperone while examine this man's loins. It was wonderful.

Also, Robert and I saw a lady together who we thought was going to be a drug seeker. We saw her and just in asking routine history questions, this lady bursts into tears and starts telling us about her horrible life. Robert started talking to her about forgiveness. He told her that unforgiveness really only traps her. She is the one left suffering. It was amazing because this clicked in her head immediately! She thanked him for explaining that to her and it was like she had been given new life. She was referred to a counseling center which she was terribly excited about and she is going to come back and see us in a month so we will see what comes out of this relationship.

Yesterday, the guy that has been doing our marketing for us brought in banners for us to hang on the outside of the building to advertise our opening. He rolled out the first banner and there was immediately and 5ftx8ft picture of my face. It was absolutely mortifying. No one should have to see their face blown up 5 million times. So now, if you drive down 1st Ave N., you will not be able to miss my face. Welcome to Woodlawn!!

So, it has begun. I will continue to share our stories.

Love.