Grice's Blog

The Many Faces of Russia 1989

On 29 June, 1989 Wilma Slough and I departed Orange County, California to go to LAX for our flight to Helsinki, Finland. We checked in at 1220 then browsed around the airport until 1500 hours.  We boarded Finniar Airline Flight 164 for our flight to Helsinki, Finland.  We were in the air at 1540. It was a wonderful flight and the view over Canada, Iceland, Greenland and Norway was breath taking. We arrived in Helsinki at 1200 hours. It was approximately a 12-hour flight and it was daylight the entire time.  As we picked up our luggage I discovered the handle was broken on my new suitcase.  Wonderful. I have 6 weeks to go on this trip with a broken suitcase handle. I wonder how many other interesting things will occur during this adventure.

We were scheduled to stay at the Ramada El Presidente Hotel.  We were on the 7^th floor. Nice clean hotel. After checking in, I received a call from Essi.  She was a foreign exchange student I had for a year.  She and her boyfriend Arntee arrived at 1600 and we chatted until 1830. Unfortunately we missed our group-scheduled dinner in the dining room, so ate a snack (expensive) and went to bed at 1930.  Due to jet lag, time change and midnight sun we were awake at 0300. We spent the next 3 hours getting prepared for the upcoming adventures of the day. At 0600 (today is 1 July 1989) we decided to go for a walk. In Helsinki they still have early morning street cleaners. They push a trash cart around and sweep the sidewalks and curb of the streets. There was a great deal of cigarette butts and other items of trash.

Breakfast was served at 0700. It was a delightful Scandinavian buffet. The coffee was wonderful but very strong. Keep you awake for a week. We took extra food from the buffet (rolls and cheese) for our train trip to Moscow. Unfortunately we did not have any plastic baggies so we used our shower caps to protect the food.

Our train trip was scheduled for 1700.  Our bags were placed outside our rooms at noon for pick up and then went on a city tour of Helsinki. We saw the Monument for Jean Sibelius. He was a famous Finnish composer of the late romantic period. A best-known composition is Finlandia. To learn more goggle him for information. His music is beautiful. The next site of interest was Helsinki Cathedral. The oldest building in Helsinki, and The Church in the Rock. Weddings are scheduled at this church every 30 minutes which last for 20 minutes then 10 minutes for tourists to visit. Reservations to have a wedding at this historic place must be made one year in advance.

Our bus then delivered us to the train station for our overnight trip to Moscow. There was a super market near by where we shopped to purchase food for our over night trip. We purchased fruit, chicken, cheese, crackers, candy and bottles water. Check out was interesting. When you decided on a certain item you placed it in a bag then on a scale. There were pictures of different items. Press the button of the picture of the item and a price sticker pops out which you place on the bag for check out.

After our interesting shopping experience we crossed the street to the train station for our next adventure. A 14 hour train trip. The train looked like something you would see in the USA in the early 1900’s. Not much progress in luxury in this part of the world.

Stay tuned. It gets better. Or worse. How you perceive the situation. I highly recommend you have a very good sense of humor for traveling in Russia. It happens that was a must as Dr. Feldman interviewed each of us. If he thought you could not cope with difficult situations he would not include you in his tours.

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What Industry am I interested in other than Health Care?

Travel Agent/Tour Operator.  Responsibilities are arranging and providing all services and accommodations offered in connection with specified tour itinerary.

In 1989 I participated in a 3-week adventure of  “The Many Faces of Russia”.

A period of time when “Perestroika” (restructuring) and “glasnost” (openness) were Mikhail Gorbachev’s watchwords for the renovation of the Soviet body politic and society that he pursued as general secretary of the Communist Party from 1985 until 1991.

Our tour guide was Robert S. Feldman. Director of the Russian and East European Area Student Program at California State University, Fullerton.

During the tour we had round table discussions with Soviet academics and journalists about the current developments in the Soviet Union.

My story to be continued with the next blog.

Chapter/Level III. What Industry am I interested in?

You must have long-range goals to keep from being frustrated by short-term failures.  Charles Nobel.

Subject: Statistics regarding positions available in the Health Care Industry.

I started my research by going to Yahoo.Hotjobs to discover on that site alone there is a listing of 31,514 available jobs in the Healthcare industry. It covers the entire US and a variety of positions, such as Medical Assistants, Release of Information Specialists, Data Entry Clerks, Front Desk Business Associates, Sterile Processing Techs, Medical receptionists, Dental Hygienists, RN, LPN, CMA, Medical Front Desk/Scheduling and on and on.

My next task was to determine information regarding Nursing Shortages.

American Association of Colleges of Nursing fact sheet information as follows.

In the July/August 2009 “Health Affairs” Dr. Peter Buerhaus and coauthors found that despite the current easing of the nursing shortage due to the recession, the U.S. nursing shortage is projected to grow to 260.000 registered nurses by 2025 A shortage of this magnitude would be twice as large as any nursing shortage experienced in this country since the mid-1960’s.

On July 2, 2009 the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that the healthcare sector of the economy is continuing to grow, despite significant job losses in nearly all major industries. Hospitals, long-term care facilities and other ambulatory care setting added 21.000 new jobs in June 2009, a month when 467,000 jobs were eliminated across the country. In September of 2009 the BLS confirmed that 544,000 jobs have been added to the healthcare sector since the recession began. The fact sheet of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing is 5 pages long in small print. Much more information than I can give on this blog. If interested, please do some research.

My opinion is look at the healthcare industry. It is never to late to learn a new profession and this is one profession that will only accelerate in its needs as the baby boomers come to the age of needing healthcare.

Today, I looked at the jobs available in the newspaper.. Something I found interesting was an advertisement for Medical Career Training. “Train to become a Veterinary Technician or Veterinary Assistant. Other training offered consisted of Pharmacy Technician, Dental assistant and Respiratory Therapy. Does that give you a clue of the incredible needs in the healthcare industry?

Being an animal lover for as long as I can remember, my next thought about an industry would definitely be to look into the industry of Veterinary care.

Giving care to others is apparently who I am and I would encourage others to look in the mirror and determine what you can do to always serve others.

I consider Chapter/Level III completed, unless I hear otherwise from someone that thinks I haven’t elaborated enough on this subject of “What Industry Am I Interested In?

My parting comment is.

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and I could say, “I used everything that you gave me”.

Erma Bombeck.

Chapter/Level III. What Industry Am I Interested In?

               A Nurse’s Prayer

When I falter, give me courage

When I tire, renew my strength

When I weaken because I’m human

Inspire me on to greater length

As doctors and patients become demanding,

And days are to short for all my duty

Help me remember I chose to serve

To do so with grace, and spiritual beauty

In humility Lord, I labor long hours

And though I sometimes may fret;

My mission is mercy – abide with me,

That I may never forget.

What are you going to do when you get out of the service?  No one ever asked me that question.  However I had no doubts about what I would do when I retired. I decided on the field of nursing at the age of 18 and have never questioned that decision. My only interest was to increase my knowledge so I would always be better prepared to meet the needs of those individuals under my watchful eyes and my dedicated care.

The Nightingale name is ours. The ideal persists, the lamp burns on, and the symbol endures. If you don’t try to do something, beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.

The only other industry I was slightly interested in was “Travel Agent”. I must admit this was for selfish reasons, as I had learned that if you sold enough airline tickets, I could travel by air at 75% off regular cost.  I did take a 2-week course with Western Airlines.

It was a very interesting course and I was glad to learn more about the industry, however nursing kept me busy, so I did not pursue this industry. I think I wrote a few flight tickets, but it did not seem to give me much satisfaction. I prefer to focus on what I do best. Helping others.

While I was in charge of the Medical Intensive Care Unit here at Camp Pendleton, one of my patients asked me to talk to him. He was pretty insistent, that I give up my career as a nurse as well as my military career. He said, I have noted that you are so observant I could make you a millionaire in the Real estate business in nothing flat.  I shook my head and said, “My dear patient, I don’t want to be a millionaire. I want to be a nurse”. I know where I am going with my career and I do not wish to go in any other direction.

There are many, many areas in the health care industry to travel. And the need is critical.

While I was a patient with my fracture a few years ago, one of my caregivers was a very tall, very squared away young man. I asked. “Are you or have you been in the military?

He said “Yes Ma’am. I am currently in the military”. I said, are you a corpsman? Much to my surprise, he said, “No Ma’am, I’m a Marine”. I was shocked but said to him. Young man, I praise you. Stand fast and believe in yourself. Follow your dreams and make them a reality. As I was there such a short period of time, I was never able to follow up with this individual and his on going endeavors. I often have felt sad, that I was not able to be there as a source of encouragement. However, one can’t be all things to all people. Just always be an inspiration when the occasion arises.

As I already had a retirement it was not something I really worried about with the jobs I took in the health care industry. I formulated my own second retirement fund by investing in an IRA fund. I am guessing there are health care industries that do have retirement funds. Likely Kaiser Permeate has a retirement fund. If that is your interest, then you must do your research if interested in the healthcare industry and potential retirement benefits.

I will make this observation. One is never too old to enter the healthcare field. I know this from a situation I encountered.

While I was a consultant at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, I happened one day to sit down at a table in the cafeteria at lunchtime with a few student nurses. One of the students was a 52-year-old male.  He informed me he had been a mechanic but became allergic to the fluids dealing with that type work. He decided to change directions and entered the BSN program at University of Nebraska. He had been tasked with caring for his mother while she was ill, and dieing and out of the blue, made an entire life style change and loved every single minute in his new roll.

You are likely wondering why I was an independent contractor. I did not ever have to seek out this position. Due to my clinical specialty of which there are only less than 2000 world wide, Medical centers and hospitals would find me, and seek my willingness to become part of their team. Physicians admired the ET nurse on staff.

In this current economy the healthcare industry continues to hire and add jobs to their system. In nursing alone, by the year 2012 the nation will have a shortage of over 400,000 nurses. I’m sure other positions in the industry will also have a shortage. This is a field where there will always be jobs available, so I would urge anyone remotely interested to look into the industry for various positions. You might find it to be an industry that will give you a great deal of satisfaction.  

So in parting “What industry am I interested in? I think I’ve made it clear as to “who I am?” and what industry I am interested in and have always been interested in since a teenager.

I made some smart choices. Luck perhaps, but I see it mostly as dedication.

The next part of this Chapter/Level III, I will provide some statistics regarding the Healthcare industry.  

“It is the nature of man to rise to greatness if greatness is expected of him.”

John Steinbeck.

Who Am I? Chapter VIII (Age 70 to the present) 2002-2010

Character is the sum total of our every day chores, and to achieve great things you must first believe it.

Whoops! Just realized I got ahead of myself. The trip to Thailand was not in 2001, but in 2003. Seems I kept things in order writing this story, until I reached age 68. Oh well, the friend I traveled with also could not remember what year we went to Thailand and she is a couple years younger than I.

In 2002 I made a trip to Nebraska to visit my family. Nebraska is usually nice in late summer or early fall.

2003 was my trip to Thailand. Have already related that story in the previous blog.

In 2004 off to South America. It was by no means a pleasant trip. We were on 15 flights in 19 days. On the 2^nd day I fell in a cathedral and injured my right knee. The tour guide kept insisting I be seen at a hospital. I told him he had 2 choices. Believe I was capable of managing the situation with a knee brace and some anti-inflammatory medicine or put me on a plane back to the US. There was not a prayer I would embrace medical care in a country with Socialized Medicine. The itinerary was horrible. On one day we experienced 5 different modes of transportation. Bus, boat, bus, boat, bus. I will admit I enjoyed the interesting sites. Iguazu Falls were spectacular. Rio de Janeiro was interesting but I was ready to return to the US. Not however without another negative situation. The grand finale was to be blessed with food poisoning. The food on the South American airline, which flew me into Dulles was the cause of that situation. I was very sick and must have looked like death warmed over, as the flight attendant moved me to business class and put an Oxygen mask on my face. I flew from Dulles to San Diego and was very happy to be home. No, I did not plan this trip. It was planned by my friend and as she also planned the trip to Thailand, which was very nice, I did not expect this trip to be otherwise. I decided to end my escapades of world travel. I tend to live by a motto. Once burned, twice learned. Besides my next episode would indeed prevent me for additional travel.

On 7 January 2005 I slipped in my kitchen, fell and sustained a fracture of the head of my right femur. The pain was excruciating. However, Dr. Hartman nailed me back together.

Truthfully. I have 2 stainless steel pins on the right hip and thigh. I get attention when I go through airport security.

Following a few days post-op, they decided to send me to a nursing home. I pitched a fit and said NO WAY!  You have two choices. Send me to rehab, or send me home. I refuse to go to a nursing home. They questioned my ability to endure rehab. I told them not to worry. I would do just fine and perhaps more than required. After a few days I was told I needed to slow down, as I was an over achiever. The entire situation did however slow me down a little due to having to use a walker for 6 months, but I was back at my volunteer work within 6 weeks following discharge from rehabilitation. 

A few words about my Volunteer work. I served as Oceanside Area Manager for Operation Interdependence for about 5 years or more. We shipped c-rats to the troops. Locally I had volunteers that were the best, as well as many others from surrounding areas that would have group packing parties and deliver large numbers of boxes to our center for final inspection and preparation for shipping. One year the Oceanside office reached over 192,000 troops. When an office in LA was opened the Oceanside office was dismantled. That was in about 2007. There were a variety of reasons, but shipping to the troops continued from other OI centers, so that was all that counted. 

In the fall of 2007 my College of Nursing honored me by posting a 2 page story in our Alumni news letter reflecting on my career from graduation to the present. During the summer I received recognition from the Blue Angels and was included among a group of active duty military and veterans to attend the Ronald Reagan Golf Classic Legacy Dinner. In December I accepted an award from the Daughters of the American Revolution.

On 29 May 2008 I traveled to Nebraska under the watchful eye of my guardian angel and close friend, to accept an award for Volunteerism from my College of Nursing. The most prestigious award given by the College. Such an event. I was so humbled I could not keep my eyes dry during dinner and the presentation presented by video to the audience. However, when they asked me to approach the stage to accept my award, my military bearing set in. I couldn’t let a large audience see a sniveling Naval Officer get on stage to make a short speech and accept my award. As I approached the stage escorted by my 2 brothers, and my guardian angel (a Marine of course) bringing up the rear, there was a standing ovation.

As I look back I marvel at all I have experienced.  It’s been a “great ride” and I’ve loved every minute of it.

On October 25^th I had a routine physician appointment. As I wasn’t feeling well, my friend Vicki Black took me to the doctor. Not a good day. I was immediately admitted to the hospital with an infected gallbladder, gallstones and MRSA of the distal colon. It seems I was a pretty sick lady. Thus I missed the opening of the first SWVBRC office, which was dedicated in my honor.

In August I decided to become a learner. My purpose was to set an example for other learners and hopefully be a support system. As I review blogs of other learners, it seems I have been about as effective as running a manure spreader during a windstorm. So I tried and now it is time to move on to Level III, as this completes Level II of “Who am I?”

In parting, I give this advice.

                                       PROMISE YOURSELF

PROMISE YOUSELF TO BE SO STRONG THAT NOTHING CAN DISTURB YOUR PEACE OF MIND; TO TALK HEALTH, HAPPINESS AND PROSPERITY TO EVERY PERSON YOU MEET; TO MAKE ALL YOUR FRIENDS FEEL THAT THEY HAVE VALUABLE QUALITIES; TO LOOK AT THE SUNNY SIDE OF THINGS AND MAKE YOUR OPTIMISM COME TRUE; TO THINK ONLY THE BEST. PROMISE YOURELF TO BE JUST AS ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT THE SUCCESS OF OTHERS AS YOU ARE ABOUT YOUR OWN; TO FORGET THE MISTAKES OF THE PAST AND PRESS ON TO THE GREATER ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE FUTURE; TO PRESENT A CHEERFUL COUNTENANCE AT ALL TIMES AND TO SMILE AT EVERY LIVING CREATURE YOU MEET.

PROMISE YOUSELF TO GIVE SO MUCH TIME TO THE IMPROVEMENT OF YOURSELF THAT YOU HAVE NO TIME TO CRITICIZE OTHERS; TO BE TOO DETERMINED FOR WORRY, TOO NOBEL FOR ANGER, TOO STRONG FOR FEAR, AND TOO HAPPY TO BE BLOCKED BY OBSTACLES.

                                         PROMISE YOURSELF

Chapter VII 1992-2002 Age 60 to 70

Follow you passion and success will follow you. Arthur Buddhold.

As I recall the only trip I made in 1992 was to California. Nebraska gets wicked in the winter months, so being a warm weather person I did need to return to warm weather and  visit my friends. When I say wicked that is likely an understatement. I recall once not being able to go to the mailbox at the end of my driveway for 3 days, due to temperatures of 40 degrees below zero. My poodle was much braver than me. She loved the snow and would dig holes and come back in the house with ice cycles hanging from her long beautiful ears. I think it was this year I sustained a knee injury and had an arthroscopy, followed by being on crutches for a few weeks.

1993, A trip to Texas to visit a friend. My trips were brief, as both my parents needed my nursing care. I continued to work for the Ophthalmologist as well as some independent consulting.

In June of 1994 with friends, a cruise of the Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean visiting Yalta and Odessa, Russia. Followed by Istanbul, Kusadasi, Ephesus, Olympia, Romania and ending in Venice. Flights were a little messed up due to weather conditions.

In January of 1995 Dr. Schlichtermier treated his entire staff, including spouses to a 6-day trip from Omaha to Cabo San Lucas, including handing each of us $150.00 at the airport for spending money. It was his way of saying Thank you for the many hours the staff had worked during the time when RK surgery was high on the priority list of those that were near sighted.  He holds a record of never having an employee resign, for any reason, other than relocation away from Omaha. My father passed away the end of October of this year.

In 1996 I flew from Omaha to Honolulu to board the USS Nimitz on a 6 day Tiger cruise. My stepson was with one of the squadrons and they were returning from deployment. As I have related I’ve been on many luxury cruises, but 6 days on the Nimitz was a shinning star in relation to all other trips. When they announced over the loud speaker, “all Tigers to the flight deck” you can bet I was the first one up to the flight deck. We sailed from Hawaii to San Diego. My two-step daughters were also on the trip. An aircraft carrier is a huge floating city, however the food was so good, I managed to gain 8 pounds.

I returned to Nebraska to continue the task of caring for my stepmother who had Alzheimer’s disease. She passed away at the end of the year. Both of my parents were cared for in their home and not subjected to a Nursing Home. We all managed to do what was required to accomplish keeping them at home to the end.

In 1997 having reached my golden retirement age of 65, I put in my resignation to the University of Nebraska. Somewhere along the line I had been hired as a staff member, instead of a consultant. I might have lasted a little longer, however having 3 patients; ages 49, 50, and 51 all expire within a 2-week period took toil on me. As many WOCN’s burn out in about 5 or 6 years, I figured lasting 15 years was a pretty good record. I decided my tasks given to me by a higher power were complete and it was time for me to move on. Again I will encourage you to schedule a colonoscopy if you are over the age of 50.  I may be a Nebraskan by birth, but a Californian by choice. My stepson and family persuaded me to move to Hanford, California. It is in the San Joaquin Valley. He was stationed at Lemoore Naval Air Station. That turned out to be a terrible mistake. That Valley is the 2^nd most polluted place in America. Houston, Texas ranks first. With my history of allergies I was actually told my physician I needed to get out of the Valley. Even my little poodle, Cherie developed emphysema. Not to mention the fact it was a very boring place to live. I did attempt to do some volunteer work for the Health Department, but didn’t last long, when I called a nurse on the fact that she given a patient and his wife incorrect information. Sounded to me like a little more of the fraud I witnessed working for VNA of Omaha. And where does the Public Health Department get their funding. The California Tax payers, of course. House went on the market and I made trips to Oceanside to find a house. Oceanside, is where I wanted to move to, when I left Omaha, but got side tracked. At last, my goals are falling in place.

I moved to Oceanside, 20 October 2000. I had to march down to this area in a hurry, to beat the moving company for a door-to-door move. I arrived about 2000 on the 19^th and the moving van arrived at 0800 the following AM. I stayed in my newly purchased home, as long ago, I learned to carry a Japanese futon, pillows, sheets and a blanket with me so I could avoid dealing with motels because of my 4 legged friends.

By the end of March of 2001 I was reasonably settled, so went on line to find the local Navy League Council. Yes, yes, yes. Who was on the other end of the phone, but our friend? That would be Mr. Albert R. Renteria. I wasn’t on the phone 3 minutes, when he was twisting my arm to become the Council Secretary. My answer. I’m a nurse, not a secretary. Did that work. Of course not. He put people on my trail and I got one message I really remember. “Who takes better notes than a nurse”. Thus the beginning of a new adventure.

I know this is getting lengthy, but would like to make it to 2002 in this chapter, so bear with me.

Through Navy League, I also became acquainted with some special and I do mean special people. Many are still fast friends and have been at my side, when I was in a dilemma of some sort.As a result of these new friends, my introduction to Operation Interdependence, ending up as Area Manager of Oceanside for 5 years. I will have to admit, I loved the job, but did take a break and travel to Thailand for 3 weeks with a friend from Kentucky. I highly recommend this trip. I traveled to San Francisco to greet my traveling friend that I had not seen for 30 years. We landed in Bangkok, traveled to Chaing Mai, and then went to Cambodia. I don’t remember our exact itinerary but in short in Bangkok the outdoor market, the Samnoen Duduak floating market, Opium Museum, Orchid gardens, training center for elephants, Kanchanabouri War Cemetery, Golden Triangle, Bridge over the River Kwai, built during the last 2 years of WWII, by 16,000 allied prisoners of war, mostly from Btitain, Australia, USA and Holland. Just before the end of the war, the allies’ bombed the bridge. We had a raff ride down some steam of water, rode elephants and had a dinner cruise on the Chao Phranga River in Bangkok. We also visited the island of Phuket. 

I don’t know about you that are reading this, but this lady is getting tired of writing, so as this brings me up to 2002, I managed to accomplish these 10 years without turning it into 2 parts. I’ll polish my halo tomorrow.

You are not stuck where you are, unless you decide to be. Unknown.

(1988-1992)

Enthusiasm is a volcano on who’s top never grows the grass of hesitation. Kahlil Gilbran.

9 July was another day of sadness for me. I lost my Josephine. She joined her friend Gigi.

3 days later I called a poodle breeder in Newport Beach, looking for another silver toy poodle. One had been born on the previous night. I immediately traveled to Newport Beach to write a check to put a hold on this tiny one.  I had to wait 6 weeks to bring her home to join Brie and Nellie. I named her Cherie Suzette.

In August of 1988 I traveled to Nebraska to pick up a car given to me by my father. While gone I had returned Cherie to the kennel where she was born, thinking that would be a safe place. It was not. When I returned and picked her up the next day she collapsed. I rushed her to emergency and she was saved after being on intensive care for 3 days. She had an intestinal infection and her Blood Sugar was down to 29.

In August I received another exchange student for a one year stay. She was from Finland. I had lots of fun with Essi and she enjoyed being in America. Not to mention, she loved my poodles. She departed to return to Finland in June. 1988.

In April 1989 I sold my home in Tustin, CA and moved to Nebraska with my 3 poodles.

On 29 June 1989, a friend and I traveled to LAX to join a group for a trip to Russia. We had a great flight to Helsinki, Finland. We arrived late Friday afternoon, spent the next day seeing the sights of this city then headed to the railroad station complete with food for the long over night trip to Moscow.  The rail tracks in Finland were nice and smooth. It was a different story once we crossed the boarder into Russia. I maintained lengthy notes while on this trip and perhaps I can reflect on those unusual situations at another time. We visited the following cities. Moscow, 3 days, a flight to Simferopol followed by a 2 hour bus ride to Yelta, for 3 days, then a bus ride back to Simferopol for a flight to Baku for 2 days. (Trust me you do not want to visit Baku if you can avoid it.)  As it was unsafe to drink the H2O in many places we often had to carry water from a city where the water was safe to the next city where the water was unsafe to drink. On the 2 hour flight to Baku, we had a greasy piece of cold chicken, sliced cucumbers, a large tasteless cookie and a cup of tea. When we landed and went to our hotel the lobby smelled like the Grand Canal in China. Gross. The condition of the hotel was about the same as the smell of the lobby.  Next trip was a flight to Kiev for 3 days followed by a flight to Leningrad, 4 days. People in this city were starving. Allowed one slice of bread per day.

We left Leningrad on a 5-½ hour bus trip to Tallin, making a pit stop half way through the trip. Our toilet consisted of roadside bushes.  Is anyone having fun? Yes we all had fun. It was a fantastic group of people and everyone rolled with the punches. If you are a complainer about the lack of comforts, do not entertain the idea of going to Russia. You must be tough to travel in other countries. Russia is only one of several, however the experience is fantastic and I am one that is always willing to explore other situations which in turn gives me tons of thanks for being an American. We spent 4 days in Tallinn. It is one of the most picturesque cities in the Soviet Union. It dates back to the 13^th century. People in the republic refuse to speak Russian. They will only speak German or English. In Russia tips in money are not given. Tips given are fashion magazines, lipstick, perfume, nail polish, blank CD’s, cassette tapes and other things not available in Russia.

Now my 3-week trip through Russia has ended with a ferry ride from Tallinn to Helsinki to spend 3 more weeks in Finland. Our host and hostesses are my foreign exchange student Essi and her great family. We all settled in a hotel for the night. The following day, the group returned to the US, except my roommate Wilma and myself.  Essi and her father picked us up for another new adventure in Finland.  We drove to their home in Pori, Finland.  Spending time with the family and taking some nice day trips to see the country. It is an interesting and beautiful country. Many, many beautiful lakes. We had a nice and relaxing time. Now back to reality.

I returned from my 7 weeks in Calif, Russia and Finland approximately 12 September. During this month, I had scheduled a dental appointment with a Periodontist. His office was difficult to find so having noted the officer of the Visiting Nurses Asso. Of the Midlands, I stopped there for directions. They gave me the needed information, but would not let me leave the office until I filled out an application. Apparently they were desperate for help. Well heck, I guess I could manage to work a couple of days per week and was willing to work on weekends. That was a difficult job and truthfully when I rang the doorbell I was never certain if a human being would answer the door, or perhaps a large rat or mouse. I have never encountered such squalor in my entire life and that included homes in some very upscale residential areas.. Not to mention drugs and people that were on welfare because they had made the choice to not work. I didn’t last very long, as I was instructed to document care in the negative, so the organization could continue to keep the patients on their care list. I considered that fraud and did indeed express my displeasure with this attitude, considering most of my years had been dedicated to teaching patients how to manage their own medical needs with supervision as needed. I will not ever compromise my ethics or standards so I resigned. The management was not real smart, as they did not have an ET nurse on staff and they had many ostomy patients and various difficult type wounds to deal with. I had done a great deal of teaching in this area with case managers to increase their knowledge so they would better be able to manage some of these difficult situations. If I were to describe some of the incredible difficult wounds and the drainage I might have somem consider looking for an emesis basin. I will tell one very special story. Three days prior to Christmas, I was asked to see an ostomy patient. I could hardly believe what I encountered. This lady was bed ridden with copious amounts of liquid stools.  I went to work, managing the entire situation (you don’t need to know all the nitty gritty), but I am proud and delighted to report I resolved the situation and she was able to get out of bed and celebrate Christmas with her family. When I visited her the day after Christmas, she was a very happy lady.

Evidently I live a charmed life, or so my sister-in-law thought. Very soon I was recruited by 2 hospitals to serve as an independent contractor as an ET nurse (WOCN). Then one day I went to have my eyes examined at an office near the University of Nebraska Medical Center, where I was working as a consultant.  I noted the nurse had graduated from the same college of nursing that I had graduated from. I left the office with an appointment for an interview and was hired a few days later. This was only to cover her pregnancy if a problem occurred as well as maternity leave. That turned into a 4 days a week job for 3 years. In between time I continued to fulfill the needs as an independent contractor. Some how I can always manage to find time to do what I love most. Always being there to take care of those in need of my ability to make the situation better.

During my spare time I took on the task of remodeling an old farmhouse, doing much of the work myself. Again, I lived a charmed life. I had a fantastic contractor to accomplish the things I was not capable of doing.

In 1991 I joined a friend of mine, Sharonann Gain, for a Panama Canal cruise, which ended in the Caribbean.  Great shopping in St. Thomas. And Sharonann was a great traveling companion. Tons of great fun on this fabulous trip.

In July 1992 I turned age 60 and my brother Chuck had a great big really special party for me at his home out on the farm in Elkhorn, Nebraska.

So this brings me up to 1992 and completes Chapter VI Part II.

Seems some or many are bored with my story, as I have not had a comment to my previous blog. However, I will march on because I made a commitment. I signed an agreement and I will not fall or fail to complete the agreement to the best of my ability.

If you are doing your best, you will not have time to worry about failure.

Age 50 to 60.

Life is what we make it. Always has been, always will be.  Grandma Moses

Yikes! I’m getting old. As this chapter starts, I still have 15 years of Service to give to the sick. I look forward to it with gusto. As always being willing to add knowledge and become a specialists in a field that few nurses are interested in.

But first I will regress just a little. In 1979 I lost my beloved poodle, Gigi.  I had lost Fifi while living in Arizona. Now my Beautiful Silver Josephine was a lost little girl. She seemed to not understand why her best friend had left. She did indeed mourn and I often had to wipe the tears from her eyes.

It is often said that Nurses are hard and not capable of crying. Trust me that is absolutely a total untruth. Not just for my beloved poodles but often for many of my patients.

As my career progressed the DON called me into her office and asked me if I was interested in becoming an ET nurse. (Then it meant Enterstomal Therapist) Now referred to as a WOCN. I’m tempted to make you guess, but will say it stands for Wound, Ostomy, Continence Nurse. This is a clinical specialty of which there are less than 2000 worldwide. Well, why should I not accept the challenge?  The DON was willing to pay for the course, pay for an apartment in LA, so I would not have to commute and continue my salary while under instruction. If you think about it, it doesn’t get much better than that. What to do with my poodles. I was hosting an exchange student from Vastervick, Sweden for a year. He was reliable, could cook and when I talked to him about this situation, he was more than willing to keep the home fires burning in my absence. And the foreign exchange student leaders, lived only a block away. I of course came home on weekends. I missed Per Albin Jarnestrom as well as my poodles. He was a delightful young man. In the course of my hosting of foreign students I hosted a total of 10 from various countries. Off to USC School of Enterstomal Therapy for another adventure. It was a graduate course in 6 weeks. I was a basket case when I finally completed the course. I do not think I have ever had so much information stuffed in my mind in 6 weeks in my entire life. My instructor was the most caring individual I had met in a long time. She said, “No one fails my class”. Another few words of wisdom among many were always listen to your patients. They have words of wisdom that will assist you on your way to rehabilitate them.

When I returned with all this knowledge, my first patient was the father of one of the physicians on the hospital staff. He had colon cancer, an intestinal blockage and the surgical procedure was a loop ostomy. Not something I learned about during my education. I was beside myself wondering how to deal with this difficult situation. I said to myself. Carol, think it through. Consider all aspects of dealing with the situation. There was an incredible outflow of liquid intestinal substances spilling all over his abdomen as well as into the bed. I knew only one thing. I had to do something to preserve the dignity of this patient.  I thought the entire difficult situation through very carefully and came up with a plan and it worked with lots of effort and creative thought on my part. His physician son was indeed thankful for my efforts. I became very close to this entire family and as nurses never cry, I will tell you and I’m not ashamed to admit, I sat in the room with the family and cried with them while he was dieing. I did also attend his funeral. I think it is important to let your patients and their families know that you think they are special. And that is how I spent my life in this field of nursing. This is likely the most difficult aspect of nursing I have ever dealt with. Rehabilitation of ostomy patients takes a strong resolve and an occasional kick in the ass of those that are playing the poor me game. It was often not a pleasant situation but I had no choice but to move them onward and give them the strength to deal with this life style change. On a slightly humorous aspect in this patient care, I had one 72-year-old female patient ask me if she could still climb mountains.  I said “What kind of mountains”. She said, mountains, mountains. My answer to her was the only change in her life is the mode of exit.  As I attended another patient elsewhere his brother made an interesting remark. He said, Harry, think of it this way. It is just a different way to fart. I’m not gross. This is reality and the rate of intestinal cancer is increasing rapidly. I ask that anyone over the age of 50 consider having a colonoscopy.  It might save your life.

OK, enough of my ET stories. Wound care was another issue. Things had changed a great deal and my knowledge was not well received by any stretch of the imagination. It was a fight to educate the staff that my method of wound management resulted in healing 3 to 5 times faster than old antiquated methods.

I think I now need to take an interesting trip or two. With my retirement and the nice salary I was earning due to my clinical expertise, I decided to embark on some worldwide travels. I had already been on 2 Caribbean cruises, as well as a cruise that started out in Athens Greece. The Greek Islands and the Holy Land. While on active duty, I had also traveled to Italy with the Association of Operating Nurses.

1984 I traveled through Norway, Sweden and Denmark. My 52^nd  birthday was celebrated in Stockholm with the family of my first exchange student. From there I traveled by train to Vastervick, Sweden to visit my 2^nd exchange student and his family. Traveling into Denmark I was fascinated by the terrain. It reminded me so much of east Nebraska that I suddenly realized why my Danish grandparents stopped in Nebraska to start life in the US. I visited the same church my grandmother had attended about 100 years before.

1985 a Grand European cruise, which visited 6 European capitals. 1986 a Pacific Crossing starting in New Zealand and ending in Los Angeles, making stops along the way. Mostly we were at sea for 12 days. These cruises are referred to a relocation cruises and they are not very expensive.

In between my travels, which were a large trip once a year, I actually did have a job and worked. My schedule was always busy and I carried a beeper 24/7, to meet the needs of my patient load. That would include going to work just about any hour of the day or night if required to solve a problem. Once while in Greece, I was informed by someone I had met that Americans are lazy. It was said they never learn a foreign language and no one speaks Greek except the Greeks. Well I decided to surprise a few of the shipboard individuals the next time I sailed with Royal Cruise Lines. I enrolled in a Greek language class. I really enjoyed those classes and to top it off, also learned how to prepare several Greek dishes. My Baklava was a hit. One student asked me for my recipe, as his mother was from Greece, but told me, my Baklava was better than hers.

Going to Athens to leave on the Grand European cruise, I decided I wanted to see just what a hospital looked like in a foreign country. So I whipped out my directory for ostomy and wound supplies and found the names and addresses of the reps in Athens for Hollister and Convatec.  I wrote a letter and sent it to them in English as well as in the Greek Language. I informed them my date of arrival and the name of the Hotel where I would be staying. A tiny, inexpensive hotel located at the foot of the Acropolis. I wasn’t in my room very long before I received a phone call from one of the reps, informing me I was scheduled to give a lecture at the University of Athens, medical center the following day.. Oh boy. What did I get myself into now? At least I had been smart enough to pack a lab coat to wear over my civilian clothes, so I would look professional.  To my surprise, physicians, registered nurses, as well as student physicians and nurses attended my lecture. Now my Greek was pretty good, but not good enough to give a lecture, so a drop dead gorgeous Greek surgeon translated for me.  My topic was “The role of an Enterstomal Therapist.” What I thought would be about a 30-minute situation, turned into 2 hours, due to the many questions the audience wanted to ask me. They were shocked to hear I carried a beeper 24/7 and wanted to know how much I was paid. Not wanting to give a dollar amount in a 3^rd World country, I informed them I was paid at the Administrative level.

I must admit I was shocked by the medical care I witnessed. No screens on the windows, and only one nurse on duty for the purpose of administration of medications. The patients were taken care of by family members. I found very little indication of patient care documentation and absolutely no such thing as a policy and procedure manual. Washing my hands even turned into a problem. No paper towels. Just the cloth towel that belonged to the patient. I decided to drip dry. I did visit a modern hospital that was air-conditioned and met the medical director Dr. Bisbee’s. He had founded the Greek National association for ostomy care. I also made a house call with one of the ostomy supply reps. I’ll not comment about that experience.

I was royally entertained in the evenings at nice restaurants. They are really party people and do not eat the evening meal until about 2200. Time to board my ship after an interesting and informative 3 days. When I returned I commented to my Greek teacher---

Nina, no offense to your country but I would not like to get sick in your country. She just laughed and said, “Neither would I”.

In 1987 I flew with a group and my travel agent to Kyoto, Japan to board “The Pearl of Scandinavia. We started in Kyoto, traveled south and ended this cruise in Hong Kong. We stopped in  Nagasaki, Japan then on to China, stopping in Dalian, and Qinhuangdao. From this stop we took a 3 ½ hour train ride to Beijing. This was a 3-day program. Returning to the ship we were greeted with a huge Welcome home from the ships crew, as well as the local natives. We pulled anchor and headed to Yantai, Qingdao, Shanghai, Xiamen, and finally Hong Kong. As I remember we had to anchor in the harbor in Shanghai, having lost our priority to the Queen of England.

In 1988 I traveled with a group for a 3 week shopping trip to Taiwan, Korea and Hong Kong.  Wow! Nothing like shopping in the Far East.

This brings me to a 5-year period in this Chapter. So I have decided again this Chapter needs to be divided into 2 parts. I’m not windy. I just did tons of things.

The pleasantest things in the world are pleasant thoughts; and the great art of life is to have as many of them as possible.   Michel de Montaigne.

Age 40 to 50

If you are near the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. Anonymous.

My duty at Barbers Point was demanding with a patient load of at least 300 per day. Navy Physicians numbered about 10 to 12.  Navy Nurses 3, Civilian nurses 2, a large Corpsman staff and 3 or 4 Volunteers per day. During this period of time all medical records were changed from the alphabetical filing system to using SS. Numbers. A difficult task which took a few months to accomplish.  Mostly things went very well as everyone worked as a team. “Thank you Snoopy”.  As luck would have it, I became ill with pneumonia on a Sunday, with a Fever of 105 degrees. I went to work and was immediately sent home. Not smart, but I returned to work on Wednesday, only to be chastised by my corpsmen staff asking me if I didn’t think they could handle things. I hung my head in shame. Of course I knew they were all very capable.  They sent me home and made me promise I would not return until I had recovered.

As our daily activities went on, one day the crash bell rang and rang and rang. Yes indeed something very big. A Braniff 747 inbound from Japan, loaded with passengers was not able to deploy its landing gear. Medical personnel from every medical facility on the island headed for Honolulu International Airport.  The landing flight pattern was directly over Barbers Point. We all ran outside, including patients, to watch as the plane, escorted by two Air force jets from Hickam Air Force Base flew overhead. The runway had been foamed for a belly landing.  Just in time the landing gear came down, however they could not land on a runway that had been foamed, so it was full throttle ahead to climb up, do a turn around and land on a different runway safely. Talk about an adrenalin rush. Yikes!

Collateral duties included escorting the Director of the Nurse Corps to Midway Island as well as being sent there for 3 days on TAD. I enjoyed Midway Island and found the “Gooney” birds fascinating.  I purchased a book “The Albatross of Midway Island” to learn more about these interesting birds.

On the home front, I hosted many houseguests from the mainland, as well as a dinner party at least twice a month and attending functions given by other members of our military family.

My husband retired from the Marine Corps in April 1973. He studied Real Estate and did that following retirement. One person he brought home for dinner was a great gal whose name is Dianne Uyehara.  We still remain friends and you can find her registered under Community Directory. Dianne became part of our family. She is a fun and delightful person and I treasure her friendship. Dianne has the true Hawaiian spirit and would do anything possible for you when needed.

Another interesting journey was a trip to Alaska with VP 1. One of the squadrons based at Barbers Point. My husband thought I was going to jump out of the plane when they started giving us ditching instructions. He said, I’ve never seen you look so frightened.

It was an interesting ride to say the least. Touch and goes at Adak, then finally a landing. We flew from there to an Air Force base, where we spent the night. The following morning while preparing for take off, we had engine trouble. I’m beginning to wonder why I was dumb enough to go on this “free trip” to Alaska. Problem fixed and I assumed the pilot and other crewmembers were likely not willing to fly a plane if they thought it wasn’t safe. Did I really have a choice? Certainly I couldn’t stay there and the Exec. of the Squadron was also on the plane. Our destination was Kodiak, Alaska. Here I was introduced to the Alaskan mosquitoes. Good grief. I had no idea the Lord made such huge mosquitoes. It was a fun and interesting place to visit and best of all, I returned with 100 pounds of King Crab legs in the belly of the plane. Price $1.00 per pound.  We flew directly back from Adak to Barbers Point to complete my time and prepare for retirement. I retired on 1 October 1974.

We had considered remaining in Hawaii, however my allergies were so severe, it was suggested I move away from the Islands, as it was not possible to desensitize me with allergy injections.  We relocated to Tucson, AZ and I enjoyed instant health, totally free of allergies. While living in Arizona, I worked at an Alcohol and Drug detoxification center part time, as well as a surgical ward part time. My marriage became problematic so I divorced and moved to Orange County. I secured a job under the recommendations of a friend and retired Navy Nurse.  I was hired by an over the phone interview. My duties as team leader on a surgical ward lasted about 2 weeks when I was called into the Nursing Office and offered the job as Supervisor of Central Supply. When I asked how long I had to consider it she said “five minutes”. My answer was, Yes, I’ll take the job.

Hesitation has never been a part of my life. I instantly saw this as advancement and the trust of the Nursing Office that I was capable of dealing with this task.

This was likely the most interesting place of employment in my entire professional life.

The hospital was Physician owned and although it did take good care of patients, other things puzzled me. On person on the staff was a mystery.  His title was hospital Chaplain.

In reality, I’m not really certain he was indeed a Chaplain, as he was the actual person that was (are you ready for this) “The Great Imposter”. His name was Fred DeMara. I must admit I shook my head in disbelief but all staff members insisted that indeed he was the one and same that was once the “Great Imposter”.

As for my job, it turned out to be a royal battle with the Engineer department. The head of which was a retired Naval Officer. I uncovered the fact that the Ethylene Gas sterilizer was not properly vented to the outside of the hospital. Guess who won?  Over looking situations that have not previously caused a problem is not how things should be handled. And who knows if a problem might not later be the cause of an illness from exposure.

As time went on, it seemed the hospital was about to fold, or something was not quite right with the situation, so I decided to move on. I applied for a job as a Head Nurse at a hospital in Placentia Linda. More trouble. The ward Secretary did not like me in any way shape or form. It seems she was running the ward and the previous head nurses were not functioning in their positions. Instead, they were leaving running the ward to the Ward Clerk as they were out on the ward doing patient care. Absolutely not the function of a charge/head nurse. In retaliation, she decided to undermine me. She would transfer orders and put the stat orders. (Stat meaning immediately if not sooner) at the bottom of my huge stack of orders to review and check off to determine if orders had been properly carried out as ordered. When I discovered this, I lost it. I immediately wrote a letter of resignation and presented it to the supervisor. No way, will I work with someone that is deceitful. The supervisor knowing how effective I was as a Charge Nurse made every attempt to persuade me to change my mind. I told her flatly no. She called a meeting between the three of us. Her, the Ward Clerk and yours truly. The ward clerk played the crying game and promised she would never do it again. I live by a motto. If you lie to me once I will never trust you again. As it was close to Christmas and many had plans I said I would stay for one month, instead of the traditional 2 weeks, to make sure that no one had to be negatively affected by my resignation. And so I left, not having a clue what was next in store for me job wise. Anyone that doesn’t think they have a guardian angel needs to listen to this story. I had presented my resume to a hospital that was located very close to where I lived. As I spent a couple of weeks looking at the want ads and trying to figure out my next move, I received a phone call from the Nurse recruiter that informed me the DON, would like to interview me for a job as Hospital Supervisor. I later found out, she had already fired 3 supervisors that were not capable of doing the job. This DON, was hell on wheels, and I love working for people like that. She actually had a sign behind her desk of a witch riding her broom. I loved it. I love tough people that have one goal in life. Do it right the first time. She later told me; after we became friends she hired me before I even walked through her door for an interview. It again was a troublesome position. It had been a physician owned hospital and the nurses all thought their jobs depended on doing anything they could do to protect the physicians, even if it was illegal. The first thing I uncovered was the fact that narcotics were being given past the 72-hour dead line. I instated a stop to that situation and of course was met with resistance. Quote “The doctors won’t like that”. Answer.” Do you think I care? Ladies it is a Federal Law and no one is taking my nursing license away from me because some doctor might not like a change that I have made.  Physicians aren’t stupid. They knew very well I was right and conformed without question. The nursing staff however was intent in getting rid of me. I was a threat. As it happened I had a request to return to the hospital in Anaheim to fill the position as Material Manager. I was pretty certain it might be a short-term position but I did not need to deal with any more back stabbing, so I moved on. About the time I thought I would again be looking for a job the DON, at Tustin called me and said, Carol, I have a job for you. I need someone to plan an implement a Diabetic teaching program. I said, Betty, I know nothing about Diabetes. She said, you will. If you take the job, I will send you to a 2-week teaching program in Minnesota. Minnesota in January for a California person. But we must do what is required to progress and be successful, especially if someone else thinks so highly of your capabilities. And so, I returned from yet another learning process and planned and developed the first Diabetic Teaching program at this hospital. Later at a Medical staff meeting a Cardiologist asked, “When would they get a Cardiac teaching program”. I said, Dr. Vangrow, I had no idea you wanted a cardiac teaching program. I will get right on it, immediately. Thus another teaching program to better the outcome of patients following discharge. I loved my job.

So stay tuned for more adventures as this brings me to the magic age of the big 50.

The way to have a better tomorrow is to start working on it today. Anonymous.

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.

At this point of my duty at Camp LeJeune, I had learned the previous CO had been ineffective due to alcoholism. No wonder the place was such a mess.  We were blessed with a new CO wo was hell on wheels. He later became US Surgeon General. His office was often referred to as “the pressure chamber”. In addition to this one very tough and demanding CO, was added a Chief Nurse that was also hell on wheels. She was promoted to Navy Captain in 9 years. She had served some time in the Army Nurse Corps, but left and spent her time getting additional education. Then she transferred to the Navy.  It was a privilege to work for her. There was no doubt in my mind I better not screw up or there would be hell to pay. As it turned out, she somehow recognized I was a person that could get a job done. One job that blew me away was to be put in charge of all the ice machines in the hospital. My husband was bewildered. He asked me if that wasn’t the job of the dietary department. I told him I was sure she had attempted to go the route and found it unsuccessful. I had to scratch my head trying to figure this one out. Then it occurred to me all of the ice machines were likely highly contaminated because no policy had been established.  You can imagine how popular I was when I shut down every ice machine in this 300 bed hospital and sent a notice that ice would be retrieved from the galley until further notice. All ice machines were drained and cultured. Same bacteria I found in the isolates in the Nursery. I looked for and found some ambulatory patients that would be willing to follow my instructions on how to properly clean the ice machines. Warning them following the cleaning, I would again do cultures to determine how effective the cleaning process was. Now, as this was a Marine base, I of course had the finest of the fine to help me accomplish this unusual task. My second cultures were great. In the meantime I wrote strict protocol regarding removing ice from the machines that was issued to every ward as well as posted on each machine.

Problem solved but to maintain a bacteria free situation all ice machines were cultured on a monthly basis. If need be, action was taken to clean them.

In addition to some of these unusual tasks I was assigned as Supervisor of all the Medical Wards. That didn’t mean I had a soft daytime job, as all Supervisors had to take their turns at supervision on the evening, night and weekend shifts. Those assignments resulted in walking at least 10 miles in 8 hours. As time moved on Captain Cannon assigned me to the Emergency Room. I have already stated how much the ER corpsmen looked forward to having me in the system.

Well, it all turned out very well. After about 2 months of figuring out I wasn’t going to crash and burn, the Sr. Corpsmen asked if he could speak to me privately. A private place consisted of the utility room where bedpans and emesis basins are emptied and cleaned.

A great office environment. He said “Mrs. Grice, don’t you know what we have been trying to do to you”. I just smiled and said “Hasn’t worked, has it”. He started to laugh and said, you are right, it hasn’t worked and now we have decided we not only like you but also want to keep you around. You are one very tough lady.  Together we turned that ER into a spotless part of the hospital. Bless their hearts. They even scrubbed the wheels on the gurneys.

One day we received a radio transmission from Bldg. 15 that a gun shot wound of the abdomen was headed in our direction with an ETA of 5 min. I called the Surgical watch and much to my dismay, he told me he was too busy and hung up on me. I looked at my corpsmen who said “What happened?” I said if you can believe this that SOB told me he was too busy and hung up on me. What was I to do, said they. I headed for the door straight towards the office of the CO and said you are soon to find out.  I ran into the Executive Officers office, under protest of the receptionist and explained the situation to the Capt.

He came out from around his desk like he had been shot out of a cannon, saying get back to the ER. I will take care of this situation. As they wheeled the patient into the ER the CO and the Exec. came to our aid. Emergency care followed by transfer to the OR.  There is no way I can tell all the ER stories. Many were grim and bloody.  The best story of all was when I was assigned to plan and implement the party for the Nurse Corps anniversary. I was so busy I had forgotten to make a hair appointment. When I went to the Chief Nurse and requested to leave work 15 min. early, she said NO. When I returned to the ER it was evident I had tears in my eyes and was very frustrated. Corpsmen to the rescue. That fantastic group of my team managed to (without me noticing) set every clock in the ER up 15 minutes. One of them took my car keys out of my purse, ran over to the parking lot and brought my car back to right behind the ER, off to one side of course, so I wouldn’t see it.  Right on schedule they informed me it was time to leave to have my hair done. I immediately looked at my watch, only to be informed, my watch was wrong. As we were not allowed in town in a working uniform my Sr. corpsmen removed the oak leaves from my collar saying he was keeping them as a souvenir and told me I was now a civilian and I needed to get moving. As I continued to protest he said “Does one of us have to go over the hill to get you to the beauty shop on time?  We want our nurse to be the prettiest lady at the party.

While assigned to the ER, I was also called to the Nursing office and asked to go to Ward 4 (the Dependent ward) and straighten out that mess. I asked how long I had and she said 4 days. My reply was Capt. It took them 40 years to screw up that ward and you want me to fix it in 4 days. And how am I supposed to justify my presence. She looked at me calmly and said, “You’ll think of something”. I justified my presence by telling them I wasn’t busy in the ER and came to help them.  Now if you really want to know what is going on with patient care, answer lights. That is when I discovered there wasn’t a single roll of toilet paper on the entire ward. I of course had to threaten the supply department as it wasn’t the normal ordering day but I did indeed have 2 cases of toilet paper on my door step in 30 min. At home that night, my husband asked what great accomplishments I had done during the day. I rendered my Marine husband speechless when I announced I had ordered 2 cases of toilet paper (Using different language of course) I explained you couldn’t take care of patients very well if you can’t even wipe their behinds. I followed my 4 days of discovery with a report to the Chief Nurse. All my suggestions were implemented.  During these 4 years, my husband was deployed twice.  And as things don’t always work out time wise for one reason or another, it was my task to sell the house, contact the movers and supervise them for 5 days, while I was on night duty.

Husband arrived when everything was completed. On the 4^th of July 1971 we gathered up Gigi and Fifi and headed across country again for duty in Hawaii. I had considered leaving my 2 poodles with my parents in Nebraska rather than 120 day of quarantine.

I quickly changed my mind when we were greeted by 4 German Shepard’s as we drove into the driveway of my parents home a mile north of Elkhorn, NE. After a brief visit we were off to San Francisco to continue our trip to Hawaii.

We arrived early to look for and purchase a home. I manage to get pretty lucky in finding the perfect house. I had found a fantastic Real Estate Agent advertised in Navy Times. He was a retired Army Col and he and his wife remained friends for years to come.

My husband was to be stationed at Camp Smith and my duty station was Sr. Nurse Corps Officer at Barbers Point, Hawaii. Once again I was greeted with an incredible amount of undesirable situations. And yes once again the problem was the previous Sr. Medical Officer had an alcohol problem. His replacement was pretty special. He had served with the space program during all the Apollo space flights. The Nurse Corps Officer I relieved had been less than effective. However I had an E8 Corpsman that was fantastic. Mary Ann was delighted to find out she finally had a Nurse that was willing to deal with difficult situations. And I was equally delighted to have a Senior Chief that was totally squared away.

These were my problems.

!.  A very dirty dispensary.

2. Sterile technique being used was out dated.

3  Steam sterilizer had as far as I could determine never been checked to see if it was

     effective in sterilizing items that were placed in it for sterilization.

4. Sterility of emergency trays was out dated by a year or more.

5. No crash cart in the ER. (Only a small tray with a few emergency items on it that was

    kept locked up in the Pharmacy).     

6. Ambulances were a disaster, as well as the equipment contained in them.

As well as many other problems I can’t currently remember.

My solution to solving the lack of cleanliness was pretty interesting if not brilliant.  I had noted all the staff were Snoopy fans. Every single one of them had a Snoopy pin on their lab jackets. So, I said to Mary Ann, how talented are you and perhaps your roommate. I want to construct a banner that says the Snoopy award.  It was a total hit. Snoopy standing by his doghouse doing a white glove inspection, complete with swagger stick under his arm.  You never saw a place get so clean so fast in your life. Everyone was competing for the Snoopy Award to post over the doorway of his or her department.  I didn’t even have to be a butthead and issue orders. Competition did the job for me and I was one very happy Senior Nurse. At least in the cleanliness area.  All in all, once I instilled a sense of pride in the entire staff, everything else pretty much fell in place without too much grief.  Except getting a crash cart. I had to pound on the Adm. Officer’s desk every single morning and say loudly. “CRASH CART”. He finally got the picture I was not about to give up, so authorized the purchase of a crash cart.  Having previous Emergency Room experience, I knew exactly what the contents should be and I did have to order a few additional items. It was sealed with a wire seal and when used it must be inventoried and the inventory signed before they could get a new seal to replace the one that had to be broken to use the equipment.

One funny thing before I depart. I had at this point indeed turned age 40. I had gone to the pharmacy to pick up an Rx for a patient and as it was a controlled drug I had to sign and nearly give my life’s history. Age?  When I wrote 40 I suddenly realized I had indeed turned 40. I was in shock.  For my 40^th birthday my husband had given me a beautiful, very rare 2-karat diamond. It is silver in color. The given name. “Natural silver Mink”.

Chapter V coming up.

A person who moves mountains begins by carrying away small stones.  Chinese Proverb.