jurbyjunk

Hey Joeknee, try Yandy's on Columbia in New West. Take the Skytrain to Columbia Street Station. cross the street to the Army Navy side and head west (2-3 blocks) until you get to a bridal shop/hallway strip mall, with a sign which says "Hagen's Travel". Yandy's is about the 3rd shop in the hallway. I buy all my scrubs there (as do all the male nurses that I work with), and you can also order from their catalogues. Army Navy also carries unisex scrubs, basement floor and reasonable. I note that someone in an earlier reply mentioned Marks Workwearhouse. I just got their catalogue the other day. Their website is http://www.marks.com/healthwear. They're advertising "Denver Hays Scrubs Easy care 65% poly/35$% cotton. Sizes XS-XL. tops or pants $14.99 each". Says "sale ends" this coming Saturday (22nd). There's a store on E. Hastings and another on West 4 Ave & Cypress. Hope this helps. Katherine

I get this when I'm REALLY stressed-out. I then spend about a week taking "stress tabs" of VitB and it clears up. Interesting about the folic acid. Will have to try the Zinc for the white spots. My fingernails "curl over" my fingertips unless I keep them really short. Anyone got any ideas for that?

My son never had a chemo smell.

Kelly, I know exactly how you feel. Nothing's worse than to be the goldfish in the shark pond. And in 36 years of working, I've seen my share of sharks. If they can't get at you professionally, they get at you personally. I have a few suggestions. Someone here has suggested connecting with your specialty's professional group. Let them take you under their wing. Network, network, network, girl. Take some specialty courses, you can take them by distance education if there's nothing available in your neck of the woods. Show your certificates to your HN. Go to seminars, in-services. I wouldn't suggest cooking for the sharks. To me, that would come across as apologizing for existing. The occasional doughnut does work wonders, however. But don't kiss-up. I would approach the #1 bytch and say something like "I understand that you gave me a poor evaluation after working such a short time on your shift. I realize that I should not take this personally, that this was just my first evaluation for night shift, but I FEEL as if you believe that I will never become competent to work in this unit. I FEEL as if you believe that I should be an expert right away, rather than being allowed time to learn. I FEEL hurt and embarrassed, as if you want me to be a failure here. Did you really mean for me to FEEL this way, and if so, why?" Always talk about how you feel, as that is subjective and not something that she can deny. Also lets her get a good look (okay, maybe she won't look) on how she appears to you. Lastly, and since I'm only 5'1 1/2", my best advice is to learn to spit in their eye, upward if you have to.

How nice to find professional health care people who don't think that one is "crazy" because of seeing things. I have "seen things" for years, both in my personal space and at work. Many years ago now, I worked at "old" Childrens Hospital, here in Vancouver, BC. The hospital had been built in 1929. I worked on "upper east", a medical/clinical investigative unit, with a long hallway and glass double-doors at one end. At night, when I would be doing rounds, I could see my reflexion in these glass double-doors. Often I would see "another nurse" walking right beside me. It wasn't scary, I just felt as if someone else was keeping watch with me. Two days before Princess Diana died, I lost my son, Eric, who was 29 yrs 1 month 1 day. I mention this because I hear from his friends, once in a while, that they've come home and "known" that Eric had "dropped in". "Sometimes something's been moved". Another friend, Harmel, told me that he and his wife had been visiting my son's fiancee, Naoko, in Japan. Eric "woke me up one night" (the room lit up), Harmel said. He "wanted to tell me that he was okay and that he would see me "on this side" someday. That I shouldn't feel bad, because he was okay. And that when the light beckoned, to go towards the light, not away". Harmel also said that Eric told him that he often visited Naoko's family and that Eric "thinks that they know that he's there". Harmel said that, at breakfast the next morning, he finally asked if any of them ever saw Eric. And the answer was yes, they all saw him at various times. Naoko's mom said that at first she was afraid but then decided "it's only Eric visiting" and that now, when she senses him there, she chats with him, over a cup of tea. My best friend, who lives on the Isle of Man, and has known Eric since he was a little boy, says that she "always knows" when Eric is there visiting. "He smells like fresh babies breath". Her husband also smells this. "I tell him what's been going on in my family and tell him that he can stay for as long as he likes. In the morning when I get up, I know that he's left". My son had a military memorial service. Several days after the service, the mother of my son's best friend came over. She told me that, after the service, her husband, Paul, said "Eric certainly enjoyed his funeral". She said what are you talking about? Paul told her that Eric had sat on the edge of the dais for the entire service and also "hung out" at the reception afterwards, listening to what people were saying. Paul said he could "see him as plain as day". My daughter is 22 months younger than her brother. When she turned the exact same age as Eric was when he died, she had a nervous breakdown and had to be hospitalized. Yes, she is fine now and no longer needs to be on meds. Anyway, the night that I admitted her, I came home and went to bed. Before going to bed, I turned the portable dishwasher on. Now, on my way up the stairs to the bedrooms, I had "de-doghaired" my stairs. Believe me, there was nothing on my stairs. I was lying in bed, thinking about Julie's pain, and thought "okay Eric. You're her big brother and she needs you to help her". I heard the dishwasher click off and decided to go downstairs and disconnect it. Now, earlier in the week I had been looking all over the house for a particular blue shirt of mine. I couldn't find it at all. When I went back downstairs, there on the second stair from the bottom, was my blue shirt. My final ghost story involves my son's cat, Maddie. Maddie has always been an indoor cat; if she got put outside, she would sit on the front doorstep and cry until let in. Several weeks before this past Easter, I decided that, at age 14, she should go have a check-up at the vet's. The vet did a geriatric blood workup and a physical. The results were that "she's in great shape for her age". Maddie always liked to sleep on the end of my bed. About a week prior to going to the vet's, she had been sleeping there and woke up. She sat up, stared in the direction of the armoire by the head of my bed. She began "nattering" and staring at the floor. She continued "talking" and turned her head towards the floor by the foot of my bed, along the foot of my bed, and finally to the other side of the head of my bed. She just kept talking away, almost sounding as if she was arguing. She even went to that side of the bed. Finally, she went back to her corner and went to sleep. I was reading in bed at the time. When I had her at the vet's, I told the vet about this. She said "what do you think she was doing?" I said that I thought that perhaps Maddie was visiting with the spirit of another cat that I had had years ago. I told her that I wasn't uncomfortable, so figured that whatever it was was friendly. The vet said "I think that we should consider a brain lesion". I'm not too sure if she meant for Maddie or for me. LOL. Anyway, the Wednesday after Easter, I was in the kitchen, grabbing my lunch for work. Maddie came up and rubbed/twined around my legs (she was not a particularly affectionate cat). I picked her up, gave her a kiss on her nose and said "see you later". My daughter phoned me later at work. Maddie had stood by the sliding doors, wanting out. Julie said that she was surprised but Maddie was insistent, so she let her out. When last seen, at about 1715, Maddie was "going from blade of grass to blade of grass". We haven't seen her since. Now, often when a cat is going to die, they will "leave home" and find a spot to bury themselves in. We have a large wooded area behind our house. I believe that Maddie found a spot that she liked, buried herself and just went to sleep. I don't think that Maddie had a brain lesion. I truly believe that an angel came for her but Maddie told it that she wasn't ready to leave yet. I believe that Maddie picked her own time to go, and when the angel came for her, she went with it. I don't know why I see/feel these things, I only know that I do. I'm not crazy. I believe that there is a life after death, that the soul, which is what we really are, is eternal.