Pray

I do the weekend package and it works quite nicely for my family. I work 24 and get paid for 36, unless I am off on call, then it is less. Works for me, because I am divorced, my ex gets the kids every other weekend when I am working anyway, and I only have to get child care every other weekend. I am off all week with them at night and for any school functions. I will say I do miss having a social life though, when others are going to functions, I am working. And the health insurance costs way more for weekenders here than regular employees. Is that true everywhere?

no for me. Good, loving, very supportive, tight family unit. Had a dad who always told me I could do anything, grew up with a lot of humor in the family. Only thing I can say is that my dad always told me I would make a good nurse someday and my sister a good teacher, and that is what we did.

I would not call the doc for one "late" deceleration. Unless you have other changes that are nonreassuring such as baseline changes, fetal tachycardia, or anything that makes you think baby is acidotic like poor variability. Or uterine hyperstim, in which case you want to shut off the pit if it is running, do your other interventions, and call your doc. As you probably know already, docs and nurses don't always see eye to eye on what constitutes a late, how many you have to have to consider them late, etc. Can you find another OB nurse you trust when you have a question on a strip and get advice from her? Sometimes a baby just grabs the cord for a few seconds and you get a bad decel. If the problem resolves with your interventions or on it's own, I don't think I would bother the physician. If it recurs, I would definitely be calling so you don't end up with the baby crashing and the dr. saying, "you mean this has been going on and you did not call me?" If it happens once and resolves, I think no big deal. If it recurs a few times, call. Sometimes you get "warnings" and then a big event that doesn't recover. Hope this helps.

Please forgive me if this has been covered.. but I was wondering how much money per hour your hospital pays you to stay home on call. (OB, L and D) I never questioned this before, except I have had three days this payperiod on call, and our hospital pays 1.50 per hr. for me to sit around waiting for the phone to ring. Like a friend told me "you sit around for 1.50/hr at their beck and call? You have to respond in a half hour? They get an employee to sit around for basically nothing?" Got me thinking. Yes, this is a pretty good deal for the hospital. So, is this the norm? What do you get paid to stay home on call?

I came from a family who couldn't be more loving. My dad is the BEST and my mother, siblings are all great. My sister and brother both have good marriages. Then there is me. I truly think that I never met anyone that would hurt another person and that is why I did not recognize it at first. Then, once I recognized what was going on, I denied it- basically because of the embarrassment of not being able to make the marriage work and be good like what I had seen all my life. By the time I wanted out, I was completely attached to my three step children and to my husband's sister, brother, etc. Well, fast forward 15 years to now, I left about two months ago now, and have filed for divorce. Fortunately my family is still there for me. I have a good job, but even so, without the cash handout I needed from dad to pay all the deposits everyone wants I instantly could see how some women do not have any choice. I got a flat tire and in the state of mind I was in leaving, trying to cope with wasting 15 years of my life, feeling sorry for myself- etc, it occured to me that if I had no help, one flat tire or similar expense could make a woman think she had to go back to where she had someone to help her. I know that sounds crazy, but after listening to the stupid logic day in and day out of how much the abuser loves you, etc. it crosses your mind that maybe you do need him. Thankfully, I had my dad's good logic that outweighed what I imagined my husband would be saying.

years ago I helped harvest eyes for the corneas. This was actually done in the morgue, while another autopsy was going on. I was 23 at the time (now 41) and the experience at the time was not so terrible as the experience I had at home that night. The bodies were set up so that my patient (a dad of one of my friends) was at a T to the other body. In other words, behind my back, the autopsy patient was cross wise to me, and laid open pretty good. I was pregnant and had little to no room to move between the instruments and the ophthalmologist at the head of the bed. Anyway, that night I had HORRIBLE dreams about bodies cut up in my house-really wierd and frightening.

Chapstick the cracks (with a new chapstick-not one you used already on your lips!)

For the past five years I have been going to a native american (Lakota) res in South Dakota called Rosebud. The people there are very poor, but open to people coming in to help them. They have a local clinic in Mission, South Dakota and a hospital as well. However, the people have no way to get to the clinics and I notice especially the dental care is very very bad. I see there is a nurse practitioner in Mission who sees patients, but I wish there were some way to transport people. I would contact (on any res) the tribe (because they have the authority on the res). YOu could do this via website, for example, do a search on the internet ex. "Lakota reservations" or whatever tribe you are interested in. HOpe this helps. :)

Quite a few years back, when Saturday Night Live was on and they had that skit about the "copy guy" (you know, the guy who would talk to everyone who made copies... "Cindy, the cinstress... Makin' copies...") I made a big fool of myself over the phone. My husband and his friend used to call each other on the phone during the Bucks vs. Bulls games, and they had a habit of talking to each other like that... so, when the Bucks made a score and the phone rang, I picked it up, and said, "Is this Bob?" and the man said, "Yes." I said, "Bo-ohb.. callin Dan... Bobaloba ding dong, Watching the Bulls... Bob a dog... " anyway you get the idea. After saying this and expecting laughter, I heard a long pause. I said, "This isn't Bob (last name) is it? And the man said, "No, this is Bob. Bob your neighbor, bob from church." I was VERY embarrassed and he couldn't look at me for years without laughing at me.