Give up every food you've ever liked and you'll lose weight, right?

Well, maybe. Some of us have mad willpower and could totally be like 'I WILL NEVER EAT ANOTHER FRENCH FRY OR REESE PEANUT BUTTER CUP EVER AGAIN. EVER.'

The vast majority of us, though? Yeah right. The most I've personally ever been able to do is give up chocolate for Lent (I'm not religious, but some of my friends were. I thought I'd keep them company and give myself a challenge. I did it, too!), and to occasionally have a couple of sugar-free days when I've noticed my intakes have been amping up to the point where I have dessert after breakfast. Bit over the top, if you know what I mean.

The best way for me to break the habit is the cut it out for the couple of days. Key word: habit.

I do think breaking the habit is a massive part of the whole weight-loss, starting-healthy-eating thing. If you're used to drinking a Coke with each meal and fast food for lunch every day, sometimes...ya gotta start small. It's pretty overwhelming to stop doing everything you do all at once; why do so many people wait until next week? To mentally freaking prepare themselves for doing a complete dietary overhaul! I say, give yourself a freaking break. Is that what you'd recommend to your friends and family? Actually, maybe that's a bad question  to ask; a lot of women especially are pretty hardcore when it comes to dieting and the like.

The funny thing? Look at France. Naturally, obesity rates are rising, but generally a slimmer population. Are they cutting out all saturated fat and sugar? NON, merci beaucoup. They've just figured out portion control. And looking at Quebec (what's with all the skinny francophones?). According to this article Desserts - Why Quebec is Skinny, the reason they manage to stay skinny is because they don't restrict foods.

An example: You haven't had chocolate for 2 weeks and go to a party where you're offered a plate of chocolate mousse (I'm actually not a fan of mousse, but I know it's a popular one.) Odds are, um YEAH you're going to have some - and it'll be a lot harder to stop because you've been aching for it. Same if you go to a grocery store when you're hungry, right? You buy all kinds of things that you don't need because you're hungry! (This may include a box of crappy store-bought cookies which don't even taste that great but are down the hatch in 3.4 seconds.) We have much better control if we allow ourselves to take foods off the forbidden list and let ourselves have them once in a while. I'm not saying eat a pain au chocolat daily (although I've done it), but you know what? There's nothing wrong with really enjoying a treat. On a regular basis, even! *cue fainting*

A really good post from one of my favourite blogs, Weighty Matters, is What's Your Best Worse Choice? This guy is a doc with a really interesting take on weight loss, which is very reasonable. In this post, he touches on the idea that just because you had a Blizzard, doesn't mean you 'fell off the wagon'. Was it delicious? Was it satisfying? Is that really such a bad thing, then? Sometimes making healthy choices just means getting a small fries instead of a large, or maybe getting the large fries less often. Healthy eating doesn't have to be all or nothing - we all need a little wiggle room.

So if we're not cutting out all delicious things, we're trying some ridiculous fad diet. Don't even get me started. I absolutely LOVED this article How I Lost 40 lbs Doing Everything Wrong. This guy talks about some of the current fads with dieting, and how he didn't follow any of them?

'What?' you gasp. 'He ate CARBS. And not just any carbs, he ate WHEAT.'

I know, right?

This carb thing makes me crazy. You know, in some parts of Africa, their diet is 80% carbohydrate. And yet, we're not fundraising for the millions of obese African children? Our brain RUNS off of carbs. 'But it raises blood sugar!' Um, yeah, it's supposed to. That's how the human body rolls. Carbs are awesome. We just tend to emphasize the wrong ones (refined grains as opposed to whole grains, and simple sugars in sweets as compared to fruit, etc. ) And if anyone, ANYONE, tries to tell me they haven't eaten carbs since 1999, I will probably wallop them. And then attempt to educate them; carbs are in grains, dairy products, fruits and vegetables, any flavoured drink, everything. So what you're saying is, you only eat meat? And rocks?

And wheat - wheat is just awesome. I really don't buy into the Wheat Belly thing. We've been eating wheat for thousands of years. If you're celiac, or intolerant to wheat, then yeah, wheat is not for you. Maybe even if for some reason wheat makes you feel yucky. But for the rest of us - since when did bread become toxic?

'He didn't eat pomegranate or acai every day for breakfast!' you shriek in dismay. 'And what about supplements? SUPPLEMENTS, I say!'

Just a word about superfoods. Don't get me wrong, I love pomegranate and acai, but I love them because they're delicious and pretty nutritious, not because they're 'super'. I wrote an article on wheatgrass once. You know, the 1 oz green shots of juice that are supposedly equal to 2 lbs of veggies? So not true. 1 oz equals 1 oz of veggies. And all these supposed magical health benefits? These, my friend, are based on a scientist in the 1930s giving wheatgrass to his sick chickens. They lived, and the crazy started. I did some pretty extensive research into any scholarly article I could find on wheatgrass. There's no proof of this magic, dear ones. I emailed all the wheatgrass producers in Canada and got VERY few replies, but the ones I did get said 'Yeah...there's no proof. But people want it, and at least it's a vegetable.' True dat, I say, if it takes a bit of crazy to get people to get 1 oz of vegetables, and Booster Juice (delicious!) and the like profit, awesome. That said, I have been known to have a fit when I see the wheatgrass posters saying the 1 oz=2 lbs thing. I have irritated a store into taking them down in past. False advertising is bad, yo.

I won't go into the sugar sub thing here; that's a personal choice, as far as I'm concerned. That said, do they make you GAIN weight? Erm, no. I mean, Splenda does technically have some calories, but less than plain sugar and it's something like 60x as sweet, so if you manage to eat enough Splenda to put on weight, you maybe have some other issues that need talking about. I'm a real sugar person myself, I'd rather just eat less, but it's easy for me to say that when I'm 25 and work out every day and am not concerned about overindulging in sugar for the sake of, say, diabetes.

Ugh, I'm a bad blogger for making you read all this without any pictures. And I still haven't really taken any from around PG. It's for the same reason I'm blogging a lot less - it's amazing how much less time you have when someone isn't doing the cooking and grocery shopping for you. Not that I don't love doing that, I really do, but now I'm a bit more scatterbrained so I forget my camera and have a lot less time to tramp around and find something to take pictures of.  SOON. Maybe. Hopefully.

Since when do kids need 'kid' food?

I read this interesting article the other day: Kids Don't Need Kid Food by Marion Nestle. Marion Nestle, as it turns out, is a prof in the nutrition department at NYU. She seems like an interesting lady, and in this article/interview, she brings up the idea that if adults are eating healthily, shouldn't their kids eat the same way?

Before I really launch into this, I should say: I don't have kids. We're thinking 3-4 years from now if everything goes as planned, because I am so not ready yet. That said, I was a nanny for years - we're talking from 8 am to 6 pm at times, up to 7 days/week during the summers, as well as being a regular babysitter. Do I know what it's like to fight with your kids to eat every day? Absolutely not, so take this all with a grain of salt.

I recently stayed with a lovely family with 2 gorgeous and adorable kidlets. (Seriously, they made me actually want children, how cool is that?) These guys are pretty starch-fixed; the younger will eat beans and some vegetables and meat, but the other one lives off of noodles and fruit. They regularly get offered other foods, which they sometimes accept but like most kids, spit it out if they aren't into it. Some may say 'GASP! HORROR! COMMUNISM!'. But really, this is going by Ellyn Satter's principles of 'Feeding with Love and Good Sense.' I won't go into too much detail, but you can go here: How to Feed Children by Ellen Satter. This lady's pretty fab in my opinion; she's a registered dietitian who also has a few other sweet credentials, including a master's degree and a social work designation. A lot of what she says makes sense, including 'if you take the joy out of eating, nutrition suffers.' Making your kids eat something they don't want, even if they're just being stubborn, isn't really helping. 'Yes April, that's easy to say when you don't have kids.'  How many of us, though, don't like a particular food because it's associated with feelings of pressure or resentment? I was lucky, we were never forced to finish our plate, and while we had to try everything we didn't have to eat it all. Ergo, I'd say my sister and I have a pretty good relationship with food. However, I know quite a few people who were made to eat brussel sprouts, for example, as a kid, and who have vowed never to touch them again. Creating that situation of pressure at the table seems like it would be detrimental to the whole experience of eating.

Ok, so I've basically said 'Don't make your kids eat large amounts of stuff they don't want to eat.' The second part of that sentence though, is not 'So give them kid food!' Somewhere along the line (oh hey, corporate marketing), someone came up with brilliant idea of marketing to kids. Look at the commercials! Go to your average restaurant and there's likely a kids menu. What's on that menu? Is it smaller, maybe a little blander versions of the 'adult' menu?

Often not.

A lot of times it's: mac and cheese, grilled cheese sandwiched, cheeseburger, spaghetti, or something a lot like that. Since when did kids need to eat something different than adults? I'm not saying go out and feed your kids the spiciest curry available, but how about introducing new foods early? It seems to me that by encouraging a separate menu, it's like we're reinforcing the idea that kids need different foods than adults. This my friends, in my opinion, is crap. Did kids 50-100 years ago grow up eating chicken nuggets while mum and dad ate cabbage? Not likely. Odds are, whatever the regular adult meal, there will be something the kid will eat - even if it's just the coconut rice with a piece of chicken you sucked the sauce off of. Maybe they can try a little sauce if it's mild. Kids often need to be offered food 5-20 times (per Ellyn) before they'll start to like it. If we give up trying and pass the grilled cheese, how is this going to happen?

The idea behind feeding kids is that we as adults decide what to serve and when, and the child decides what to eat and how much. It's probably good to provide something Junior is familiar with - even if they want to fill up on bread, which may some counter-intuitive. It's a balancing act, for sure, and I've seen how frustrating it can be. Even my very smart and lovely boyfriend has said things along the lines of 'Kids won't eat that stuff.' How do you know unless you try once in a while? What's so wrong with a food, say lentils, that kids won't eat it? Maybe it's not appealing; maybe they'll never like it. But maybe they will. Naturally, sometimes you're going to be out and about and not feel like a fight. Fair enough, I say, I have enough experience to say sometimes, you need deserve the freedom to have a bit of fun and not worry about getting your kid to eat fried okra. Get the mac and cheese and enjoy your night out. Sometimes, though, maybe get an appetizer and share your entrée with your kid. The idea that kids consistently need a different menu than adults seems counter productive.

I understand, and fully expect this post to be brought to my attention in 5 years or so when I have a 2 year old who won't eat anything but chicken nuggets. Fair is fair.

Now for something more fun: Gingerbread houses!! My friend came to visit and we made her first gingerbread house (and two more for us) from scratch. BOY is that time consuming, but infinitely tastier than the cardboard-tasting gingerbread house kits. Better icing, too.

S's first gingerbread house!

We're starting a village.

My pretzel roof with 'skylight'

Eeeee!

Had to work in the Terry's Chocolate Orange
to rationalize getting it. Naturally.

You can tell we have similar idea in regards to front windows
and doors.

Boyfriend's got a bit...torched. We were mixing icing (crucial!)
and couldn't hear the buzzer. Maybe shan't eat this one.

The candy post-scourge. Keep in mind those bags were all
VERY full prior to decorating. So...much...candy.

Just a small portion of the mess.

Leftover dough? NO WORRIES.

Jab 10 times daily for better results.

Am back in PG! Was actually a bit weird to be back at first - I was only here for a couple weeks, and then I was gone for almost 2 months. Will have to get some pictures up of my lovely neighbourhood and the hospital here; bear with me, PG seems less novel than the northier north. In fact, to most people in BC, PG is positively southern.

So right now, I'm starting Clinical 2. Sounds impressive, yeah? I'm doing diabetes ed - something I did quite a bit of in my last two rotations by total fluke, so I figured this would be a snap.

Right?

WRONG!

Don't get me wrong, some parts of it are much easier. For example, on my very first day, I got there at 8:30, and was putting on a group class on eating for diabetes by 10:30. Sort of badass, don't you think? I was pleased with myself. I'd never even seen the PowerPoint before, but I admittedly tend to do better in group settings so I breezed through it. Naturally, there were things I could've done differently, but then I gave a class the following 2 mornings and am starting to feel I've got the hang of it. There was a group for brand new type 2 diagnoses, an impaired glucose tolerance group (pre-diabetes!), and a Senior's Survival group. I enjoyed the crap out of it. To be fair, it was partly luck; if you have a lousy group, you could be the awesomest awesome who ever awesomed, and your class will still bomb. My groups were awesome and talkative and at least half of them really wanted to KNOW. You must realize how rare that can be. So many people are just shunted off for diabetes ed by their doctor when really, they have no interest. So what if they should eat more fibre? Changing eating habits is one of the harder habits to change, and sometimes the results are so subtle (man, my kidney feels WAY better today) that it can seem pretty thankless.

That said, type 1 diabetes was still a bit of an enigma at the beginning of this week.
A) You have no insulin. No matter what I tell you to eat, you will still have no insulin. Dietary changes can only go so far.
B) The vast majority of the clientele are kidlets, and all the ones I've seen  are about 10-14. It's an...interesting age.
C) Teenage boys. Ugh.

I think I'm starting to get the hang of it, though. It seems like the hardest part is really for the parents. I mean, yes, the kid is getting poked with needles several times a day (I have one of the pens! See previous post!), but mum and/or dad is worrying CONSTANTLY. Kid, for the most part, at least in a lot of cases, is not overly concerned with their blood sugar level. I don't know if you can really grasp potential nephropathy at age 10.

Think about it. How many foods can you think of that DON'T have any sugar?

Even things that don't taste sweet converts into sugar in the body. ALL carbohydrates - that includes some veggies, mes amis! Bread, cereal, fruit, potatoes, rice, pasta, yogurt, milk, granola bars, chips - that doesn't even include the really sweet stuff. (Don't even get me started on some of the myths, 'organic potatoes don't have sugar.' PLEASE.) Counting carbs, poking your kid with insulin or getting them to do it 4 times per day PLUS the blood glucose checks before AND after supper. SO MUCH POKING.

This is a pretty good video for just a glimpse of how much of an ordeal it can be. It takes 6 minutes just to explain how they figure out breakfast for this little nipper.

Kids will be kids. We had a teenage boy who ate...well...like a teenage boy. Fibre? WHAT? WHERE? And vegetables: you've got to be kidding. Ridonculous amounts of protein and refined flour without a carrot in sight. Another problem especially with older kids is missing meals *guh*. This is one of the worse things you can do, since your body runs a lot better if it has regular energy and carbohydrate coming in.

***Feel an eating-breakfast-sermon coming on? DAMN STRAIGHT. DO IT. For reals, just have a smoothie or something, it doesn't have to be the whole shebang with eggs and pancakes and so on. I don't care if you have diabetes, I may just poke you until you get my drift. Also the first thing we recommend for weight loss, just saying!***

Anyway, back to the kidlets. Sometimes, you get one in who is rather depressed. Think of sending your kid to school every  day, coming in 2-3 times to check their blood sugar if they're little, or them having to check their blood sugar before and after meals. They probably don't have all the stuff the other kids have; not like I think kids SHOULD have chocolate bars and chips in their bags, but it's got to suck a bit being the odd one out. And having your parents fuss about your sugars and nag you constantly about them, and always having to analyze everything you eat until you're not sure a 2nd helping is even worth it? It's not like it's ever going to go away, either. If you're lucky, you'll get on a pump so less poking, but you still have all the other hassle. Sometimes the kid just says 'I don't want diabetes today.' They don't want to check or inject, and they just want to eat every doughnut and chocolate bar in sight. Burnout is the sort-of technical term for it, when the person is just so tired out of the counting carbs and calculating insulin and insulin pens or beeping pumps that they hit a wall. Even if you let them take a day off (not recommended, for the record), it'll still be there tomorrow.

Bit depressing, this, isn't it? One of my very good friends is coming to visit this weekend, so will try to get out and take some pictures so I can talk a little less :P.

Just flipping EAT!!!

How many of us generally have a problem with that? Just eating? Actually, more than one might think; a lot of geriatric patients have no appetite. A lot of cancer patients feel appallingly awful (plus the fact that a lot of cancer meds cause taste changes.) People in dialysis sometimes have to choke down their food because they feel too lousy to eat.

It's often frustrating. We know the patient needs to eat. How can they ever get better without enough energy and protein? How can the cancer patient keep up their strength when lean body mass (muscle!) is slipping away on them, yet all meat tastes like metal? We try all kinds of weird things to make it work. For cancer patients alone, I've seen and tried cold food only (less smell), white food only (it was the only thing that didn't trigger vomiting for this guy), endless amounts of hot cereal, ice cream and popsicles (comfort food from when she was a kid), and dry food (toast, rice krispie squares, that sort of thing.) What works for one person is completely way off for someone else. It can be so aggravating when every method you've ever tried JUST DOESN'T WORK.

The frustration with this is nothing, NOTHING compared to an eating disorder. Eating disorders are just...ridiculous. Not in a 'haha, that's so funny' way, but in a 'I don't freaking know what to do' way.

It seems like this should be straightforward. You need to eat. You KNOW you need to eat. Everyone's bending over backwards to help you eat. You get to eat whatever you want! WHAT'S THE FREAKING PROBLEM?

It is simply that, for whatever reason, you can't.

It's hard for us to understand. What do you mean, 'can't'? The swallow reflex is there. Your GI tract is still intact, which is more than can be said for a lot of those cancer patients. All systems go, yeah? But you can't. I'm not just talking about anorexia nervosa - the stereotypical disorder which is essentially when someone starves themselves to be thin. I have learned there are other reasons to intentionally or unintentionally starve yourself. Sometimes, the patient may not even be doing it on purpose. Which begs the question: what the #%&@ do you do with someone who is maybe subconsciously intentionally restricting?

I was venting to boyfriend one day about how frustrated I was that we couldn't 'prove it' either way. Why prove it? he wondered. It's not court. Good point. It's really not about proof either way - it doesn't really matter in the context of our job. But to not know, is this person or aren't they trying to restrict/control their intakes, is a huge mind warp. How can you work with them, help them to eat, if you don't know if they're working with you or against you? And where do you start, if you don't know if they just need a high calorie diet plan or a psychiatric assessment? Where do you even start?

I read an amazing book called Brave Girl Eating. It's the story of a young girl who has a brutal battle with anorexia nervosa as told from her mother's point of view. The way she describes it, 'every bite she took was like jumping off of a cliff.' (You can see a preview at Excerpts from Brave Girl Eating. A really good but intense read.) It made it feel more real to know the mother herself didn't/doesn't understand. And yet, she MAKES herself think along the same wavelengths as her daughter, so she can premeditate what she's going to need and when.

Most of us can't even come close to fathoming the twisting and turning of a brain that isn't working the way it should. I am especially bad at this sort of thing. For example, I have a really hard time understanding depression. Some of my good friends have had long-standing issues with this, but it's only because I KNOW better, not because I understand, that I don't say 'Go pet a kitten and eat some ice cream and get over it!' So not helpful, right? But I've never been depressed, I can't imagine waking up feeling like the world was crumpling around me and not knowing it would get better. Even when I graduated university and was finding myself unprepared for the real world, I got up earlier so I could spend more time looking for jobs rather than struggling to get out of bed. I've got a very bouncy and happy personality - ask boyfriend, your average storm blows over in a couple of hours. If something doesn't work out, I can always find an alternative. If I've had a bad day, a cookie makes everything sunshine and daisies. I've had many a comment about bottling whatever my chemical make-up is, because it's awesome. I can't seem understand why everyone isn't like that. Just get up! What's the big deal? Everyone knows, that is NOT how this works. The same goes with an eating disorder. For most people, there's a simple solution. Too skinny? Eat more. Eating too much? Stop! It doesn't work that way for anyone suffering from an eating disorder or disordered eating. It's like telling a depressed person 'Just cheer up.'

I don't have any amazing insights into this. I still don't really know what to do in this sort of situation, really. I used to think I might be interested in eating disorders one day, due to my fascination with psych and neurological disorders. Still might, but I'm thinking I'd better work on empathy and patience a bit before jumping into the whirlpool that is disordered eating.

Why bad hospital cafeterias are good.

I don't mean what the patients eat (they usually have a separate kitchen), I mean the cafeteria where the employees eat. Tim Horton's is becoming a staple at hospitals in BC - every other hospital seems to have one. The doughnuts are tasty but boring, the coffee is bad, and the smoothies never change, so it really doesn't do too much damage. The FSJ hospital has an independent coffee shop for  a cafeteria, right on the main floor so I walk by ALL THE TIME. Their sandwiches are good, the soups are good, the muffins are amazing and usually still warm in the morning, and they make a MEAN soy chai latte. I love spicy tea, my favourites at present are Hot Lips (it has pepper in it!) and Cinnamon Hearts (so cinnamonylicious) from David's Tea. The chai lattes here are fantastic, they're super spicy. I may or may not have had three this week. Thank goodness I only paid for one (seriously, this has been a good week for me, spoiled rotten), because they're Starbucks-priced. I can't actually afford $5/day for a drink. I almost never eat out if left to my own devices because I'm too cheap. I really need to start making these at home, sick expensive plus so much sugar from the chai syrup. I could probably make a london fog with chai tea, yeah? Is that the same thing? If so, why am I paying so much for it?

Eating out up here is different, for sure. There simply isn't really anywhere good to do so. The best place I've come across is Whole Wheat & Honey, a Vancouver-esque coffee shop off the main street. Sadly, it is also expensive (so now I really feel at home :P). Not ridiculously, but enough. I went out for dinner with a friend of a friend to another place in town, Roustabouts, which was actually pretty good. And because it was some special Thursday, the lights were dim, the beer was cheap, and the food was 15% off. WIN. Most of the food around here is very diner-ish though, and not particularly exciting. You can find the list for FSJ restaurants that have merited any sort of rating here: http://www.urbanspoon.com/n/85/49244/British-Columbia/Fort-St-John-restaurants. That't not all of them, but it's pretty close.

After dinner, I walked home in the snow. Apparently this is a bit strange; I've been told by several people now that I have a strange indifference to cold. Anyone who knows me quite well knows I'm always boiling hot, and have been known to shop for clothes based on how thin the fabric is. It was about -9 C, but I had a hat and mittens and winter coat, so I don't think it's THAT weird.

How can anyone not like it here? I don't understand! I'm starting to find that a large number of the residents here are from the south, and they're here for the same reason I am. Who wants to compete for casual jobs at home and pay ridiculous rent when you can come up here and jump into something full-time and with better money?

Well, there are a few things. Of course, the snow is hard for some people. It is harder to find things here. You like Indian spices? TOO BAD. People who are used to that sort of thing apparently often bring an extra bag on any travels and stock up on spices and condiments. I can't find Pantene conditioning mist (my LUXURIOUS CURLS!) There's only one movie theatre so far as I can tell, although it's playing 6 movies (I don't know if it's all at once.) I have no idea where you'd go to buy a pair of jeans. There is a Walmart, a PriceSmart, and a Safeway, as well as a Shopper's Drug Mart. There are probably more, but not much, I don't think. The closest big town is Grande Prairie, Alberta, which is about a 2 hour drive.

There's also the small town thing. Everyone knows everything about everyone else. It can be a little strange. There is also more racism than I'm used to - not in a 'DARN FURRENERS' way, but there simply aren't a lot of non-caucasian people here. A few times I've overheard something that to me seems so off-colour, but no one else seems to notice. It is improving, I'm told, as more people come up to work in the mines and oil fields, but it's a bit off-putting. Homophobia is another thing; not in a 'GET OUT YOUR PITCHFORKS' kind of way, but I certainly wouldn't want to be a gay person in this town. A - there isn't exactly a gay 'scene' here, and B - you couldn't keep it on the DL if that's what you wanted, your neighbour's aunt's friend's sister's acquaintance would know about it pretty quickly. In short, there are some hick-ish qualities to FSJ. Not everyone is like that, of course, and with so many people moving north the accepting population is increasing at the same time as the somehow-perceived-as-scary population is, and people are getting more used to it. Come on people, we're still Canadians. Politeness overcomes fear in most of us :-)

Here are some fun Canadian stereotype comics from Kate Beaton at www.harkavagrant.com just for fun!

Oh right, the reason I'm here...

...is to learn ALL THE THINGS and become super smart. Piece of cake, yeah?

So the happy background for all this brain-expanding is Fort St John Hospital. It's brand new. Like, BRAND new. As in, only a couple of months old. They're still finding very silly things that people forget about when they're building a new building, such as methods of access during off-hours. A pt's family actually couldn't get into the building when the pt was passing away, it was horrible, because all they could do is page the nurses' desk, and who's likely to be around to pick up the phone at bedtime? Also the hilariously slippery entrance to the long term care building: Smooth, guys. The old building, however, is in such disrepair that apparently the cheapest thing they can do is tear it down. And by cheapest I do NOT mean cheap.

The old hospital was this super cute old brick building, but the wiring was sketchy and it was about 60 years old.

Sorry it's fuzzy, tis a google picture.

And now, the NEW one!!

Acute side

Peace Villa (long term care)

Thought it was only fair to include a snow picture,
since that's kind of a regular state for it.

The street in front of ze hospital.

So the acute side only has something like 55 beds + maternity, but the LTC side, which is attached, has I think 10 'pods', or units. There's the tree side, with Birch, Pine, Spruce, etc, and the flower side including Marigold, Sunflower, Bluebell, Tulip, etc. There are at least two locked wards for wandering patients. It's pretty nice, too. Pretty sure I'd be okay with living there when I was old although it's not as nice as Rotary Manor in Dawson (seriously, so nice. It makes ageing look a lot better.) I've seen everything from stroke victims in their 40's to a few patients in their hundreds and counting. I find the ones who SEEM totally normal and functional, but then turn around and do something completely bizarre, the most interesting.

I do a lot of spying during meals to see if patients can swallow okay and the like. Today I sat down with 3 ladies during their lunch and had a good gab fest for half an hour while they ate (it was super cute, they were waiting for me to get lunch before I started, I had to assure them I already ate.) A lot of people don't much like having you stare at them while they're eating - I'm starting to learn it's a hugely personal thing. Sitting down and shooting the breeze isn't always an option either, if you're watching their throat closely to see if the reflex is still in place, or if they're completely out of it. Mind you, just because they look out of it doesn't mean they are; one lady who generally is a bit out to lunch saw us watching and gave us a definite shoo. I sort of get that, I think. I remember in high school for a while I was just bringing juice boxes for lunch because I didn't like eating in front of other people. Thank goodness I grew out of THAT, but it went on off and on for about a year. As I've said before, it can be so easy to forget the personalities of people that seem to be long gone. Just because we can't see it, don't mean it ain't there, homeslice.

I also do some diabetes ed, although it's not as demanding time-wise as it was in DC. There, you're LUCKY if you get a break. The demand here just doesn't seem quite so high. I've also gotten to do some community stuff, which is neat. By that, I mean visiting patients in the community, sometimes group homes and sometimes private residences. One place had 5 dogs and a cat - I was thrilled! Naturally, I paid very little attention to what was going on in that one, too distracted by the promise of fur (and also allergies. There were good reasons for me to switch to dietetics from my original career plan as a vet.) It's interesting to see people in their homes; they're a bit more relaxed, a bit more comfortable, and then you have a way better idea of what they're up against when it comes to everyday life. It can be daunting; hemiparesis and still trying to run around after kids; trying to commute with a tube feed bag hanging in your car; gradually losing your ability to swallow. Yeesh. I don't know how some of these people do it.

It is starting to pick up here, which I like. I also have a  coffee date with a friend of a friend (we met by accident today) this week, am seeing an old friend from 1st year dorms, and possibly more. I would SO WELCOME any sort of non work-related social interaction at this point. It's a bit isolating, not so much because I don't meet anyone but because I'm leaving so soon. Makes it very hard to cultivate some sort of relationship. Here's to having much less time to work out this week, amirite?

Alright, FSJ: You got me.

I've been waiting for this to happen. I have loved everywhere I have ever lived; there's always something to love. In Langley, it was berry farms and lots of animals. In Chilliwack, it was the river, the beginning of a new relationship, and being able to walk everywhere. I loved Vancouver for the lights, the beach, and getting distracted by my favourite dress boutique on the way to the grocery store. I loved New Westminster for the view and nutella and bananas on toast, I loved Burnaby for our ghetto apartment and the proximity to Hastings for its butchers and fantastic produce (and not least for fresh-baked biscuits and watching Glee!). I loved loved LOVED Coquitlam for living with my fantastic boyfriend in an adorable house with a yard, and being close to everything. I loved Dawson Creek for being friendly and compact and surrounded by hills of farms.

Yeah, I've kind of gotten around.

So I was waiting for Fort St John to click. I knew it would happen, but I've been moving so much lately perhaps that it took a little longer.

Finally, finally, it did. I had a good weekend - went to the community centre fish-bowl-of-a-gym (the only community centre I've encountered in the north with reasonable drop-in rates. GAH.), went for lunch to a little coffee shop, wandered around. I had a good day at work on Monday - busy with a care plan meeting for one of 'my' patients, lots of assessments, and lots of finishing up with interventions. I felt productive, which is pretty well my favourite way to feel. As per usual, when I got home I went for a run. There's a running trail here that I hadn't used before, and it's about 5 k - PERFECT. And that, my friends, is when it happened. This is my run (ran it again today with camera in tow.)

If you're not half in love after those pictures, then there's probably something terribly wrong with you. It is GORGEOUS. And I can walk to everything, and it has some cute little shops, and a nice community centre, the people are nice, and it's sunny and lovely even when it's cold. I understand the whole dry vs wet cold thing now; you can walk around when there's snow on the ground wearing a sleeveless shirt. 5-10 degrees up here is reasonably balmy. It's also sort of surrounded by farmland, although it's harder to see it, and it's a bit bigger than Dawson so it's a bit more convenient with a downtown that is more than a couple of blocks.

I could totally live here :-)

Okay, really seriously, next post will be more on hospital-y things. Seriously. I already have pictures and everything!

Baby's First...Tube Feed

That's a bit misleading, actually. I didn't tube feed a baby. That said, I did  do my first very own tubefeed and observed my first TPN. SO COOL.

For those not in the know, an enteral or tube feed is when liquid formula is fed straight to the stomach or intestine via a tube through the nose or through an opening in the abdomen. TPN is known as total parenteral nutrition, so the actual elements of nutrition: amino acids, dextrose, and fatty acids, are put via IV right into the bloodstream. It blows my mind a little bit that we can even do this. Anyway, the acute care RD emailed my preceptor to say she had a new TPN and a new tubefeed, AND they were both at risk for re-feeding syndrome. Basically what happens here is that the person is malnourished to the point where electrolytes can go pretty haywire if you give them too much too quickly. My preceptor was like 'Yeah....you probably won't get to see too many of these. Howsabout we lend you to her?'

I don't have much to write about the TPN because as it's still technically beyond my scope in clinical 1, I just watched. The patient had an ileus, so basically their colon wasn't working temporarily. Ergo, tube feed won't help much since you need a working gut. There was pretty well a whole page of calculations, if not two, because one of the problems with the north is they don't stock all the nice convenient products you can get in the south, so the dietitian was frantically trying to figure out SOMETHING that would work. You have to try to get the right ratio of everything, but in this case you couldn't have too MUCH of fat, liquid or carbs because of the refeeding. Oi.

But the tube feed - my FIRST tubefeed. This patient was having a very difficult time with weight gain, so they decided to give them a continuous tube feed and still allow some oral foods as possible. Basically, the dietitian gave me the patient's chart and the enteral feeding form, and said 'I'm going to go talk to the patient. Write her up a tubefeed prescription.' Oh. Em. Gee. So after sitting stunned for a couple minutes, I just...did it. Just like that! I had the formulas, I had the guidelines for refeeding, it was just a question of walking myself through. Protein, carbohydrate, fat and fluids: how much do they need vs how much can they have.

Here's what all those calculations look like. It's too bad I can't show the finished form, but that's rather confidence breach-y.

I should frame this.

If someone is that malnourished, you actually start out by feeding them only about half of their estimated requirements for calories. You also only get 2 g carbs/kg (not much, considering most of us easily eat 200 g of carbs in a day, I imagine), and 1 g of fat/kg (which in this case can actually seem like a lot, almost 50% of their calories coming from fat!), and only 1L of fluid (for most people you need around 1.5 L, but in this case you're worried about messing up electrolytes.) I also got to order the required labs - daily labs for glucose and electrolyes, and weekly iron studies, etc. Electrolytes has to be daily for the 1st 3 days because you MUST correct them if they're really off. Anyone know what having messed up electrolytes does? Basically, your nervous system is not appreciative if anything is off. Google it for gory details if you're feeling nerdy.

I felt very smart, especially after a nurse leaned over and said, 'Whoa. I had no idea there was that much calculation involved.'

So we did get some snow shortly after my last post, although it's pretty warm now. Here are some pictures :)

Walking to the main street (that traffic light is actually
the main street)

Ze neighbourhood

Houses right by the hospital

More sort of neighbourhood

On the main street, facing out of town

Walking along the main street to downtown

SO MANY LEETLE BIRDS. Chickadees?

Downtown! Although not the downtowniest part

These weren't the best icicles I saw, but it was parked.
Rather easier for picture taking.

Next post will be more about the FSJ hospital! It's very nice and new and shiny.

Don't go for a run in FSJ if it's winter and overcast.

It's a bad idea, trust me.

'Why?' You ask. 'You call yourself a Vancouverite and you're afraid of a little precipitation?'

Allow me to explain. It was about 5 degrees when I got home for work, so I figured perfect, time for a run! I have a lovely baggy sweatshirt which I borrowed/accidentally stole from my last host family in Dawson (I think she meant me to keep it, but I meant to check). I have my iPod. I have reasonably flat roads (this is big, for anyone who has EVER tried running in Coquitlam. Oh em gee.) RUNNING TIMES.

It started out well, super windy but I don't mind that at all. Was happily running around exploring the place for about 35 minutes, when I reached PriceSmart. I thought to myself, 'how convenient! I will pick up some post-running snacks, i.e. peaches and cookies.' So I went in and merrily grabbed a couple bags of stuff, was delighted to find it was cheaper than expected, and skipped out the door.

This is where the problem begins.

It is much, much colder than when I went in, or so it seems. I'm not running anymore, and I've cooled down a lot. There is also very, VERY strong wind. Okay, it's unfortunate that I'm only guessing my way home since I've only been in Fort St John for like 24 hours, but I think, I can do this. No biggie.

So, I'm about halfway when my face starts to sting. It's like little teeny pins are pricking me in the face. This is where that dratted precipitation comes in. FROZEN precipitation. Plus wind. Ergo, I have freezing rain essentially jabbing my face at rather high speeds, and it does NOT feel nice. This is around the time when I start realizing I'm a bit farther from the house than I thought. Okay, just keep moving. I ended up either tucking my chin RIGHT in (my throat felt like an ice cube, of course my sweatshirt is very loose around the neck and my hair is back, no protection at all. May regret that tomorrow!) or turning my face away from the wind because I keep quietly shrieking curse words in the general direction of everyone and everything every time I feel a new handful of pinpricks. May have to invest in actual gym time while here, it's supposed to snow tomorrow too. Eep!

So Fort St John is about twice the population of Dawson Creek, apparently, although it's not that much bigger in size. The hospital is nice and new, and an absolute labyrinth of hallways. There is no WAY I'l be able to sort out where the heck I'm going before I leave. Looks like here will be LTC 2.5 days per week, DEC 1 day, and community health (YAY!) 1 day per week. Bit different from Dawson, which was inpatients on Monday, outpatients on Tuesday, DEC Wed/Thurs, and long term care (LTC) on Friday. Bit more LTC, which I'm less excited about as it can be a bit slow, but will actually be able to address a few things we couldn't really do in DC. When you're that busy and your week is that varied, it's really difficult to do any kind of follow up. Today we started by reviewing 3 LTC patients, and I also did the assessment (first) half of a one-on-one diabetes ed session. My preceptor said she thought I did pretty well (kudos to my DC preceptor, if she's reading this! It's all you!) As always, the dodgy questions are weight related; she suggested I dance around it a bit more (whereas I'm quite direct, usually.)

My goal for FSJ is to get better at the 2nd part - actually coming up with recommendations. Usually I do come up with at least most of the things my preceptor does, but I'm still really hesitant to give a client suggestions in case I'm wrong, so I let the RD take over. Looks like I just need to get over that, I don't think I've really ever come up with anything my preceptor wouldn't agree with, and I'll only really start to see which things I'm missing when I start making recommendations and the RD can correct/adjust them. Dietitian SUIT UP.

No pictures today, maybe this weekend. I also found the gloves my last host family lent me in my purse - may have to send a care package at this rate. They would be a huge help in the picture-taking if it does snow, though...

Always, ALWAYS be nice to nurses and drug reps.

So this is what my walk to work looked like today:

Gorgeous, am I right? Clear skies, frost on the ground (it was -3), but it was 10 degrees during the day. No snow at all, in fact we had rain the other day and everyone was thrilled. A funny note: everyone up here laughs at us southerners when it snows. We get like an inch and go all to pieces. I found it a bit funny how rainy days are considered 'inside days' here - if we thought that way in Vancouver, we'd never leave the house.

So today, for the 2nd time I got taken out to lunch with my preceptor by a drug rep. We love drug reps. Free food in exchange for listening to their spiel, and I'm still green enough that I find their spiels fascinating. This one used to be a dietitian, and now works for a big insulin company. She gave me my very own insulin pen, with needles and a practice injection thing (that clear box has a skin-like covering in the middle that you inject the needle into), AND couple handouts for new diabetes patients (insulin logs, that sort of thing). All I'm thinking is 'TOYS!!'

Insulin pen and lid, box of needles with one out, and my
injecty thing

Cool handout on different types of insulin. There are so many
kinds, but I'm starting to get the hang of it.

 So yes, the morale of this story is, BE NICE TO DRUG REPS. They feed you and give you presents.

Moving on to why you should always be nice to nurses.

A) They put up with a lot of crap, literally and figuratively. It's really crazy.

B) But mostly, they know things. There's one nurse at DCH who I'm completely in awe of. She has this way if making even the most cranky patient feel understood. I first noticed this when she came and grabbed me saying,' Give us a twirl, this lady just loves your hair.' And so I obliged and she oohed and aahed with her patient, who is absolutely entranced by my clothes and hair (she's in a hospital looking at scrubs and white walls all the time, curly hair must be reasonably interesting at this point. She's also a bit senile.) The greatest compliment I can give is that if I was sick, I would want this lady to look after me. She's an LPN, but seems to have a lot of the responsibilities of an RN, and I've seen her smooth back a crotchety patient's sweaty hair and tell them she wishes she had lovely eyes like them. And yet, she puts paid to difficult patients who are being difficult to be mean. Patients aren't just a job for her, they are people and she remembers the little things that people want, like seeing someone's hair or hearing that they look nice or eating dessert first, and she can tell the difference between patients being jerks for fun and patients being jerks because they hurt, either mentally or physically. It's absolutely inspiring.

That is an excellent reminder of why I wanted to work in health care.

Anyway, I had a patient who was doing interesting things, eating-wise. Nobody could quite figure out what was going on. Then this same nurse simply says, ' They have a rectal prolapse. If I was them, I wouldn't want to poop.' Holy cow, why didn't I THINK of that? People, if you're of a sound mind and strong stomach, look it up if you don't know what that is, otherwise move on to the next paragraph. For those of you brave enough, you will instantly see how that TOTALLY MAKES SENSE. Nurses work with and take care of their patients every day. Things we wouldn't even think of are just common sense to them. Of course, this condition might lead to some strange behaviour, since it's probably really uncomfortable. Duh.

So like the title say, be nice to nurses and drug reps. It's worth your while.

On a totally unrelated note, here is an example of corporate marketing schemes working ridiculously well on a very educated consumer:

Yes, I ate them all. In like 2 days, too.

They are THE EXACT SAME with with Halloweeny names and wrappers. Of course, I had to have them. I  love Halloween, and was very amused by 'Coffin Crisp', but seriously. This made an almost-dietitian buy and devour 3 chocolate bars. Nestle: 1, April : 3 *grin*