Dimple's Discoveries

Clinton, UT -A quiet small town, population of almost 21,000, unheard of by most of the world until recently. Unfortunately, it made news on a certain night in November, a holiday of Thanksgiving and gratitude for the blessings God has granted us. At approximately 8pm Walmart employees cut away the wrapping on tablets. These tablets had a retail price of $50, but ended up being more costly than that. As you'll see in the video below, the crowd surges forward, and in an instant, someone falls beneath the rushing feet. You hear police yelling for everyone to step back so they can get to the woman now being trampled by a crowd similar to wild animals in the forest. I cannot finish watching this video, as it pains me to watch human beings act so ferocious towards each other for plastic and metal. One thing I did notice however, and I want you to notice too, is that there are two kinds of heartless animal mentalities in this crowd. As you hear the call rippling through the air for p...

My partner and I pull into a trailer park, spot the police cars and park near them, and notice the neighbors gathered outside talking quietly in circles, giving us wary looks. I don my 'Family Crisis Center' badge, grab my binder and we head to the trailer, as red and blue lights revolve intermittently on the outside walls of the trailer and on us. We knock and are let in by a police officer who proceeds to brief us on the situation: the husband started a verbal fight, and escalated to slamming his wife’s head into the fridge by holding a fistful of her hair, choking her son when he tried to intervene, and by threatening to kill her when he called from the jail asking for bail money. I sit on a dirty recliner listening to this woman cry out her frustration, her fears, and her despair. Her children sit nearby, quietly supporting her and occasionally rubbing her arm in an effort to console the inconsolable. Had her daughter not called the police, who called us, we might neve...

I am no longer a Certified Nursing Assistant. Even as I type this post it hasn't quite sunk in. No more will I answer a call light, use a Hoyer, or assist with a straight catheter. I have officially resigned from one of my jobs, and I can honestly say that job has changed my life. The work I've done, the patients I've cared for, the coworkers I've loved, it has altered my life in a way that nothing else could, and I'm so grateful to my Heavenly Father for the blessing of working there. There were ups and downs, tears and laughter, good days and bad, but it will never be forgotten. So many people there have touched my heart and taught me lessons that will never fade from memory. I want to name a few of them and the lessons they taught me, more for my sake than for anyone reading. Jared : who patiently taught me maintenance skills and was always kind to me, no matter how bad his day was. Susan and Barbara : who cheered me up countless days with their bright smiles,...

At my job right now we are struggling with filling all the shifts, we've been a bit short-handed lately, and it's starting to show in our work unfortunately. You caregivers know that it's all you can do to complete your work if you have 8 patients in a rehabilitation setting, and when we are short-handed it's 11-12 patients, and patient care becomes patient maintenance as you can only ensure that patients are safe, fed, clean and in bed instead of being able to tend to their emotional needs or some extra cares that are so satisfying to us as caregivers. Even on nights that we have full staff, it can be frustrating to not have time to do everything I've wanted to. I'll come back to this thought, don't worry. I have a patient right now who is a quadriplegic, and has been for about twenty years. She has recently had a neck surgery that has rendered her unable to sit up more than 15 degrees for weeks. This woman sits in bed, staring at the ceiling for 24 hours...

I have been a CNA for years. I have cared for thousands of patients, and yet suddenly, this last couple weeks I have come across a challenge that I've never encountered before: A deaf patient. Talk about a reminder to be grateful for these wonderful bodies we have been given, because I've abruptly learned how much I rely on my hearing to get me through the day. This particular patient has come to us with the inability to speak more than an unclear word or two, she has barely enough motor skills to sign a little, and most the staff hasn't the slightest idea how to communicate with her. This brings up a HUGE problem in health care. We have frequently had patients who speak another language (generally Spanish) and we cannot interact with them, and it becomes a very frustrating thing for staff and patient alike. Thankfully because of an aunt that is deaf, I know a little, (a very little) sign language, and so I've been trying to communicate to her as much as possible in o...

I am working as a CNA for the last time (I know I've said that before, but I'm heading back to school to begin my new job as an admissions counselor on campus, so now it's official) and I had forgotten: forgotten how satisfying it is to help a patient, to provide for their needs, to leave them happier than when they called you; however, I had also forgotten how utterly frustrating it can be to be unable to provide the care you would personally love to give, how aggravating it can be to run for 9 hours and feel like you haven't even made a dent in the cares you should, how emotional it can be to stand by the bedside of someone in pain and realize you could have cared for better had you only had the time. Missing one of my friends named, but I'll post a picture once he and I take one together! :) But most importantly I found that I had forgotten what treasured friendships I have at my job. I have a coworker who I love dearly who is like family to me, and she is ...

Time for a medical post again! Sorry to those of you who follow me for the medical posts, I will do more once I’m back at my jobs again. I’m actually headed back to work soon and getting a short break from school (very excited!) and it’s got me thinking back to some special moments I’ve had with my patients. I realized that one patient in particular has affected the decision I made to choose my career of counseling instead of nursing, and I wish I knew where he was so I could tell him that. I remember it like it was yesterday. It had been a long day. I worked four hours at one of my jobs, had three hours off, then went to my other job and worked 16 hours there. Working twenty hours in a twenty four hour period is exhausting, and I was pretty slap happy by the end of it. I was on auto-pilot trying to make it through the shift, starting it off by ‘rounding’ on my patients and doing vitals, and I went in his room. He was a very fun patient, he has a dry sense of humor that I hadn'...

Today's post is something I have strong feelings about, so this one might be a little more passionate, but I feel like it's an important thing to address, and I would like to make a stand to anyone who reads this blog, in the hopes that I can help diffuse some prejudices (and yes, I mean prejudice) about LDRs (long distance relationships). We learned in my Family Relations class a few weeks ago that communication is broken down as follows: Words=14% Tone=35% Non-verbal=51% We will be forced at times, no matter our relationship, to use alternative forms of communication, and they cut out 86% of our communication ability, but does that mean that we can't make this work? Does this mean that a military man or woman has no hope of ever finding and retaining love? Does it mean that we can never maintain a healthy relationship with someone who we don't see every day? Absolutely not! It just means that your communication skills have to be better than the average c...