Self Care

One theme that contunually pops up during a residency and becomes even more important during the stressful seasons (such as holidays) is self care. The demands of a residency can easily consume our lives if we neglect to take some needed and periodic personal time. The point is we need to fill our own needs too.

Well, today I recieved a lesson on self care in an unexpected place and in a most unexpected way.

The common area of the Behavioral Health unit is one of my favorite places to visit. Most often there are several patients just sitting around talking or watching the large, loud, flat screen enclosed in a glass case. As a chaplain I enjoy walking in and engaging a number of patients in this casual setting.

A very quiet man sat in his chair just beside another patient and I while we talked about regular everyday things in her life. After about 10 minutes this man decided he had a need. He filled this need after slowing climbing from his chair and fraily limping around behind it so he was next to me by covertly pulling down his pants and urinating on the floor!

I went to the nearest nurse, and unable to speak in fear of letting out some of my laughter I was only able to poke her for her attention and point. "Ooh, not again," she blurted out as she s curried his direction. As the man finished he simply pulled up his pants and proceeded to sit back down.

Self care, at its best, I think.

This is actually pretty biblical. As far as I can tell there are at least 8 different verses in the KJV that use the word piss. 1 Sam. 25:22; 1 Kings 14:10, 16:11; Isaiah 36:12 are a few. Most of these references use the phrase "any that pisseth against the wall" as a way of denoting males. I guess this patient was simply excercising his right to pisseth against the floor.


So while I'll be making efforts to do some self care this year, I think I will stick to pissething against the urinals.

They like me, they really like me!

Being a somewhat novice chaplain, there are times when I have questioned my effectiveness and whether or not what I'm doing makes any difference. The fruits of my job are mostly intangible and often unseen by me in the moment. Often times the results of a spiritual conversation or discussion about EOL (end of life) issues are seen later when a patient is discharged or only evidenced internally.

Not so with a recent visit I had to the Emergency Center Psychiatric Ward.

I was called to visit with a patient who refused to eat or drink due to the fact that God had commanded him to carry out a 10 day fast. The medical staff had tried everything short of strapping him down and tube feeding him (which was the plan should I prove unseccesful). Just before I entered the room a nurse informed me that the patient was "hyper-religious" and suffered from schizophrenia.

"What am I going to do?" I thought as I entered the room which felt more like a cell block. Long story short, after a pleasant hour long visit I walked with the patient to the nurses station, because he just wanted them to know that he'd like to eat some dinner.

"Young man! Young man!" I heard as I turned to face a large, burley, stern looking nurse weighing nearly 275lbs standing over me. "You don't know how much money you just saved this department!" (Whew, feelings of relief after being scared half out of my chaplain.)

The nurse proceeded to fill out a form for employees who preform well titled, "Caught you caring," which is passed to my boss. It's a pleasant honor to recieve, and working in a position that returns few tangible affirmations it makes me feel a bit like Sally Field when in 1985 she accepted an Oscar Award saying, "You like me, you really like me!"

What Hospital?

The more I visit it the more I am beginning to enjoy the Geryatric Behavioral Health (that means elderly crazy people to those of you who don't get to work in a hospital and use our secret terminology) unit at the hospital.

Like Forrest Gump's life, the Gery-Psyc ward is much like a box of chocolates. Swiping my key card to open the security locked door with a one way mirror in it and entering covertly is always like sliding the top off a box of assorted mystery candies. When I meet a new patient I never know what I'm getting/biting into.

Many patients are sweet people, grandparents just in need of some help so they can get back to seeing their grandchildren. Others may require a different adjective than "sweet." Some are scared, apprehensive and only occasionally rude or just plain mean.

Some of the things that have been said to me in this unit were surprising, funny or concerning. But one will stick with me, I imagine, for a little while.

As I approached a patient with whom I had spoke before, she greeted me kindly with a smile. I returned the salutation, but quickly noticed her facial expression saying she did not seem to recognize me. Asking if she remembered me, I introduced myself once more as, "Nathan, one of the chaplains here in the hospital."

"What hospital!?" she replied, now with a very concerned look on her face.

Renovating & Renewing

Since I began my residency as a hospital chaplain recently I have been very busy working very hard. However, someone close to me has been working harder: my wife.

Awaiting the fourth and final year of Pharmacy School, you'd think a worn out over-tested student of medications would do well to take some time off, relax and kick back. Not this little rosy Rapunzel of radical renovations. She has spent days and nights working on, fixing up, repairing, cleaning, painting, flooring, and all around improving various parts of her mother's house.

Let's start with the bathroom. There's no completely "before" picture. But the floor was unfinished, uneven concrete, and the sheet rock walls were unmudded and had a number of sizely holes in them. In March we began the lengthy process of mudding the many corners and seems.

After several layers of sheet rock mud she was ready to prime. Accompanied by a friend and fellow pharmacy student they went to work, and before I got home from work one day it looked quite different. (see below)

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, but you'll see that from there they painted, replaced the shower doors with a tasteful curtain and painstakingly laid laminate flooring. Wow! Put all that together and you've got yourself a new room in the house increasing your property value!




(Happy mother-in-law on right.)

The basement of the house has for some time been mostly unfinished save one cluttered bedroom with an unfinished concrete floor. Again there's no "before" picture, but after a lot of de-cluttering, and some much needed area rugs the basement has become a cozy, 1 bed/1 bath suite with French doors. Not bad for a basement.


The next post will show the outside of the house.