Your friends and relatives, people you know, keep dying around you. They die suddenly or from a protracted illness. People you went to school with keep dying and class reunions get smaller and smaller. Friends die in automobile or airplane crashes. They die from autoimmune disease, cancers, CO VID, from many different sources. Death is unexpected or takes a long, painful time to come. Why them and not me? Many people are living past 100 years of age. It’s still rare enough for reporters to visit them and ask the foolish question: “How did you do it?” How are they...
2108/2021August 21, 2021
Reviews of Patientology: Toward the Study of Patients
Since I am about to release the second edition of Patientology, I looked up my reviews of the first version. I was pleased that they picked up on the salient points on what I was trying to say. I think it is an important topic – and so did they. Although she does not say so, Edgecombe, like Kus is an RN, PhD. Fr. Robert J. Kus, RN, PhDInsightful, Inspirational, and Challenging In Patientology, nurse-anthropologist Dr. Pamela J. Brink makes a strong case for a relatively uncharted field of study, Patientology. This field studies the patient from the worldview of...
3107/2021August 19, 2021
Uncontrolled Type II Diabetes
Whenever I hear about someone having “uncontrollable Type II diabetes” I wonder what they have been eating. And I wonder what their physician has told them to eat or their diabetic dietician. I had two brothers who had Type II diabetes and was appalled at the information they received on their diets and the food they were given in the hospital. They, of course, would not listen to me because I was their “little Sister.” What did I know? Well, in fact, I do know a lot about diet and blood sugar simply because I have been educating myself by...
2803/2021March 29, 2021
What is an ‘academic nurse’?
Academic robes on the left are doctoral robes
Academic robes on the right are for the masters degree
1602/2021February 16, 2021
The Question of Mary
Christian beliefs about Jesus’ mother Mary differ. I was watching an episode of The Journey Home last night. This is a program that interviews people who have converted to the Catholic faith exploring their journey. This particular program featured a former Evangelical pastor from the Holiness church. The question arose, as it usually does with Protestants, “Did you have difficulty accepting Mary?” The answer, as usual, was “Yes. We see her as simply the receptacle by which Jesus entered the world.” Do you suppose Jesus morphed from being a baby to a 30-year-old man? So who changed his diapers? Potty...
2901/2021January 29, 2021
Joe Biden and the American Academy of Nursing
This morning I received an excited email from the American Academy of Nursing – the Powers that Be in nursing. The jist of the message was how excited the board members were with President Joe Biden’s list of executive orders. I have always suspected that I did not think or value many of the things that the power brokers in nursing thought or valued and my nursing career was teeming with head butting. These past four years, under the Trump presidency, I came to understand just how divided we are as a nation. Where once we could argue differences, these...
1801/2021January 18, 2021
The Message, the Messenger, and the Platform
In our violently argumentative and abusive society, we not only disagree with each other, we want to destroy each other because we disagree. Our arguments are primarily emotional rather than rational or logical. We seem to have lost the ability to debate ideas and issues and instead resort to abuse and attack. As I read comments on social media, I am impressed with the strategies that are now employed to silence opposition. We used to be able to debate ideas. Ideas are the message. It is entirely appropriate to disagree with the message and put forward a counter-message believed to...
1401/2021January 14, 2021
Open Mouth Insert Foot: The Confusing World of Political Correctness
Apparently, I am obtuse about many things, especially when interacting with men. I am constantly in trouble with the things that I say. Incident #1:I once had an immensely helpful and friendly neighbor. It was he who welcomed me into the neighborhood, stopped in to chat, helped with things I could not do. One day as we were chatting in my living room, he shared with me that he had been physically abused by a Roman Catholic priest when he was an altar boy. We talked some more and eventually I invited him to come back to Mass. He became...
1812/2020September 6, 2021
Want to Lose Weight? Here’s a Plan
Most honest Diet researchers agree that “one size does not fit all.” Not everyone will succeed on the same diet plan. Each of us has a different gene pool, different metabolisms, different lifestyles and different access to food. The problem is that every diet guru believes and preaches that his or her program is THE BEST. So, which one do you choose and how do you decide? Here is an idea you might want to try: try them all for a minimum of four months each. Which one helped you to lose weight and which stalled weight loss? Pick the...
0512/2020December 5, 2020
An Argument over CO VID Rules
All organizations have their own CO VID rules. No exceptions are allowed to the rules. Sometimes the rules don't make sense.