My Body My Choice?

 Hmm I guess that depends.  So I've been a volunteer EMT for over 30 years, I've seen a lot of things come and go. I was taught how to use MAST trousers- yeah I'm that old.

So when I first started volunteering, the HIV crisis was in full swing, HIPPA was just a mis-spelling of hippo and the old timers pooh-poohed at wearing gloves. "Ya can't do anything with these on your hands."

The one thing I soon learned in healthcare was that people get to make their own decisions...at least if you are a patient. "My body, my choice"

You want an abortion?

You want to be a girl/boy?

You want piercings and tattoos?

You want to cuss me out for being a .....? 

You can go right ahead. 

The politicians and healthcare systems were fully supportive. If you are over the age of 18 you get to make decisions and the rest of the world has to live with it! And I had to treat them with respect.

HIPPA was passed in 1996 to ensure that I don't talk about your decisions to anyone. When HIPPA went into affect foster parents were told that they were not allowed to know if a child was potentially HIV positive. This was in the days when we didn't know what was causing it or for sure how it was transmitted.

But now, suddenly whole systems are mandating that your medical history is available to your employer and if you don't receive the COVID vaccine by a certain date, you will need to have the COVID test every two weeks...or lose your job.(Currently the case in our area of Pennsylvania.)

"Big deal," you say," they will hire more help and all will go on as before."

It does matter

Hiring many replacement nurses, paramedics, EMTs destabilizes a system. Yes, new hires are great --in small doses. You can absorb the mis-steps and hesitations that come with working with a new partner. But, from experience, I don't want that hesitation to happen when it's my patient OR when it's my loved one. 

Last year this time these same unvaccinated nurses, paramedics and EMTs were HEROS! 

We had bill boards along the roads praising us. This year they are expendable. Something isn't right in the world....well I know there are a lot of things not right, but this one is bugging me this morning.

BTW, I have my vaccine, - it was my choice.   Let's allow others to have a choice and not de-stabilize our healthcare system any further. 

Treasure Hunting

So the other weekend we decided to save a little money and instead of renting a cabin we 

invited our family to camp in the front yard.

But since grandma's front yard isn't quite as much fun as a campground or someone else's cabin, 

we did some thinking about 

FUN!

Grandpa came up with  the idea of a treasure hunt.

We ordered a bag of 200 foreign coins off Etsy.

They came just in time.

We also stopped by the bank and got some half dollars

and some dollar coins (The Eisenhower ones, not the little ones)

In all he buried 240 coins in the yard- before you

come digging up my yard, most of them are not worth anything.

But we made treasure hunters out of the kids and grand kids.

They will be searching for years.

Our version of the ice bucket challenge-

Can you actually grab a coin out of the ice cream- maker bucket?

It took quite a few tries- salt water is colder than they thought.

This new 4- square volley ball set up is fun for all sizes- You can adjust the poles

for different heights.

It think we will use it quite a bit, as long as we don't trip over the ropes too often.

The tight rope wasn't used as much as I thought it would be.

Then this happened! Ahhh! How did we get here already?

 QOTD :As we were driving along one day, "Mom what does the 'plus' sign mean?"

I thought she'd studied the driver's manual! It doesn't mean "increase"!

QOTD #2 We were sitting in the DMV waiting for our turn and a real tough dude swaggers in and

sits in front of us. His t-shirt had some writing and I glanced at it and groaned inwardly.

My youngest was of course reading it too.

I leaned over and said "don't read it out loud."

"What does it mean mom?"

" I'll tell you later."

Later: "Mom what did that guy's shirt mean?"

"Umm, it's a really rude way to talk to people, we don't use that word."

"Mom, don't you know what it means either?"

Hmm, how to explain the f-word....

I'd rather talk about tie-dyed shirts.

Those kits from Wal-mart ain't all bad.