I've been a Registered Nurse for over 17 years now. I have worked with kids-and through the kids, their parents, in clinical, hospital and via the phone as a phone triage nurse. Over the years, I have seen parents do a number of really ill-advised things. The dumbest thing that I have heard was the time I had a parent phone into my call center where I was working at the time. I could here a child screaming bloody murder in the background. The father said " I just gave my 9-month old son some Enchilada about an hour ago, and he has not stopped screaming since then."  (Adults are an entirely different story-you would be stunned at the various things that people have shoved or placed in their anal passages and vaginas, and then were unable to retrieve them)

That was an extreme example. In my day to day practice of speaking with parents about their sick kids, I have come accross the following frequent mistakes parents make with their kids:

1. Trying to give a vomiting kid Tylenol or Motrin. The kid is already puking-trying to cram
     fever and pain medicine down their gullett is to prepare to wear the medication.
2. Trying to give a vomiting kid solid food, particularly greasy food like meat, fried potatos
     and the like. (This is seen most frequently with callers from the Deep South and African-
     American Callers) See #1.
3. Most parents are not aware of Feverall Suppositories.  This is a rectal form of
    Acetaminophen(Tylenol) that can be given to a vomiting kid with fever, as well as a kid
    who spits out Tylenol or Motrin.
4. Parents thinking that if a little over the counter medication is good for fever, cold and
    coughs, a lot of it is even better.  I cannot even count the times I have seen parents
    overdose their kids.
5. Parents who try to give adult medicines to kids without checking with a doctor or nurse.
6. Parents who don't read labels or instructions on over the counter medications, and then guess how much of the medicine to give.
7. Parents taking a child with a fever and putting them in a COLD bath, or rubbing the child
    down with Alcohol. Both methods end up causing rapid evaporation which chills the child, 
    which in turn makes the child shiver, which in turn makes the child's fever actually go 
    higher.
8. Applying butter to a fresh burn. Not only does this keep heat in the burn, it really 
    increases the chances of infection and will make for painful debridement when the Emergency room staff or Burn unit people have to remove the butter.
9. Giving  ANY cold and cough medicine to any child under two years of age. In fairness to 
    parents, that is a recent change from the American Food and Drug administration-but in
    spite of that, we have parents who still plead with me to give them a dosage even after 
    I tell them it's a practice that is no longer recommended.
10. Applying heat to a fresh sprain injury instead of cold is a common mistake.
11. NOT giving kids Tylenol immediatly after immunizations. These kids get MULITPLE
      immunizations, particularly at 2,4, and 6 months. They are bloody sore for 48-72 hours
      post immunization, but the first 24 hours are the worst. I don't know how many calls
      that I have gotten from parents of screaming infants post-immunization who have not
      given their kids ANY type of pain medication and are perplexed as to why their infant is
      carrying on like Linda Blair in the first reel of "The Excorcist".



I should not complain. Parental ignorance helps me keep a job that I generally enjoy. That said, parents really do a lot of things that put their kids at unecessary risk.  

If you mention the country name of Iran, it can conjure up a lot of images: The Ayatollah Khomeini,

Veiled women, State-sponsor of Hamas and a few other trouble-makers in the Middle-East, potential foe for the US military in a tense region, Olympic Gold medal winning wrestlers and weightlifters...and oh, Women's rugby players. I stumbled onto an article while browsing through Al-Jazeera's web site the other day. It's not an early April Fools Day joke. There really IS a growing number of Iranian women who are playing the game and learning such things as"Ruck Me? Ruck YOU?" and  "Ruck me untill I scrum", among other cute things that rugby players like to say. One thing is for sure, these Iranian women are not going to be so complacent in case their husband's decide to go medeviel on them. Here is the link to the article:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E4107D6E-2825-419E-BA27-BA32348A49D3.htm

One thing that comes out in the article- Without directly saying it: It sounds like more than a few Iranian women have a serious need to blow off some steam.

This past Saturday, my wife and I had a very nice suprise: we got a phone call from our Second AFS student, Luis, from Asuncion, Paraguay.
 
With the weather in Minnesota so bitterly cold again, -2F at 7pm when I got to work, it got me to thinking about Luis. The year he was here in Minnesota, the 1995-96 school year, we had a major cold snap. In Minneapolis, it got to -33F...that was the real temperature, not with wind chill added in. That same winter, it hit -60F in Tower Minnesota.(The coldest temperature EVER east of the Mississippi river in the USA) I remember that for fun,  the kids and I would microwave cups of water untill they would boil, then quick go outside, throw the water into the air, where it would promptly turn to an icy powder before it hit the ground. You would be amazed how long we did that-it really was a neat thing to watch.

All of our kids were remarkable, but I have to say that Luis was the most up-beat and positive of all 12. You could have placed him with the Manson family and he STILL would have had a great experience.  I remember on a nice, cold February day, Luis was just standing outside in our front yard, just looking around. I yelled at him, Luis, what are you doing? "I Cannot believe that I am outside in -20 weather and it has not killed me!" he exclaimed. He was fascinated by squirrels. He would watch them out our front window all of the time.

Luis also did something that I don't think has been done at Cooper High School, before, or since. As an exchange student, he was voted onto the Homecoming court. Let's think about this. You know how clique-ish high schoolers can be. In a span of 4-5 weeks, a new kid, not even American, made such an impact that he got voted onto the Homecoming court.  It was an amazing feat. Luis also garnered a big part in the spring play, of Moliere's "Le Bourgois Gentilhomme". His mom came up from Paraguay to see the performance.

People ask me if I get attached to the exchange students, and If it is hard to say goodbye at the end of their stay. It is VERY hard. I'm a pretty emotional guy-just ask my kids(I admit it, I even cry at some Disney movies). I am not ashamed to admit that when Luis left, I cried like a little kid. Some kids you connect with more than others, but he was really a special kid. He has become a successful man. He is a Lawyer now. Is not married, but has a stunning looking girlfriend.(proving that you don't have to be a dick-head to be a lawyer AND good things can happen to good people)

Someday, I hope to make a GIANT Adams wold tour to visit some of our ex-AFS students. I would very much love to see him someday in Paraguay-a place off the beaten path of the average American tourist.

I had meant to put this posting out after finding out that Sir Edmund Hilary died on January 11th. His passing is really the end of an era of one of the great men of the XXth Century. Most of my compatriots only know of Sir Edmund Hilary as being one of the first two men to scale Mount Everest, along with the Sherpa Tenzing Norgay.(Whose picture is on the far right, taken at the summit of Everest by Sir Edmund)


You cannot just pigeon-hole Sir Edmund Hilary as just an mountain-climber. That would be too narrow of a definition. I will post a couple of links to read more about him:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Hillary
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/01/21/edmund.hillary.funeral/index.html#cnnSTCPhoto

The bottom line is that he was a great man who championed human rights, the enviornment, and giving back to the Sherpas-who loved Sir Edmund as one of their own, as much as he loved them. One of my Metropolis Rugby teamates named Mark, a native Kiwi, had the honor of having had Sir Edmund speak at his High School graduation. An unpretentious man, for years, his name and phone number were in the Auckland version of the white pages.

For all of my Kiwi friends on the blogosphere, I offer you my condolences on the passing of this great man. He represented what was good and decent in sportsmen...and the human race.
 

It has been a cold weekend here in Minnesota this weekend. At night it was getting into the -13 F (-25 C) range. When you figure in "Wind Chill Factor", it was well over -25 F. It's the type of cold that just hammers you and takes your breath away. It's nothing new to people who grew up here. It's funny, when I was a kid, it did not seem like the media made such a big deal out of it, but thanks to the fact that the last 5-6 winters in the upper midwest have been short of snow and warmer than usual, the media and other people have really been carrying on like it's a big deal. One thing is for sure, when the thermometer gets below zero farenheit, if you have a minor problem with your car, it becomes a BIG problem. Case in point, today, my wife ended up with a flat tire on the minivan she was driving. All weekend, AAA  was hours behind trying to help people start cars and tow people to their mechanics.

In our neighboring state of Wisconsin, the Green Bay Packers were upset by the New York Giants in Overtime. Thanks G-Men! I may live in a state where it is cold, Bridges collapse, our Division I college football team sucks, and the Minnesota Vikings are mediocre-but at least I will not have to listen to insufferable Packer fans this week. Thanks Eli!

My wife and I had a great time at the Metropolis Banquet. The food was good-although I thought the food at Bella Notte last year was better. But the overall ambiance was nice. Having a hotel room to check into was really handy-particularly after a Pastis and 7 glasses of red wine.(Oui, Jean-Paul, je suis comme un vrai mec du Midi) The club hired a photographer who took "prom-style" pictures:I don't know. I think we look pretty good for a couple who are about to become grandparents. Becky looked smashing in her dress. Actually, for a bunch of  rugby players, I have to say that almost all of us have some seriously hot wives and girlfriends. It was fun to have a really nice night out.

On an unrelated note, we are at the halfway point of our AFS exchange student Rodrigo's stay with us. To my horror, It occured to me that eventhough I have mentioned him in my blog, I have not put his picture in it. So, here is a pic from when Ian, Rachel and I picked him up in August:

Since this picture got taken, he has filled out. Between training for soccer, wrestling, using my dumbells in the basement and emptying my fridge(we go through an un-GODLY amount of yogurt) regularly, he has really filled out since August. I know he is really chomping at the bit to play rugby with the Plymouth Rugby club. I will try to get him to some Metropolis practices when they are at the Bielenberg dome in Woodbury.

I hate the Dallas Cowboys. I despise them. I would not cross the street to pee on Jerry Jones (The Cowboy Owner) if he was on fire. The Cowboys, in spite of being a number one seed in the NFC for the NFL playoffs, lost today to the New York Giants, 21-17.

Their misery is my joy.

I disliked the Cowboys when I was a kid. I hated their arrogance-the whole "America's Team" bullshit. I still see red when I see highlights of Drew Pearson's push off on Nate Wright to haul in Roger Staubach's "Hail Mary" pass in playoffs back in the early 70's. There was the Hershall Walker trade, where the Cowboys fleeced the Vikings by trading Hershall Walker to the Purple and getting a ton of draft picks who ended up leading the Cowboys to a couple of Super Bowel titles in the 90's.

I grew to really despise the Cowboys, and Cowboy fans, when I lived in Texas while I was in the Air Force. It's funny, Texans are some of the nicest people you can ever meet-you just cannot bring up the subject of the Dallas Cowboys-then, they become insufferable. Even if you beat them, Cowboy fans could never give your team it's props. Nope. They would drawl "Well, you know, those weren't the REAL Dallas Cowboys today. You never would have beat us if the REAL Cowboys showed up."  After 4 years of hearing that kind arrogance, I developed a very viscereal dislike of the team with the Lone Star on their helmet.That means that my two favorite teams
 in American Football are the Minnesota Vikings, and whoever is playing the Cowboys. I'm sure my friend Michelle is just tickled to death that the G-men won today, but all I care about is that Cowboy fans are going to have a miserable offseason.

Being a Vikings fan and having watched them lose 4 Super Bowls over the years, the collapse of the 1998 team in the NFC title game to the Falcons in Overtime, and the incredible mismanagement of the team in recent years (and having to listen to Green Bay Fans, a close second to Cowboy fans in being pains in the ass), I have to admit it: misery loves company.Cowboy fans, welcome to my world. If the Giants can beat the Green Bay Packers next Sunday, I will be a happy man.

In the US, people like the define themselves by their work. After travelling to places like Britain, France and Australia, I can honestly say that I have not had ANYBODY in those countries ask me what I do for work. I should probably add that when I have been to gatherings at my friend Trammell's house, when I am usually the only white guy(I prefer the term "Melanin Challenged"), usually African-Americans will greet you with "How ya doin'?" Or "How ya feelin'?"...You never get asked "So, what kind of work do you do?" Well, almost EVERYWHERE else in the US, you hear that question. A lot.

It's one thing when you tell people that you are a nurse, but then when I try to explain that I don't work in a traditional setting like a hospital or clinic, and that I am a Triage Nurse, I get some major deer in the headlights stares back.

It's a speciality that I did not start out to do in Nursing School. I wanted to work in Pediatrics. I ended up kind of falling into phone triage.

Back in 1996, I had done homecare nursing, worked adult Neurology, worked with ventilator-dependent kids and a pediatric medical surgical unit. I loved pediatrics. I just hated the hospital politics. When I got hosed over on some vacation time-I had wanted to be a camp nurse-not only did they not approve my leave, my supervisor approved a different nurse for her vacation so that SHE could work as a camp nurse...and juggled the schedule so that she could work their an extra week. After coming home from work one day, feeling punk-sore at the world, I found a post card addressed to me that talked about being a phone triage nurse. It sounded interesting, and I had enough of the politics at the hospital where I was. I contacted the company who had contacted me to find out more about the job.

It should be noted that back in 1996 I was totally computer illiterate. I did not even know where the on and off switch was on a PC.  I figured that if nothing else, I would get some computer skills. If it did not work out, I could go back to hospital nursing.

I found out that I enjoyed talking with people on the phone and going through their symptoms and then directing them of what they needed to do. The part of me who had wanted to become a teacher really enjoys the patient education part of this job. When You can take a parent who is panicking and set to call 911 or go to the Emergency Room and then to get them calmed down to the point where they realize that they are in control and that they can take care of their child-and with some of these parents, it's no small thing.

There are times I miss "hands- on nursing". (That's why I try to work as a camp nurse with the Concordia Language Villages each summer)I don't miss the hospital politics.  I sure don't miss getting peed or shit on, or having to move a 300 pound patient.Since I am kind of a "Chatty Kathy", as my brother Bill has called me, being on the phone and talking with patients is kind of a natural for me. There are challenges to this type of nursing. You have really a few seconds to gain the caller's confidence that you can help them. You don't have the luxury of seeing your caller, you are going by sound and what the caller is saying and what you can get by probing and follow up questions. It's an interesting aspect to what I do, and it's one reason why I really like my job. I feel like I am a lucky guy. You hear a lot of people in the US bitch and moan about their work. Me and and my best friend from High School, Tom(He's a canine policeman in Palmetto, Florida)  are pretty lucky in that we both do jobs where we help people and get a lot of satisfaction from it.

There is an old expression that you must strike while the iron is hot. Maybe the folks at the Argentine Rugby Union (UAR in Spanish) have not heard of that expression.

After the Puma's amazing run in the Rugby World Cup in France and Third-place finish, it would have seemed like a great time for the people in charge of the sport in the land of the Gauchos to try to get a professional league started to keep up with the development of the game.

More than a few starters for the Pumas have been speaking out against the UAR. Today, Argentina prop Rodrigo Roncero has joined the growing chorus of voices who have blasted authorities in his country for their dogmatic approach to professionalism. He believes authorities in his country are wasting the opportunity to elevate the Pumas' standing in world rugby.
But the Stade Français front row is concerned that little has been heard on the subject in recent months.

"I truly expected things to happen quicker," Roncero, 30, told rugbyfun.com.ar (And quoted in Planetrugby.com)

"Up to now, we haven't achieved anything and things are getting colder and colder.

"We need to be involved in competitions more often and not to just play a World Cup every four years.

"2007 was by far the best sporting year I have had but at the same time it's a challenge to be able to continue it."

His remarks follows the recent revelations that the Argentinian Rugby Union (UAR) rejected a change to its statutes which would allow professionalism in Argentina's domestic leagues.

In an extraordinary meeting, the 23 Provincial Union delegates voted unanimously to reject the change.

The move angered many in Argentina rugby, and is a significant setback for the Pumas.

Argentina needs to have a successfully-functioning professional league before it can be considered for inclusion in either the Tri-Nations or Six Nations, or having representation in the Super 14.

UAR President Alejandro Risler wants the leagues to remain amateur, but for the national squad players to be contracted to the union, an idea which has gone down like a weak prop with former Pumas skipper Agustin Pichot.

"It is unbelievable what is going on at the moment," said Pichot, who had hoped his side's third place in the World Cup and a sea change at the IRB would persuade the UAR and Risler to change their own stance.

"The Argentinian directors change their minds every day, and in those conditions it is difficult to get anything done. It is a disgrace."

Pichot is one of many talented Puma players based abroad as a result of the amateur level of rugby in Argentina. He joined English club Bristol in 1999, moved on to French Top 14 club Stade Français in 2003 and joined his current club earlier this year.