Guest Blog: An Ordinary Hero

If you read this blog regularly, you know a little bit about my parents' circumstances.  Recently my dad was transferred from a rehabilitation care center to a long-term care center just a few blocks from the one where my mom lives.  The ultimate goal is to get them in the same care center, and this move was a huge step towards making that happen.  But in the wake of that transfer, the unthinkable happened.  The rehabilitation care center neglected to forward the crucial information that my dad is an insulin-dependent diabetic.  

The transferred records did document that my dad is diabetic.  The Friday after my dad's move to the new care center, the nurse-practitioner there undertook a thorough review of my dad's medical history.  Although there were no orders for insulin, she thought it prudent to regularly check his blood sugar levels, and ordered the staff to check them twice a day.  

The Monday morning following, Dad's blood sugars skyrocketed to over 500 (100 or less is normal). My sister tells what transpired over the next few hours: 

"The nurse practitioner worked with the staff all day administering various units of insulin, but even though they were pumping him full of the stuff his number kept climbing.  When I talked to staff later in the evening, he'd hit 579 with no end in sight, so we decided it would be best to take him to the hospital to determine what was causing it and get him on IV insulin to bring it down." 

It was back in the hospital where the gross oversight by the rehabilitation care center was discovered.  My insulin-dependent father had gone almost a full week with no insulin!

There could have been a very different ending to this incident in my dad's life.  But thanks to an ordinary hero named Kathy, my tears today are not of sorrow, but of gratitude.  So Kathy, thanks for doing your job and for doing it well.  Thanks for thinking proactively.  Thanks for caring about the people your position places in your care.

And thanks to all the Kathys out there, who work hard day in and day out, caring for our loved ones in ways we are not able to. 

x-drive

What I've been reading #6

I like this picture which symbolizes to me that reading can lead to growth and
increasing our understanding.  It can be a seed that grows to fruition of our thoughts
to action.

I've enjoyed reading some more good books and am pleased to have the time to get back to doing that regularly.  I'm glad to say that it seems my daughters are increasing their reading here lately and fun to be involved with them a little bit.  Jaime ask me for a recommendation on a book with a certain topic the other day (I'm choosing not to mention the topic), so I recommended it to her and bought it and sent it to her via Amazon.com.  Haleigh continues to read up a storm.  She had a chance to earn some money the other day and now has a list of books she wants to purchase.  Hilary has gotten into one of my favorite series of books which is the Ender's Saga by Orson Scott Card and she has been reading some of that.  Which by the way I notice he will be having a new book come out in that series on November 28 of this year.  Now what about Megan?  I don't know if she is reading or not.  I suspect that she is tied up in some other pursuits currently.  Here is what I've been reading:

The Silence of God by Gale Sears

This was a very enjoyable book about the first LDS family in Russia starting around the tend of the rule of the Tsars and the Bolshevik revolution.  It is a novel based on the real experiences that they had.  It was written well and grabbed me and made me interested in finding out about the family and wanting to know what would happen next.  It even seemed possible that a sequel could be written although I haven't heard anything about that eventuality.  The family is introduced and seems very normal like we would expect good Mormons to act in Russia.  Then things begin to change in their country and their tiny niche of religious comfort is destroyed as the country changes its ideology and attempts to destroy all religion in general.  An enjoyable read.

The Confession by John Grisham

I read this book because my daughter Hilary had read it and enjoyed it.  I had read a couple of his books in the distant past but nothing in recent years and decided to give it a try.  It caught me very quickly and pulled me in.  I would call this book not so much of a courtroom procedural but rather a "law procedural".  He tells the story of a young girl who disappears and is presumed murdered.  The perpetrator is found and after confessing his guilt ends up on death row but the body is never found.  Years later as the death penalty approaches for the man who has declared his innocence since his confession, a creepy career criminal enters a minister's office in another state and confesses to the murder.  Lots of questions of ethics and some religious questions are brought up to consider.  For me it was a fast read and I found many of the characters very worthwhile examples (i.e. the family of the man who was falsely imprisoned for years & the minister).

Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card

If you have read my summaries in the past you know I typically enjoy books written by Orson Scott Card.  This one is no exception.  As a matter of fact I like this book more than others he has written recently.  For a few years I wasn't able to do much reading but now I think I have caught up on all his books I missed.  This book is the direct sequel of Ender's Game.  It does an excellent job of filling in some of the gap between Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead.  It also does well with incorporating things that were discussed in the "Shadow Series" that parallels Ender's Game.  It is a pleasure to see how OSC deals with peoples thoughts and feelings.  To see how people learn from life--not always logically (or correct lessons for that matter) is also one of OSC's fortes.  I recommend this book if you have read anything in the Ender's Universe and you enjoy OSC. 

Containment by Christian Cantrell

I purchased this book for my kindle because it was a really great price and seemed interesting.  I was not familiar with the author so didn't know what to expect.  It was surprisingly good.  This is a colony of humans sent to Venus to learn how to eventually learn how to colonize the galaxy.  They struggle and the second generation holds the hope of the whole colony.  What one brilliant young man learns and then ultimately acts on will change everything.  I would recommend this book if you are a science fiction fan.  Don't expect that you won't guess what is about to happen, but instead enjoy how the author brings it about. 

"Wear the old coat and buy the new book." 

My sentiments exactly, I can make do with an old coat, but sometimes I just gotta have that new book!

Austen Phelps was a minister and professor of sacred rhetoric and homiletics. 

Manly Man Training #21: Watch your step

When we are following the Lord, we value the things that the Lord values.  We have been taught for years what is most important.  After our personal relationship with the Lord, we are taught that our families, our wife, and our children are of most value to us.  This remains true even if we are not married yet.  Do we think of our family when we are away from them?  Do we make sacrifices willingly for them.  In making sacrifices I am not just referring to time, but do we throw away the appetites and passions that are not appropriate for a Manly Man to have.  Do we remember our wife as the only one that we think of sexually? 

Look but don't touch is a Satanic lie.  If you look you are already in danger.  If you are in danger
get away!  Interestingly with pornography that differs from a snake, if you think you are in danger. 

The world teaches things like, "it is okay to look but not touch" or "as long as no one is hurt [read 'no one knows'] then it is alright.  Pornography is a harmful choice.  It attempts to take the natural sexual interest of a man and use it to harm much more than himself.  And much more than harming his wife.  Even more than harming his children.  It harms all people and does so in a variety of ways.  

You may say, "I didn't pay anything for it." and you may be accurate financially but you did pay for it in your relationships and in your spiritual life.  You paid for it by saying amen to your Priesthood for at least a time.  You paid for it by making your sealing in the temple to no affect, at least for a time, you paid for it by making your children fatherless in the eternities at least for a time.  You are hurting many.  The interesting thing is that they don't even know it ...yet.   

We must protect ourselves and through us our family from this terrible harmful and devastating evil.

Mormon Messages: Watch You Step:

Dallin Oaks said in his April 2005 conference talk:

"Pornography impairs one’s ability to enjoy a normal emotional, romantic, and spiritual relationship with a person of the opposite sex...As conscience is desensitized, patrons of pornography are led to act out what they have witnessed, regardless of its effects on their life and the lives of others.

Don’t accommodate any degree of temptation. Prevent sin and avoid having to deal with its inevitable destruction. So, turn it off! Look away! Avoid it at all costs. Direct your thoughts in wholesome paths. Remember your covenants and be faithful in temple attendance. The wise bishop I quoted earlier reported that “an endowed priesthood bearer’s fall into pornography never occurs during periods of regular worship in the temple; it happens when he has become casual in his temple worship” (letter of Mar. 13, 2005).

We must also act to protect those we love...And we should build the spiritual strength of our families by loving relationships, family prayer, and scripture study."