The Dynamic Duo

It has been a nice quiet weekend. Ultradad was actually able to come home on Friday and is even getting to spend two nights here, so that is nice. Today, he and sister Pat spent the morning in Elko. I had been in that town every day this week, so I opted out of that little excursion and puttered around the house doing sporadic, random bits of housework while listening to The Kite Runner on my Walkman.
We played a little cribbage with Pat in the afternoon, when she came to retrieve the new books she had purchased, but that UDad had “accidentally” taken home. I actually cooked dinner tonight, a now rare event. It was a delightful meatloaf which we both ate too much of while watching a 1976 Lawrence Welk show.
I think it’s about time I fill you in on the classes I’m taking this semester.
My 6-credit class is my C N A or Certified Nurse’s Aid class. This is funny; every time I type in “c n a ”, my computer changes it to CAN, so I have to leave spaces between each letter. You know, once in a while, just every so often, it happens that I really do know more about what I intend to write than the computer does. But it never believes me.
Whew, I got a little off track, didn’t I? So, I go for 2 1/2 hours twice a week of classroom work. Some of it is lecture, but lots is hands on, as we learn how to wash our hands (there really is a technique), make beds, take vital signs, feed, turn, move and bathe people. We sometimes practice on each other, and other times on the manikins. One time I noticed that a very anatomically correct male manikin was wearing a wrist bracelet that identified him as “Sarah Johnson.” Poor guy must be having some serious identity problems. Five out of the ten students in the class already work at the nursing home where we will do our clinicals. Getting their C N A license will enable them to do more for better pay. Darla and Erika are in the Radiology program, Eneritz wants to be a trauma nurse and Geronimo has dreams of being a doctor someday. Me? I’m just trying to get an idea if this could be a direction I want to go.
We had our first clinical Thursday morning starting bright and early at 6 A.M. Donna, Eneritz and I get assigned to 400 Hall, where, as in 300 Hall, more or less normal residents live. 200 Hall is for rehab, and 100 Hall is where the Alzheimer’s residents live. Sometime I will have to take my turn there, but the normal hall is enough for me today. Donna and I shower Livia. It is difficult with two people and Donna tells me she usually works alone. I do not see how. In the dining room, we help feed breakfast to several women who are more or less asleep and occasionally swallow, as it seems, by instinct. Everywhere Tvs are on and the talk is of the earthquake in Wells. Enertiz feels cheated because she slept in this morning and did not even feel it. An elderly gentlemen they call “Boni” tells me how he used to break horses for Roy Rodgers, Gene Autry and Bing Crosby and how Howard Hughes was a personal friend of his. I take this information with a small grain of salt.
My Tai Chi class is twice a week and lasts one hour. It is at the Senior Citizen’s building, or “The Terrace” as it is called. I am probably the youngest one in the class, including the instructor, but I am enjoying it. Bill, our instructor is a kind, patient man, and spends a lot of time talking about the technique of breathing deeply and slowly. We do warm up exercises and begin learning “Nine Forms.” Several weeks into class, I think we may be up to form 3 or 4. Inevitably I compare these vibrant, intelligent senior citizens with the residents I saw at the nursing home. What a difference.
My third class is part of the new Human Services program being offered at the college and is called “Drugs in Society.” The textbook details licit (tobacco, alcohol, prescription and OTC) as well as illicit substances of abuse. We learn how these drugs cause physiological changes in body functions and how many of them can cause physical as well as psychological dependence. Part of the class assignment requires us to write up a contract detailing a health change we wish to make, and how we will measure our achievement. I am choosing exercise, and am committing to five 1/2 hours cardiovascular sessions and 2 hours of strength training/stretching each week. Several of the things we learn in C N A we also talk about in “Drugs”, but from a different perspective. Initially, this class was offered Tues and Thurs afternoons when I am at work. As it happened, the teacher asked the class, and they all agreed to meet once a week on Wednesdays instead, which is my day off. I would much rather attend class in person than to take it online.
Of course I am also leading one or two Weight Watcher groups and working four afternoons a week and spending most weekends at Ruby Valley with UltraDad.
So, UltraBob, do you see why I am having such a hard time getting your package together and in the mail? Next week for SURE; I promise!

UltraMom the Student