Rants, Recipes, and Running

 Dear Baby Namaste, **Warning, moderately graphic and mildly offensive story ahead** But this is how I cope with discomfort...finding humor in it. I return to letters to you, after my pause to discuss all things career-related and school. Your mama has had quite a day, but as long as I stay super distracted, nausea seems to stay away. So I am writing to you to continue my distraction.  I write this letter to you as a lesson, and maybe someday you'll wake up on the wrong side of the bed and want to throw up your hands and say "forget this day!". And I can tell you, don't. Don't let those first few minutes dictate your attitude for the whole day.  I have a pretty solid example for you. And I think it also is proof of how much I already love you. Of all the things in this world your mom avoids and hates, it is vomiting. She would rather sit in fetal position feeling nauseated for days before she chooses to just throw up.  Yesterday was a tough day. I was nauseated an...

In my previous posts, I alluded a little to a career change. I am writing this for myself as a reminder to always stick to where your heart is at... 1 year ago, my liver transplant program had to go inactive and it was very stressful for me. I had to find new transplant centers to list my patients and had to have some very hard conversations. Some of my patients did not have the financial resources or transportation to go to another city to get their transplants.  When you are a transplant coordinator, you become more than a nurse to your patients. You become a sort of a familial extension. You learn about their extensive social history, marital struggles, their grandchildren, their addictions, their sacrifices, their blood pressure, and everything in between. A transplant is more than surgery. It is a lifestyle change. I always explained to my patients that preparing for a transplant is like pregnancy, the surgery is like birth, and then you have a life of taking care of that orga...