I recently saw one of my patients at the eye doctor.

She smiled and winked at me.

I'm going to say she thought I did something right at some point.

This morning, my patient asked me which direction was east so that he could pray.

I love requests like that. It's hard to give a person everything that he or she wants when that person is a patient in your medical facility. Really hard.

So when something comes along that may seem like a small thing to me, I like to step back and realize it may not be such a small thing to that person. 

And after taking 30 seconds to think that, I took out my iPhone and opened up the compass.

10 ways to show love to someone with depression

Not everyone can be a nurse to everyone all the time but there are certainly times in our lives where we find ourselves with people we love who just need a little extra love and care thrown their way.

Here is a short piece with some small things you can do to make a big difference to someone struggling with depression.

We all need a little nursing every now and then.

"Are you married?"
"No, but one day, I hope."
"Do you have a boyfriend?"
"Yes, I do."
"I give you until July 4th to get married."
"I'm not sure he'll be ready by then."
"Have you ever heard of Sadie Hawkins?"
"Yes, why?"
"You should get a shotgun. He'll be ready if you have a shotgun."

I'm not that guy...

I work the night shift. Unfortunately, just because quiet hours are between 2200 and 0600, that does not mean that all of my patients are sleeping and completely stable.

That said, if and when problems arise, I have to call someone, namely the PA, NP or physician.

But sometimes the orders in the program are confusing. Sometimes the assignments have changed so many times that I don't immediately see the latest order.

Last night I accidentally paged the wrong person three times. I do genuinely feel bad when I do that, but it's an honest mistake. Being that I am a medical professional, that is clearly not the worst error I can make.

But if that's the case, at least have the decency to TELL ME I'M PAGING THE WRONG PERSON. I don't want to bother you if you're not covering but we also have the mutual responsibility to look out for our patients and if I spend a few hours paging the wrong person and you don't response, you're annoyed, I'm annoyed and the patient is sitting there wondering why nobody seems to care.

A Tangled Ball of Yarn

This morning I was knitting and one of the skeins of yarn I'm using is unraveling terribly. It's constantly getting into knots and of course the yarn is made up entirely of dark colors, making it difficult and time consuming to untangle. I said to myself, "This yarn is literally THE most annoying thing in my life right now."

But guess what? I'll give you a hint - it's not the most annoying thing in my life right now. Not even close. But what if it was? How cool would that be? Imagine if I just changed my outlook a little bit, an unruly skein of yarn really could be THE most annoying thing in my life.

So let's all take a step back and really look at everything that's going on around us. With a slight attitude adjustment, whatever your equivalent of an unruly skein of yarn is could really be the biggest problem you have. And if that's the case, that's an awesome problem to have!

Snow

I'm off until Sunday, having already worked three days in a row earlier this week.

I can't remember the last time I was able to just sit and watch the snow fall with nothing to worry about.

Here in Baltimore, the snow is collecting but it isn't nearly what my friends and family back in New Jersey and New York are expecting. I'm already seeing pictures of my friends and makeshift sleeping arrangements in their respective hospitals tonight.

To anyone out there who isn't able to make it home, thank you for doing what you do.