Call your Senators

And tell them to vote "YES" on the Blunt amendment, which would repeal the HHS mandate and protect our religious rights. It is likely coming up for a Senate vote Tuesday or Wednesday.

My blood has been boiling ever since some MD wrote an editorial for our paper saying she was "tired" of everyone "not caring" about how few people have access to healthcare and how this whole birth control thing just needs to be "put to rest". Did I miss something? Why are we so worried about people not being able to afford their BC co-pays ($30 or less per month) when several cancer patients in our area are missing their chemo treatments because there is a chemo drug shortage? And when it really comes down to it, the question is really a matter of whether the state can restrict religious liberties, not whether insurance companies should cover birth control.

That and I just got a letter from our insurance saying they will not cover (25%) of my hormone injections because the pharmacy will not release the ingredient amounts (the only thing from a list of 15 other things insurance "needed" to know to file the claim) because it is "proprietary" information. So... free birth control for all, but heavens, please don't ever help a lady dealing with actual medical conditions.

Must calm down...

O Mary conceived without sin...

Pray for us who have recourse to thee.

And pray for the Blunt amendment to pass.

God-power

Couple comments from the boy from this week:

While coloring a page in his coloring book depicting Moses coming down the mountain and seeing the Israelites worshiping the golden calf -

"Why were they praying to the calf?"
"Because they thought it could help them. But it couldn't - it was just a calf."
"Oh. Yeah, because calves don't have god-power. Only God has god-power."

And while helping me clean the bathroom last night -

"This is taking a looong time."
"Yes, it's very dirty."
"It would be faster to blow it up."

Lent 2012

Hip hip hurray, Lent is here! OK, I'll be honest, I don't look forward to Lent, but once it's here, I'm glad it is. We modern-day Catholics really enjoy a fairly cushy Lent by yester-year standards, but it's still hard to deny oneself no matter the substance or form of the offering it up.

What am I giving up this year? Drinkin' an' swearin'. You laugh - I'm totally serious. It might be the medical environment or it might be the current political situation, but I have got to clean up my language, and I am going to make a concerted effort to ask for some heavenly help in this regard during Lent. And while I certainly don't drink a lot, I do enjoy a beer or glass of wine from time to time and will offer that up as well. Add on the usual sweets/treats and try to be more grateful, less complainy, I think that should cut it for the "fasting" part. For "prayer", I'm going to attend daily Mass at least once per week, and try to pray the Stations of the Cross at least once per week. This is probably going to be harder than the drinkin' an' swearin' bit since time has become so precious this semester - but I am confident in the grace I'll receive to stick to this! "Almsgiving" - have strayed away from getting extra groceries for the food shelf in the past year, so will get back to that.

I'm definitely not trying to toot my own horn - past experience has shown that my plan for Lent and my actual tenacity and adherence to the plan are two different things. What are all of you doing for Lent? Any great Lenten observations? I think the most important "lessons" I've learned in past Lenten seasons are
1) The Easter season is pretty much how my Lenten season was - if I really tried to be faithful and allowed God to immerse me in the graces He wants for me through sacrifice and prayer, Easter is that much more beautiful and meaningful. The less immersed in Lent I am, the less meaningful and more "routine" Easter is; and
2) Lent is one of those things that you can't do on your own. I've made some awesome plans that have fallen by the wayside immediately because I tried to do them on my own strength. It really has to be all about God and all for God - again, something I can talk about but am still learning and doing on a daily basis.

Happy Lent, everyone!

Big Paper Presented - and so on

Presented my paper on nursing student attitudes toward oncology to Scholarly Review this week. It was a bit terrifying to let a bunch of highly-experienced researchers and educators look over my first "grown-up" paper. But it was a really helpful experience and was able to get some great feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of the article before I submit it to the journal. Finding the time to incorporate the suggestions is going to be a bit difficult, but it'll happen, I guess.

Also trying to fuss with our lovely online course management system. It took me forever to record the lecture I needed to post, and now that I've finally posted it, some of the students can't access it - I swear I followed every step of the instructions, line-by-line. Ugh - this education practicum is almost enough to make me question if I really want to do this. Not the intended effect of a practicum experience, to be sure. I understand that a practicum is a largely self-directed experience, but seriously - what is the point of having a teacher for practicum if this person won't even answer direct questions about the class itself?

Michael has been having a hard time with mom being so busy with school and dad so busy with taxes. So far he's hanging in there - I just hope May comes soon! Planning on going to the homeschool convention next month to get some supplies and ideas for kindergarten. I am very excited for Michael to be the family member who is now in school and Mom the one who is OUT of school - just a couple more months!

It's Serious When...

the APA publication manual comes out. It's like the Bible - you always learn something new every time you open it. That's about the only way it's similar to the Bible, though.

The manuscript for my independent project is now down to 13 pages (limit 12-15) exclusive of references, figures, and tables. Although based on my (soon to be completed) degree I hope to stay in academia, based on my experiences writing for a journal, I hope I can stick to a limited role in the ivory tower. No tenure, no problem, as long as I don't have to publish research incessantly.

Also working on a series of three lectures for on-campus and online students regarding critical appraisal of evidence, grading all their assignments, prepping for clinical this week, post online for practicum, family nursing group project due in two weeks, and trying to keep my head screwed on straight. I am reminded that everything we do needs to be for the Lord, so trying to stay focused on what is truly important in all of this. All for You, Jesus - and do You like my powerpoint slides?

Komen - Now you Know

The Susan G. Komen Foundation briefly interrupted funding for grants to Planned Parenthood this week due to their policy of not funding organizations which are under investigation. During the three day period, several individuals and organizations gave PP 3 million dollars. Then Komen revised their policies to state they may not fund organizations which have been actually found to have committed serious wrongs, and they have resumed funding to PP. According to the AP news story in our paper, several branches of Komen were flat-out refusing to abide by the policy and continued funding during the three day period.

I am quite disgusted by Komen's reversal of their decision (although it didn't seem to be a decision they really wanted to make in the first place), but it is nice to actually have this information out in the open. Komen supplies hundreds of thousands of dollars to PP for "preventive services" - i.e. mammograms. The AP news story went on to say that PP did - get this - 6500 mammograms last year. Sound like a lot? Consider that PP is a nationwide provider. There are over 300 million residents in the US, about half are women, and of course not all of them are of breast health age, but a significant proportion are. So out of the, say, 75 million women who may need an annual mammogram, PP provided mammograms for 6500 of them. And I doubt it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to do 6500 mammograms. Where do you think the extra money might go? To put it in additional perspective, I would imagine our area hospital provides about the same number of mammograms to residents in our rather small geographic area.

Bottom line - Komen has made it very clear what their underlying agenda is and we should avoid them and all their campaigns like the plague. If you really want to help someone with cancer, give them a call and offer to come help clean house, cook a meal, or drive them to their next appointment.