Single Stories

Green and lovely ~

radish leaves about to be tossed in the garbage

because....................

that’s what’s always been done

prickly tongue feel,

sharp to taste buds 

Very unbecoming to serve

unless alone and in private

a food once considered a sign of poverty or only fit for pig food.

Nurses

Angels of mercy,

kind and knowledgeable about health and well being

caring for those who cannot care for themselves

Individuals considered altruistic and health minded

Addicts and alcoholics

drug fiends, drunks and junkies

such horrible defining of a human being

sharp, prickly and unbecoming

individuals buried in stigma.

Nurses

human beings subject to addiction

how to reconcile these single stories

defining both good and horrible.

Individuals courageously, yet tentatively, move into recovery

their lives no longer a single story of stereotypes.

Green and lovely

radish leaves when washed and cared for

become a delicious, spicy part of a salad.

“The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with 

stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are 

incomplete. They make the whole story become the only story.”

~ Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche

Two books by Paula Scimeca, Nurse and Author

Unbecoming a Nurse: Bypassing the Hidden Chemical Dependency Trap  and

From Unbecoming a Nurse to Overcoming Addiction

http://www.unbecominganurse.org

Fragments and Embers

It was only a moment
Not a minute not even a second
A mere fragment sparking from within a mind barely awake
Words dragging ‘I dislike how......’
Sparking annoyance flipped 
Flames burned the edge of dry annoyance
Insincere words forced from the same darkened space
‘I am grateful.... I like being awake......’
Feet flat on the floor
energy moved me forward
to a productive, enjoyable morning.

Does recovery begin with a mere spark?
A fragment in a mind still intoxicated
washed with emotion and the sludge of active addiction
A tiny dry piece of soul burns a tiny ember....
Tentative wobbly steps inside detox or hospital
Nurses are protectors of that tiny ember
while recovery grows stronger.

“Intention involves such a small fragment of our

consciousness and of our mind and of our life.”

~ Jasper John

Developing Recovery - A Challenge

Developing a recovery principle and protocols for nurses to follow for withdrawal management should seem to be simple. Especially when I said on yesterday’s blog that detox addictions nursing is a most basic form of nursing care. However, I also said that detox addictions nursing care is also exceedingly challenging. Many folks may believe that this is related to the very extreme personalities and behaviours that come through the doors of any addiction care facility. I have not found this to be the most challenging.

What I have learned and am learning is that nurses and other health care workers are working in an area of brain trauma created by chemicals and other varieties of traumas from childhood abuses to severe illness, experiences in war zones, assaults or motor vehicle accidents in adolescence or adulthood. There has been malnutrition or neglect purely due to poverty states. Despite the reason to move forward in recovery, the foundation can be laid and supported in the time of withdrawal and detox as the neurochemistry and neurobiology is righting itself. As I continue reading about and listening to information about neurobiology and neuroscience, I am continually challenged by the dark interior of our brains.

“After all, when a stone is dropped into a pond, the water continues 

quivering even after the stone has sunk to the bottom.”

~ Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha

Author's Note: Edited December 28, 2023

An Open Letter to All Nurses in Addiction Nurses Week

This morning I received an email from the International Nurses Society on Addictions reminding me that this last week in September, in conjunction with Recovery Month, is Addiction Nurses Week.

Although I have been a member of the International Nurses Society on Addictions from 1995, I believe I have been an addictions nurse since the mid 1970’s when I worked in a general hospital on a medical floor. On that floor, nurses frequently cared for patients who were detoxing. Nurses had little knowledge but the guidance of a general practice physician with a special interest in withdrawal management.

The task of withdrawal management for nurses in general hospitals, on trauma units in emergency rooms, in obstetrics, in neonatal units and anywhere else that nurses are employed is not uncommon. In this world of pharmaceuticals, many of them narcotics and anti anxiety medications, withdrawal is seen more frequently. Therefore, withdrawal management has increased along with any other medical, surgical or psychiatric issue that is to be addressed. We are not addiction counselors, but we are patient advocates and provide our clients with referrals and health teaching about all their health conditions.

So in this Addiction Nurses Week, I salute and thank all of the nurses out there caring for all patients in substance withdrawal. You are all nurses in the most basic and yet challenging of nursing care.

For more information about this organization with webinars, other links, and conferences go to the link below.

International Nurses Society on Addictions at:

http://www.intnsa.org/about

“Nurses dispense comfort, compassion, and 

caring without even a prescription.”

~ Val Saintsbury

Forth and Back

Home is where the heart is
gone far away and back to home.
vacation drifts behind
memories of sunflowers and smiles on the prairie
soften gray rain and green grass on the ocean

Day job beckons with
recovery of routines and pleasantries
each day with tiny pieces of vacation brightening the edges of time and space.

“Find what brings you joy and go there.”

~ Jan Phillips

Oh Happy Day!

What a day today has been

Sunflowers filled with bees in morning sun, collecting any remnants of pollen.

Fall fingernails dirty pulling 

sunflower stalks, squash vines

still green but crunchy with dried edges

potatoes and weeds dug up and piled in the alley

Sweet ripe strawberries sampled from vines still flowering

a box of squash, tiny gold beets, potatoes - late garden hangers on.

A warm summer walk through  browning grasses

dodging a few mosquitoes, lively now that hovering dragonflies are gone

rustling poplars and cattails along the trail

circling through dusty roads, past homes and overlooking the water

examining my sister’s handiwork of flowers and a dragonfly

all wired and crocheted decorating a silver chain link fence on the sidewalk on the way to the beach.

A couple of errands then

hamburgers and fries at a favourite local restaurant.

Home for a couple games of Scrabble, then a quiet evening of visiting

with another short walk in a beautiful prairie evening

Recovery of warm prairie memories with my sister Kate

“Happiness is the satisfaction you feel. There’s delight, 

joy, excitement and pleasant surprise.”

~ Dee Dee Artner

Continued Vacation Enjoyment

An active, enjoyable day
beginning with coffee at my hostess Donna's home in Regina
and a really good visit - just too short.
then off to a brunch with colleagues
from the Regina General Hospital School of Nursing
Two hundred and eighty four nurses in attendance from class of 1949 to the class of 1972 ~
recovery of old bonds of friendship and the early days of nursing.
Then off to Fort Qu’Appelle to my sisters home
with a drive past the fence decorated 
with crocheted flowers and a dragon fly (photo to come tomorrow)
A trip to the final hour of Treaty 4 Pow Wow
the children in jingle bells, sparkling beads, colourful ribbons and leather,
dancing to drums and singing
Then to my sister Kate’s home with Indian tacos for supper.
Now watching the movie Babe as I write this and my sister knits.

“Enjoyment is always greatest when you 

have enough contrast to measure it by.”

~ M. Wylie Blanchet,  The Curve of Time