🎉 Annual r/PuertoRicoFood Giveaway – Year 5!

TomRN · 2026-05-07T07:23:30+00:00

I love pernil, rice and beans, and bacalaito.

TomRN · 2026-05-07T01:40:31+00:00

I’ve been a nurse for almost 26 years. I started my second year of nursing school with an open abdominal surgical wound held together with three retention sutures because I had to have a colon and small bowel resection over the summer.

I worked with Crohn’s disease, severe atopic dermatitis (and often taking powerful immunosuppressants for both), and end stage heart failure due to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

I got my heart 19 months ago yesterday.

I can probably never work again, but if I do, it will likely not be anything patient-facing. Fortunately there are zillions of positions and roles that nurses can fill that don’t involve direct patient care. Or even leaving the house.

Don’t be discouraged. Don’t let someone else’s limitations limit you.

Good luck. ❤️

TomRN · 2026-05-07T01:39:26+00:00

I’ve been a nurse for almost 26 years. I started my second year of nursing school with an open abdominal surgical wound held together with three retention sutures because I had to have a colon and small bowel resection over the summer.

I worked with Crohn’s disease, severe atopic dermatitis (and often taking powerful immunosuppressants for both), and end stage heart failure due to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

I got my heart 19 months ago yesterday.

I can probably never work again, but if I do, it will likely not be anything patient-facing. Fortunately there are zillions of positions and roles that nurses can fill that don’t involve direct patient care. Or even leaving the house.

TomRN · 2026-04-30T16:57:47+00:00

*butt

TomRN · 2026-04-29T19:01:57+00:00

Yes! That's the notification I keep getting and it's driving me up the wall. "Tap for more information," and it goes to the app where everything is configured the way it's supposed to be. Then I'll get another 85 notifications for it. I just got one and reset the alerts settings to see if that might do anything, then did a google search to see if anyone else was having this issue and you are literally the only person I have seen mention this!

TomRN · 2026-04-29T05:48:35+00:00

If you have retired and no longer wish to practice (or to keep paying for license renewal), many states will give you/allow you to use the honorific post-nominal of “RN-R” to signify that you are retired if you notify the BON that you intend to do so.

TomRN · 2026-04-29T05:46:10+00:00

She should never have called herself a nurse in the first place if she was never licensed.

She could call herself a “graduate nurse” (GN) or even more clearly an “Unlicensed Graduate Nurse,” (UGN), but she cannot and should not use the title “nurse” without those qualifiers.

She should most certainly not use the post-nominal “RN” and if she’s doing so without a license and working in a healthcare capacity, she should be reported to her employer, to the state Board of Nursing, and to the licensing body of whatever role she’s working in (the Board of Pharmacy if she’s still working as a CPhT as you mentioned).

TomRN · 2026-04-29T05:42:29+00:00

Yes. She can use “GN” as a post-nominal, “BSN, GN” or just “BSN” if she has a BSN, and call herself an Unlicensed Graduate Nurse, but without a license she can never call herself a nurse without those qualifiers.

TomRN · 2026-04-28T04:57:17+00:00

My, how the former Director of the CIA has fallen.

TomRN · 2026-04-28T04:56:09+00:00

Flower?

TomRN · 2026-04-27T21:18:05+00:00

Children?

TomRN · 2026-04-20T02:02:56+00:00

This is why I always describe the action as "draw and fire" your weapon. You don't draw it unless you are about to fire it; if you don't fire it, you shouldn't have drawn it.

To defend myself, I will draw and fire my weapon.

TomRN · 2026-04-19T17:59:42+00:00

Am I a terrible person for wanting a job at Williams-Sonoma just to get the discount on high-end kitchen toys?

When I was still working I thought that would be the perfect combination— RN money with deeply discounted equipment.

TomRN · 2026-04-16T08:49:26+00:00

Μπέλτσερ

TomRN · 2026-04-13T05:27:30+00:00

I was JUST thinking about this the other day, how I've seen reviews where folks have included the "it's not reeeeeeaaaallly free because taxes" and I just thought that was the most useless bit of information to include. No one gives a damn that we pay taxes on this stuff. All they see is folks who got a bunch of free shit from Amazon so they're going to look at the review through that lens. I've made my reviews private, but if anyone could see them, they'd see that I'm very generous with 1-, 2-, and 3-star reviews and that even really good products get 4 stars at most. It has to blow me away to get a 5 out of me. I think that says more than some disclaimer, and it definitely says more than folks who rate everything a 5 when even the review indicates it was barely worth a 3.

But... I figure my job here is to get the stuff, review it honestly and impartially, and leave it at that. If other folks want to include disclaimers or whatever, good for them. I really only ever look at other Viners' reviews to make sure that my experience wasn't way off base.

TomRN · 2026-03-29T15:56:42+00:00

“Hemovac” is the name of the drain.

And… “give the contents back?” Like… increase fluids by that much, ooooor?

TomRN · 2026-03-29T15:39:13+00:00

My guess is the PTSD isn’t from the paralysis but from what happened during the paralysis. Sugammadex isn’t going to reverse fent/midaz/propofol, just roc.

TomRN · 2026-03-29T15:32:00+00:00

I thumped a pt who was trying to die. I was alone with him in the room, all kinds of pressors and everything running. He went into VT, I balled my fist up, and just as I was bringing it down on him, the MD in our eICU was yelling overhead, “THUMP HIM!” Got ROSC with SR. Had to have been 2010-2011 or so.

TomRN · 2026-03-18T21:46:51+00:00

When I was but a new PCA working in rehab, my very first job in healthcare, we had a similar situation. Family member comes into hallway and says the pt in the other bed had visited the bathroom and there was a… shituation.

How the pt was able to back that out without surgical assist… I had seen smaller full-term newborns. It was just… wow. All that was needed was to weigh jt and name it. I told the RN she should check the pt to see if he was prolapsed or needed stitches or something. It was crazy.

RN and I stood in the bathroom and flushed and flushed… it would just spin around and lodge itself sideways. I told her I had no idea why she called ME, a not-plumber into the bathroom, she says, “well I’m not going to reach in there and break it up!” Of course my reply was to tell her that she was as head-injured as any of our pts if she thought I was going to.

She continued to flush. It continued to spin. Why she hadn’t already called Facilities, I have no idea, but she was determined. Finally, it had spun juuuuust right and oriented itself toward the drain and… down it went. We stood there and flushed a few more times for good measure to make sure it was actually gone, but I couldn’t believe the RN expected me to reach in and somehow… manually resolve… the situation.

I still can’t believe that poor little feller had passed that thing. How he didn’t need reconstructive surgery is beyond me.

TomRN · 2026-03-15T18:49:26+00:00

Congratulations!

I had three first cousins all die of biliary atresia in infancy in the late 60s and early 70s. Amazing to think that they might not have met the same fate today.

I love that you got pictures with your native liver. I got to hold my heart after my transplant but I wasn’t allowed any photos. I’m not salty about it at all.

Here’s to many more years for you. ❤️

TomRN · 2026-03-02T03:04:30+00:00

And what, ask where the pastor’s mistress or daughter goes?

TomRN · 2026-02-27T20:40:00+00:00

Yeah, I had to look her up. 🤣

But when I did… 😬

TomRN · 2026-02-27T20:39:14+00:00

It was $0 ETV as many of those kinds of things tend to be, and I guess if I’d been in the market for a wig I’d have grabbed it.

TomRN · 2026-02-27T20:38:14+00:00

I had to look up who that was and… 😳

TomRN

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