Some of the positions I have found Spike sleeping in makes my back hurt just looking at her.
As for color, Spike is rarely ever dark and when she is, that is mostly in the mornings when I wake her up. After about 20-45 minutes of basking she is right back to her normal color. I honestly don't know what color to call her. She is kind of like a pale yellow in places, but orange and red in others, but also has this blue/purple coloring that is becoming more noticeable on her back. It seems to become brighter after every shed.
Speaking of shed, her head and now around her mouth has exploded and her one back foot and leg has mostly peeled off. Slowly, her left front leg is peeling now, too.
And she has had quite the appetite for the past couple of days. And is no longer spitting out the bugs dusted in calcium like she was. Now, she is snatching them from my fingers faster than I can blink. I don't know what changed, but I like it.
And salads are mostly a no. I have caught her nibbling here and there, but it is far and few between, at least for now. I hope that changes as she gets older.
I loved being in the nursing home. The facility I was in there were only 43 residents. The max capacity was 53, but we never made it there. We weren't in a hurry to fill up the building as a new one was in the process of being built.
I had the wound/behavior hall way, as we all referred to it. When I first started, NO ONE wanted to work that hall way. It was time consuming with treatments and wounds where you would have to help your nurse, lots of Hoyer lifts (full body), those who couldn't ambulate without assistance, those who couldn't go to the bathroom by themselves, those who needed 'total care', even one person who had a colostomy, and those who liked to push the call light 73 times in one night (true story, in a 12 hour shift.) The list goes on and on. But truthfully, I loved that hallway. I had my routine and knew exactly what I was doing. Don't get me wrong, we were trained to work the whole building and any hallway (there were 3 altogether) but everyone had their favorites and had specific hallways that we preferred. I liked walking in to work at 7 pm and having a few specific people (those that were mostly in their right mind and who could) give me hugs and tell me how happy they were to see me. It warms the heart and soul.
I had one guy, a Korean vet, and he is still there too, who always complained that no one let him walk anymore. (We didn't have much in the way of therapy). Well, I did. He could ambulate, but was mostly confined to his wheelchair. Every morning before breakfast, that I worked, I would help him get up, dressed, do everything he needed before heading out of his room, and I would get his walker and let him walk all the way up the hallway, following closely behind with his wheelchair (I usually had someone pushing it so I could hold on to him), and he absolutely loved it! He always had the biggest smile on his face and a sense of accomplishment that just radiated off of him. Afterwards, granted, he was tired and needed his wheelchair, but still. To this day, I am a very firm believer that residents should be aloud to do as much for themselves as they can. Too many aides want to do things for them, so they can rush and not have to spend so much time, but what they fail to realize is that they are taking away that residents independence.
I do agree. I am realizing all of the things that I missed with my boys while I was working so much. Granted, now that everything is financially secure I do not have to work, but I do miss it and I do want to go back into the medical field.
I think I want to try college again. In a city over, they offer a 2 year RN course. I really want to give it a try. I am only 26, almost 27, I have a lot of time left.
I have wanted to be in the medical field since as far back as I can remember. This might be too much info, but I will explain why. My Mom was 33 and Dad 35 when I was born and I was 2 months early. I weighed 4 lbs and some odd ounces when I was born. My heart was beating 420 times per minute and had to be taken by emergency c-section. I had 2 holes in my heart; one repaired itself before I was born, but the second one had to be surgically repaired. I had open heart surgery when I was 18 months old. And due to that repair (ASD- Atrial Septal Defect repair) I only have one atrium, the right. I do not have a left atrium so therefore it takes my heart longer to pump blood to the left side of my body. My blood pressure and my pulse are only accurate on the right side of my body.
If it was not for my doctors, I would not be here. My cardiologist described me as a miracle baby, whether true or not, I am still here. If anything, my doctors were my miracle. If not for them, I would not be here.
I don't have a desire to become a doctor, but an RN. And if/when I finish college, I want to go straight back to the nursing home.
And on a different note, I thought I would make a grid picture of Spike.
I got Spike on March 26th, but didn't think to measure her and document it until April 18th. If I had to guess, I would say she was roughly 7 inches when I brought her home, give or take a bit.
Still a slow grower, but growing nonetheless! 5 months old!