Q&A | cinnamon, SIM, jeans, and grocery spending
Hi Kristen! I would like to ask, how do you freeze cinnamon bread? Do you bake it first? Pre-slice it? Do you have a post about how you freeze stuff? Thank you!
-E
I do bake it first! I let it cool thoroughly, then put it in a plastic bag and stick it in the freezer.
If you have a smaller household, you could cut the loaf in half and freeze each half separately; that way you can just get out half a loaf when you want some cinnamon bread.
Also, you can slice the bread up before freezing it; that makes it very easy to grab just a slice or two.
If you have a chest freezer or other non-defrosting freezer, homemade bread can stay fresh for several months in its frozen state. In a self-defrosting freezer, though, I'd try to eat it up more quickly than that.
The repeated defrosting cycles tend to cause freezer burn on foods pretty quickly, so I try not to keep things in my kitchen freezer for long at all.
(Here's my cinnamon bread recipe, in case you want to make some!)
Related: A post about freezing food in glass jars. And here's a post about freezing food odds and ends.
I’ve seen you mention on your blog that you sometimes listen to your textbooks instead of reading them. Do your textbooks automatically come with an audio version, or do you use something to convert them? I’m an older adult in college also, and I would love to have the option to listen to the books I have to read.
Thank you!!
Melissa
They do kind of come with an audio version. I have to buy the electronic version of all of my textbooks, since there are online assignments associated with them, and the online versions have an option to have the computer read to you.
It is a pretty terrible robotic voice, and I listen to it at 2x speed, which makes it even worse. But it DOES allow me to multi-task by combining a body task (walking, folding laundry, cleaning) with a head task (listening to textbook chapters).
I load my books into the Vital Source Bookshelf app on my phone and I listen through that app.
I try to use a variety of study methods to get the info stuck into my brain, and since this one requires no extra time on my part, I figure it's worth keeping in my repertoire!
What is a sim lab?
-M
So, at our nursing school, there's a whole fake hospital wing, complete with a receptionist's desk and patient rooms. The rooms look just like real hospital rooms, with IV poles, oxygen set up at the head of the hospital bed, and so on.
The beds sometimes have Manikins in them, which are fake patients that have heart sounds, breath sounds, blood pressure readings, wounds, etc. One of them can even give birth to a baby!
However, sometimes the school hires real people to be actors for us, and those actors come in with a script and an assigned disease process and they don't break character.
Anyway, for sim lab, we break into groups and we go in to take care of the Manikin or the actor, and our professors watch us on the video monitors to see how we do (and so do the student groups that aren't currently taking a turn.)
Then we debrief with everyone, discussing what we did well and what we could do better the next time around.
It is a nice safe space to practice things, but of course, it does not compare to what you learn when you take care of actual people. And that's why this semester I have two days of sim lab to start, but every week this semester from here on out, I have clinical days at the hospital.
Hospital time is where I'm going to seriously gain skills.
Kristen, I have a sewing question. I want to repair a pair of jeans. They are nearly ripped thru the inner thigh. I was planning to cut a patch from a ripped pair of no longer worn jeans and then hand sew it from the inside out. I don't know how to use a sewing machine so hand sewing it is.
I'm wondering, though, about using an iron on patch instead and still sew a whip stitch all around it. Your thoughts? I've used the iron on patches before, and don't think I was super impressed, but I probably didn't do the whip stitch either. I believe that you did a recent post about this very thing, and you used jeans to repair Zoe's jeans, hence my reaching out.
-M
My experience with iron-on patches is that they are rather stiff, so I think having one of those on the inside of the thigh area on my jeans would result in scratching and chafing.
And this would be especially true if your jeans fit snugly on the thigh area.
I just keep a pair or two of old, worn-out jeans in my rag bag, and when I need to patch jeans, I cut a patch out of the old jeans. This way the patch is the right material, and since it's been worn, it's soft and flexible and doesn't cause discomfort.
As I said yesterday, I try to sew the patch on by mostly sewing over existing seams on the jeans; that way the patch is almost invisible.
It occurred to me that your weekly totals seem to have a fairly regular average, so I looked back over the last few years. They’ve dropped about $40 since The Great Unpleasantness (~$150 to ~$110). Going from five to four people didn’t have a huge impact, and going from four to two (no Lisey or Sonia) had a pretty small impact. Do you have any insight into why that would be?
My wife and I tend to eat on the somewhat expensive side, but this makes me feel better about our per-person average than watching you feed five people on what seemed like about the same amount of overall spending as ours was doing a few years ago….
-DM
Wow, I am impressed by your dedication to this task! That's probably more thorough than I would have been. Heh.
And I like your term, "The Great Unpleasantness". I may adopt that. 😉
A couple of thoughts that might explain the steadiness of my spending:
The price of groceries has gone up in recent years
I was definitely able to get more bang for my buck years ago as compared to now.
Teenagers/young adults don't eat all their meals at home
I'm thinking particularly of Lisey; while she did live here with me for a good year, it's not like she ate all of her meals here. I find that older kids tend to buy some of their own meals and they go out with friends, which means I don't end up feeding them 3x day, 7 days a week.
So I'm not surprised that her leaving had a smaller impact than you'd expect.
I am not trying as hard to save money on groceries as I used to
Back in the day, I definitely worked harder on my grocery spending than I do now.
I made more things from scratch, I purposely cooked and served cheaper foods, I bought fewer convenience foods, and I worked hard to find the lowest prices possible on what I bought.
But at this point in my life, I'm not prioritizing that as highly.
Now, I regularly stop in at Safeway (decidedly NOT the cheapest grocery store!), I buy my berries at Sam's Club even though they might be cheaper elsewhere, I don't make everything from scratch, I don't spend a lot of time tracking prices, and so on.
My current main food goals:
- eat nutritious food
- eat at home the vast majority of the time
- avoid food waste
If I spend $110/week for Zoe and me, that's about $8/day/person, and considering that includes cleaning products/toiletries plus food, I feel pretty good about that.
Could I get it lower?
Yes.
Do I have the mental space, time, and motivation to do that right now?
Nope. 😉
Good enough is good enough.
No Sim hospital will be complete, in my view, unless the bathroom shower nozzle drips, people talk too loudly in the halls, and there are wrappers from alcohol pads, disposable needles and band-aids on the floor.
Okay, nurses here: I've always assumed that if an object hits the floor, it stays because it would be unsanitary for the nurse/CNA/whoever to pick it up, and it's left for the room cleaner to sweep up. Am I right? Wrong?
I've frozen bread whole and in halves, but the few times I tried freezing slices, a few at a time, they got freezer burn, and I still don't know why. I was using the same freezer as I was using for loaves and halves, and getting all the air I could out of the packages. To make matters worse, my elderly aunts routinely froze their bread two slices at a time in a self-defrosting refrigerator freezer, and it was always good when they got it out. I assume it's just my luck.
@JD, It's an extra step, but I wrap small stacks of slices in plastic wrap first, then stack them up in a freezer bag. That has done the trick for me to keep bread (sometimes for a couple of months) from getting any freezer burn. -JJ
Hmm, I always clean up my wrappers and such; I throw away my gloves when I leave the room and use hand sanitizer, so I don't know why it would be a problem to clean up your trash before you leave the patient's room!
And I REALLY do not know why needles would be on the floor. We are supposed to throw used needles into the Sharps bin promptly.
@JD, I get air out of a ziplock bag by inserting a straw into the tiniest possible opening and sucking the air out! Weird, but effective (and kind of entertaining).
@JD, I’m a retired nurse. When I was working, we would pick up items that fell on the floor. This was done after patient care was completed. Sometimes items can be trip hazards for patients or other staff. Some items were contaminated. Some were just clutter. It just makes the patient care area more tidy and clean. We were responsible for patient care and for leaving the area/environment uncluttered- one in which patient, family members and other staff felt safe and respected.
@Central Calif. Artist Jana,
I do this too! Probably not as good as a vacuum-sealer, but cheaper and more convenient!
@JD, I'm not a nurse, but my guess is they're rushing because they are understaffed and didn't realize they dropped something.
@Kristen, Retired RN here also.No needles on the floor!! INTO THE SHARPS container.If they DID land on the floor, it would be important to pick them up carefully, to avoid someone else from being stuck!! Yes, we picked some stuff we dropped but wrappers of alcohol preps, etc. should not be landing on the floor.
Right. I know I'm new and not jaded and tired yet, but geez, I cannot believe people are leaving used needles on the floor. That is such a huge no-no.
@Central Calif. Artist Jana, I keep a juice box straw for exactly this purpose.
@Kristen,
I think she was talking about the wrappers on the needles, not the needles themselves.
@Pam,
I can say that at the hospital where I work, ALL staff involved in patient care are encouraged to pick up any trash they see - in patient rooms, in the hallways, etc. If I see something on the floor in a patients room (a sealed alcohol swab, or similar) I toss it; if it's something that has been used (like an empty styrofoam coffee cup, for example), gloves then toss. Really gross stuff - I'll let everyone's imagination run wild here - I leave alone, unless it somehow endangers a patient.
For a period of about 9 months, we had to wear badges that detected if you used hand sanitizer going into and out of each patient room. As a dietitian, I complied, but it destroyed my hands and especially my fingernails. The program was ended after it was discovered that very few people were complying, and it had little to no effect on infection rates. My left thumbnail still isn't what you'd call normal.
@Kristen,
And all - I phrased that badly. I meant the wrappers those items came in. I have never (thank heavens) found a needle or any sharp on the floor. But I have sat and watched various wrappers and those plastic safety tips that have to be pulled off the sharps (for drawing blood) and insulin pens just fall to the floor as he is being attended to. I have put on gloves and picked the stuff up myself, just to make his room feel and look cleaner. This is EVERY hospital (VA or community, large or small) every rehab and every nursing home he's been in. I thought it had to be a new procedure of some kind, since I've seen it everywhere.
@JD,
I guess I assumed you didn't mean needles on the floor, but wrappers and various plastic bits and things. Though there have been (blessedly rare) occasions when someone in Environmental Services at the hospital where I work has been accidentally stuck by a wayward needle left in the bed linens. (No shade thrown on nurses, doctors, or anyone else....mistakes happen. I can see how easily it could happen).
@Liz B. and others above, In my neck of the woods, it's usually certain people who are slobs in general that do not "see" things drop. Or that a blanket could be folded up, or a drawer pushed in. I gently remind those certain people to be mindful of the small amount of real estate esp in nursing homes that residents have. And how important it is to their general state of mind to have things neat and tidy. And sometimes, it is an age bracket, of younger staff that has not been taught to pick up after themselves.
@Central Calif. Artist Jana, me too! And like me, I suspect you are proficient at it too. Trick is to suck air out, pinch bag, exhale away from bag then repeat.
@Liz B.,
Jojoba oil, applied at night will help with the dry cuticles and nail beds. This oil is fantastic for getting into the dermal layers.
I have been eating a powerful amount of breakfast for dinner these days because that's just what I can do. I get it! (about the good enough is good enough) My husband is good enough to go along with me, and he creates a corn concoction that he just zaps in the microwave. We call it "cornucopia" for fun. Cooking is just....hard to muster sometimes! With groceries being so expensive lately, these options we've been doing save money also.
@Sarah C., and everyone,
Don't look now, but with those horrific fires in the Texas Panhandle, the price of beef is going to go up. Entire herds have been decimated, and what few surviving cattle there are, many will have to be euthanized because of severe burn injuries. If you can obtain a quantity of (reasonably priced) meat now, and freeze for later, it may behoove you to do so.
@Fru-gal Lisa,
Haha...behoove...haha!
@Fru-gal Lisa, and the farm bill has expired so a number of "farmers/ranchers" will be SOL for compensation. Gotta be smart when you vote is all I can say.
@Sarah C., I'm with you on the worn out from cooking. I'm doing so little of it these days. Lots of sausages (not homemade), sandwiches, soups, every now and then something a bit more ambitious but not by much.
M!!!!! I can speak to the iron on patches. I am a rancher in MT and wear jeans everyday. I have sort of big thighs... sigh... a gift of strength, I suppose. My jeans see dirt, mud, cow poop, water, spit, afterbirth, all of the ranchy things you can think of, but the biggest issue is my thigh rub and the breakdown of the inner thigh on the back of the seam.
I ONLY use iron on patches - I've bought them on Amazon, at WalMart and at Target. They are all the same. I truly believe that the trick is to use enough heat and pressure to adhere them securely. I will have the entire inner thigh and parts of the butt (fence snags or a broken spring in a seat) patched with iron on patches. Just use more heat and for much longer than you'd think. And, if they start to come off... which sometimes they do, just iron them back on or layer another over.
I have never had a chaffing issue and my thighs are snug in my jeans. I would think the whip stitch would chafe and cause more problems than the patch. The only issue is: They can show through on stretchy jeans. So I always wear once before ironing on - then the jeans are in a more 'natural' state, because you will see pulling.
Oooh, this is good info to know! Thank you for sharing!
@Brandi, I have NEVER been able to get an iron-on patch to stick. Maybe I need a new iron.
@Central Calif. Artist Jana, Fabric glue?
@Central Calif. Artist Jana, my iron is ancient - a hand-me-down from an auntie or something so I'm sure its not the best, but hottest heat, and keep it there until you think you're about to burn the denim. No joke. Then maybe hit it a second time. I've had a few peel, but I can generally get them to re-stick for a little while.
am so glad you intend to blog when zoe eventually leaves the nest. i agree with you that good enough is good enough.
First time commenting although I’ve read you since very near the beginning of your blog! Was that the turn of the century?!? Perhaps another reason your “per person grocery cost” has not decreased more is because you are buying items in smaller sizes and amounts. For example, a 64 ounce jug of laundry detergent versus 128; or, a package of 4 chicken thighs instead of 12. I admire your consistency and cheerful outlook!
@AppleLady54, welcome to the comments! 🙂
"The Great Unpleasantness" reminds me of Ireland's speaking of "The Troubles" or referring to WWII as "The Emergency". Very appropriate title.
@Central Calif. Artist Jana, Southerners used to call the Civil War either the Great Unpleasantness or the Late Unpleasantness.
@Central Calif. Artist Jana,
Another one is the people in Florida, proper Southerners all, during and after the Civil War called that conflict "The War of Yankee Aggression." Mentally, I can just hear their Southern accents dripping with disapproval as they said that phrase!
@Rose,
....or The War of Northern Aggression. 🙂
@Fru-gal Lisa,
Lol! Brilliant minds thinking alike!
@Liz B., which they are still fighting today. Get over it - you lost. And President Andrew Johnson was soft. I shall stop now except to save I am a huge fan of General Sherman. And yes, I have him on a t-shirt. Full disclosure - a parental lineage is from the south but they were smart enough to fight for the Union.
@Fru-gal Lisa, or Mr. Lincoln's War.
It makes me feel much better that your food goals are the same as mine, Kristen! I sometimes don't feel very frugal, given how much we spend at the grocery store, but DH reminds me that it is all good food (we very rarely buy traditional snack foods, and never cookies or ice cream, that sort of thing) and we have six people, and all guys except me. Even the cat, who gets the nice spendy kibble that keeps him from being allergenic, ha. We just work hard to avoid wasting food and eat everything at home.
@Karen A., my cats also get the anti-allergenic cat food! LOL. They LOVE it. I have noticed that it lasts longer than cheaper cat food though, as it's richer/more nutritious.
@Andrea, I was just so glad that Clark likes it. The lady who runs the shelter where we adopted him was all, "You haven't bought him food yet, have you??" and I was smart enough to say "no" even though I had a big bag of LiveClear at home waiting for him. She said "He's used to Iams, so you should feed him that." We just nodded wisely and left it at that. LOL!
@Karen A., Same here about spending at the grocery store - I winced at the total at checkout at Costco last weekend, especially when I realized it was all food (no health/home items) but then looking again I bought a bunch of good stuff - salmon, nectarines, berries, salsa, cashews, olives, etc and also a few things that would make it easier to eat at home vs. going out - bagels, hummus, bread, butter, cheese. So money well spent.
@CrunchyCake, Right. Also we only shop at one grocery store; I know a more frugal me would find the best prices at different stores, but right now my mental and physical energy, as well as our family's schedule, can handle two trips to Kroger a week and we get points back on our Kroger fuel and groceries, so I try not to feel too feeble about my efforts.
Also, your food list is making me hungry! 🙂
@Andrea, Our baby Dane needs a special food that does not encourage him to grow any faster, so no puppy chow. It is quite expensive but not as bad as the kangaroo meat kibble that we had to buy for one of our Irish wolfhounds: $90 for a 40 pound bag (and this was 15 years ago!) and he would go through about 60 pounds a month when he was full grown. Of course, the Dane supplements his meals: today we bought four bags of chips for a retirement party (we were assigned things to bring), put them in a cooler while we went into a 30 minute appointment, and came out to find that someone has grown opposable thumbs. The cooler lid was open, the contents of all four bags had vanished, and the lab and the Dane were lying down in a carb stupor. And there is no point in being mad because they were dogs being dogs. We should have done the shopping after the appointment.
@Lindsey, Why kangaroo meat?
And yeah, my sister has giant dogs (raised from puppies) so she needs to be careful what she feeds them. A giant breed isn't supposed to grow too fast. My dad always joked about my dogs developing opposable thumbs, too. How I miss him.
I bought puppy food from the brands I favor (Royal Canin and Blue Buffalo) and O THE PAIN. On the other hand, you know Animal Control in rural Tennessee isn't feeding really high quality food, so it will do the baby rescue good.
@Rose, and @Lindsey,
Is the rate of growth n big breeds supposed to be "limited" so their bones grow strong enough to support their weight? And/or their legs don't get too long too fast, and therefore unable to support their weight? This is fascinating to me. Who knew!
@Liz B., Bones that grow too quickly make the skeleton weak, etc.
Also, for giant breeds (and others, I believe), later neutering is preferable. I understand that rescues need to neuter all their puppies before adoption, and that's understandable and right from a population standpoint, but I believe we're finding that early neutering makes for a less healthy animal. With Gus the trash kitty and my beagle from a breeder, I definitely waited until they were 6/7 months to neuter.
Rescue Pup is being neutered today, as a matter of fact, because the foster thinks he's six months, and, to be honest, because it's free for rescues at UT. For $100, they'll neuter, chip, all vaccinations, and heartworm test, and I said, YES PLEASE. That's easily $800 here.
Son will be getting him tomorrow and I asked him to be especially gentle. Poor baby's head must be spinning with the events of this week. That said, the foster lady told me, "He's a lil doll." I plan to send her a big bouquet of flowers.
@Rose, U of Colorado animal research suggests two years for Irish wolfhounds and Great Danes before neutering. Unfortunately, our guy was neutered by the animal shelter, per their policies. They used to allow people to adopt puppies and not neuter with the promise they would do it soon. People did not, so now it is a policy. Last time they had a giant they neutered it at 10 weeks and I wrote a letter to the vet and to the mayor protesting that they were harming the dogs and since early neutering can led to skeletal problems and, for boys, an inability to control their urine, it can mean being taken back to the pound when they are older. My pleas were ignored. I even offered to leave a sizeable bond that could be paid back to me when we neutered Clobber Paws at 2 years...no deal. There are animal shelters outside Alaska that do that, but not here. We have a HORRIBLE problem with people breeding huskies for dog teams and then the ones that are not up to snuff get turned in at the pound. Unfortunately, huskies are not easy animals to handle, and that is made worse by how they live with their pack for the first months of life until they wash out of sledding. As to kangaroo food, the vet was pulling his already thin hair out because our boy was allergic to everything. Kangaroo is supposed to be among the least likely meats to upset a dog so that is what we went with; luckily we could afford it. He liked it and then the problem was that he would gobble down the food and giants are prone to life endangering torsion if they eat too much too fast. With our Dane for every meal, I hold the bowl and move it away periodically so he has to slow down. Because the lab is jealous, I now have to do that for him, too. I sit in a chair feeding one dog on either side of me. What we do for love! (I tried those bowls designed to slow down gobbling---that night he found it on the back of the counter and destroyed it.)
@Lindsey, Those bowls were good for our coonhound, who was found starved in rural Arkansas. She eventually seemed to realize she'd be fed every day.
Re the huskies, that is terrible! I didn't realize but it makes sense.
Fortunately, for my sister's latest pup, Maisie the Pyr-Anatolian Shepherd mix, Big Fluffy Dog Rescue knows my sister from other adoptions and fosters, so they allowed her to adopt without spaying her. Eventually, though, my sister got nervous that she was going to go into season, and for those who don't know, unaltered males can and will chew through drywall etc to get to a female in heat, so she was spayed. Somewhat similar to my friend who told me that Gus was GONNA START SPRAYING SOON! Nothing like the specter of a tomcat spraying to get someone to sprint to the vet's.
@Lindsey, love this story. I grew up with a lab/Dane mix. We had to hide everything from the counter (which meant putting bread loaves in the oven) because he counter surfed for his "supplements". Yet he lived to 16 years old! I personally think the two breeds evened out the respective breed disposition's for medical issues, he never had early heart, bone or hip issues as can be common with those breeds.
M--
Kristen is exactly correct, using an iron-on patch inside jeans is a bad idea, it is definitely uncomfortable when wearing (ask me how I know! 😉 ) Also, I've had good luck using any durable fabric for a internal jeans patch, my favorite is actually soft flannel or fleece.
I am retired and we have been frugal all our lives.I do, however, splurge a bit on groceries, as we do not eat out very often and we enjoy good meals.A restaurant meal is EXORBITANT these days and I can make a T bone steak for so much less at home, AND we eat less,so one steak feeds two of us with all thee fixins’. We don’t eat steak often! I do cook a lot of vegetarian meals. But overall, like you, I buys some extra quality items we enjoy such a good berries, watermelons, a few convenience items,etc. I buy good bread (Ezekial bread at Trader Joe is not cheap but chepaer than the reg.grocery.)
Frugality is about getting the MOST out of one’s resources, and not wasting, not about deprivation.And a frugal mind set does not leave you when you start making more money/expanding your career. The values we held all our lives helped us to retire early!
The last time my husband was hospitalized, his room was dirty when he was put in it. You should not have to deal with a stranger's urine under a family member's hospital bed! Being a nice person did not stop me from calling the facility's director and raising heck.
Certainly not, and you were absolutely correct to speak up about it.
@Ruby, I hope you socked it to them if there was urine in the room. Ick! I sympathize with understaffed, overworked caregivers but I draw the line at bodily fluids. Perhaps you could mention the Joint Commission on Hospital Accreditation in your complaint....that will set off alarm bells IMHO.
Kristen, Your friendliness with your concert seat mate is exactly the sort of thing my sister and I do. It leads to many fun stories and I can’t wait to hear about the characters you will meet in the actual hospital rotations.
My couple of hospital experiences included meeting some of the loveliest and wisest of nurses. Your stories will be from the other perspective.
Overall, the nuts and bolts of hospital workings will keep us on the edge of our seats, I’ll bet.
@Erika JS,
Do not ask our friend to share stories of the characters she meets. They are her patients and colleagues. Their privacy needs to be protected and Kristen's job could be jeopardized.
I was gonna say that yep, as much as I'd love to share stories, I am legally required to protect patient privacy, so I will need to navigate this with extreme caution. I'm gonna err nice and far on the side of caution, particularly as I'm learning the ropes of how to navigate this. Better safe than sorry!
@Spring, yes they'd skewer poor Kristen but any state "official" can demand a patients hospital records using bogus excuse of "protecting" x from y. Patient privacy is now out the door - remember good ole Phil Kline keeping medical records in the trunk of his car. Don't get me started on security breaches either.
Hurrah for "good enough"! You know you can change if need be but boy, isn't nice that you don't need to?
How does the birthing Manikin compare? Are there other parents to compare notes with? That might be quite funny.
Oooh, on jeans repair! If you don't have a sewing machine, I recommend buying interfacing at a fabric store. Buy lightweight woven fusible interfacing. It's basically a thin sheet of woven cotton with glue on one side. When your jeans are getting thin in one area, do the following (ideally before there's a full-on hole):
-flip the jeans inside out
-cut out a patch of interfacing just larger than the worn area
-put the interfacing GLUE SIDE DOWN on the fabric and press on it wiht an iron
-let it cool
-for extra security, do a quick stitch around the patch with thread that matches the jeans
-if you have a sewing machine, zig-zag back and forth over the patch to reinforce the area
Kristen, if in your schooling you learn of a way to pass on unused medications please tell us about it. I have a number of allergies and seem to develop more every time I get a new med. As a result, I end up using only a week's medication out of a 90-day supply and it kills me to dispose of them when I know there are people without insurance for whom some of my cardiac and kidney meds literally would be lifesavers. They are not out of date, they usually are not generics so are the priciest meds around...I asked my doc and she does not know of anything but in school you might learn something she has not heard of yet. Thanks.
@Lindsey,
I wonder if meds could be free cycled? I don't know all the free cycle rules...
@Lindsey,
From my limited experience, if you have pills in a bottle, they probably can't be "donated" or "recycled" due to sanitary reasons. BUT!!! If they are in separate/ paper backed/push style packaging- there might be a program in your state. I worked in mental health in Iowa for a number of years and our nurses could "order" meds from an organization for free/cheap. The meds came from nursing homes (for patients that either had a med change, moved, or passed) that used pills individually packaged so they were sanitary. We helped sooo many patients get meds they desperately needed but couldn't afford that way.
@Becca, I'm thinking this would be under the heading prescribing. Too dangerous.
@Becca, Tried that, they removed the post as being against their policies...I understand, I just feel so awful to have stuff stock-piled that someone else may be skipping meals to afford to buy. I try to compensate by having one of our charity cash donations being the medicine fund at one of our non-profits. They keep a set side fund that people can donate to, and it is used only for buying meds for those that cannot afford them. For a time, Safeway did that, too, but it got too complicated to account for the funds, so they had to stop. I have a friend who is quite wealthy and when she used to know the pharmacist, if someone could not afford to pay, they pharmacist would call her, and she would pay with her credit card. When that employee left, that avenue for folks died.
@Lindsey, I don't think it's legal under Federal law to pass the meds on, in part because there's no way to guarantee that they have been stored properly and not tampered with--even in individual blister packs. It's pretty sad, given the price of many medications. Most hospitals have a place you can safely discard unused medications, because they shouldn't go into the landfill or the plumbing system. It feels horribly wasteful, but it's the law.
@Lindsey, I presume you've tried asking for smaller amounts?
@Lindsey, I have had luck donating prescription meds to animal shelters. I've had the very depressing experience of putting a grocery bag full of meds in a chain pharmacy's disposal receptacle. And yes, relatives meds were being changed every few weeks it seemed. No wonder our health care costs are so high.
I was a standardized patient in 2019-2020 for nurses, medical students, and vet students. They didn't call it a sim lab, but I assume it's the same thing. It was definitely extremely difficult not to break character, especially when students occasionally ask you a personal question (a no-no), haha. It was a ton of work to memorize the symptoms and lines, but it was so rewarding! The students were almost all amazing and nice and bright-eyed and gentle. All of us as standardized patients loved to help and encourage the students! It's so interesting to hear that you have an entire wing in your nursing school for the sim lab, Kristen. So cool!
@Brooke, my daughter is very petite, and at the beginning of medical school she looked around 14 years of age even though she was 22 at the time. They had a few standardized patient scenarios where they had to talk about sexual relations or genital issues, and the standardized patients were very uncomfortable speaking to her about these things because she looked so young! She got marked down for not getting the correct info from a standardized patient, who sounds like he got flustered and forgot the script. I get that it is her responsibility to put the patient at east to speak about those things, but it was a big challenge for her because of how quickly people judge her by her size.
P.S. she made it through, and will finish her pediatric residency in June. Size still plagues her--people often think she's a medical student, not a senior resident. And the TSA took her aside for an X-ray screening and kept paging her parents (we weren't there!) to get permission--when she was 26 years old. LOL!!!
@Jan, I'm glad your daughter didn't let this stop her! It seems unfortunate that the standardized patients were uncomfortable and didn't see her as a doctor and a professional, unless that is what they were supposed to portray..... but it doesn't sound like that was the case. Regardless, congrats to her for her nearly finishing her pediatric residency! Woot!!
Love the phrases "the great unpleasantness" and "good enough is good enough." I may adopt the latter as my mantra, and while I have not gone through a divorce, there are several events in my life that I can euphemistically term a great unpleasantness. (Here's looking at you, Roommate from Hell....and incompetent boss....and....)
@Fru-gal Lisa,
Based on the stories you've told about the Roommate from Hell, I'd say that definitely fits as a Great Unpleasantness.
My daughter is an actress and she has made good side money being a simulation patient! She did a lot of gigs in the sim lab. But once she had to be incognito in the ER to pose as a person with suicidal thoughts who was presenting with a different illness. No one knew except the ER director. The ER was judged on how quickly they figured out she was suicidal.
You do what works for you - over the years we've hired out work that we could do but our time was better spent on other things (which may or may not have been earning more money than hiring out cost us).
And a big ick on the manikin that gives birth. Almost 45 years later I still think the woman who allowed herself to be filmed while giving birth needed a some serious psych help and meds (biology class). Sorry, I've been pregnant and given birth more than once. Is not and never will be in the best part of my life category.
I agree - eating nutritious is the goal. Some "junk" food every now and then is okay. We all have our guilty pleasures.
@Selena, My 9th grade bio teacher showed us a Cold War fallout shelter version of childbirth. He had it as film on reels and was a very funny man. Which is why he showed it backwards after, and also why he all thought he was amazing.
@WilliamB, lol.. if he sped it up enough I might have not been so appalled. These days, he'd likely be fired depending on the state in which he taught.
Thank you for answering that food budget question. Your current priorities align with mine, and it’s encouraging to see them reflected in your blog, which I respect.
And now I know I need to keep a rag bag!
I agree about the food budget - prices up and teens [and young adults] definitely don't eat all their meals at home!
Thanks for the peek into nursing school life