The good, the bad, and sometimes the ugly!

Last week was quite a week at my workplace.  I'm sure it's the same everywhere - there are good days, and not so good days.
We've been really busy.  Because we have a short term skilled rehab unit, we are always having people going home, and others coming in.  Admissions and discharges are a whole lot of work.  It takes a good 2 hours to do everything related to a normal admission, and if they have anything extra going on it takes longer.  On top of that there are assessments that all the different departments have to do, and then continued things for several days.  We have been full, with people on a list waiting to come in, and often people leave, and we have an hour to get ready for the next one. So, you get the picture.  It can be stressful!
But then there are always the good things.  I meet so many wonderful people. I have residents and family members that I've remained friends with after they've gone home or their loved one passes.  There are funny things that happen, sweet things said, and sometimes just the knowledge that you have made a difference for someone.
Last week, we got the cutest gift as a thank you from someone whose sister has been with us for a year.  It was from Sharri's Berries and there were several boxes of chocolate covered strawberries, some cheesecake bites and other chocolates.

And - in a little box, were these!  These are cake pops - a Dr, a nurse and the one with the medical bag.  The staff took the Dr and nurse out and told me to bring them to my granddaughters, who loved them!  Along with this sweet gift, was an even sweeter note, thanking us for the care their sister receives.  Notes like that mean a lot, because when you deal with people, it's not always so nice.

The next day I got a taste of the not so nice.  One of our residents went into the hospital with a circulation problem.  It's something we had been monitoring and she had been seen by our Dr several times related to this.  I talk to families about anything medical that goes on and update them on any dr visits.  This lady was gone for 5 days, had a procedure to improve her circulation and returned.
On the day she came back, the director of nursing asked me to come with her to talk to the daughter who was in the building and was upset about something.   I was surprised to see someone I had never seen standing there.  This daughter had the ok to receive information, but none of the staff had ever seen her in the building.  She was furious, yelling loudly and wouldn't listen to anything I tried to tell her.  She was sure that we had never noticed a problem and thought her mother nearly lost a leg.  The DON thought she was going to hit me and told her she would call the police to have her escorted out of the building if she couldn't control herself.
It was not fun, and I have to admit that although I stayed calm, I was pretty angry.  We are not perfect, no place is, but we take good care of our people and have a good reputation, and I know this was not a problem that could have been avoided.  When her sister who usually visits arrived, she calmed down, and now hasn't been back again!

So, that's how  a few of my days went last week.  Thankfully, there are many more nice people out there than the angry ones!

It's good to be home!

Saturday morning we were up bright and early.  We had a shuttle to the airport at 3:30am! We boarded the plane at 5:30am.

It was a beautiful morning.  The sun was peeking over the mountains as we waited to take off.

Flying over canyons.

We landed in Denver, and had a short layover before we took off again.

Look at these fluffy clouds!

Approaching Lake Michigan.

Flying into Grand Rapids!
It was such a wonderful trip, but it's so good to be back home again.
Thanks for following along on this trip.  I know it's been a lot of posts, but I wanted to document it here for myself too.  Next week I'll return to normal!

Last day!

Such an amazing trip, and this was the last day. We left Kanob and made the drive back to Las Vegas. We drove through Zion National Park again on the way back, for one last look.

At the entrance of the park, we saw this herd of buffalo!

This little guy was fun to watch running and playing.

This big guy was rolling in the dust.

Majestic animals!

 After several hours we reached Las Vegas and decided we needed to take one drive down the strip.  Such a change from how we had spent the last week!

We saw several limos.

 Caeser's Palace.

This cute little metal road runner was on the side of the road.

This Rolls Royce was in front of us.

Planet Hollywood.

You know what?  I'm not a city girl!  I much preferred the National Parks.  I'm not a fan of this glitz and glam and crazy, busy traffic and people everywhere!  I liked the Palm trees best!

Old Pahreah Town

Another fun thing we did on our trip was to visit Pariah canyon, which is a place that is not accessible in a regular car.  We rented a 4 wheel drive Jeep for a day and went for a bit of a wild drive!
Pariah canyon is the site of old Pahreah town, a town that is no longer there because of floods.  It was settled in 1865 but didn't last long.  It's also known for the beautiful colors in the canyon.

This monument is set up near the dirt road that leads to the canyon.

The road doesn't look bad here, but just wait!

Look at those colors!

This is the area where the town used to be.

This is all that remains of the old town.  It's the cemetery, with stones dated from 1877 to 1897.

This is a river bed at occasionally, but you can see how dry it is now.

Bob and I standing near one of the few trees in the area.

Here's Bob and Mark, standing by the jeep.  See the steep, rocky path?  We really got jostled around here!


After we left Paria Canyon, we went to Johnson Canyon to see this:

Did you ever watch Gunsmoke?  This is part of the set.   I'm afraid it isn't going to last long.

More from Gunsmoke.

Can you see the petroglyphs on this bluff?

And here is an old billboard, painted on a canyon wall.
It was another day filled with amazing things!

Antelope Slot Canyon

When we were planning this trip, Cheri was talking to a co-worker who had recently been there.  She was giving tips on places she would recommend, and this was one of those don't miss it places.
This canyon is on the Navaho reservation, and you have to have a guide to go through it.

We started in town and had to ride to the canyon in the back of these trucks.  It was a windy ride.  When we got to the area where the canyon was, it was also quite sandy!

We were in groups of about 12, and there were a lot of people there, but the guides did a great job of explaining things and keeping people moving along.

Here's the entrance to the canyon.  We didn't know what beauty we were about to see!

This gives you an idea of the size of the canyon.  It was fairly open at the beginning, but had some pretty narrow spots further in.  It also got darker further in as it wasn't open at the top.
The colors and formations were truly spectacular.

 There is sand pouring in from above.  We were wearing hats throughout, because sand kept drifting down on us.

This area is called the seahorse.  Can you see it?

This was as we approached the exit,
It was an amazing place, and we all said it was one of our favorite stops.  If you are ever in Arizona, be sure you visit here!