Goodbye.....
"The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence." Denis Waitley
....why am I crying?

About 24 hours after the caterpillar started to pupate, it shed its skin and now we have this beautiful chrysalis. In a couple of weeks I hope to see a monarch butterfly emerge.
Much more interesting than reality TV!

Monarch Update....
The caterpillar I photographed in my Aug 20th entry has begun to pupate. I found a great blog called Burning Silo. If you like photography and nature, you will enjoy the site. There is a great little movie at this link that shows the transformation occurring. It is well worth the minute it takes to view it. I have to go to work and will likely miss this event.

Disability?
We stayed in a small fishing town on Mexico’s west coast one January. The fishing boats went out and came back each day. People and pelicans lined up for their share of the catch at the beach.
I was most intrigued by a man with lower extremity paralysis who was living next door to where we were staying. He moved along the ground, pushing himself along with his arms, his toneless legs folded underneath him. In the evening I would hear him playing his guitar and singing as his wife and children moved about the house. He had no wheelchair or other adaptive aids and in our culture he would be considered very disabled.
The World Health Organization has defined a disability as “any restriction or lack (resulting from an impairment) of ability to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being”. Activists in the disability movement disagree and state that “disability refers to socially imposed restrictions, that is, the system of social constraints that are imposed on those with impairments by the discriminatory practices of society”.

This man had an occupation, a home and family and appeared to be well integrated into his community. What fascinated me was that he hardly seemed disabled at all.
Our culture places a very high value on physical perfection and intelligence. My job involves helping impaired people regain independence and function. If we are unsuccessful in their rehabilitation, they risk being segregated and undervalued in spite of what they are still able to do. Unconditional acceptance of those with physical and cognitive impairments can be difficult and finding a useful role for them in society a challenge… but we can do better.

But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind. Luke 14:13

Monarch Butterflies
As children we used to collect monarch butterfly caterpillars in August at our uncle’s farm. We nurtured them through the process of becoming mature butterflies, feeding them fresh milkweed leaves and watching them create beautiful green chrysalises. Both butterflies and caterpillars were plentiful. Sandland brother used to collect butterflies along with other creepy things like snakes and spiders in the Don Valley, right in metropolitan Toronto. Since the 1960’s, with suburbs paving over meadows and farmland and extensive use of herbicides and pesticides, the population of monarchs has decreased dramatically. Add to that the deforestation of their winter habitat in Mexico and the species is definitely at risk.
We have acres of milkweed in fields around our home. The Becka and I went out this evening in search of caterpillars. We looked over hundreds of milkweed plants and didn’t find evidence of any larvae at all. Finally, we found a single caterpillar actively munching on a leaf and one adult monarch butterfly flying by too quickly for a picture. The caterpillars are not supposed to have predators as their exclusive milkweed diet makes them toxic to birds. They are susceptible to parasitic infections. I wonder what the chance this lone caterpillar has of wintering in Mexico?
(visit http://magickcanoe.com/blog/2006/08/19/on-becoming-green/ and http://magickcanoe.com/blog/2006/08/14/the-monarch-report/ for some great photos of the monarch cycle)

Vietnamese Soup
We love to try various ethnic foods. My daughters get frustrated with friends who like the same, bland North American restaurants all the time. In our city were have great eateries serving a variety of cuisines.
Between 1978 and 1980 Canada accepted more than 60,000 refugees from Indo-China. Various church groups and individuals sponsored these “boat people” and helped them adjust to life in a new, peaceful country. Our daughter became friends with a nursing classmate whose family had come to Canada at that time. She introduced us to this restaurant which has become one of our favourites.
Pho is a delicious meat broth served with rice noodles, fresh Thai basil, bean sprouts and lime. Hot chili pepper sauce can be added to taste. The small order costs a modest $5.00 and is at least a 4 cup serving. The green tea is complementary. It is eaten with chopsticks and a small spoon, but you will be given more standard utensils if you ask. If I feel the slightest hint of a head cold coming on, a bowl of Pho is a certain cure. There are many Viet-Thai restaurants in southern Ontario now and it is no surprise that they are so popular…tasty and healthy food choices...fast service…modest price.

Communication
About 20 years ago I sent this telegram to my parents in Mexico. They had been living in Guadalajara for six years, and were still on a waiting list for a telephone. It took one week for the news of their grandchildrens' birth to reach them. Now we are able to instant message family in Mexico with high speed internet. Cell phones are available, even though they often don't work in the mountainous regions. The communication revolution of the past quarter century has brought a degree of paranoia to some. Personal information is readily available if you want to look for it. On the other hand, it brings a sense of community and connectivity in a different way.

Hospital Haiku
Recently we were asked to make our charting at the hospital less wordy and more succinct. Some people feel they must describe every patient intervention in excessive detail. These entries are so long that important facts are lost in the prose.
I believe that teachers can do disservice by assigning essays of 1000, 2000, 5000 words. The quality is undermined by quantity and the student spends more time counting and adding unnecessary words than learning to write simply and clearly.
A columnist in our local paper wrote a series of Haiku poems on the eve of his 30th birthday. It was great fun to read his thoughts and word pictures in 5/7/5 syllables.
I decided to take Haiku notes of our weekly rounds today.

Diagnosis,treatment and outcome

Abdominal pain.
Laxative to be given
Relief is obtained

Progress Note

Walked the length of hall
Oxygen at two litres
Sats stayed at ninety

Prescription for back ache

Complaint is back pain
Lie prone for thirty minutes
Then stay off your butt.

Discharge Summary

Use it or lose it
There is no passive fix here
Therapy is done.

Send me some of your creative ideas.