December 27, 2018 to February 6, 2019

While going through my old journals, I stumbled upon this comic from 2002. Of course, I edited the names for purposes of continuity and confidentiality, but the other wording stands as original.

This comic is special to me for an array of reasons. I was working as the Nursing Supervisor for Cutthroat Counseling Center (that's why I'm wearing a tie in the comic- I usually dress my character in the same manner as I dress), producing comics for a weekly rag from Anomaly Telegraph called Always Open, participating in art shows, and painting murals for Anomaly Little Theatre. I was really big into the public art scene.

I had dumpster-dived at Mixed Nuts Health Systems before I got fired from there in January of '02 and pulled out a discarded copying machine, set it up in my art room, and was able to copy some images. I had never copied an image for a multi-paneled comic before and this was pretty exciting stuff!

Sometime bout 2003 or 2005, I began using a computer and copying machines to produce and copy images, but, to me, back in '02, this multi-paneled comic was contienent-discovering New World stuff!

I've been instructed to keep this number in a safe place, so here it is:

Just spending time in the Art Room!

While waiting for my computer to reboot, I found this drawing I did on May 1st 1978:

I figured while I was scanning old artworks, I thought Id do this one from 1974:

Monday Monday Monday!

Mondays are my Fridays to the TGIFers before a four day weekend. I have liked Mondays for nearly 20 years now, getting them off since the Summer of '03 when I volunteered to work every weekend and every holiday at WRMC. Most holidays fall on Mondays, so WRMC saw fit to give me every Monday off.

Go figure.

It was a busy weekend on my home unit of geriatric psych even with Ruthless, who left last Tuesday, gone. Ruthless' replacement, D. Gargoyle, a transfer from Buoy Memorial Hospital, is just as psychotic as Ruthless, but not as malicious as Ruthless was, but refuses to keep clothes on.

I say D. Gargoyle is not malicious, but I deserved two Purple Hearts this weekend, having been injured in two attempts to keep D. Gargoyle from injury.

Friday night, he jumped from his bed onto the hard plastic box of a nightstand in the corner of the room, and perched there, naked, animated and unbalanced. I ran to block him from falling.

As I "assisted" him off of the nightstand, He scratched the left side of my neck.

The next night, D. Gargoyle was in the Quiet Room, naked on the floor, sort of throwing himself up against the wall and the door. I straddled him in order to block his moves and commented to Eleanor and Alfonzo the Nurse Extern, "I don't want to raise my foot to move because I'm afraid he'll throw me off balance". About that time, D. Gargoyle reached up and squeezed me in the crotch.

As I told my coworkers,

Speaking of Groundhogs and nonproductive parasites of society, I have always respected Groundhogs. I was born on their day and growing up in a rural area, I would see them now and again. They caused no problems and were content to be asocial.

In 1984, I moved to town, bought a newspaper, and lived in an apartment. A neighbor lady allowed me to clear a portion of her property and plant a garden for which she would get some fresh vegetables in return as payment.

It was then that I discovered Residential Groundhogs are not like Rural Groundhogs. The Residential Groundhogs would sneak into my garden at night like Polk Salad Annie's Brothers:

I signed the application to trademark the name Davey Do with Trademark Engine. Somehow, I thought it would be faster than this. I applied a month ago, right? Let me go check. Just a minute...

Yeah, sure enough-one month ago I applied.

There was some clarification, such as what I wanted to promote. I was informed that if I chose all the areas that I wanted to cover, such as comics & illustrations, sculptures, paintings, etc. I would have to pay separate filing fees, so I stuck to comics & illustrations.

I believe it will take about five months to complete this process, so "See You in September"!

(I know: Five months from now will be July. But you know the government.)

Yesterday was the debut of these two characters based on Highlights magazine's Goofus & Gallant and my own personality.

I love them equally as if they were my own children that I didn't have to abort because I had a vasectomy in 1986 before I got married the first time.

My older brother Eddy passed away in 2013 as a result of prostate cancer. We were able to reconnect a few months before his death and spent many hours discussing memories and our thoughts and feelings about death and the hereafter.

Eddy told both me and my little sister Cat that if there was a way to communicate with us from the afterlife, he would. Cat has experienced a couple of paranormal situations that could be the result of Eddy's attempts to communicate with her.

During one of our talks, Eddy and I discussed his name; how it is typically spelled "Eddie" and the definition of his name, a circular movement of water, counter to a main current, causing a small whirlpool.

If Eddy communicated with me from the afterlife, I believe he did so in this manner:

This portion is from a thread on nursewebsute titled"Charge Nurse!":

I raised my voice in anger this past weekend at a coworker. I have not yelled at another employee in 16 years of working at WRMC.

Until this weekend.

I had been sitting for two hours on a LOS (Line Of Sight) with a patient who is the be all and end all of patients. This patient suffers from neurosyphilis and is volatile, loud, profane, spits, hits, kicks, and pees anywhere.

He was so bad that only male staff were allowed to be with him, but he is now so heavily medicated and somewhat slowed down that female staff can be assigned to watch him.

He was on a 1:1 status but the closeness and proximity of staff easily set him off, so the order was changed to LOS. Also, administration ruled that staff assigned to him was to change every hour.

The psych division of  WRMC had four male Techs call off in a single shift, and it is believed they did so in order to avoid having to put in their time with this patient.

So, I'm doing the LOS with this patient who, although medicated with high doses of scheduled and PRN anti-psychotics & benzodiazepines, was constantly acting out. 

Due to circumstances beyond our control, I ended up having to be with him for two hours.

A typically tardy nurse came into the unit, walked by the nurses station where shift report was taking place, walked past me, and  attempted to take over on a 1:1 patient for being a high fall risk, who rested quietly all night, was no behavior problem,  and stayed in his room all day.

She asked the Tech sitting on the 1:1,  "Are you ready to go?"

I exploded.

I raised my voice, partially out of anger, partially to be heard over my patient who was yelling, "AHHHHHHH! AHHHHHHH! AHHHHHHH!"  and said, "YOU COME IN LATE, DON'T HEAR REPORT,  WALK PAST ME AND FIND THE EASIEST PATIENT WITH WHICH TO DEAL AND I'VE BEEN WITH (this patient) FOR TWO HOURS! YES! I AM READY TO GO!"

My work wife Eleanor came out of the nurses station into the hallway and asked what the problem was and I loudly repeated, "SHE COMES IN LATE..."

Suffice it to say that I got immediate relief, and to this point, the only repercussion I have gotten was an inquiry when I came back in to work that night:

"Are you in a better mood?" 

"Why yes. Yes I am, thank you very much."

After nearly 16 years at WRMC, they've finally designated and will pay extra, each shift, for an RN to be assigned the responsibility of acting as the "Charge Nurse".

I believe we need a "Cattle Prod Nurse" to encourage these damn slugs to do their job!

This drawing spawned this on nurseswbsite:

I was formally assigned the position of Charge Nurse for the first time at WRMC. It's nice to be recognized as the one in charge, but I've regularly acted in this capacity  anyway, and having about 2 1/2 years of administrative experience under my belt, I have no intent on getting drunk with power.

But I stated thinking about the position of Charge Nurse. What is a Charge Nurse? Of course they're the one who delegates duties, and who supervises, oversees and mange whatever situations arise.

But there's more! a Charge Nurse needs to also  energize those they manage.

Like a battery charger:

Charge Nurses need to sound the alarm and lead the attack on problem situations!

And sometimes, as this advertisement from 1917 which inspired the accompanying comic shows, Charge nurses need to "motivate" some coworkers.

Sometimes subliminal messages are the best.

B was going to follow through on an imprudent decision she had made. I said my piece and told her, "You can do what you want, but I don't think it's a wise decision". She started to argue her premise and I held up my hand.

B said, "People try to talk to you and you give them...

...the hand!"

One of the reasons I enjoy the allnurses website so much is because the members' posts are such a seemingly endless inspiration of fodder for fun.

For example, I mentioned that, in my art room, I listen to Bach on vinyl. A moderator stated, "It;s the scratching sound which is so soothing". And I replied,

"That's true.... Tinny speakers are also soothing.

For example, on the geriatric psych unit, if I'm sitting on a 1:1 at night with a restless patient, I will put Bach on through Wikipedia on a COW (Computer On Wheels) and listen to the Brandenburg Concertos via the computer's tinny speakers.

I call this intervention"

"The Fates lead him who will. He who won't, they drag."

This is my rendition of my allnurses club header.

Thee other day, Jack from nursewebsite wrote to me:

 ...you can open your own Davey Do Club or whatever you want to call it. I highly recommend this. It will give you the opportunity to grow a following which you can use to promote your services/site. 

I have already changed my club header. Even though the other one was a well-drawn and colorful comic, I thought one where Mom ends up beating the shit out of me wasn't appropriate. So I chose a nursing comic excerpt instead. You can see the original comic under "Davey Do's Nursing Comics".

I had the oil changed and tires rotated at an auto service business where B's son in law likes to work on his days off from the plant. It's across the street from the old Weed Rover Township Hospital (WRTH) where I got my EMT-B in '79, my NR-EMT-A in '81, my LPN in '83 and worked from March of '84 until December of '90, getting my RN in September of that year.

The hospital opened in 1949 and went under in 1999. Just looking at the building which now houses the Madco Health Dept, Madco PD Substation, and some other services, brought back many fond memories.

It was the only place I've ever worked, quit, and tried to be a boomerang employee, and let the screen door hit me in the ass.

I'm kind of in to that.

I've gotten back into posting on nursewebsite, but, as always, I have to clean up my act a bit if I don't want to be censored and kicked off the site.

So I thought, "Why not just post on my site what with less restraint?

For example, a discussion is now taking place about charting "This nurse" instead of merely charting in the first person. One nurse said she would just chart, e.g. "The pt threw a full urinal at me".

This was my unedited response:

RNs, LPNs, and Techs get six weeks of orientation before having to work the floor on their own. I had a total of four shifts of orientation.

I just found a copy of the schedule as I was looking through a journal from that time period.

Give way, journals and allnurses! D a v e y Do 2 2 . c o m is here!

I bounce back between this website, nurseswebsite, and the general web. I tried nurseswebsite once earlier and it was down. I got an email from them saying a device in Atlanta Georgia had opened my account. Last week it was Lansing Michigan.

Jack is apologizing and thanking us for our patience while he tweaks the system.

I edited a comic that I made back in 2016 that I don't think the allnurses' mods would now allow me to post:

And this cartoon character is meant with all due respect for one who's a hard worker with patient care-giving and in presenting in-services- both with a positive attitude.

I mailed him a note tonight with a little something that I hope will help out during this difficult time.

Matthew 5:45 says “He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust”.

Jason Hiney RN sang me a song on Sunday morning of a situation that was quite contradictory to Wadley's ;

And we all tried to "scratch out a pleasant simple tune without breaking his neck."

He had the deck of the SS Utah in his front yard, and if I didn't believe him, I could ask Jesus who had just walked into the room.

I hope if and when my time comes, I will be just as entertaining.

Yes, a cartoon did come out of that situation, Jason!

Jason's statement of "Midnight Male Nazi Nurse" was a reference to a cartoon character that I came up with back in December of 1992 when I was working 12 hour MN shifts in Med/Surge and ER at Buoy Memorial Hospital.

The Midnight Male Ninja Nurse (MMNN) has made some appearances through the years. For example, this is a copy of a poster I made for the Med Room when I worked for Mixed Nuts Health Systems:

This is a likeness I painted on my guitar case:

Here's a comic from a shift at WRMC:

I even sculpted a wood likeness of the MMNN in his later years:

Sometimes Ones end up with Nines and you wonder what she sees in him, but rarely, and I do mean RARELY, are identical Nines attracted to identical Ones.

This is an updated comic for one I drew for nurseswebsite two years ago this date.

Speaking of nurseswebsite, there's some kind of security hoop we hafta jump through in order to sign in. I'm fed up with it. I don't like the changes, I've lost all my 43,992 Likes, my original Post count of 10,333, and I just don't like all the bells and bows.

I could go on and complain some more, but it would be like listening to me describe the symptoms of my illness:

Nobody wants to hear me complain any more than I want to hear about your kids or why your pregnancy was sooooooo special.

There are some tenets to which I adhere and if, upon self examination, I feel and believe I have breached one of those tenets, I must rectify my actions.

I've spent the past three days working on multi-paneled comics that are without words in order to tell a true story. No words equal no slander which equals no infraction, right?. Not so. Inference can carry the same weight as an outright act of pointing a finger for someone who's looking to be a victim.

One of my beliefs is termed "loving indifference", where we avoid revenge or throwing of stones. We do nothing negative to the transgressor and, in essence, we live and let live.

In posting my wordless images on the web, I believe that I was throwing stones. I removed the stones so as not to have them hit and shatter some glass houses and make a mess of things.

Ah, the simple pleasures in life: good sleep, good food, a good bowel movement, or drawing your cartoon character sitting backwards on a horse yelling, "YEE HA!"

ACT-SHOO-ALL-LEE, after fartin' around on nurseswebsite, I was able to post and up & download images. This was a rather large pic one of my virtual friends downloaded, so I took it and had some fun with it.

The nurseswebsite is going through some growing pains, as many of the members don't care for the changes. Like most, I want things to get better but stay the same, to paraphrase Will Rogers.

But, like I said on the site, I still get to do what want to do.

Sooooo...

Scrubbed into an ORIF on a left arm in 1987 when Doc Roc said, "That looks pretty good". Then he looked at me and asked me if I knew what the worst enemy of good was.

Around the same time, I was working on my 1965 Plymouth Valiant when I broke a distributor gear (which cost 50 cents at my FLAPS), my Dad had to help me with the job, and said the above.

(BTW, FYI: ORIF="Open Reduction Internal Fixation", i.e. a plate was used to fix a fractured left arm.

FLAPS= "Friendly Local Auto Parts Store", an abbreviation used by some gear heads.)

Nurseswebsite is back up after 3 weeks of being down a few days. I am unable to post or load up images. This would have really disappointed me had it not been for this website.

Over 25 years ago, I made a commitment to draw something every day; do art everyday no matter what.

I've kept that commitment even if I just make a drawing of the date.

Here's an except from the Anomaly Library Newsletter dated Fall 1998 that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that over 20 years ago I said that I do art every day!:

I still feel like shit.

Not sweet, like Snowman shit:

Everything sucks when you're sick.

Except Art.

I'm sick. I'm calling off work tonight.

I don't feel like a "10" today. I think I'm coming down with something.

Another good thing about doing art is that it gets me outside of my body. Art is an anti-anxiety and analgesic. As long as I have art, I can deal with my pain and discomfort and the world.

The winds were from the WNW at about 30 mph when I rode my bicycle the 5 miles on country roads to pick up a bottle of wine and a couple of pocket journals at Wally's. There I met a woman over the $5 DVD movie bin who is the wife of a local legendary carpenter and friend of an old OR RN buddy of mine.

He has some sort of chronic condition which has advanced and limited his physical abilities. He & I use to be really close when we worked together in surgery back in '86 & '87 at Weed Rover Township Hospital, but drifted apart after I got laid off. I was the the only LPN in the OR, limited in my duties and more expendable.

He's a great guy. I think I'm going to try and reconnect with him.

Today, Elvis would have been 84 years old!

Off tonight, just spent an enjoyable evening drawing and posting 'toons, finishing up by updating an old expression from the '50's!

Sitting for hours on a 1:1 patient is more difficult than working the floor, but we all have to take our turns.

My Dad use to say, in his later years, "It's hell getting old". I speaking solely in the physical realm and I see what he meant and exercise does help.

I sat for two hours with a patient and while they were resting comfortably, merely on a 1:1 status because they're using a CPAP, so I dropped and gave them the square root of 144!

Geriatric psych patients are often confused when they wake up at night. One way in which we ease their anxieties is by attempting to reassure them through reality orientation and letting them know they are safe.

These patients often believe they need to get up and go to work or attend to their baby and no amount of reality orientation is going to ease their anxieties. We often resort to a technique Eleanor and I refer to as "Supporting a Patient's Perspective of Reality". For example, we will assure them we will wake them in time for them to get ready to go to work, or say we will assure their baby is receiving quality care.

Saturday night, I reassured a patient who had woke in the middle of the night in this manner:

Every day after I get up and while I'm drinking my coffee, I'll make an entry in my journal which takes a few minutes.

This is the image I began in my journal but decided to put it here since I had the time, getting up before the alarm went off.

This drawing will come in handy if I am ever accused of a crime that happened at this date and time, for I have irrefutable evidence of where I was!

Not you, me.

I didn't know where else to put it, so I stuck it here.

I'm the only one that visits this website, so I think it'll be safe.

I'm back at work tonight.

Up early. Couldn't sleep. Have a root canal scheduled for this afternoon. Last one wasn't so bad I said, "I can't believe it was a root canal!"

"Bitin' at the chomp"is a B-ism which is interpreted to mean "chompin' at the bit", which is interpreted to mean to be restlessly impatient, especially to start doing something.

"Chomp at the bit" is used literally of a spirited horse that tugs at the bit in its mouth in its eagerness to move which B is to go out amongst the masses and do some shopping today.

We both have a few things in common: brown eyes, big mustaches, and it seems we are both quite the character.

The other Davey Do is a handyman down in Texas. I Googled some information on trademarks, copyrights, and the like, but there doesn't seem like there'll be any sort of legal conflict since we''re from different states and have different kinds of businesses. Another important factor is that our mustaches are different.

Just to be sure, I've filed a request with the US Patent Office through a service to see if I can copyright the name Davey Do. You never know where things will go. And as I read in what I believe was Life's Little Book of Instructions, "If you're going after Moby-Dick, take along some tartar sauce".

Well, I felt rather special last night at work, being the only male staff member from 2300 to 0700 in the psych division of Wrongway Regional Medical Center! Also, I was the only regular staff member on the geriatric psych unit where we had a near full house and an acting out physically and verbally abusive psychotic patient who was on a 1:1 status. We also had another 1:1 who was a high fall risk, but typically slept all night.

The pulled nurse that I was assigned to work with refused to do any admissions. So, I did the initial admission assessments and got orders on the two newly admitted patients and also did the vital signs and accuchecks on the other patients plus a bladder scan on a male patient. After 2300, I had to sit with the 1:1 acting out psychotic patient and complete the admissions.

Now, had the 1:1 patient slept, completing the admissions would have been no problem, but as I said, he was acting out. This means he could be up, pacing, yelling, cussing, punching, kicking, tearing up stuff, and urinating on the floor.

He had been medicated with everything that was ordered, which was a combination of atypical anti-psychotics, a non-benzodiazepine anti-anxiety, and mood stabilizers/anticonvulsants which did not slow him down.

At 0220, the patient attempted to attack me and I put him in a therapeutic hold. A code was called and the patient was escorted to the seclusion room at 0225. There, he consented to take a PRN benzodiazepine anti-anxiety which was administered at about 0235.

The therapeutic hold and locked seclusion meant more paperwork and computer charting, however, a female staff member could now perform the 1:1 since the patient could not attack her. The patient could easily be observed from a window on the door of the locked seclusion room.

While I sat in the nurses station next to the seclusion room, I left a message on the psychiatrist's voicemail and started the voluminous charting. At about 0245, the female house supervisor, who was observing the patient, unlocked the door of the seclusion room when he said he needed to use the toilet in the seclusion room.

I heard noise in the hallway and came out of the nurses station to see the patient scooting down the hall on his behind...

...with the house supervisor close in tow following him back to his room. She told me that when she unlocked the door, the patient had broken loose.

So now I had to do the 1:1 and all the charting that goes with that, complete the therapeutic hold/locked seclusion charting plus complete the two admissions.

Let's just say, that in a nutshell, it was a busy shift and I clocked out by 0730!

A loud psychotic, acting out, verbally and physical abusive patient who would hit, spit, kick, and tear up anything and everything was given three different atypical anti-psychotics, two anticonvulsants/mood stabilizers, and one benzodiazepine and another anxiolytic was awake, as he and I chimed together in a bass tone during his good moments, "All night long". He could be sweet as pumpkin pie one second and mean as a snake the next.

The patient was a 1:1 assigned to male staff members only. Another male RN and I took turns on the 1:1 throughout the 12 hour MN shift. While the other male RN was off the unit, the patient snapped, became agitated, and tried to punch me.

Now, I'm nearly 62 years old but I work out with weights and do aerobic exercise just about every day so I was able to take him down on his bed and get him into a therapeutic hold. It was quite a struggle and a female staff member who was making rounds came to the door of the room and asked, "Do you need anything?"

"Yes!" I replied, "I need to be 30 years younger!"

Ruthless continues to inspire comics. Here's one from a thread on nurseswebsite I started called "Wise One Liners":

I don't mind working the other psych units now and again. Heck, for 9 1/2 years, I regularly worked all five of the psych units: child, adolescent, adult male, adult female and geriatric, sometimes a different unit every shift!

When I saw that staff members with less seniority than me regularly worked the same unit, I asked for the same and got the geriatric psych unit.

Most of the psych nurses truly dislike working the geriatric unit probably because there are some incontinent and co-morbid medical patients housed there.

So, Friday night, from 1900 to 2300, I was assigned to work the adult female unit. No problem, it was easy. I did rounds, talked to patients and charted. I felt like I was getting paid to be a warm body with an RN behind my name.

At 2300, I was to return to my home unit, geriatric psych, and there I found my cohort, Eleanor, my so-called work wife, and a per diem nurse. Eleanor had been pulled to the adolescent unit the week before, so I could understand that it was my turn to be pulled. But I did not understand why I was pulled from my regular unit when this per diem nurse should have been. "Oh well", I thought, "There's the right way and then there's the Wrongway". Wrongway Regional Medical Center. (WRMC)

Later in the shift, when the house supervisor was making rounds, Eleanor asked her why I was pulled from my home unit when the per diem nurse should have been pulled from geriatric psych. "That was a tough decision" the house supervisor said, "But the per diem nurse gets really frazzled when she has to change units during her shift. And the psych division administrator said not to let her pass meds!"

So, in essence, at WRMC, if you can't or won't do your job, you get to pick and choose where you're work and what you'll do. But if you will work and be amiable , they'll toss you around like a sack of potatoes!

D A V E Y D O . C O M is up and running!

I texted and informed some people who I thought might be interested, or as I told Eleanor, "I texted all my friends to tell them about my website which was you and Rooty!"

Not really. Right now I've probably got about a half a dozen people who are aware of my website's existence. I want to get it in some semblance of quality and order before I get into advertising it on a large scale.

Nurseswebsite shut down for upgrades since Dec 23rd and I made some cartoons and memes that were inspired primarily by its shut down, but was jonesing to create and upload some art. I tried a couple of other websites but found none to my liking. B has advised me on several occasions, "You should start your own website!"

So, on December 26th, I went looking around and tried some website hosts. I checked out Wix, liked the work area and enjoyed learning how to maneuver around the site, so I immediately began posting cartoons on a trial basis. Shortly thereafter, I purchased their service for what I considered to be a reasonable price.