Hi Gang,<br /><br />It sounds like everyone had a wonderful Christmas.  I was a bit of a scrooge this year - not even a<br />decoration up.  I ended up being a patient for two days at my own hospital - collapsed at work one<br />morning, after a week&#39;s illness, sore throat, coughing, still taking call, etc....finally coughing so much,<br />couldn&#39;t breathe, passed out, driven one block to our ER by some gorgeous paramedics, eight hours<br />in the ER, then admitted to cardiology because of an irregular EKG.  They ended up doing an angiogram -<br />&quot;pristene coronary arteries.&quot;  When my erratic blood pressure was finally under control, I went home <br />after two days and saw my own doc who finally treated the cough ( acute bronchitis ) with antibiotics <br />and an inhaler - though I&#39;m not an asthmatic, I was wheezing like crazy.  I&#39;m almost my normal abnormal, at last.<br /><br />The main thing that has been going on is that San Francisco is in turmoil.  The mayor has announced <br />&#036;27 million dollars in cuts to the Department of Public Health and three of the four nurses at CASARC are slated to be &quot;reassigned&quot;, essentially decimating our child sexual abuse agency.  We have been involved<br />in battles, union negotiations, etc.  I&#39;ve been here 21 years in this specialized forensic nursing role and,<br />at 64, it will be hard for them to reassign me anywhere, not having done other nursing in all that time.<br />I even made the newspapers:<br /><br /><b>The rhyming nurse at S.F. General - from www.sfgate.com - the SF Chronicle online<br /><br />We&#39;ve been hearing from a lot of nurses, doctors, counselors and nonprofit directors advocating that their particular program or job not be slashed in the coming budget cuts. But this is the first time we&#39;ve received a plea in rhyme.<br /><br />S.F. General will see cutbacks due to the budget crisis<br />Carmen Henesy is one of four forensic nurses at the Child and Adolescent Support Advocacy and Resource Center. The clinic within San Francisco General Hospital treats children who&#39;ve been victims of sexual abuse, child abuse or witnesses to murder or domestic violence. <br /><br />In addition to conducting exams and providing medical care, the nurses are trained to conduct interviews of the children to be used as evidence by the District Attorney in court. The nurses handle every child sex-abuse case in the city.<br /><br />If Mayor Gavin Newsom accepts the proposed cuts in the Department of Public Health -- he&#39;s asked for a list totaling &#036;26.7 million -- just one nurse will be left at the clinic. The others will lose their jobs or be reassigned.<br /><br />Henesy, 64, has worked at the clinic for 21 years and has been writing poetry for 58. She&#39;s had a few poems published over the years and plans to present this one to the Health Commission in the coming weeks.<br /><br />Keep reading to see Henesy&#39;s ode, &quot;The San Francisco Budget Cuts.&quot;<br /><br />The San Francisco Budget Cuts<br /><br />I love San Francisco, <br /><br />This city by the bay, <br /><br />But there&#39;s a looming darkness,<br /><br />The song does not portray.<br /><br />It&#39;s not the part that tourists,<br /><br />Spend dollars on each year, <br /><br />It&#39;s what, I&#39;m sure the mayor,<br /><br />Hopes visitors never hear.<br /><br />While some are riding cable cars,<br /><br />Climbing halfway to the stars,<br /><br />The Public Health Department, <br /><br />Is suffering irreparable, lethal scars. <br /><br />Healthy San Francisco, <br /><br />Is really just a joke,<br /><br />The only kind of health care, <br /><br />Is for the moneyed folk&#33;&#33;<br /><br />The mayor is downsizing,<br /><br />The clinics for the poor,<br /><br />And some that serve the neediest,<br /><br />Won&#39;t be there anymore.<br /><br />The children of the city,<br /><br />The most vulnerable of all,<br /><br />Don&#39;t deserve to suffer more, <br /><br />Just because they&#39;re small. <br /><br />The same goes for the elderly, <br /><br />Infirm, with many ills,<br /><br />As they near the end of life,<br /><br />They&#39;re deprived of nursing skills.<br /><br />For children of this city, <br /><br />CASARC has been the place, <br /><br />To begin to heal from sex abuse,<br /><br />With experts on every case.<br /><br />LVNs are replacing RNs. <br /><br />Unskilled workers will take on more,<br /><br />This poor solution to cutting costs, <br /><br />Will make incidents and errors soar.<br /><br />The budget cuts are drastic,<br /><br />To the poorest of the poor, <br /><br />Please look at other measures, <br /><br />Mr. Mayor, I implore.<br /><br />Posted By: Heather Knight (Email) | December 08 2008 at 09:06 AM</b><br /><br />Even if I do get reassigned, it will be only my 20 hour/week position, I will lose essentially &#036;70,000/year<br />since that is what I make doing call for the non-benefitted call part of my position.  The &#036;55,000/year<br />gross from the half time part of the job barely covers my &#036;27,000/year rent, utilities, car payment,<br />food, etc, and, of course, cruising.  The San Francisco area is one of the most expensive places in the<br />world to live.<br /><br />When the tree fell on me and my van January 4th, this year, totaling my van, I didn&#39;t think things could<br />get much worse....but.......gads, it looks like 2009 is going to give 2008 some real competition.  Our<br />jobs at CASARC are slated to be done February 1.....so far, we still have not heard about the <br />&quot;reassignments&quot; so I am awaiting the New Year with much trepidation.<br /><br />I do have one cruise booked and paid for - the Monarch on the 19th of January - but it is hard to be<br />excited about it with my life in such turmoil.  Sadly, many of my beloved crew are now assigned <br />elsewhere.<br /><br />Jackie, it was WONDERFUL to see that sweet baby, Luc....nothing like a precious new life to make one<br />foget about some of the difficulties in one&#39;s own.  <br /><br />Carmen