The Final Countdown

Hello from Denver!
I've been here almost a week now after arriving last Tuesday evening for the Magnet Conference. It happens yearly in a different location in America. This year there were almost 12,000 nurses here so it was busy to say the least!
It's a really amazing 3 days of talks, sessions, exhibitions and ceremonies with Magnet nurse of the year awards being one of the highlights for me.
The opening ceremony was the most American thing I've ever witnessed, I would say it was like a mash-up of the Oscars and Eurovision. Pomp? Check. Cermony? Check. Extremely unnecessary but nonetheless enjoyable stage 'banter' and musical performances? Check!
That was, of course, until the Awards Ceremony where we witnessed ballet dancers, cheerleaders, aerial artists, street dancers and ice-skaters on a slab of ice in the middle of the auditorium brought in especially for the occasion. Murica is crazy y'all.
In saying all that, it was great fun and something you will never see the likes of anywhere else in the world so the best thing to do is just give in to it and squeal at it all with the rest of the audience!
I went to several of the talks, my favourite given by Prof Sheila Tlou who was presented with the Princess Muna Al Hussein Award due to her work in women's health and HIV/AIDS in her native Botswana and now across Eastern and Southern Africa. She was also Minister of Health in Botswana for 4 years, she had annoyed so many people with her refusal to sit down and be quiet that they pretty much told her to put her money where her mouth was and fix the problem. She didn't need asking twice! The number of people contracting HIV and babies born with it have been hugely reduced and the number of people on antiretroviral therapy surged.
Prof Tlou also had to deal with being a woman throughout all this with people asking her husband why he was allowing her to speak about sex in public! I also love how she tackled homophobic people who challenged her helping gay people - 'don't they realise that life is a sexually transmitted disease!?'. And when asked how she could support that way of life as a Catholic she responded that she believed in 'Evidence-based Catholicism'. The woman is an absolute hero!
It was a privilege to hear her speak and to get to meet her briefly after her talk and a wonderful way to come full circle after visiting Southern Africa at the start of my trip.

It was also great to catch up with the team from New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell in Denver, such a great bunch of nurses and lovely to keep bumping into them over the 3 days!

Before arriving in Denver I was also lucky enough to get to visit Niagara Falls. I would highly recommend an October visit for anyone wanting to go, gorgeous cold, crisp weather but a fraction of the people! I have to say though I thought Victoria Falls was more impressive (I love being in a position to be able to say that!) but I still loved visiting Niagara, also known as the place where I bought the most expensive postcards in the world.

I also got to stop in Chicago to visit the Carey's. Kevin is a friend from home who's mam and dad live there and I had a brilliant few days with them. They had a choice of 3 concertinas for me and we had Barry's tea and played tunes every day - it was hard to leave!

With Mag & Ger Carey

I'm still in Denver, I was lucky enough not to have to leave straight after the conference and got to stay to hear Aron Ralston give the keynote speech at the closing ceremony. If you don't recognise the name he's the guy from the movie 127 Hours and book Between a Rock and a Hard Place who had to amputate his own arm after it got stuck between a boulder and a canyon wall. Honestly, I have a pretty strong stomach and it turned a couple of times while he was telling us his story. His main message was that we all deal with boulders in our every day lives. There's nothing we can do about that. It's how we deal with the boulder and and how we can try to see the blessing in even the worst situations that make us who we are. Also, his measure for bad days is any day he doesn't have to drink his own urine isn't really a bad day and I think I can take that one on board!
I have one more day here and then it's home I go! To be honest I can't wait. I've been running on adrenaline and 'making the most of it!' for a few weeks now but now I'm just empty. Couple that with the lack of oxygen this high up (Denver is known as Mile High City, probably due to cannabis being legal as well as the altitude in fairness) and I'm slowly losing the ability to function as a normal human being as well as my limited reserves of sanity! I even decided to cut all my hair off yesterday - now I did get someone to do it for me, I'm not that crazy!

I think a little bit of madness can be good sometimes, you do the things you might not normally do without over-thinking it so much. But I also think it's time to go home!
Next and last blog will be from my nest on the couch in Notts. Gareth has Das Boot ready to go with a side of Monster Munch (pickled onion, obvs) and Barry's.

Slán libh!

Kate