Wow. I get letters. Okay, then: a clarification.

Boy, you blog about emails and what do you get? More emails. And comments. And the sense that not everybody understands what the heck this whole...what you call it? "Blogging" thing is about.

So let's start at the beginning, shall we?

1. "Leave the poor patients out of it."

I do, my friend; I do. The patients I blog about here have been so combinized, fictionalized, sex-change-ized, and anonymized that often, reading back over the past couple of years, *I* can't remember who I was talking about. As I've said before, if you think you recognize yourself, whether you're patient, doctor, nurse, administrator, or taxi driver, you're delusional.

I don't know how to say it any more clearly than that, and I don't know how to do it any better. A blog about nursing wouldn't be much good unless it was, you know, about *nursing*. And nursing has to do with taking care of patients.

2. "Could you please recommend a good neurosurgeon/neurologist/internalist in New Jersey/Boise/Guatemala?"

No, I'm sorry. I can't. I work in a very insular, very circumscribed world in which the surgeons are the researchers are the pioneers are the only people doing X, Y, and sometimes Z. I don't know jack about normal hospitals or neuroscientists. 

3. "Can you recommend a good nursing school/tell me what nursing school will be like?"

Again, no. I'm sorry. My experience is seven years past now and is unlikely to reflect on your experience at all. I can offer tips on care plans--if you crazy kids are even doing care plans these days--and I can offer sympathy and encouragement, but you're better off doing a Google search for solid information.

4. "Your blog isn't work/child/parent/bunny safe! My boss is mad at me because of your blog! What if a child found your blog! There's too much profanity! You're mean! There's nothing of educational value to be found on this blog!" (note: last sentence taken verbatim from an email. Yeah, I know.)

(*Rubbing forehead*) 

If you are surfing the Innertubenets at work, what your boss finds on your computer is your problem. It is neither my problem nor my fault that you're wasting time here. *shrug*

If your child is reading my blog, that's your problem. It is not mine. This blog is not child-safe, nor has it ever pretended to be. (See above, re: profanity.) It is equally un-parent-safe; my Beloved Mom screens what she'll let my Sainted Father read here, probably because she knows his eyeballs would melt like something out of Indiana Jones...but that's beside the point.

I will not change either tone or content of the blog in order to conform to what people think is appropriate for groups of people that shouldn't be reading the blog in the first place. My response to the cry of "What about THE CHILDREN???" is a blank stare and the question, "So? What about 'em?"

As for educational value: I am putting this in bold because it is important, so listen up:

This is not a public service blog. This is not an educational blog. It has never been and never will be either. Posts with tags or titles including the words "Public Service Announcement" are titled and tagged with tongue firmly in cheek.

If you want reliable information on medical conditions or varying political views, I suggest you investigate medical journals and op-ed pages. If you want what I give you, which is neither reliable nor balanced, sit on down and stay a while.

Re: Me being mean: Here, yes. In real life? Only when necessary. And since we're here, I feel I can say that you should take yourself elsewhere and play with your dolly until you feel better.

5. "Can you tell me what to do about (obscure medical condition)?"

Oh, God, honey. No. Go see a doctor. Don't ask some stranger on the 'Net about your OMC. While I sympathize and will worry about you and ask for updates, I won't give you advice. The only advice I am qualified to give is that you'd get from any (other) moron on the street: If it won't stop bleeding, see a doctor. *Very* occasionally I'll stick my beak in, but only in those situations that seem urgent or emergent. If you've got trouble, see somebody in person.

6. "Your probably ugly you act so mean and uppity your probably fat and gay too why dont you leave nursing i hope i never get a nurse like you if i was their id kick your fat ugly gay ass."

Guilty as charged. Except for the "gay" part. Mostly, I am not gay. Mostly, I am sort of cranky.

You'd better hope I *don't* leave nursing. If I did, I'd quit blogging. If I quit blogging, you'd not have this blog to read. And if you didn't have this blog to read, how would you get your blood pressure up to a level at which your brain is (temporarily) perfused?

Oh, and: Punctuation. Look into it.

Are there any further questions? Any issues that need further clarification?

No?

Good. We now return you to your regularly scheduled, compassionate, intelligent, moderate, beautifully-written, touching fuzzy stories of love in the....wups. Sorry! Wrong blog.