Bernsen Rehabilitation Center at Saint John’s Hospital

Bernsen Rehabilitation Center is part of the Saint John’s Health System in Tulsa. It is also one of the most amazing places I’ve ever seen.

What they do is take people who have had injuries, surgeries, strokes, heart attacks, broken bones and help them function in the community again.

The patients are the hardest working group of people I’ve ever seen. They are learning how to be independent. Physical Therapists and their assistants (PT’s and PTA’s in the lingo) teach their clients how to use a wheel chair, or how to walk with a walker, or just plain walk. They have their charges exercise to build up their strength. The work ethic is alive and well at Bernsen.

Occupational Therapists and their assistants (OT’s and OTA’s) teach how to dress and bathe themselves. They have kitchens set up to teach their charges how to cook safely while using a walker or other aids, load the dishwasher, and do the myriad things it takes to live independently in this world.

Recreational Therapists have the patients “play” games that demand the use of memory and recall and other skills.

There is a Social Worker that helps smooth the transition from the facility back to real life.

Every patient has an individual program just for them, overseen by a doctor. They work from dawn to dusk and they are exhausted at the end of the day. Its an inpatient facility so they take their meals together and get to learn about each other. During the day they cheerlead for each other, “Good going there, Mary! Look at you.”

They staff really goes above and beyond to make the patients comfortable. They are also very family friendly. Need a knife to cut a cake for an impromptu birthday party? They’ll get it, they’ll also ask if you have everything you need. Not a whole lot of rules here. Families are encouraged to eat meals with patients, or bring their own meals. You can check the patients out for a little while and go sit outside in the parklike setting the facility sits on.

Just before graduation, the family has a training session where we learn how to get the patient in and out of a car, how to go up and down steps, things to look out for, and items we can get to make life a little easier. Then a group of patients, families, and staff load up and go to lunch as part of the training. Finally a graduation tshirt from the OT department.

In the dining room there is a small document displayed on the wall. It is a notice that Pope John Paul II gave a Papal Blessing to The Bernsen Rehabilitation Center. I’m not sure exactly what that means in the Catholic Faith but to me it is an acknowledgement that the Staff and Patients at the Center are doing God’s Work, making people well again.

Long Walk to Eat Lunch

We had a real nice day in Tulsa last week. I was supposed to have lunch with Sweetie, SuperPizzaBoy, and Nana (My Mother-in-Law) at Saint John’s Medical Center a couple miles from downtown where I work. I decided I was going to walk from my office downtown to lunch and bum a ride back with Sweetie. Worst case, I walk back.

So I headed out about an hour early. Below is a shot looking backwards to the building I work in.

A few blocks away is the old Chase Motor Bank. The “Midcentury Modern” fans in town swoon over this building. Used to be a motor bank, now its a combination parking lot, sometimes homeless hangout, and the site of one of my geocaches (“Boys Night Out – City Center”). I hate to see handsome old buildings go to ruin.
Went a few more blocks and cut across the back of the downtown Home Depot and come across this memorial done by the Home Depot employees in honor of a fellow deceased employee. I love stuff like this. You can tell this has been tended to and taken care of over time.
At the front of the Home Depot parking lot I took a shot of the tower from the old Warehouse Market. The tower was saved years ago when Home Depot came in. The tower was an art deco landmark in town and the store managed to save it. More details on a future post. Right now, I’m still going to lunch. Notice the redbud trees off to the right.

A little further on – more redbud trees. I love redbuds. They are a signature of Oklahoma . A few years ago we had a snow just at the peak of the redbud bloom. The redbud trees and snow were the prettiest thing I had seen in a long time. Unfortunately that was pre-blogging time for me and I didn’t have the habit of carrying a camera everywhere I went.

Hooked up with my running route for a little while – the Centennial Trail. Tulsa has trails all over the place. I love’em.

Backwards glance toward downtown. Haven’t got that far. Time to stop gawking and keep moving.

Cherry Street (aka 15th street). All sorts of interesting cafe’s, shops, and stores here. Not very many stretches like this in the Oil City.

New building going up. Looks like post ugly faux facade modernism. It seemed to get approved without any publicity. Other buildings nearby take forever to get approved. What’s the deal?

Bank building on Cherry Street built back in the 90’s. Big fights at city council and zoning board over it. Many complaints over the 1960’s style roofline and parking shades. Boy those citizens didn’t know what they were talking about. That was mid century modern. So I guess this building is a neo or retro mid century modern? I don’t know. My next door neighbor at the time was the architectural engineer on the project. He had no sense of humor about the criticism.

A glimpse of Swan Lake. Part of the what some in the city call the “midtown money belt” also includes Maple Ridge. Know how to make these folks simmer and swoon. Just say the words “street widening” or “halfway house”. They are the folks that put the Not in NIMBY. They don’t have much of a sense of humor either. Seriously, these folks live in a nice area of Tulsa and they want to keep it that way, I don’t blame them for being so curmudgeonly.


Arrived for lunch about 10 minutes early, so it only took about 50 minutes of walking. Not bad. I figure out 2.25 to 2.50 miles or so.
Lunch was great, Sweetie gave me a ride back.

Starbucks, Sexy Sirens, and Queen Esther

What is up with Starbucks nowdays? Our household has been very busy the last week or so. We have been running here and running there, doing this that and whatever. To make a long story short, we didn’t have any coffee in the house this morning. No problem, load the kid up and run to our local Starbucks. I’m going to get a venti size cup of coffee and a bag of beans to take home.

OK, I’ll have a venti Sumatra and this bag of beans. Yes sir, oops, sorry sir, we’re brewing that, how about Pike Place? uhh (I hate Pike Place, their new house blend, I don’t know why, but I find it awful, but still) OK, give me a venti Pike Place. Ooops, sorry sir, we don’t have any of that either, how about an americano?

(I hate their americanos. I love them elsewhere but Starbucks just doesn’t get it.) So, no thanks, I’ll just take the bag of beans. Ohh we’re sorry sir! No problem. So I get the bag and come home and brew my own.

This type of exchange happens a lot these days when I go to Starbucks. They are invariably out of the coffee I want and either have to get the Pike Place or an americano. Come on folks, if you want to sell coffee, then keep it on hand.

And while I’m whining, I don’t like their afternoon policy. Pike Place only for caffeinated. Uggh.

Enough whining. Lets talk about their logo. I generally like to have a visual on my posts so I googled for their logo. Wow, talk about a lot of hits. The history of their logo is very ineresting. The logo above is their latest version. Below is the older version.

Come to find out that the lady is not a mermaid but a siren. Sirens are those mythological creatures who lured sailors to their doom with promises of a good time. A siren is different from a mermaid in that sirens have split tails and mermaids have one. I know that you get the idea. Do I have to spell it out for you? Hope not.

An even earlier version of the logo is below. The siren is a lot less stylized, but “rounder”, and in my opinion, much sexier.

I got most of this information from a post from the blog “Dead Programmer’s Cafe.”

Now, the Queen Esther part. Those Bible scholars among us (not including me) know that Queen Esther was the Queen of Jews in Persia way back when King Xerxes chose her among 7 beautiful virgins to be his Queen. It is quite the complicated story and it is all covered in the Book of Esther in the Old Testament. It turns out that many people in the Middle East including Muslims believe that the siren in the Starbucks logo is Queen Esther, a Jewish Queen, and the crown she wears is the crown of Persia. Muslims find this offensive. This rumor has caused Starbucks all sorts of grief in trying to get their business going in the area.

Of course, I’m not sure that the Muslims would appreciate the story about sirens either.

Disney’s “Race to Witch Mountain”

Sweetie is in Southeast Oklahoma tending to business so SuperPizzaBoy and I went to see Race to Witch Mountain. A PG rated Disney movie.

The movie is about a Taxi Driver and two teenage aliens who save the earth by subverting the evil designs of our federal government hot on their trail plus an alienbot programmed to kill the kids. The movie is entertaining as far as it goes and is really not bad. I may have erred by taking SPB as he is only 10 and I think the target market may be more the 14 to 16 year old kids. There was lots of fighting, bombs, violence, etc but it didn’t seem to bother SPB too much.

One thing that annoyed me is that the script included a few GD words. Their use was totally gratuitous and not necessary. I am not not a prude and for adult movies I prefer language to be appropriate and realistic to the settings so if the words are appropriate and natural to the scene then, by all means throw a few in. In a movie that kids are going to see, hold off a little bit!

Anyway, SPB and I enjoyed ourselves and the movie was well done for what it is. I give it 2.5 stars out of 4.

Skywatch Friday – Local Color

Sweetie and I attended the Tulsa Home and Garden Show last weekend at the County Fairgrounds. We got there at dusk so I snapped a photograph of the sunset.

It includes the Golden Driller. A Tulsa landmark for 40 years honoring the Oil Industry.

For photographs of the sky from all over the world check out Skywatch Friday.

Yogi Needs …

I’ve been tagged by Baloney to participate in the “Needs” game. Its simple you type “ needs” in the Google search box and see what the first ten items are.

So here’s mine,

1. Yogi needs to do a few yoga poses in the most unlikely of places. ( Yogi needs to learn Yoga first maybe.)
2. Yogi needs to live a disciplined life. (No I don’t)
3. Yogi needs a home for 4 days. (Till Sweetie calms down maybe?)
4. Yogi needs a fenced-in yard due to his lack of sight. (Yep, and I’m not housebroken either.)
5. Yogi needs to get started on the path to a healthy, happy life. (Yes, instead of the path to ruin, destruction, and despair that I’m currently on.)
6. Yogi needs to understand that we do not have to be DOING things all the time. (I already understand that, I’m very good at not doing things.)
7. Yogi needs only one word. (hmmm….. I got it “Beer”)
8. Yogi needs a pair. (I totally agree.)
9. Yogi needs to properly align the body and stack the Spinal. (uhhhh … I’m going to click on that link.)
10. Yogi needs a live action movie (I wonder if there is movie that shows how to stack spinals.)

I tried using my real name also but I like the results using Yogi better.

I’m supposed to tag several people but I’m not. If you are reading this and want to participate go ahead! Give us a link in the comments so we can see what yours are

Busting Moves in Alamo City

SuperPizzaBoy is liable to break out dancing anywhere. He doesn’t do it very often but when he does he goes for it with abandon and he is not self conscious about it all. He says that he is “busting a few moves” when he does it.

We were on a trip a couple weeks ago walking down a city street at night. A couple guys were playing bagpipes at a bus stop and SPB just couldn’t help himself. I’m sorry about the awful quality of the video and the fact that you have to watch it a 90 degree angle.

When is the Doctor Coming?

Our family has someone who is in the hospital recovering from surgery. They are doing as well as can be expected and we are hopeful that they will be out of there soon and on the way to recovery.

Hospitals have changed quite a bit over the years. The food has improved in quality and variety, the rooms are brightened up and decorated more, the attitude of the various staff especially the nurses has improved the greatest. The indifference that used to just kill me, has reduced over the years. Now you get chatted up by everybody from housekeeping to the doctors. All these changes have made much of the experience a little less unpleasant than what it used to be.

There is still a major problem with the way hospitals are run. The kingship and divine right of doctors to not be accountable to anyone for what they do or don’t do especially as to when exactly they are going to show up and explain what is going on. They reserve the right to come early, late, or not at all. That coupled with their right to be the exclusive conduit for much critical information forces the patient’s family and loved ones to keep a constant vigil so they don’t miss out on their one opportunity that day to visit with the surgeon or doctor. If you miss him or her, or if they decide to not show up, then that’s it. No second chance.

That’s bad because the patient involved is often too groggy or sick to really ask the questions that need to be asked or provide critical information to the doctor or engage them about their decisions and explore alternatives in treatment, therapy, medication or whatever. And there is no second chance. You miss the doctor, you miss out.

The nurses are sympathetic and readily admit that this jealously guarded prerogative of doctors is exhausting to families. They say that the single most asked question they get from patients is “When is the Doctor Coming?” and they don’t have a satisfactory answer and the best they can do is guess based on their knowledge of the doctors’s habits. They see the resulting physical and mental exhaustion this practice causes to families but they can do nothing about it.

So, how about doctors making a schedule of their rounds and sticking to it? How about authorizing the nursing staff to inform families of what is going to happen. How about making use of all this whiz bang information technology they brag about to include the patient and the family.

My World – Casino Club

I love serendipity. It happened to me last week during a visit to dowtown San Antonio, Texas from my home in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I was walking around downtown and I saw a building with a muticolored top on it so I had to go investigate.

My photograph does not do the tiered roof justice. It really is very colorful and distinctive.

The building was called the “Casino Club Building” and was built in about 1927 to house the combined “Casino Association”, a German American Social Club and “San Antonio Club”, a literary club. The building has some Art Deco touches in the entrance in addition to the multicolored roof.

The Club did not survive the depression very well and the organization finally ceased operation in abut 1950.

The serendipity part happened when I got up close and read the historical plaque. It said the building was purchased by oilman Thomas Gilcrease in 1942. Thomas Gilcrease is the art collector who sold his extensive art collection to the City of Tulsa in 1955 that started the Gilcrease Museum which is famous for its collection of Western Art.

A little research showed that Mr. Gilcrease’s first museum was started in 1943 in San Antonio but he closed it shortly thereafter because of low attendance. I couldn’t determine if he used Casino Club building for the museum.

The building, which is right on the San Antonio Riverwalk was remodeled in 1978 for condos or apartments appears to be in excellent condition and well maintained.

To found out more about our world check out My World for photographs and stories from all over the world.

“The Hour I First Believed” by Wally Lamb

This is one awesome book. It is a novel about Caelum Quirk and his wife Maureen who are an English teacher and school nurse respectively at Columbine High School in Colorado. Caelum is in Connecticut attending to a deceased aunt’s affairs when Maureen is trapped in a cabinet during the Columbine murders. Maureen survives but is badly traumatized and her life slowly spins out of control as the years go by.

There is a a parallel story concerning the Caelum’s ancestors and how their lives were messed up by the Civil War.

Through all this Caelum slowly finds out secrets about himself and his forbears. He also finds out love, steadfastness, and honor. And why he is so messed up.

I’m not really doing this book justice. This may be one of the best books I have ever read. Lets just say it is over 700 pages and I tore through it in five days.

This book is four stars out of four. Read it if you can.