Eye See You!

Yep, that's me on the left...and my buddy Alli on the right

I'm an ICU nurse.  More specifically I'm an MICU (medical intensive care) nurse.  There are many "dangers" that are part and parcel of my job.  I've been kicked, hit, spit on, poked (literally by my own fault), yelled at...you name it, it's probably happened to me.  I take care of the sickest of the sick when they have no where else to turn.  And I love every minute of it...usually.

Let's segway a bit and talk about my coworkers.  They are truly the best ever.  They are my second family and some of my best friends.  We all have a sense of humor that no one else would understand.  We help each other, we support each other, we laugh at each other, we are just THERE for each other.

See, we really like each other!

We also potluck with each other...ALOT.  MICU has a reputation for potlucks.  I remember when I came to night shift, the first thing they said was that I needed to always participate in the potlucks...they are mandatory.  This sounded great...except for the fact that for someone who is gluten free (and later vegan) the early days of our potlucks were a nightmare.  I could usually only eat what I brought.  Through time, education, pestering, and trust they started to come around.  Potlucks became healthier with way more gluten free options.  People caught on.  They learned what I could and couldn't eat...and more importantly they cared.

Jenny and I doing our 'thang

Ok, now back to my story.  It was potluck night.  I made a fabulous salad (hold your horses the recipe is at the end of the story).  I was so excited to eat it!  It was a night set aside for a "healthy potluck."  Right up my alley.........

Then life happened, my job happened, the ICU curse happened...

It was awful...

I got unmentionable "stuff" in my eye...my right eye...IN my right eye.

This is our OMG!  EWWWW face...

OMG.

For SERIOUS.

EWWWW!

Yeah, I told you my job has inherent dangers.  I made my way begrudgingly downstairs to the ED (emergency department) to have my eye washed out after standing in the eye wash (aka the freaking jet blast of water directly into your eye!) for 2 minutes.  I had no idea what to expect.  Once there they lead me to a quiet little room where they proceeded to tell me that they would be numbing my eye with drops, then attaching a contact lense type suction cup directly to my eyeball and washing it out with 2L of NS (normal saline).

Ummmmmmm...what??

I am a girl who wouldn't wear contact lenses if my life depended on it.  I hate touching my eyes...geez, I hate OTHER people touching their own eyes.  And you want to do what????

Fine, whatever...don't expect me to be happy about it, just get it over with quickly.

So I laid there...looking like this...

Seriously...not cool (well actually it was freezing)

For TWO hours!!!!

Yeah, you read that right, 2 hours.  And to top it all off I was soaking wet and cold...that 2 liters of fluid had to go somewhere so it soaked directly into my scrub top.

Not so happy face after I'm done

Oh...and I was missing the potluck...my healthy potluck...and my salad!!

So once I was done a mere 3 hours after I left the unit I headed back to work...I looked awesome.

But I got to eat...and my eye was clean...really, really clean.

It was time to enjoy my Eye See You Quinoa Lentil Salad...now you get the name??  Pretty fitting huh?  Don't worry, it's not bad luck...I ate it again the next night and all was well.

Eye See You Quinoa Lentil Salad

by Jaclyn Trosper

Prep Time: 10 min

Cook Time: N/A

Keywords: side entree salad vegan vegetarian gluten-free potluck

Ingredients (serves 10)

• 1 cup quinoa
• 2 cups water
• 1 cube vegan boullion
• 1 package cooked lentils or 2.5 cups cooked lentils
• 1/4 cup cilantro
• 1/4 cup basil
• 1/2 cup chopped carrots
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/4 cup artichoke hearts
• 4 small cooked beets chopped
• 1/2 cup grape tomatoes
• Balsalmic vinegar, salt, pepper to taste

Instructions

Cook quinoa in water with bouillon according to package directions (I used a rice cooker). Once cooked and cooled mix with remaining ingredients in a large bowl (preferably one you can take to a potluck!). Stir in balsalmic, salt, and pepper...now you are ready to rock your potluck!

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Enjoy!