I am a nurse. I believe full moons have influence over hospitals.  I also believe in the electromagnetic power of solar flares. Last week, hospital staffs in the Northern hemisphere had the joy of exposure to both. While I can’t speak for healthcare providers as a whole, I experienced a few incidents last week, which I attribute to solar flares.

First, I noticed communication glitches in communication David and I. Since communication is a core strength of our marriage, it was weird. Standing in the same room, conversations went something like this:

Me: “Hmm. We’re out of butter, let’s put it on the grocery list.”

David: Silent.

Me: “David, did you hear me say we’re out of butter?”

More silence. Half an hour later…

David: “We’re out of butter.”

Me: “I know, didn’t you hear me say that half an hour ago?”

David: “What? Oh, you better put butter on the grocery list.”

Me: “Can you hear me when I’m speaking to you?”

David: “Are you saying we don’t need butter?”

At the infusion clinic, a nurse complained people were not receiving her messages.  Another nurse looked up and said “Solar flares.” The first nurse said, “Weird, you are the second person to say ‘solar flares’ to me today. Solar flares?”

“Yep. There’s a solar storm headed towards Earth this week. It’s all over the news.”

“Really, I hadn’t heard.”

That was Thursday.

On Friday, we lost login ability to the electronic health record, once logged out, therefore access to patients’ charts.  All the records were secure and intact, we simply couldn’t access them for a short, but inconvenient time. Our fabulous IT team fixed the problem reasonably quick. We weren’t informed what happened, but I blame solar flares.

On Sunday, our car’s GPS system acted up, eventually righting itself. Solar flares.

I wish everything in life were so easily diagnosed.

Do you have a good solar flare or full moon story to tell?