Good Weekend

I must say... a good weekend for me is unlike anyone else's. For all intents and purposes I should have been of this weekend. My last night in the ICU was Wednesday and I'm not back until this Wednesday. I worked in the ER this weekend instead of being off and I miss the hell outta that place. Was in the trauma room both nights. Stayed busy Saturday night.... lots of drunk accidents with the occasional nice person in the mix.

We actually had our crew fly into North Carolina to pick up the son of one of our nurses. I forget how lucky I am to live near such a good hospital. The hospital this nice guy went to was a bit sketchy. Did you know that ER doctors don't always have to be ER trained? They just have to be docs. In smaller communities it may be an internal medicine doctor who has minimal er experience. Scary, huh? This kid had the bare minimum done to keep him alive and the dr down there had to be told what interventions to do before he could fly him.

We had a good team all weekend, so I can't really bitch about the trauma room. It was great! Sunday night we had two kids come in, 3 and 6 years old, from an accident. I don't mind kids and trauma, maybe because I don't have any. I helped with the three year old who spoke Spanish and English. We talked about Dora the Explorer and I gave her stickers. What a cutie pie.

I mentioned a while back that I shocked a heart attack patient a few weeks ago. The same EMS crew brought us another fucking mess yesterday morning. This guy went down with chest pain in a hotel parking deck. He called 911 and they couldn't find him. (probably because he kept giving the hotel name and floor instead of saying that he was in the parking deck) So 90 minutes later, in 20 degree temps he is found and brought to us. I put an IV in his neck, we warmed him up and did his EKG which suggested his potassium was high. We worked on fixing that... and sent him for a CT of his chest.... which showed a big ass fucking aneurysm that was leaking into his lung and into the sac around his heart. When that thing blew it would be 'BAM' lights out and not a damn thing we could do about it.He made it to the OR, but not before the Cardiothorasic surgeon told him he had at least a 50% chance of dying on the table. In this situation those are good odds.

Off again today. Going to keep studying for the big test that I get to pay $300.00 for!!! Yeah!!! Maybe will head out to look for a dress again. We meet with my chaplain friend tonight to "discuss" wedding details. Wow, this is getting close!!!

Good Stuff

I have a new toy! After the old laptop shot sparks out of the back I figured it was time to upgrade. I hopped on Dell's website, gave the cop his price limit and away we went. A week later, BAM here we go. I love this thing!!! So I hope to post a bit more frequently.

I have a new little boyfriend at work. This guy is 26, has CP (cerebal palsy) spina bifida and had a hypoxic brain injury when he was 11 weeks old. He weighs about 37lbs, is contracted (kinda bent all up) and has the mental capacity of 6months to a year old. He had to have surgery on a shunt in his brain that became infected and has been in the ICU for about a week. Some of the nurses are really opposed to taking care of him because he freaks them out with his size and what he looks like. His eyes are always open and "bugging out" and they move back and forth really fast. Yes, he looks a bit freakish.... but he's as sweet as they come. He doesn't talk, but he cries when he is upset and will giggle occasionally when you talk silly to him.

So thats my boy, I love him to death. The way I see it, he is as innocent as they come and you can't help but love him. Mom and dad are still together and haven't left the hospital. There is ALWAYS someone with him and they have helped with his care everyday. Nice country people.

I'm starting a critical care nurse review course today. 10 weeks of intense crap. Lurch is going to be in there too, ugh. But I will deal with it. Otherwise I am off for a few days and will be back in the ER this weekend. Its starting to warm up (finally) and it smells like spring outside. I love it.

The List

I must preface this post with the following:
I know that the cop reads this on a pretty regular basis. Honey, you know I love you and this is just for "entertainment purposes." Also because I have nothing interesting to say about my night in the ICU. I dumped pee every hour.. fun.

As a throw back to one of my favorite episodes of 'Friends' and a cell phone commercial, I must discuss my list... or (as the commercial says) "who is in my 5."

For those who are not familiar with the episode of 'Friends' I believe it goes something like this. The guys have lists of 5 women who, if given the opportunity, they would be allowed to sleep with without their significant other either finding out or being mad (not sure which). For purposes of a more innocent and fun take on this I will just say these are the top 5 that make my knees weak. Please comment and let me know yours, male or female. (or make fun of mine... I don't care!)

These are in no particular order....

This is the guy from 'CSI New York.' I've also seen him in 'Miracle' and an episode of 'Sex and the City.'

George Clooney.... He's like black tuxedo. Classic.

Josh Turner. Country Singer... deep voice, nice smile.

Carl Edwards. He's a race car driver. Does backflips....nice smile here too.

John Cena. Didn't really know who he was until my patient made me watch "wraslin'" with him last night. Again with the smile.... are we detecting a pattern here?

My alternates, and the guys who have "aged out" (looked good at one point but are not what they once were)

Harrison Ford

Sean Connery

Javier Lopez (baseball player)

Brad Paisley

Can't think of the others now... brain is turning to mush. Will keep thinking!!!

Had a great Valentine's Day, by the way. We were still on "night" time. So dinner, wine, movie were at 2am.

The Big Storm......

...is coming.The weather guys keep telling us that. Around here you either get snow or now snow. The first threat of flurries and all of the yuppies hop in their SUV's and hit the stores. The milk, bread and eggs are off the shelves in about 30 minutes of the newscast.

Unfortunately, for the cop and I this makes little or no difference. We have to go to work and are expected to be there. My hospital will actually send volunteers out in trucks to pick us up, but there is no guarantee that we will get rides home. Its kind of a fucked up situation. I have every intention of hopping in the jeep with the big tires and just going about my business.

I did not end up going downtown Saturday night. K was supposed to call me back and never did. I must admit that I was relived, I wasn't feeling it anyway. The cop called at bout 2am that night (club closing time). Apparently there was a call for multiple shots fired both inside and outside of one of the clubs. Everything downtown is pretty close together, and while this was not the club we were going to, its about 2 blocks away. That would freak me out. I bet I could have gotten police escort outta there!

So, I stayed home and was glad to be there!!!

Am I a prude?

This is my night off and my friend K wants me to go out with the girls. I was thinking dinner, hang out, have a few cocktails and go on home. Ummm... they aren't even going out til 10. I have thought about this a lot lately. The last few years at the hospital have really made me grow up a lot.I don't really go out the way I used to. These days I'm just as happy to hang out at my house, read, catch up on TV from a year ago and drink wine. I used to be a big time goin' out and haven' a good time kind of girl. So not sure if I'm going out or staying in now.

I was supposed to be in the ICU last night. I was all set to stay all night. We had an extra nurse so they decided to send someone home. When this happens the charge nurse will look at the last people who went home and make the decision from there. I last went New Year's Eve. These people rarely work OT so they have to use their paid time off and some don't want to do that.
I work so much that I am always up for a night off. So when everyone else declined I said "Hell Yes" and got my shit ready to roll. Well, apparently they didn't give the 11pm lady the chance to say yes, so when she got to work she (naturally) pitched a fit that I was allowed to go. She even remembered that I went home New Year's and bitched about that too. Ok, I am so low on the totem pole that I never get in on the decision making process. She can be pissed, but it wasn't my doing.

Not much else going on... ICU is full, as usual. Got yelled at by a non-English speaking quadrapedic. His English is as good as a 2 year old's. "NO, NOW, I WANT, WATER" thats the extent of his words.

Nothing else profound..... the laptop sucks again.... so I have to hold the cord in place while I type. The cop wants to get a new one and shoot this one with the 12 gauge. I wonder if Myth Busters would be interested in that!

Catching Up

So its been a long few days. I'm averaging something like 56 hours/week between the ER and ICU. The max a nurse can work at my hospital is 60/week. At 60 I turn into a pumpkin and spend all of my non-work hours in a corner in a coma, so 56 will do!

Took care of a guy we refer to as 'The Amoeba' in the ICU. I think I mentioned him a while back. He was beat over the head with a fire extinguisher. Well, now he is about the most pitiful thing I have seen. Only one eye opens, he will withdraw from pain if you pinch him, he has a trach (hole in throat to breathe) that can shoot goo over 7 feet (GROSS) and a PEG tube (tube that goes into the stomach to feed) that oozes gastric contents on his stomach and has given him a burn on his skin from the acid. All in all a sad sad case. He has a teenage son and a pretty rough family so who knows what will happen to him.

The ER has been a touch more interesting. I took care of a young lady with irregular bleeding. She has a 6 month old at home and several other kids. We sent her to the bathroom for a urine sample and an umbilical cord came out. She ended up delivering a 20 weeker who was dead when she delivered him. We do have to take care of the stillborns too. There is documentation and measurements that have to be charted as well as comfort the mom and allow her to see, take pictures with and hold the infant if she wants. This one went upstairs and crashed the next day. She got 17 liters of fluid, blood products and them had fluid back up into her lungs. They were unable to get her intubated so she had a n emergency cric done at the bedside. I went to visit her in the ICU. She was doing ok..... but it was so very sad to think of this poor person's fate.

The next night in the ER I had a heart attack patient code on me. Fortunately, we had the heart monitor on him and shocked him (I didn't yell clear.... I think I yelled "shocking, get the hell off") and he came right back. The cardiac cath people roto-rootered his coronary arteries and last I heard he is alive and doing well.

I'm back in the ER Super Bowl Sunday, which is always a fun night. Drunks and accidents!! Whoo-Hoo! I have also volunteered to do the ICU community project. We go to high schools with pictures, equipment and other stuff and talk to the kids about drinking and driving. I feel very strong about that, so I hope it goes well.

Ok, I'm done droning on about whats been going on.... The cop and I have been trying to finish up on wedding plans. No dress yet! But fortunately the new house and Uncle Sam are going to make the honeymoon a lot more fun!