ICU nursing

I am back at work. Just came in from 6 days off. (that's the good thing about working 12 hour shifts... you get a lot of days off if you schedule them correctly)... So I get pulled to the stepdown unit again... Here we have 3 patients and basically, they are stable. They all sleep thru the night- which is a big plus!!!! I am going to say this- and it is according to my state of mind, hormones, etc- I do not like hospital nursing... I just don't like it.  I have always worked in long term care and I still miss it.  I am a totally different person in the hospital.  I don't have much confidence in my nursing skills, because of all of these problems are acute... I am used to dealing with chronic problems... My buddy is wanting me to go get certified for critical care and that will also give me a raise of $1... I just don't know if it is worth it... I don't know how long I will stay here... but I have been saying that for the last 10 months... and I am still here...hoping that I will find my niche... yes, it has been a learning experience... yes, I am still learning things-- yes, tomorrow, I might like it again... but for today, I just want to be home in the bed!!!! I have a cousin, who likes hospital work.  I cant find the like for it today... I am getting older and need to find a stress free, desk job... just sayin'

School Nursing for Dummies

Okay, I am laughing....My office partner says I should write a book...I just love the excuses the kids come up to see the nurse. I have had a lot of "patients" this morning...which is unusual in itself...but the first 5 needed to hear the story about the boy who cried Wolf...but overall, you got to laugh...

• There was the little Hispanic boy who had broke both thumbs..., BTW, yesterday, it was only the left one, although he could make a fist without pain...today, both of them were broke...but nope, daddy didn't take him to the ER...there is no swelling or loss of movement, so I bet an xray is not needed till school is out...
  
• Then there's the older child who has pulled some muscles and wants to call home...but when I offer Tylenol or Ibuprofen, just the mention of these pain relief tabs obviously is all he needed,cause he suddenly got to feeling better...and said so...Wow! (try this technique more often...)
  
• The child who had chest pain the first hour and really needed to go home but don't call Mom, call Mamaw... and the next hour had vomiting, but she held it in so as not to get it on her desk...(now if she could train all the rest of the student body this trick...)
  
• oh, and the "thumb-broked" little boy came back up, this time with the complaint of "gonna puke". No temp, so I sent him back to class...(if you puke, you have to show an adult...and...if you pick a scab and cause bleeding you don't get a band-aid either)
  
• An older child is next with the complaint of coughing and sore throat...needs Temp checked, cause if he doesn't have a fever, then's he's in trouble...what do you devise from this?? Oh, well that would be obviously he is coughing exceedingly in class to make other classmates laugh...and teacher put a stop to that real quick...

All this happened before 10am...what a day...Finally did get a child with a small amount of blood and another with a fever...so my advice is..if you go into school nursing, these precious children will make you laugh...it's priceless!!!!

Then there is the funny things...the stories that possibly couldn't be true..but after listening to Weirdo Wednesday news, you have go to wonder...

• The child who's grandmother passed away yesterday who was 100 years old and lived in Egypt.
• The child who kept talking about his dead father...which I believed...but when asked how he died, he said, "either drugs or he was eaten by snakes"... WHAT?? ROFLOL
• the child who flies in an airplane everyday from China to her school here, just because it is a good school.
• the child who had a heart attack last night...

Another Nursing Home Story...

I have got to tell you this...this was a moment that will forever be etched in my memory...

So there is a lady that I have known all my life in the nursing home...she led singing at alot of different churches that I went to, including my church at times of special services... she loved to sing...she loved the hymns...
I hear this woman upset and crying, so as I enter the room, the nurse is having to insert a catheter and the patient is incredibly upset...so I go and stroke her face and began singing to her...Amazing Grace, When The Roll is Called Up Yonder...and other hymns that I can think of...she does calm down considerably and the nurse is able to perform the rest of the procedure...
After the nurse was finished, I just sat at her bedside and stroked her head...and sang to her...she can't talk much due to her debilitating condition...but she can say a few words..as I sat and sang to her, she kept saying in long drawn out sentences..."I'm leaving here" "I'm a goner" "I'm not gonna make it..." well, this didn't surprise me, but what did surprise me was when she had her eyes closed and was reaching up into the air...I asked her what she was reaching for...she stated "I see pretty things"...well, at this point, I am like, okay, she might really be dying...I mean, she is seeing heaven right now....I looked at the girl standing with me with a surprised look...now, my nursing knowledge is telling me, "there are no active signs of dying here" I mean, really...but you know, stranger things have happened...so I get down to business...thinking what if i am standing here and she dies right now...!!! What if I sing her to eternity...so I rack my brain to sing a song that is appropriate...ah...I got it..."Take My Hand Precious Lord" so I begin to sing...she closes her eyes...the nurse has already came in and gave her a Morphine shot...my mind is racing...is she dying right now?? I sing 2 verses and stop and she mumbles another word of the song, so I start back..she is trying to lay comfortable...I am holding her hand and singing...
I stop that song and start singing "Sweet Bye and Bye" ...

All of a sudden, she looked up at me and said in her slow drawn out speech......

"I wish you would hush"

Needless to say, she didn't pass over...her Morphine was taking over...and I ran out of the room dying laughing!!!!!

Alot of Blogs...LOL

Geez...I have blogged more this month than any month this year!!!! Lots of action going on in my brain...could have to do with not having any adults to "communicate" with...yes, I get small talk, but poor Tom had to hear my ramblings constantly...and God bless the poor kids of mine...they don't care about my ramblings...:)
Last night I was at work and a poor resident was sitting beside me and we were talking and she asked me if I was married and I told her not anymore and she wanted to know why, etc...this lady has Alzheimers, and she probably forgot the conversation as soon as it happened, but she said something that stuck to me...and it hurt...
She mentioned that she was married to and then she added sarcastically...yeah, I'm the mother of his children...so I wanted to keep her talking as I could sense something way deeper in her comment... she went on to say how he had left her unexpectedly...she said..."That is a hurt that goes so deep...a hurt you will never get over" she got teary eyed...she pointed from her throat to her stomach and said..."you wonder why it hurt you so deep...but it is something you never ever get over..."
It made so much sense to me...she felt exactly what I was feeling...and to think that this was a lady who couldn't even remember the conversation 5 minutes later, but she still remembered the hurt from many years back...She never married again and still carries his name today...yes, she went on to become successful, and I'm sure lived a successful life...but to say she moved on...no..she didn't...

Back to School Test...

I forgot to mention that I took my COMPASS test for admittance into Walters State Comm. College to at least start working on my RN. I will most definitely have to have some kind of financial assistance, but I am praying this will all work out... so how did I do? I ended up having to take two remedial math classes, (Alg 1 and Alg 2) which is not surprising to me...cause I can't do that stuff, so I need taught! I did pass the English, Reading and Writing part... YA!!!!
I cannot register until the spring session, so that will be in Jan. 09...so in the meantime, I am gonna try to CLEP out of several tests...right now I am working on Intro to Psychology. Will keep you posted!

My first CPR episode.

First, let me say, it definitely was an experience! I had heard people talk of what happens in CPR, heck, I even am a CPR instructor. I teach the class...and, I have seen it done in the ER with a healthy man on a stiff ER table....but nothing had prepared me for the experience I had last evening. Pressing on the chest of an old, debilitated body was nothing like compressing on the "Annie" dummy. So, here's the story..
I am at work, I hear someone yell, "Call it, Call the code" When I noted that it was my patient, I took off to the room...Another nurse had beat me there, and she immediately started CPR. As I stood and attempted to ask the resident if he was okay, I hear his ribs cracking....I expected that, but really didn't expect to "hear" them. She compressed about 4 times, and stepped away to reach the ambu bag...I start in compressing... I totally expected the bones to be already broken and no more to break...Unfortunately, I was wrong...Each time I compressed, I felt the bones crack and break, numerous times underneath the pressure. It was literally like I was crushing the person's bones into a million pieces!!!! I know, this is harsh, but after about 4 compressions, the other nurse was back and said, Sherry, do you want me to relieve you? I say, "yes, please...I have never done this before..!" I didn't have time to think of the feelings I was having, as I continued the ambu bag, and other things waiting on the EMS. When they arrived, they hooked him up to the defibrillator...I thought, oh my gosh, am I gonna be able to watch this?? Am I gonna be able to watch as his body comes off the bed???? When they say all clear, I am thinking, okay, do I look or turn away?? What do I do??? Fortunatly, they had some sort of rhythmn so I didn't have to see that... But I will tell you a funny part...they asked for a suction machine... so I ran out the door to get them one from our crash cart...came back in, wasn't in the room for no more than 1 minute and they asked for a different tip for the suction...so, I ran back out to get it, was looking up the hallway, grabbed for the drawer to pull it open, and already had my body in a backward motion when I realized that the cart had been moved... so down I went, right on my butt in the middle of the hallway....It was totally hilarious!!!

My B/P today...

Is 145/104...wow..really healthy there, Sherry! Don't fuss! I am starting on a new medication tonight! I know, I am a nurse and I should know better!!! Well, like I said, I am taking care of it! I do have a headache!!!

2nd Grade Field Trip...

I went on a field trip with the second grade last week, cause my little diabetic girl has to have someone with her all the time...we went to the Doak Museum. We ended up having a great time...First, they did marble painting...cool technique! In this the two pictures below, they threw out 100 marbles between the fence line and she let them go marble hunting...Of course, you can see that some of the boys got kinda rowdy trying to get the most marbles!


By the way, I am posting these pictures, cause no child's face is visible to identify, so therefore, it isn't against any rules, right??!
Okay, they also got to make marbles out of clay...well, this little guy decides to scuplture his own "thing" while the instructor was talking...we were cracking up, the parents and teachers, cause, bless his heart, he had no idea!!! Really, he had no idea! It was funny!

A funny Nursing home story...

I am just amazed sometimes at the sense of humor some of the residents have and this lady in particular should have been a comedian. She is always coming up with the funniest comments and sayings and she is confused, but not confused enough that she can't crack comments...so anyway, she came rolling in her wheelchair up to the desk and said, "I just want to tell you that my hind end is hurting so bad...it feels like I am sitting on my brains..." Then she proceeds to look over the side of her wheelchair and says " I surely undoubtedly am not sitting upside down!!!" By this time, I am laughing very hard!!! and then she continues..."If this is what it feels like to go to an a** kicking, I don't want to go!"
Oh, well, guess you had to be there...

Happy February!!!

I am sorry, I have not been in the mood to blog..and been too busy!!! I am actually helping to work on the yearbook here at school and that is taking quite a bit of my "blogging" time...LOL...I also designed the web page for the Greene Co. School System and as soon as it is posted, I will post a link here....my first web page ever..LOL
AND, all the links work...hee hee...(PET PEEVE: a link that doesn't work!!!)
Been a busy day at school...several kids have the pink eye, one kid has something irritating his eye and I had to take his contact out, cause he couldn't' get it...yeah, imagine that with my long fingernails! One kid had a nose bleed all over his clothes...one kid can't find her glucometer to check her sugar..I am trying to teach the 4th graders about the 5 food groups, a teacher is calling to come to her class to check two kids who she thinks might have fever...the nose bleed child comes back with more blood, but fingerprints...he obviously has been picking his nose and wiping the blood on his shirt!!! ARG!!!! Stop TOUCHING YOUR NOSE!!!!!! LOL Oh, and the hypochondriac teacher just called again and wants me to come to her classroom again!!!! 3rd time today!!! Called a mother about a child using her Albuterol inhaler about 9 times today...as if she needs to be anymore hyper!!!!So, that is my day in a nutshell!!! But usually I don't do much of nothing...must be a full moon. LOL

Touched/In Memory of H.H.

Ok, so I started a new nursing job...I still have my school job, cause I love it so much...but I started prn at the nursing home...on a 4 hour shift....7p-11p. Usually will be just 2 shifts a week.
I was afraid I was gonna loose my nursing skills and knowledge...I mean, if you don't use it, you loose it, right...and the extra money can't never hurt :D
So, I went to work the other night for the first time...since I had worked there before, I felt like I had been in a coma for awhile and had woke up...It was like everything was so familiar and that I was supposed to know it, but couldn't bring it to the front of my memory...wierd...but I had fun and loved it...
I went into the last room on my medicine round...There was this little debilitated man in the bed...unable to talk, or barely move. I immediately fell in love with him. I checked his chart later and found out he was just on comfort measures...soon to die...anytime...he wasn't even getting any medications...too close to death...
His eyes were open...I held his hand and talked softly to him. He knew I was there...
I frequently went into the room as his room was next door to the nursing station. I talked to him, fixed his cover, and noted how dry his tongue was,so I did mouth care...with lemon glycerin swabs...and cold water..he liked it...his mouth responded to it...Iheld his hand, rubbed his head...I was just touched by this gentleman. There were no family there...I later found out he didn't have any. No children, wife dead...so sad!
Upon reading the chart, I noted that he had had a terrible life...His father had beaten his mother and made him and his brother work in the fields by the time they were 5 years old. If they didn't work, he didn't feed them...He got in a fight with his dad for taking up for his mother when his dad was beating her in his teen years and he left home...he went to Japan in the war...and stated how he had to do some really terrible things there that he could not forget....he described himself as a bitter, angry man. That was not the man I saw lying in the bed. The skinny debilitated frame had a gentle face. I would like to know what kind of relationship he and his wife had had. Why did they not have children? Was he afraid of how he would treat them? How did he treat his wife...was he a great loving husband because of the way he had seen his father treat his mother? His wife died in the 80's and he had no one to take care of him since then. He obviously was still in good health at that time, because the record stated he had taken care of her when she had cancer. Was it after she died that he became a bitter angry man?? Tom said I would have really liked him, cause he had been at the nursing home for a couple of years. He had to come there because he had no one to take care of him.
Okay, so to get along with my story...as I was sitting on the couch with Tom the next afternoon,I mentioned him to Tom and how I was concerned about his care...Tom reponded with:
It doesn't matter now...
What do you mean?
He's dead...
Well, I know he is going to die anytime...but...
No, I mean..he died last night...
WHAT!!!!!!!!??????????
This totally floored me...I was looking forward to going back in there and babying him some...something he probably hadn't ever had...you know...
I dreamed about him last night...that I was feeding him corn flakes with big red stawberries in it...and you know what else...who even cares that he died...
so I guess by blogging here...he will never be forgotten...remebered by me...

Funny stuff...

I was laughing at something I read online and wanted to start sharing the incidents that are quite humorous in my life...so here goes funny story number 1.

As you know, I worked in a nursing home and God love thier hearts, when they are crazy, they are soo funny! You just can't be hateful and work there, cause some Alzheimer's patient will totally crack you up...Well, I want to introduce to you a Sunday School teacher...a lady who was very respected in the community...when she got old, she started cussing better than any sailor...using God D__ and Hell and SH-- and A-S...well, needless to say, this embarrassed her husband to death. She would even get violent sometimes, just cussing you up one side and down the other...now, mind you, her voice was very high pitched and keen... so you could hear her all over the wing. One day,she was cussing and mad and a male nurse, whom I won't mention the name of (T-m) hid behind her curtain...started calling her name in a deep voice...acting like God. She said "who is it..."
"this is God"
"Where are you?"
"Quit that cussing"
"What" as she shrinks down as if KNOWING she is doing "wrong" too funny...
The conversation continues till she gets mad and starts cussing God...so much for trying to teach her a lesson...
This same little lady walked out into the hallway with her hospital gown on backwards, naked underneath, and stops in the middle and looks down and says...god da__ my kidneys have hair on them"
I still laugh about that!!!!

IV's and stuff...

IV and stuff...
Current mood: calm 

Okay, so the other day at work, I needed to start an IV on a big tall black man...he had brought his brother to the appointment with him...now, the paitent was really sick and I guessed brother was just coming to be of support, but I learned it was for another reason...he had a medical background...although I thought it was a pharmacist...

Well, I am not that great at starting IV's, cause I only start one per month at the most and so that means I have only started about 8 IV's in the past 8 years...so here I am searching and feeling over the arm with the tourniquet in place and finally find where I want to stick...brother is sitting in chair...I am okay...I stick patient, no blood return...keep on digging....nothing...feel like I am in the vien 2 or 3 times...Brother gets up and comes over to bed...starts feeling other arm as he can see I am having problems..I am still okay, cause I think, well, a pharmacist doesn't have as much experience as I do...still no luck, so I pull the needle out to try again...Dr. comes in room...says to brother..."well, I guess you could start the IV with your eyes closed..." I look up..."why" I say...well,I am an RN in a burn unit...now, people with no medical background, let me tell you what burn victims do...they loose fluid, so they are literally the hardest to start an IV on, cause they are barely circulating fluid in blood....my jaw drops....

Well, after MD leaves room, I decided to let volunteer brother...patient agrees this is okay..so brother gloves up, gets needle and sticks...and guess what.? NO blood return...AND,,,no luck getting any!!!! he tried digging around, but nothing!!! he had to pull out too...well, of course I am feeling alot better by now, not thinking things could get worse....

I do go ahead with the next stick and start the IV...I get it in the bend of his arm, where most people have huge viens...but you don't want to start an IV there normally, cause then they can't bend thier arm without occluding IV...but as I ws standing up from starting it..the brother says...."WELL, I GIVE YOU AN A+." I just look at him...and he continues" CAUSE I AM AN INSTRUCTOR AND I HAVE TO TRAIN STUDENTS AND WATCH STUDENTS START IV'S ALL THE TIME..."

Sherry
http://myspace.com/sherryonthecrazyside

 

 

I've figured it all out...

Tom helped me tonight after me chewing on him because I didn't get the job I wanted...
To put in in plain English,(cause I know that last post was VERY confusing...)
I want to be the best, I think I am the best, but in reality, I am not the best at all!!!!!!!

He says I compare my success to him, I can't handle stress, I can't handle patient family problems, I am too loud and I am not a good employee...; I guess that is putting it bluntly...Thanks Tom...i can always count on you to put it plain to me....

I got upset at him when he cracked a not so nice joke...Saying maybe HE should apply for the job... He is just a man working in a woman's world is the way I see it...

Well, I did ask God to have his will in the situation...It is hard to accept when it is dissapointing...
i'm quitting now before I start rambling...