Sometimes I really wish life had a remote control to it. You know, you can rewind to relive awesome moments, rewind to redo bad moments ...or maybe rewind to remember moments... like last Sunday for me, but thats a whole different story. :-p
Well, right now I'd like to fast forward. Fast forward to Wednesday. Fast forward to the weekend so I can get a sense of what happens when the Doctor and I no longer see each other at work every day and whether or not we'll still talk. ...Fast forward to when my apartment is once again furnished so I dont have to sit on my living room floor or eat at my desk. ...Fast forward to when I can walk out of my room and not be super depressed when I see Laura's empty bedroom. (...Or just fast forward to if/when Laura moves back to DC, but I have no idea when that will be so I may end up fast forwarding through quite a bit of time.) Mreh.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Thursday, January 14, 2010
the waiting game
I hate this game. In every sense. I am impatient and I hate the feeling of helplessness (hello, Type A here, thus I like to be in control of situations). I hated that I had to sit and wait for hours to find out if I passed the nclex. I hate that after you put yourself out there and ask a boy out, you just have to sit and wait for his answer (but thats another story :-p).
But really, I HATE the waiting game when it comes to work. I understand that some situations are minor enough that waiting, seeing, and monitoring is appropriate - like if someone's staples look a little red and inflamed. Could just be irritation, so cont to monitor and if the redness/swelling increases, ok we'll take some action. That is legit and I understand that. But typically if a situation warrants reporting off to the doctor, some kind of action needs to be taken. For example this conversation took place during my last night shift at around 3am:
"My patient is complaining of shortness of breath. His O2 Sats are good: 99% on RA, but I put on O2 for comfort and he says he still feels like he just cant catch his breath and feels tightness in his upper abdomen" (I am 95% sure this patient has a fluid collection in his abdomen which would explain the tightness, and all the fluid pushing up on his diaphragm would explain the difficulty breathing, but I still need to tell the doctor so that maybe we can order a couple tests to confirm. Plus, whenever a patient complains of SOB, it is never ever good.)
"Ok, we can order chest x-ray and maybe an ABG in the morning. Just watch him for now. His Sats are fine, right?"
"Yeah... but he's on 3L of O2 and still feels short of breath"
"Yeah, ok, we'll order some tests in the morning."
WTF. Why? Why do you have to put off ordering these tests till the morning? Why the hell would you put it off for 3.5 hours till the rest of the team gets here when you know that as soon as they take one look at him, they'll order exactly what you just suggested? You're the freakin senior resident! Just order the damn tests. I dont know if its b/c they're not used to how sick our patients are or what, but the waiting game never ends well with our patients. It is not a good game to play with these people. How is it that they dont understand that? Ugh. Frustration.
But really, I HATE the waiting game when it comes to work. I understand that some situations are minor enough that waiting, seeing, and monitoring is appropriate - like if someone's staples look a little red and inflamed. Could just be irritation, so cont to monitor and if the redness/swelling increases, ok we'll take some action. That is legit and I understand that. But typically if a situation warrants reporting off to the doctor, some kind of action needs to be taken. For example this conversation took place during my last night shift at around 3am:
"My patient is complaining of shortness of breath. His O2 Sats are good: 99% on RA, but I put on O2 for comfort and he says he still feels like he just cant catch his breath and feels tightness in his upper abdomen" (I am 95% sure this patient has a fluid collection in his abdomen which would explain the tightness, and all the fluid pushing up on his diaphragm would explain the difficulty breathing, but I still need to tell the doctor so that maybe we can order a couple tests to confirm. Plus, whenever a patient complains of SOB, it is never ever good.)
"Ok, we can order chest x-ray and maybe an ABG in the morning. Just watch him for now. His Sats are fine, right?"
"Yeah... but he's on 3L of O2 and still feels short of breath"
"Yeah, ok, we'll order some tests in the morning."
WTF. Why? Why do you have to put off ordering these tests till the morning? Why the hell would you put it off for 3.5 hours till the rest of the team gets here when you know that as soon as they take one look at him, they'll order exactly what you just suggested? You're the freakin senior resident! Just order the damn tests. I dont know if its b/c they're not used to how sick our patients are or what, but the waiting game never ends well with our patients. It is not a good game to play with these people. How is it that they dont understand that? Ugh. Frustration.
Monday, January 11, 2010
ohhh boys
Sorry its been a while since the last post, nothing too exciting has been going on unfortunately. Christmas was good, I finished my stretch of days at work and it actually wasnt too bad since I'm friends with the doctor who was there most of the time so that definitely made coming into work way better. NYE was ok. We went to the waterfront where the bars there had open bar. It would've been tons of fun, had I not had to be sober mom the entire night and take care of my ridiculously drunken friends. oh well, it happens. The night all in all wasnt a total bust. :)
Anyway....
While catching up with a high school friend last week, we naturally ran across the subject of boys. We made a deal that if she had a DTR convo with the boy she's been dating for the last 3 months and figure out if they're boyfriend/girlfriend status, then I would ask out this boy that I like. I was all about it at the time of the convo since I do want to hang out with him and I do want to figure out if there's any potential, but now that its actually time to ask him out I am totally chickening out! Which is sooo not like me. Normally I'm the type of girl who can talk to a boy, no problem. I hate all that stupid crap where its like, "wait a minute, I was the one who texted him last" or "we just talked 2 days ago, I should probably wait another day before I talk to him." Its complete BS. If I want to talk to a guy, I'm gonna do it. I dont care. ...Well apparently now I care b/c I'm semi-freaking out just thinking about having to ask him to hang out. We've hung out before in a group setting out at a bar, and we may have done the late night hook up... :-p But the entire purpose of this deal that I made with my friend is to get me and this guy to spend time outside of a bar setting, get out of the random hook up mentality and actually just hang out with him. And as it turns out, this week is Restaurant Week in DC. Pretty perfect timing, dont you think? Now I just have to muster up the courage to ask him... Maybe dinner is a little too formal / date-ish? Maybe I should suggest a movie instead? ahhh I hate boys... (Actually I kinda hate myself for freaking out about this. I mean, he's just a stupid boy... :-p)
Anyway....
While catching up with a high school friend last week, we naturally ran across the subject of boys. We made a deal that if she had a DTR convo with the boy she's been dating for the last 3 months and figure out if they're boyfriend/girlfriend status, then I would ask out this boy that I like. I was all about it at the time of the convo since I do want to hang out with him and I do want to figure out if there's any potential, but now that its actually time to ask him out I am totally chickening out! Which is sooo not like me. Normally I'm the type of girl who can talk to a boy, no problem. I hate all that stupid crap where its like, "wait a minute, I was the one who texted him last" or "we just talked 2 days ago, I should probably wait another day before I talk to him." Its complete BS. If I want to talk to a guy, I'm gonna do it. I dont care. ...Well apparently now I care b/c I'm semi-freaking out just thinking about having to ask him to hang out. We've hung out before in a group setting out at a bar, and we may have done the late night hook up... :-p But the entire purpose of this deal that I made with my friend is to get me and this guy to spend time outside of a bar setting, get out of the random hook up mentality and actually just hang out with him. And as it turns out, this week is Restaurant Week in DC. Pretty perfect timing, dont you think? Now I just have to muster up the courage to ask him... Maybe dinner is a little too formal / date-ish? Maybe I should suggest a movie instead? ahhh I hate boys... (Actually I kinda hate myself for freaking out about this. I mean, he's just a stupid boy... :-p)
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