Today I worked a 14-hour day, barely had time to sit down to eat lunch, and yet again did not have time to realize that I hadn't peed all day long. (Seriously bladder, I'm sorry. Please please please dont get infected.) But today I dont care. Because today I took care of Mrs. G. Mrs. G has been on our floor for 7 weeks waiting for a liver transplant. I doubt any of you have seen what End Stage Liver Disease looks like, but its awful. 2 weeks ago we weren't even sure she'd ever make it. But today was her first day back from the ICU following a liver transplant! And she looked fantastic. Still a little slow moving, but that's expected. I didnt even care that I had to change her diaper almost every 2 hours because she hasnt regained control of her bladder yet. Seeing the color back in her face, hearing her finally able to joke around, and just seeing her in much better spirits made it SO worth it. Seeing her come out of this has been so emotional for everyone on our staff, we've been rooting for her to get a transplant for so long. I was so happy I got to be her nurse and teach her and take care of her today. So I dont care that today our secretary was extremely lazy; I dont care about how the ICU is ridiculous. Today I dont even care that I'm going to have to come back to work in 2 days and spend Christmas working at the hospital with less than adequate staffing. I dont care. Because today Mrs. G reminded me why I do what I do. Today I remembered just how much I really LOVE being a nurse.
AND, I also found out that a friend's mom who has been battling cancer for the last 6 months is now cancer free!
So, I'd say that TODAY has been a GREAT day. :)
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Christmas Spirit
I am normally the type of person who starts listening to Christmas music halfway through November. I have decorations up the day after Thanksgiving. I get my Christmas shopping done early, and I am always super super excited about the holidays. For some reason this year I have been totally lacking in Christmas spirit. Up until last night I was incapable of listening to xmas music. (No seriously, I would try but when I'd listen to a song, about 1 verse into it I'd have to change the radio station. Weird, right?) And I've been totally slacking on my shopping ideas. I dont know if its because I havent gotten around to decorating so it just doesnt feel like Christmas, or if its because I have a shitty work schedule (Christmas day is day 1 of 4 in a row. I know, it blows. I dont want to talk about it) so I havent been excited about it because I know I wony be able to enjoy it as much as I'd like. Either way, someone/something stole my Christmas Spirit. I even tried watching Elf, which of course I thoroughly enjoyed, but it still didnt put me in the Christmas mood.
But! I am excited to say I finally found it! My Christmas Spirit, that is. Yay! It took my parents forcing me to decorate the basement and a little help from the cast of Glee singing some Christmas carols, but I'm FINALLY excited/ready for Christmas! The decorations are up, the tree is lit, most of my presents are wrapped, and I finally watched Love Actually, which is the true start of the holiday season. :) Yay for Christmas!!
But! I am excited to say I finally found it! My Christmas Spirit, that is. Yay! It took my parents forcing me to decorate the basement and a little help from the cast of Glee singing some Christmas carols, but I'm FINALLY excited/ready for Christmas! The decorations are up, the tree is lit, most of my presents are wrapped, and I finally watched Love Actually, which is the true start of the holiday season. :) Yay for Christmas!!
Thursday, December 2, 2010
seriously?
Just another example of how RIDICULOUS patients (and their families) can be:
Dr. P: Did you hear about what happened when [Ms. W] tried to leave AMA?
Me: Oh yeah! She locked herself in the bathroom and then tried to walk out naked?
Dr. P: Yeah, J. sat down and talked to her to try to find out more information and discovered she has an extensive psych history. And apparently the whole family banded together and lied so she could [pass the psych eval and] get this transplant.
WHAT.. THE.. F..!!! SERIOUSLY?! There is a reason we work-up patients for transplants and they have to be cleared by psych. I cant even begin to tell you how much it angers me to see patients get organs (organs that HUNDREDS of people are waiting for) and then they just let it go to waste. If this patient is not capable of taking care of herself and her new organ, she has no business getting one. AND! What makes it even worse is that after the family LIED to get her this surgery, they dont even want to take care of her!! Are you F-ing kidding?! If you're going to cheat the system so your family member can get a transplant, the LEAST you can do is make sure she keeps the damn organ! UGH.
And another story, just for fun:
We have a patient (23yo female) who just had a small bowel transplant. She's kind of a pain in the ass-- super needy, obnoxious, you know the drill. And the mother is about 20 times worse-- demanding, in-your-face, head up her own ass, etc. (To paint a picture: they threatened to leave Against Medical Advice while the patient was getting pre-op'ed because they didnt have a private room. In other words, the doctors were in the process of HARVESTING THE ORGAN so she could get the transplant and they threatened to leave because she had a roommate. Are you kidding?! You're going to be in that room for 3 hours and then you're going to go to surgery, you ungrateful little brat.) So basically the mother thought her daughter was not getting adequate care and thought she herself knew better. She has no medical background whatsoever, mind you. So she decided to mess with her daughter's IV pump and turned it off. Then a day or two later the patient starts screaming in pain and the doctors decide she needs emergent surgery and when they're in the OR they discover that she clotted off part of her NEW bowel (she had a blood clot that inevitably blocked blood flow to her bowel thus causing part of it to die). Needless to say, she had to have a portion of her NEW bowel removed and almost lost it completely. Hmmm, well Mom, maybe if you hadnt turned off her HEPARIN DRIP, your daughter woundnt have clotted and would still have a fully functioning, complete bowel. Because of you, a perfectly good bowel nearly went to waste. Next time you should probably leave the medical/nursing care to those who are properly trained. IDIOT.
I swear some days it really takes all that I have in me to not yell and slap some sense into people.
Dr. P: Did you hear about what happened when [Ms. W] tried to leave AMA?
Me: Oh yeah! She locked herself in the bathroom and then tried to walk out naked?
Dr. P: Yeah, J. sat down and talked to her to try to find out more information and discovered she has an extensive psych history. And apparently the whole family banded together and lied so she could [pass the psych eval and] get this transplant.
WHAT.. THE.. F..!!! SERIOUSLY?! There is a reason we work-up patients for transplants and they have to be cleared by psych. I cant even begin to tell you how much it angers me to see patients get organs (organs that HUNDREDS of people are waiting for) and then they just let it go to waste. If this patient is not capable of taking care of herself and her new organ, she has no business getting one. AND! What makes it even worse is that after the family LIED to get her this surgery, they dont even want to take care of her!! Are you F-ing kidding?! If you're going to cheat the system so your family member can get a transplant, the LEAST you can do is make sure she keeps the damn organ! UGH.
And another story, just for fun:
We have a patient (23yo female) who just had a small bowel transplant. She's kind of a pain in the ass-- super needy, obnoxious, you know the drill. And the mother is about 20 times worse-- demanding, in-your-face, head up her own ass, etc. (To paint a picture: they threatened to leave Against Medical Advice while the patient was getting pre-op'ed because they didnt have a private room. In other words, the doctors were in the process of HARVESTING THE ORGAN so she could get the transplant and they threatened to leave because she had a roommate. Are you kidding?! You're going to be in that room for 3 hours and then you're going to go to surgery, you ungrateful little brat.) So basically the mother thought her daughter was not getting adequate care and thought she herself knew better. She has no medical background whatsoever, mind you. So she decided to mess with her daughter's IV pump and turned it off. Then a day or two later the patient starts screaming in pain and the doctors decide she needs emergent surgery and when they're in the OR they discover that she clotted off part of her NEW bowel (she had a blood clot that inevitably blocked blood flow to her bowel thus causing part of it to die). Needless to say, she had to have a portion of her NEW bowel removed and almost lost it completely. Hmmm, well Mom, maybe if you hadnt turned off her HEPARIN DRIP, your daughter woundnt have clotted and would still have a fully functioning, complete bowel. Because of you, a perfectly good bowel nearly went to waste. Next time you should probably leave the medical/nursing care to those who are properly trained. IDIOT.
I swear some days it really takes all that I have in me to not yell and slap some sense into people.
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