Divided up week

Last week was the first time I divided up my nights at work. I worked Sunday night, Tuesday night and Saturday night. I much prefer working 3 in a row - it's just easier to stay in that frame of mind & on the proper sleep schedule.

I already wrote in my last entry about Sunday night, so I'll try to remember Tuesday night. Nothing really stands out...hmmm. I'm telling you...my memory is shot...lol. Ok, it's coming back to me. It was what some would claim a busy night for me, but yet I didn't feel busy. Right before I got to work, one of my patient's signed out AMA (against medical advice)...so I was automatically down to 3 patients. They changed the assignment a little so that I would have 4 patients...a new admit waiting in ER. About 20 minutes later, I'm discharging one of those patients. Right after that I got my new admit, took care of her admission & off to bed she goes. Ok, so back to 3 patients...no problem...with the computer charting, it takes very little time to complete the necessary paperwork for charting & I'm looking for stuff to do to pass the time.

Around 11 pm, I get a fax report of a test one of my patients had done. The results were negative & according to my doctor's orders, this patient was to be discharged if the results were negative. I run it by my clinical leader because my patient is now sleeping & it's after 11 pm. She says "If the order says to discharge, you have to discharge." So I hesitantly go into my patient's room, wake her up & give her the news. Luckily she was thrilled with the idea of going home - she said "You just made me the happiest person." Whew...didn't think she'd be that thrilled about being woken up & kicked out of the hospital. So it takes about 10 minutes to discharge her and I'm down to 2 patients. I can't even really remember much in detail about them. I know one was a man with congestive heart failure that was improving. All he wanted to do was sleep. My other patient - in with chest pain & just wanted to sleep also.

I was told I was getting another admission & that was before I had even discharged the last patient. No problem, something to pass the time. I don't remember her diagnosis, but she was another one that simply wanted to sleep since it was after midnight. About the same time as all this is happening, the hospital decides our hallway floors need to be cleaned. It's a pain in the neck because we aren't allowed to walk on it & it's just a mess that lasts for hours. So there I am at about 2:30 am, with a laptop in my new patient's room & I'm charting in the dark while she sleeps because our nurses station is a mess due to the cleaning of the floors. Talk about an all-time low!

It was actually a blessing in disguise. I volunteered for the next admission even though it could have gone to another nurse. I was told it was a confused patient that was a handful. Due to our floors being cleaned, we couldn't take the patient at that time...darn...lol. Now it's after 5 am & the ER is not happy we have delayed taking this patient. That made me wonder about this patient....how bad is she that the ER can't wait to get her out of there? Finally the floor are done around 6 am & I get report. The ER nurse brings the patient around 6:30 am - which I think is ridiculous...hello, shift change starts at 6:40. I end up just taking the patient's vital signs, make sure she's comfortable in bed & give report to the oncoming nurse. This confused patient though...oh boy...it's not so much that she was confused as she was just in her own world. When she spoke, she sounded like Marge from the Simpsons. She was very unique...I'll take that over some confused person that is yelling or hitting.

So after 2 discharges & 3 admits all in one night...I was glad to go home. I went out Wednesday night with 3 of my best friends...we all went to high school together - that's how far back our friendships go. What is that...like 25 years or so. One of them I've known since I was born. It was nice being able to just kick back, relax & catch up with each other. We stayed at the restaurant for nearly 4 hours!

Thursday night was spent celebrating my niece's 10th birthday. She was so excited & so happy. Friday was spent carrying on the celebration & taking her shopping at her favorite clothing store "Justice" & also over to Libby Lu's for a makeover & some new boots. I can't believe she's 10 already. Where does the time go?

Friday night I went to the county fair...I haven't been there in years. I forgot all of the junk food they sell there...but it is good...lol. They had tons of rides & the usual livestock, but they also had tigers. Beautiful tigers...I love looking at wild animals. I think next month I'll take my niece & nephew to Disney's Animal Kingdom. I haven't made it over to that park yet.

Saturday night I worked...only I wasn't a nurse that night. I was the unit secretary. They rotate the nurses into that role when they are fully staffed & I didn't mind one bit. I had 8 admissions to do, but it wasn't bad. I don't really care for ICU admissions because it's so different than PCU...but I was floated around to whoever needed help with their admissions. The rest of the time I sat & chatted. It was great.

I'm trying to buy a digital camera...the one I want is either backordered or overpriced on Ebay. It's a Polaroid I733...it's pink...for breast cancer awareness. Wal-Mart was selling it for $149 which is a great price for a 7 megapixel camera, but they are back ordered...grrr. Anyone have any other suggestions regarding a great digital camera? I was hoping to have one before Thanksgiving next week.

I've got volleyball tonight & back to work tomorrow night...ahh, the life of a nurse...lol.