Amoxicillin

Shay & I are both on Amoxicillin...lol.  She's on it to prevent any infection after getting spayed.  I took her in yesterday & she seems to have done well.  She was a bit groggy last night, but today she is back to her normal self.  She doesn't even seem to be in any pain today - amazing!

I'm on the antibiotic because of the toothache that began last week.  I saw my dentist on Thursday & he started a root canal...fun fun.  $705 later, I have to go back in October so he can finish it.  He's a very busy dentist, but I've been going there for 17 yrs & he is very personable.  So I'm not switching dentists until I absolutely have to.  Besides, I need some time to save up to pay that $705...ugh.  At least the pain is gone.

I worked Sun, Mon & Tues nights.  The one patient that stood out for me is one that came in with a migraine headache, was admitted with chest pain (who knows why - she never had chest pain) and ended up having surgery to remove her gallbladder.  It's usually a relatively simply surgery. I had it done back in 1996 & recovered fine.  Then again, I didn't have the surgeon she had.  He's pretty new & isn't very good yet.  It was also discovered that she had blood clots - one in her upper arm, one in her chest and one in her leg.  No one knew why she was clotting like that - so they started her on Heparin to thin her blood & prevent anymore clots.  Anyways, she had the surgery on Saturday, I was her nurse Sunday night.  I had been told she was anxious & there was Xanax ordered for her.  I gave her some with her nighttime meds.  Around 11:30, the tech went in to take her blood pressure & noticed blood on her gown.  I immediately lifted her gown to see where she was bleeding & it was a tiny but steady trickle from one of her incisions.  He had put a durabond type adhesive rather than stitches & I don't know if she scratched it or what...but it was bleeding & it wasn't stopping even with pressure.  I decided to put some 2x2's over it & tape - hoping the pressure would stop the bleeding.  It didn't.  So I replaced that dressing, put more 2x2's & covered it with surgical tape.  You could still see that it was bleeding.  At the same time, the patient was freaking out & yelling "I'm bleeding!!!!!!  Oh my god!!!!!"  I tried to get her to look at where she was bleeding from because it was just a tiny little spot, but she wouldn't look.  Then she got even more hysterical & was asking what if she was bleeding internally.  Her blood pressure was fine & I tried to reassure her that she was ok. 

I eventually called the surgeon, who of course wasn't on call.  I got one of his partners who told me to apply a pressure dressing and continue the Heparin.  It was exactly what I had been doing, but I needed to make sure one of the doctors on her case was aware of the situation.  I ended up taking an abd pad instead of 2x2's...it can absorb more - thus last longer as a dressing & taped it down with surgical tape.  Later when the surgeon came in & took the tape off - she had stopped bleeding.  Yay!

However, now she had other problems.  She wasn't urinating.  The dayshift helped assist her to the bedside commode & I guess when she stood up, she began vomiting.  Then she became diaphretic and very unstable.  They ended up moving her to ICU where they discovered she was bleeding internally!  Aaaccckkk & here I was reassuring her she was fine the day before.  It was just a small internal bleed...I guess the surgeon nicked something & with the Heparin going - it stopped the area from clotting off.  I don't know why she was having trouble urinating though.  The Heparin was discontinued in order to stop the internal bleeding. I don't know what they are going to do with the blood clotting problem.  She was also receiving blood transfusions as her H&H kept dropping.  The poor lady - recovery is not supposed to be this difficult. 

It's scary seeing some of these surgical patients that come in for something that is supposed to be simple & routine and they end up in ICU.  I hope she is ok.

I only work 2 days this week and I have CPR class on Wednesday night.  I'm so tired today & not really sure why.  Maybe I'm just a night owl - cause I always seem to be tired during the morning hours. 

Have a good weekend everyone!