I go back to work tomorrow night and lucky me...it's a full moon. At least I'll have my orientee for a couple of nights. Last week was rough....not the patients so much, just the being back to work part.
I did have one patient whose daughter was a bit over the top. She was more like a tornado than anything else. Luckily, she adored me & I was spared her bizarre behavior. I don't know what exactly went down Saturday night, but I was told she was so irate that she made the night nurse cry. Huh??? This was the report I got with the added "She'll be here a little later." Oh great! Lucky me! I introduced myself to the patient....and older male whose hemoglobin level kept dropping even though they ruled out any bleed in the GI tract. He & his family were frustrated because the doctors had no answers as well as they hadn't seen a doctor since Thursday & they were just basically pissed off.
Timing is everything & again...lucky for me, the doctor was rounding when the daughter was there. I stood outside of the door (out of sight, out of mind!!) & listened to the daughter scream at the doctor. I give him credit for remaining calm despite her erratic behavior. I just don't get people like that...people that feel the need to scream at other people. This wasn't even the pt's doctor...it was the doctor on for the weekend & was rounding. He barely knew the guy. She didn't care. She gave him everything she had in the yelling department. I had enough & walked away to take care of my other patients. I just have zero tolerance for drama & that's what I felt like she was creating.
I went back in after the doctor left & she was all smiles with me. I informed her his blood count was dropping again & he may need blood. She was fine with it. He got discharged after a couple of more days. They still didn't know why his blood count was dropping. There was talk that it might be pre-leukemia or some type of bone cancer that inhibits the body from making blood cells. Poor guy!
I had another patient that came in with a fever & a little bit of dizziness. So what do they do....put him on special precautions until we rule out the swine flu. Come on.....for a fever??? Beyond ridiculous. I was a little concerned about him as his fever really wasn't responding to Tylenol. He showed up on the floor with a fever of 103.1. The lowest I could get it was 102.4. So I call the MD & ask if we can try Motrin since he has had 2 doses of antibiotics & 2 doses of Tylenol & his fever is still quite high. The response I got....NO, stick with Tylenol. Whatever!
I guess there is something viral going around that has a symptom of a high fever that sticks around for a few days. There's not much medication wise that has much of an effect on it. It's definitely not swine flu. Which speaking of....do we even hear about it any more on tv or in the news? No. Total overhype!
Now to the good stuff...the cruise. I loved it. There is just something different about going on vacation & going on a cruise. It's like an escape from reality. Everyone (well mostly everyone) is happy & nice & gets along well. Then again, it could be all the alcohol most people are drinking. :) The first day/night on the cruise was the time when I drank the most. I learned the most incredible thing that day. In fact, I can't believe I went 41 yrs without learning this sooner. There is a drink called a Miami Vice. It is half pina colada & half strawberry daiquiri. They really should rename it Paradise!!!!
Sometime during that night, we decided to do shots of Alabama Slammer. I can't remember the last time I did shots. We ended up walking around the ship until like 3 am. Crazy...but still fun. The second day was time to get some sun. We were at sea for the day. It was also formal night = lobster tail dinner. Well worth having to dress up. :)
Our first day at port, we were in Grand Cayman. My friend wanted to do this Reefs & Rays snorkeling excursion. I reluctantly agreed. I just am not big into snorkeling or watching sea creatures swimming around under me....especially sting rays. You know...the same type of creature that killed The Alligator Hunter. We had to take a bus to another boat & then the boat drove out like 20 min to the Barrier Reef. The captain was basically like "Ok, here's your gear, stay in front of the boat & have fun." There was like 29 of us just staring at him like "huh?" I am all for being independant, but I have never used a snorkel outside of a swimming pool & seriously...that's not exactly what I'd consider snorkeling. Then he mentions "don't get too close to the barrier reef or you won't survive it." Ummm, what does that mean? What exactly happens? Hmmm, maybe I rather not know. So we are basically thrown off the back of the boat & on our own. It was nice.....not particularly exciting to me....because I am just fine with looking at pretty fish in fish tanks, but it was an experience.
The captain starts whistling for us to get back in the boat. Once again...no assistance given. Just a basic "take your time & climb back in, hold onto your gear." Yeah, easier said than done. He then drives us to another location & tells us all to hurry up & get in the water so he can throw out the sting ray bait. Ummm, is anything else gonna show up...like sharks??? So we all get in the water (like idiots) & sure enough...there are sting rays everywhere. The captain is telling us we can touch them, just don't get near their tail. Yeah, ok, buddy. I'm not diving down to touch a sting ray. I've done it plenty of times at Sea World.
It was creeping me out to look down in the water & see these things swimming under me. I just kept picturing in my head that one will start to rise to the surface & bump into me & get me with it's stinger. No thanks....I got back in the boat after about 10 min. I was obviously not the only one with these thoughts as many others were getting out of the water too. The current was pretty strong too & once again the captain gave us a warning that if we happen to drift past a certain point, we might be goners. Great! Just what I want to hear. Although Grand Cayman is beautiful, it's not where I want to die.
The next day we went to Cozumel, Mexico. That was an adventure in survival skills. We didn't do any excursions...just wanted to mainly do a little shopping & go to Senor Frogs. We took a taxi to get to Senor Frogs, but as we walked towards it, this guy that owned a jewelry store begged us to come in...with the promise that he'd give us a free charm. I don't want a free charm! But they beg & plead, so we're like "fine, dude." Once we're in his store, my friend starts shopping for bracelets. I had zero interest in buying any jewelry, so I was just walking around the shop. As my friend was trying to narrow down her selections, the guy turns to me & says "You want a beer??" Uhhhh, what?? He repeats it again & I was thinking "noooo, I don't want a beer from a stranger in Mexico." I politely decline, but he runs off to go get it. Sure enough, he hands me a can of beer. Luckily, he brought my friend a diet coke, but she didn't want it. So I took her diet coke. I just am not much of a beer drinker, much less foreign beer that I had never heard of.....and in a jewelry store. Ahhh, Mexico!
My friend bought some bracelets & we got out of there pronto...back on track to go to Senor Frogs. That place is crazyyyyy. I can't even really describe it. It is a very interactive restaurant...by that I mean you barely have 5 min to yourself. There's a clown making balloon animals, there's a photographer taking your picture, there's a guy wanting to give you a Henna tattoo. There's another guy that is trying to give you free shots of tequila. There is another guy giving some other free shots away...who knows exactly what it was, but sure enough, we drank it. We did a little more shopping & ended up at Fat Tuesdays. We had one of those in Orlando back in the 90's, so I was familiar with it & definitely more my style.
Our last day on the ship was another day at sea. Only this time it was a very wavy day at sea. I loved it....it was like being on a non-stop mini-rollercoaster. Other people didn't enjoy it quite as much as I did. It pretty much lasted the entire day & night...not sure why, but oh well. Our ship was full...totally sold out. I went on the Carnival Inspiration & although it is one of the smaller Carnival ships....I was impressed with it. For having over 2600 passengers, everything went very smoothly.
I'm already planning to go on another one in November. I cannot
wait. Speaking of cannot waiting.......one week from Thursday & I'll be seeing my favorite guy in concert = Tim McGraw. Lady Antebellum is opening for them. I'm going to spend a couple of days up in Jacksonville....just a mini getaway. Can't wait!
Hope everyone is doing well. :)
