Commit me now!

Yes, that's right...commit me now. Dare I say it...I am actually looking forward to going back to work later tonight! What is wrong with me??? Lol...seriously, this is so not me. Usually I am the one counting the days down until I am off again (which I am already doing for this week). I've been on vacation for nearly 2 weeks & it feels like it's been 6 months. You don't really need to commit me...because around 10:30 earlier tonight, my hospital called asking if I wanted to work 11 to 7 and me being the reliable person I am...didn't answer the phone. :)

Everyone else is doing them, so I will too...bullet time!

**Why is it that when I go to a restaurant & they ask what I would like to drink & I say "Dr. Pepper"....I get a reply of "We don't have Dr. Pepper, but we do have root beer." Ummm, I don't know about the rest of you...but in my experience, root beer isn't anything like Dr. Pepper.

**I just got done eating some pumpkin seeds & every time I do this, afterwards I am left wondering why I even bothered. They are too salty, too much work goes into getting them out of the shell & in the back of my mind...I see a future diagnosis of diverticulosis because I don't always get all of the shell off & end up eating it. Sigh.

**I am way more easy-going than I ever thought possible. My niece & I played this brain-wave game at Wonder Works...where it somehow measured the stress in your mind & would show it on a screen measured thru your brain wave activity. We watched people ahead of us & their activity was all over the place. Then we sat down & practically nothing. Like the lowest line possible on the monitor showed up for both of us. We thought maybe it wasn't working right, but they brought some other people in & bam...it was all over the place again. So either we are both very easy-going or we're brain-dead. Hey...maybe both!

**I am anticipating the next time I can plan a vacation strictly for the chance to bid on priceline again...lol.

**I saw the movie Salt tonight - was way better than I expected, however I had no expectations at all...so figure that one out!

**I stayed up until 6 am yesterday rearranging & reorganizing room...because I can!!! (and just maybe it needed to be done)

**I watched a new show called Last Chance Highway...and started crying profusely...tears of happiness. It's an 8 episode show about a lady that goes to dog pounds & saves dogs. It shows how she picks them out, how she takes them into her home & how she gets them adopted. The crying began when the saved dogs met their future families. What can I say...I have a weak spot for doggies. Google it if interested.

**I had a lady come up to me in a parking lot asking for money. Hmmm...that sounds like she was robbing me...she definitely wasn't doing that. She was just asking for a handout. I felt bad, but at the same time I just wondered how legit she was. I've got no problem donating to shelters or causes or co-workers, etc....but I don't like strangers approaching me in parking lots.

**My last entry will be a reminder to those in the dating pool.....DO NOT get drunk on a first date & gross out the people sitting at the next table over. I took my niece & nephew to Applebee's for dinner after the movie. We had the pleasure of sitting next to this scary looking couple of characters on their first date. I swear they had 6 drinks each & had yet to order dinner. He was really loud, but suddenly it went quiet so I made the mistake of glancing their way only to find them making out at the table. Uhhh....gross!!!!! I'm trying to eat here. Needless to say, we skipped dessert & got out of there as quickly as possible.

OMG

How is it possible that it is August 1st right now & the only thing I posted in the last month was a few sentences about going on vacation? OMG...I am really slacking.

I wish I could blame it on overworking or having such an exciting, busy life that I haven't had time to post...but umm, no, that's not it. In fact, I've been off of work for nearly 2 weeks now. I go back Monday night. I guess I've just gotten super lazy. Sorry.

My latest orientee just took her NCLEX board exam & passed. Yay! So that means she'll still be on orientation until the end of September....again Yay! I'm getting really used to teaching new nurses. I hope I'm doing a good job. My first orientee is doing wonderfully for a new nurse. My second one seems to have conflict everywhere, that even I don't understand. And my latest one...it's like having a puppy. New nurses are so eager to learn, so eager to do stuff. I looked back on one of the sayings I read back when I was a new nurse. It basically compared experienced nurses to new nurses & it cracks me up cause it's 100% true.

Anyways...let's see...I can't really say much about work. Nothing outstanding really comes to mind. My oldest niece has decided to go to nursing school though. She was in college to become a dental hygienist, but after 2 yrs of working towards it....I guess she found it boring. I don't think she has any idea what she's getting into with nursing, but boring would not be one of the words I used to describe it!

My vacation was wonderful. I went to the exciting city of Orlando. Yep....about a 30 min drive from my house...lol. For those that don't know....the south is experiencing an unbearable heat wave. It started in June & just does not seem to be letting up. At 7 pm this evening it was 92 degrees out. And it feels like I'm stepping into a sauna whenever I go outside. I should just sit out there...I swear I could lose 5 lbs just from being outside for about 20 min.

Anyways, I searched & searched & searched every hotel room from Daytona to Fort Lauderdale...looking for something nice, but not too pricey because I needed 2 rooms....my brother & his kids were tagging along & while I don't mind sharing a room with my niece...no way was I going to have my brother & nephew in the room with us. So for a good 2 weeks I looked at nearly every hotel room online. I'm sure I set some type of world record!

The day BEFORE we were set to begin the vacation, I started to panic as I still had yet to make a decision on where to stay. I somehow stumbled across a message board regarding Priceline.com. I am soooooooooo glad I did. It showed me the hotels that are "usually" chosen when you bid. I decided to take a chance. I figured anything rated 4 stars (highest ranking) would be a decent place to stay & secretly hoped for the Hyatt Grand Cypress. The usual rate is around $200 or higher. Hotels.com was offering it for $159. Nope...I wanted a better deal. Soooooo I took a chance & tried priceline. My first attempt at $62 was rejected....grrrr. So I upped it a little & put in $80 & it was accepted!!!!!!!!!! How awesome is that??? It wasn't a bargain...it was a steal!!!!!!!! I reserved it for 2 nights.

Next I attempted to bid on a hotel near Wet n Wild water park...figuring my brother & his children could walk over there while I do a little R&R at the pool. Low & behold, I got my favorite hotel (the one I usually always stay at while in Orlando) for $30 a night. Usually it's $75 & that is with a Florida resident discount. Usually the rooms are like $125. Needless to say...I love priceline. I will attempt more future vacations using it.

We pretty much took it easy. One day of shopping. A night of Wonder Works and the Fun Spot Amusement place. Nothing big....but I am happy as long as I have some sun & a pool.

Hope everyone is doing well. Congratulations to my friend Amanda...she delivered a healthy, beautiful baby girl a few days ago!!

Countdown is on...

The countdown is on...for vacation. I work the next 4 nights in a row & then off for like 10 days. Not sure where I'm going yet, but it will include sun, tropical drinks & a pool.

Out with the Old...

It's a new week...feeling soooo much better than last week. Nothing like having 5 days off to make one forget what they deal with at work. I didn't do much of anything. I did attempt to clean my closet. Well, the closet is looking great, but my bedroom has everything all over the floor that I don't want to put back into the closet. So the bedroom is a disaster, but the closet looks mahveloussss...lol.

I go back to work tonight. It's my orientee's final week before she's on her own. I feel a little bad for her. She tried to match her schedule to mine for next month & they gave her only like 3 days out of 9 that I am working. She's afraid to be without me, but she'll be fine. I felt the same way when I was coming off orientation. I'm also starting tonight with a new orientee. So out with the old, in with the new.

I like having orientee's, but the first week or two is kinda rough. So much to show them & they have so much to learn. I have been lucky - the orientees I've had so far have been pretty quick learners. I'm hoping this one is the same. We'll see.

Hope everyone had a great weekend & stay cool in this hot, hot weather (it's over 100 degrees here in FL...ugh).

What in the World?

What a strange shift it was last night. I don't know what is going on this week, but we seem to have every alcoholic around walking into the ED drunk & wanting a room. As if it's a hotel or a shelter. And they admit them...every time. I certainly didn't go into nursing to babysit drunks. And I'm not talking about drunks who have decided they've had enough of drinking and want to stop. No, all they want is to leave as quickly as they came in so they can resume their lifestyle. Only we can't let them leave because now 3 days later, they are detoxing, confused & not a whole lot of fun to be around.

One of mine almost escaped this morning. I'm not kidding when I say his hand was on the door of the stairway to leave the building. Whew. Close one. And wouldn't you know it's when I wasn't the last one in his room when the bed alarm went off every 15 min. Whoever it was, they forgot to reset the bed alarm...thus the reason he was nearly able to get away. Luckily he was pleasantly confused & walked back to his room with a little bit of coaxing. All while dripping blood up & down the hallways because he pulled out his IV. Did I mention all of this went down around 6:40 am...right as the change of shift was starting to happen.

The one good thing about that.........makes me very eager to go home. And so very thankful my work week is over until next Monday. I have no ill will towards these unfortunate individuals. I try to understand what led them to where they are today & they all have a troubling past.

What I am a bit resentful towards is that this isn't nursing. And it's not so much this incident...in fact it's hardly got anything to do with it other than for a few seconds I think about what if he did leave & no one had noticed? What kind of liability does that put on me? Ugh, don't want to think about it too much. Too scary.

It seems more & more that the hospital as well as the Joint Commission or maybe the hospital is changing simply because of the Joint Commission & all of their changes/requirements/b.s as well as Medicare. Whatever it is, it's not nursing. It's not what I was doing 5 years ago as a nurse. Certainly I can't be the only one that has seen how much other work has been dumped in our laps.

Rarely do we have the time to really be a nurse to our patients. We are expected to be everything....friend, family member, secretary, maid, social worker, counselor, assistant, concierge, detox professional, pharmacists, sleep apnea reps....it goes on & on. How did all of that somehow get lumped into what a nurse is?

Or maybe it's just the dynamics of my unit now that we have no techs and we are basically the only ones the patient interacts with other than the doctors popping in for 30 to 60 seconds & disappearing again. I don't know. Maybe it was just a crazy week & it's got me thinking too much.

Hopefully next week will be a better week.

Close Call

Word of advice to my fellow nurses...please, please, please think before giving hypertensive medications. For some reason, the dayshift nurse felt it appropriate to give Atenolol and Lisinopril to a patient with a BP of approx 92/45. NOT A GOOD IDEA! I had him by the time the meds kicked in with a BP of 62/38. Being an experienced nurse, I knew that a bolus was necessary & got the intervention started quickly.....I don't even want to imagine what the alternative might have been.

Work is going pretty well. I just celebrated my 1 yr anniv at this hospital I switched over to. It went by quickly. I also get a raise this month...sweet.

It has been outrageously hot & humid this month. We're talking like 99 degrees, but with the heat index...more like 105. Ugh. Too hot for me.

Sometimes They Shouldn't Be Saved

We had a code blue about 10 days ago. Don't know why, but a normal alert & oriented person's heart just stopped beating. No real warnings. The code was called. I was handed the book to record the minute by minute details of what happened during the code. I had never done that before, but I learned quickly. My advice...get a blank piece of paper & just start writing stuff down...by the minute. Then after all is said & done, transfer it to the official code paperwork.

Anyways, the patient was asystole....epinephrine and atropine were pushed. CPR continued...we got a pulse, then it went to v-tach and then to v-fib. What do we do with v-fib.......defib. We ended up shocking him 4 times. Just as they were calling for us to stop the code, a normal sinus rhythm popped up on the screen. Sounds like a miracle...but the code had lasted 20 minutes & it's too long without oxygen to the brain. He survived...he's on a vent...but plans to extubate & send him with hospice since he is virtually brain dead.

It's sad...both for the medical staff and the family. We think we were helping, but after all is said & done, we should have let him go a few minutes sooner during that code. I feel for the family...it's a tough decision for them, but they are making the right one.

My orientee is doing well. She's taking the full patient load on her own & I am trying to back off & let her come to me if she needs advice. She has 12 shifts left on orientation, so she needs to learn to be independent. I think this week I will challenge her...when she comes to me to ask a question, I'll ask her what she thinks. It's the best way to learn. She seems to have a good head on her shoulders.

We got fitted for our navy colored scrubs. No one is happy about all looking the same, but there's nothing we can do about it. I'm glad it's not white or some other goofy color. I feel like they are making us generic by all looking the same. Oh well, seems like many hospitals are doing this also. If that's my biggest pet peeve with the hospital, it's not so bad.

I spent last weekend with my three bff's at a hotel in Orlando. One of my friends turned 40, so we spent the day poolside and the night at Citywalk. Stayed the night at the hotel & went shopping the next day. It was a blast!!!

And speaking of bff's......today is Maria's b-day. Happy Birthday, Maria!!! :))