Talk about a Monday.

This morning I was in a patient’s room giving 9 o’clock meds when I heard the sound of running water. At first I thought it was the shower, or perhaps the sink. But there was no one else in the room. A few moments later my confusion evaporated when water began pouring from the ceiling near the door. I kid you not, within minutes the entire room was covered with an inch of water. Brown, stinky, disgusting water. Obviously chaos erupted.

First of all, we had to get the patient and all of her belongings out of the room. That was interesting in itself considering she couldn’t walk and had to be wheeled in her bed. We found an empty room for the patient down the hall and parked her in it. At one point while I was in the leaky room packing her bags the light fixture crashed to the floor. Thankfully I was out of the way, but it sure scared me. We also soon discovered that the water leak was spreading to all of the other rooms nearby, but the one I was inside when it started by far got the worst of it. All in all we had to relocate 5-6 patients STAT.

Once we got them out of the way we focused on containing the leak. We had already thrown down tons of blankets to keep the water from gushing into the hallway. Maintenance got there in a hurry and brought with them huge barrels to vacuum the water into. There might have been 6 inches of water in that room before they began to clean it. The hallway smelled like the big pipes that run through the bayou. I know what those smell like because I used to play in them with my brothers when I was young. We were safe and sanitary like that. They ended up shutting down the entire hall, even the rooms that weren’t affected, so that they could work. Our unit capacity was cut in half.

So THAT was exciting. I have the day off tomorrow so I won’t have to deal with it. I’m secretly hoping that I won’t have to go in to work on Wednesday either, but that probably won’t happen.

If the crazy work day weren’t enough, David and I came home to discover that our air conditioner isn’t working. I set it at 78 degrees before I left this morning, and when I got home it was 83. When I turned it down to cool off, hot air began blowing out, and immediately the temperature began to rise. Obviously, in Houston this is not acceptable, and that is why I am currently at my in-laws’ house (again) waiting to see if we will need a new A/C unit or not.

Update: The compressor was locked up and needed a starter kit applied. So $440 later we’re back in our lovely home and cool as can be. I had better plans for that $440, but I just thank God it wasn’t $4400.