kapachino

Author: Kathleen

  • Seven Things

    I was tagged to write seven things about myself on Saturday by Kaitlyn, and since she said I am an awesome woman I simply must comply. Tomorrow I should have some great pictures of our somewhat-finished living room to share with you, but for now I hope you enjoy these tidbits:

    1. I was born at The Methodist Hospital, same place I now work.
    2. One of my favorite things about my job is when I get to make beds. I’ve always enjoyed that task; I find it therapeutic.
    3. The mattress for our bed is my favorite piece of furniture. It cost $4000 and we are paying it off in two years, no interest. WORTH IT.
    4. I am also still paying off a $2000 credit card debt, amassed while I was in school with only a part-time job and measly loans to pay my bills.
    5. I am considering going back to school in the somewhat-near future to slowly become a nurse practitioner. I probably will, although it frightens me a little. OK, a lot.
    6. I don’t have very many irrational fears, although I almost had a panic attack when attempting to bait a hook with a live shrimp once. And I did have an emotional meltdown when a roach crawled on me in bed while staying at my brother’s house.
    7. My husband is not afraid of shrimp or roaches. And he loves me better than anyone ever could, which is the same way I love him.

  • When It Rains, It Pours (Or Insert Another Such Pun)

    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.

  • Floated!

    This morning when I got to work I found out that we were overstaffed. Usually when that happens they will call you at home and tell you not to come in, but I guess the hospital is trying to save money by not using flex staff (a group of nurses who don’t have an assigned unit, but just work wherever they’re needed) as much, because lately we are getting floated to other units a lot more often. Today, it was my turn.

    I was nervous because I had never floated before and I didn’t know what to expect. But thankfully everyone on the unit I went to was extremely nice and helpful. I don’t have a single bad thing to say about any of the people. It was just one floor below mine, but it has recently been remodeled so everything is a lot nicer and more up-to-date there. (Our unit hasn’t changed since the hospital was built in the 50’s.)

    The bad thing about that is all of the doors that lead to staff-only rooms there (like supply rooms, medication rooms, and the lounge) have badge-swipe entry, and the Pyxis machine, where 80% of the medications are stored, is accessed by fingerprint. But my badge isn’t set up for the doors, and my finger hasn’t been coded to their machine. So the entire day, whenever I wanted access to anything, I had to ask someone. It was very annoying, to me and I’m sure to them too.

    My patients were pretty much a breeze compared to what I’m used to. None of them really complained of anything, and they were mostly independent. It was a general medical floor, and I’m used to patients being a lot sicker than these were. A few hours into the day I got an admission. She was an 88-year-old lady who was extremely hard of hearing so if I wanted to talk to her I had to get RIGHT UP BY HER EAR AND TALK LIKE THIS. She was admitted due to a high fever, elevated white blood cell count, shortness of breath, and was coughing up junk. It was only after I had talked to her several times an inch away from her face, not to mention rolled her from side to side to position her, that I spoke with the doctor. He informed me that she was being put on respiratory isolation due to possible swine flu, and that I should wear a mask when I go in the room. Thanks, Doc. Thanks for being on top of that one. I hope David will still kiss me.

    Being floated also made me appreciate a lot of things about my own unit. My floor is so much more organized and well-stocked, for one thing. It also seems like the nurses there are more current on the latest research and protocols. And, I do have to say, oncology patients are so much more interesting. I think I would be bored out of my mind if I had to work with patients whose admitting diagnosis is “abdominal pain” every day, like 3 out of 4 of my patients today.

    But I got to leave on time today, and when I go back to my unit tomorrow for the dreaded Monday-after-working-the-weekend, I will be happy to be home.

  • my super exciting day off!

    That’s actually not sarcasm, my day was super exciting because I didn’t spend it doing errands, chores, or cleaning. Well, that’s not entirely true. I did laundry, the dishes, and finished putting together the chairs that we recently bought for our kitchen table. I also planned to cook dinner, but David decided to go fishing this evening so instead I’m cooking tomorrow night.

    The bulk of my day was spent with my good friend Sara and her adorable 13-month-old daughter Rory. We went to the skating rink (which looks exactly like you probably remember the skating rink looking when you were a kid, disco ball and everything) for a cheap “Mommy and Me” skate time. Five bucks and I got to whiz around on my rollerblades and show those preschoolers who’s boss. But mostly I got a kick out of watching Rory have a blast.

    dscf2252
    Sara and Rory pushing their strollers!

    Afterwards we had a leisurely lunch at Hungry’s where I indulged in some hummus and pita bread, along with some margherita pizza. Yum. And THEN we went to the neighborhood pool so Rory could play in the water, and I actually got to swim a few laps too. Not the best workout I’ve ever had, dodging kiddos, but I’ll take it.

    When I got home and discovered I wasn’t going to be cooking I decided to watch Wall-E (so cute!) and walk the dogs. And that’s about it for my super exciting day off. On my next super exciting day off I will be painting the fireplace with the help of my friend Lauren. I can’t wait! In the meantime, I have to get to bed because, yeah, I have to work in the morning.

  • The Grind

    At work we do self-scheduling. Every month there is a calendar posted in the break room and we are supposed to fill out what we WANT our schedule to be for the next month by a certain date. Then our boss will take and finalize it, usually giving us what we want but not always. I have had the same schedule since I started working here, which looks something like this (repeating every two weeks):

    calendar
    (OMG I could never be a graphic designer. It took me entirely too long to create this image and it made me want to throw my computer across the room.)

    Well last month I forgot to fill out the self-schedule calendar, so my boss did it for me. She made one little shift: I am now off every other Friday instead of every other Thursday. This may not seem like a big deal, but my body is telling me that it is. “What are we doing at work today?” it’s saying. “Shouldn’t we be at home, cleaning the house like we do every Thursday?” I know I don’t always give my body a huge break on my days off, but at least I do let it sleep a few extra hours (till 7:30 a.m.! Such indulgence!) It’s just the difference of one measly day, but for some reason it feels like for-ev-er.

    Most nurses do 12-hour shifts, and only have to work three days a week. I thought that I would hate such a long shift (I did them during nursing school), so when I was hired onto the only remaining unit in the entire hospital that actually offered 8-hour shifts I was relieved. And, I must say, it IS nice to leave at 3 p.m. (who am I kidding…3:30 p.m. at the earliest) every day, saying goodbye to those suckers working the long hours.

    But the downside is that I have to come to work five days a week. And since I live over an hour away, it has started to wear me out. Many days David beats me home, which is depressing when you think about how he wakes up three hours later than I do and works approximately the same amount of hours. The thought of four blissful days off each week sounds like heaven to me now. I don’t care that the other three days I’ll have no time to do anything but work, eat, and go to sleep. It’s really hard to only have two days off in a row every two weeks.

    I’ve been thinking more and more about requesting to change over to 12-hour shifts, but I’m afraid to rock the boat. The compromise I’ve made with myself, internally, is that I’ll ask to switch whenever I get pregnant (which I’m not, FYI). That way I’ll have a good reason to ask for it.

    Hmm. When I started writing this post I didn’t intend for it to turn into a manifesto on the scheduling woes of nurses. But that’s how things go sometimes, and if I bored you then just wait till tomorrow…it’s my day off which is always super exciting. :)

    Anyone else have crazy work schedules?