Category: day in the life

day in the life // may 2014

Last week I decided it was time for another day in the life. I recorded everything on Instagram, but here it is again all together.

5:37 am : the day begins with coffee. Liam has been awake for half an hour already so I just brought him out with me.

5:45 am : Meredith woke up crying asking to hold me. Now I have both of them on my lap. It’s going to be a sub-par Bible study this morning.

6:04 am : working on a God-centered mindset in the midst of distraction.

6:24 am : morning routine includes bottle prep. I have a helper for everything.

7:10 am : conquered the getting dressed meltdown and are headed out the door. (Five minutes later, that is, since someone had to dirty his diaper right as we were leaving.) (Make that ten minutes later, since someone didn’t want to leave her coloring and then insisted on having crackers.)

7:29 am : daycare dropoff. Preschool room was crazy, baby room was calm. In and out.

7:58 am : settling in at work. I’m actually alone in the clinic today. I got my rooms set up and now I’m checking charts waiting for the first patient.

8:04 am : I have time to eat a little breakfast, which is blueberry maple refrigerated oatmeal.

8:49 am : first patient is here and set up. this is what we’ve got going on.

10:35 am : things got really crazy at work being alone and having three patients come at once. Finally sitting down again; quick twitter break.

11:39am : ran away to spend some time with my buddy the breast pump. this is very late to be pumping but it was so hard to get away.

12:26 pm : having a pre-lunch snack (dark chocolate covered almonds) and logging my calories so far. things have settled down in the clinic.

1:34pm : lunch. there was a birthday potluck today so obviously I had to have cake. I also ate enchilada casserole and salad.

2:09pm : I am pretty worn out after that super busy morning. another cup of coffee while I prep charts for tomorrow.

3:51pm : time to get down to the business of documenting what I’ve done today. still have one patient here but I have all my charting left to do.

4:47pm : pumped once more then I’m out of here. Running a bit late.

5:03pm : this is my exercise time. I planned to run but because I’m running late and feeling stressed we’re just going to have a little yoga situation instead.

5:37pm : daycare pickup time. Liam is my responsibility and David gets Meredith. we both end up there around the same time and it’s just better when we split them this way.

6:22pm : we’re all in the car headed for a spontaneous dinner at my in-laws’ house. little lady is singing nursery rhymes as usual. she yelled at us when we tried to sing too.

6:37pm : the great thing about dinner at the in-laws’ house is I get to rest a bit. starting a frivolous pleasure read tonight while the food cooks.

7:04pm : breakfast for dinner.

7:19pm : puzzles with papa and cousin Lily.

8:29pm : home and we immediately divide and conquer for bedtime routine. Meredith scraped her knees tonight and has two tiny cuts but I can hear her from the other room claiming she can’t walk.

8:45pm : everyone is ready for bed. dramatics over Meredith’s two boo-boos are still happening and Liam spit out half his antibiotic which makes me irrationally angry but we’ve almost made it.

9:07pm : lights out. one day soon we need to get these kids out of our bed but for now they are cuddled up against me and I sure don’t hate it.

May 29, 2014
day in the life of an infusion nurse

I have another post about my job as a chemo infusion nurse for you! This one is a little less serious, as I wanted to give some detail about what my job actually involves. This might seem way too detailed, but I assure you I am summarizing vast amounts of activity here and only hitting the high points! It’s a busy place. The following took place on a Monday, and it actually was one of my less busy days.

One of our infusion suites.

7:30 // I arrive and Patient #1 is there, to get the chemo regimen ABVD. I access her port and draw labs. We were not sent new orders from the doctor’s office, so I start making calls to get those.

8 // I look up my other patients for the day. I see that a favorite and loved one is in the hospital for failure to thrive, so now I am sad. I prepare for the other patients and begin charting.

9 // Patient #2 arrives, to get 5FU + leucovorin. I start his IV and draw labs. Chart.

9:45 // Once I get lab results for both patients and orders for P#1 I order both of their meds (this can’t be done ahead of time and there is usually about an hour wait to get the meds from the pharmacy). Patient #3 arrives, to receive Oxaliplatin. I access her port and draw labs. Chart.

10:15 // Get lab results and order meds for P#3.

10:20 // Patient #4 arrives, getting Alimta. Start IV and draw labs. Chart (I try to keep up with my charting during the day so I don’t have to do it all at the end).

10:35 // Get lab results and order meds for P#4.

10:45 // Start fluid and premed P#1. I usually run fluid on all of my patients, and premeds are given before chemo to prevent nausea and other side effects.

10:50 // Start fluid and premeds for P#2.

11:00 // Start fluid for P#3, page the doctor with questions.

11:10 // Start fluid for P#4.

11:15 // Start the infusion for P#2. Talk to a couple of doctors on the phone and place the new orders I get from them. Go around and check on my patients, updating them. Make more phone calls coordinating care, and do more charting.

11:55 // Start chemo on P#1.

12:20 // Change chemo drugs for P#1, premed P#3, and change chemo drugs on P#2.

12:30 // Start chemo on P#4.

12:35 // Start chemo on P#3. Everyone is now infusing and settled. Time to get lunch! We have sandwiches catered for us. I’m spoiled.

1:00 // Back from lunch. Work on discharge papers.

1:20 // Discharge P#2.

1:40 // Hook up home infusion pumps for P#1 and discharge her.

1:45 // Discharge P#4. Finish charting on all discharged patients and schedule their return appointments.

2:20 // Patient #5 arrives, to get Carboplatin. Yes we still have patients arriving! I am usually not assigned a chemo patient this late in the day, but this one had actually requested me as her nurse. I start her IV and draw labs.

2:40 // Discharge P#3. She’s done with all her treatments so we have a bell-ringing ceremony. Hooray!

3:00 // I chat with and update P#5. Do some more charting.

3:45 // Start fluid and premeds on P#5.

4:00 // It’s time for me to leave but my one remaining patient isn’t done yet. Our clinic is open until 6 p.m. so I give report to one of the late nurses.

4:15 // Finish chatting with the patient and head home!

I love my job because it’s a combination of technical medical stuff that challenges me intellectually and interactions with people that I get to care for and form relationships with. Although every day is somewhat similar, I never know what treatments I’m going to be giving or what issues I’ll encounter, and new drugs keep coming on the market so it’s never boring. I’m so glad I decided to specialize in oncology and infusion specifically because now I feel very confident at what I do!

***

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December 16, 2013
day in the life // april 2013

This is part of Ali Edwards’ monthly day in the life project. In 2013 I am documenting a day at the end of each month and including it as an insert in my Project Life album. This month was done on Tuesday, April 30.

***

4:30am – My alarm goes off. Meredith nurses for awhile and I hit snooze three times.

5:00am – Out of bed! I let the dogs out and tidy up in the kitchen. I hear Meredith wailing from down the hall so I go nurse her again but she is awake. This means I won’t be able to do my morning Bible study, so I go ahead and get us dressed, put on makeup, stuff some diapers, make coffee, and wake up David.

6:09am – We are out the door. I drop Meredith at daycare at 6:17am and it goes well as usual. She is quiet and tolerates my excessive hugging and kissing, but hardly looks at me as I leave.

6:20am – I drive to work, drink coffee, and eat breakfast (refrigerator oatmeal and a banana) on the way. Today I am actually in between audiobooks and have no podcasts on deck so I listen to nothing and just think.

7:10am – I park and get on the shuttle. I pull out a new book I’m just starting for book club – The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler. I read while I ride, then as I’m walking to my floor since it’s several buildings and elevator rides away.

7:27am – Clock in. Write down my patient assignment for the day and set up.

7:35am – My first patient is here so I get his IV started. I begin texting with my friend Lauren about the book Matched by Ally Condie which I just finished.

8:00am – I work on the computer (charting for work but also updating Goodreads, writing a Yelp review, sending an Evite, and checking email). Our pharmacy is running slow and I’m waiting on meds to be delivered. During this time I also text with my husband to check in and we discuss our financial situation.

9:20am – I finally get patient #1’s infusion begun. It’s only 15 minutes long and then I discharge him. I work on and place a large Amazon order.

10:00am – My second patient arrives. It’s her first chemo so I spend awhile talking with her. I access her port and draw labs. Again I’m waiting on meds to arrive so I do computer work – charting and start an email to a friend.

11:00am – Finish a couple long emails to friends. Still waiting on meds!! They are so slow today.

12:00pm – Lunchtime! Today a drug rep brought us salad from Gringo’s along with chips & queso. Yum.

12:45pm – I can finally start the premeds on patient #2.

1:05pm – Chemo is up and running on patient #2. I do a little blog reading.

1:53pm – My third patient arrives. I start her IV and wait on meds.

2:45pm – I start the infusion on patient #3 and catch up on all my charting.

3:00pm – I discharge patient #3 and discharge a patient for my coworker. Then I finish reading all the posts in my Feedly reader.

4:10pm – I get patient #2’s second infusion started then give report to a coworker. I forgot to chart some meds so I do that real quick and then clock out at 4:17pm and head to the shuttle.

4:37pm – I’m in my car and headed home! Starbucks stop, oops.

5:30pm – I stop off at a friend’s house to pick up a bunch of cloth diapers she’s no longer using.

6:05pm – I get to my in-laws’ house where David and Meredith await me. We talk about our days and I nurse Meredith, we eat dinner (hot dogs, fruit salad, carrots & dip), play outside with our nephew and niece, I talk books with my brother-in-law Scott.

7:17pm – We leave. I take Meredith by Famous Footwear and Target to look for sandals for her, but no luck. (Spoiler: we ended up buying these for her the next day.)

7:40pm – At home again and I feed the dogs and tidy up. I pull out the huge pile of diapers we just added to our stash. Super excited about them. Soon Meredith starts tantruming. We take a shower and afterwards she gets very attached to her towel and won’t let it go. We dress and get ready for bed.

8:50pm – I nurse Meredith in bed and she falls asleep. David comes home from a quick trip to the bookstore and we talk for awhile.

9:50pm – Sleep time for me!

Notes:

>This took place on the 30th which was a normal Tuesday. It was much harder to document when I had to work (and I failed to get many pictures during the day because of patient privacy issues) but I did my best.

>This was an extremely slow work day! I usually don’t have time to do so much personal stuff on the computer, and normally I wouldn’t even have been able to detail what I did with my patients. Unfortunately even though it was slow I still left late because of one patient.

>I didn’t get any photos of David and that makes me sad! He doesn’t really like having his picture taken but I still want to. I actually didn’t see him as much as usual this day so I hope next month it’s a normal family evening at home.

>My favorite moment of the day was pulling up at my in-laws’ house and seeing David and Meredith outside waiting for me.

>Loving this project! I’ve gotten away from taking everyday photos so it gets me back in gear.

May 7, 2013
day in the life // march 2013

I have decided to participate along with Ali Edwards’ monthly day in the life project. I wasn’t prepared to start at the beginning of the year but I think I can pull it off once a month from here on out. It happens during the last week of the month, usually the last day, but since in March that day was Easter Sunday I chose to document Friday the 29th, which I had off work. So this is a fairly typical weekend-ish day for me. I’ll be including these photos as an insert in my Project Life as well as the form I used to journal on.

4:30am – My alarm went off as usual for a weekday, but since I was not working that day I turned it off and went back to sleep.

5:00am – Meredith nursed. David was snoring so I kicked him.

6:00am – Meredith said “mommy” and cuddled up to me in bed (she still sleeps with us). David’s alarm started going off every 15 minutes as usual for him on a weekday, so I turned it off. At 6:30 Meredith nursed again and we continued to doze.

7:15am – Meredith woke up for real, saw our dog Cleo in the bed, pointed and yelled “Babo!” (that’s what she calls dogs). Diaper change, let the dogs out, COFFEE, Bible study while M. played with her mini kitchen. I gave her her antibiotic.

8:00am – We had breakfast (eggs with cheese and refrigerator oatmeal) while Cleo looked on longingly. I started on a flurry of chores – laundry, tidying up, water plants, take out trash, sweep – while Meredith wandered around making more of a mess.

9:00am – We took a long shower then got dressed and ready for the day. David was still sleeping; I usually let him sleep really late at least one day each weekend.

10:00am – Meredith and I went to pick up her used diapers from daycare that were left there yesterday, got gas in the car, then went to Target. We started at the Starbucks where I had a drink and we shared a blueberry muffin. I tried on a few clothes, though none of them fit right, picked out a potty chair for M. (it’s the only thing I ended up buying), and browsed the girls’ clothes and craft section. Drove home.

12:00pm – I got the diapers in the wash then quickly made my friend Lauren a birthday card while Meredith completely trashed the craft room. I tried to wake David up but failed. :)

1:00pm – We met Lauren at Red Oak Grill for her birthday lunch. Meredith got hummus everywhere and I enjoyed a ham & cheese sandwich. Lauren and I then drove to Sweet Things ice cream shop and Meredith fell asleep in the car on the way there. She stayed asleep in my arms while I ate a delicious cup of chocolate ice cream, but woke up right before we left to say goodbye to Lauren.

3:00pm – We came home (David was out doing errands), I got Meredith down for a nap, played Candy Crush on my phone until I was sure she was asleep, cross stitched a few lines and then decided to get a Project Life spread done.

4:30pm – Meredith woke up. I photographed my PL album then we went for a walk. Our neighbor saw us and brought over an Easter cupcake. We ate it in the backyard.

5:30pm – Started going through some hand-me-down clothes for Meredith that I recently got from a friend. David came home, and we drove over to his brother’s house for dinner. After we ate we all played outside awhile.

7:30pm – We came home, played with bubbles, and I continued moving the laundry through.

8:00pm – I quickly cleaned up Meredith’s room and packed our bags because we were leaving early the next day to spend a day out of town for an antique festival. We went through our normal bedtime routine, then I tried to get M. to pee on her potty chair but she just sat there playing with toilet paper.

9:00pm – I browsed blogs on my phone while Meredith nursed. She was squirmy and distractible instead of falling asleep easily so I turned off my phone.

9:45pm – She’s finally asleep! I was exhausted too and it’s lights out.

April 4, 2013
day in the life // girls’ day off

This year I decided that it’s good for my health and sanity to take a random day off work every month or so. Sometimes I need those days to be “me” days where I still put Meredith in daycare and have some time to myself. But other times I want some extra time with her, and that’s what I did yesterday.

7:00 a.m. / we’re up and David’s up and we see him off to work shortly.

8:00 a.m. / Meredith still has a cough and congestion so before we do anything else we take a steamy shower/bath. Her favorite thing is to fill a cup up with running water and dump it out over and over.

8:30 a.m. / it’s kind of cold today so I blow-dried her hair. Now it’s a big puff.

8:45 a.m. / time for breakfast. For her it’ll be eggs and banana, for me a bagel, coffee, and whatever she doesn’t eat.

9:30 a.m. / I open all the doors to the house because it’s beautiful outside. Meredith plays outside while I putter around taking care of odds and ends.

10:00 a.m. / I get to spend some time working on my advent calendar (and actually finish later on in the day). I’m very pleased with it.

10:45 a.m. / we are all dressed and ready to head out for some errands. We drop something off at my brother-in-law’s house, return some books to the library, then head to the craft store.

11:35 a.m. / my dad calls me and says he’s driving right behind me! He pulls into the parking lot of the craft store and we have a quick chat and hug. Then I buy a few supplies for my December daily album.

12:00 p.m. / we visit David at work! Meredith cries when anyone other than us tries to hold her, but she gets excited when she sits in his chair. Everyone wants to see her and talk so we’re here about an hour.

1:10 p.m. / I was hoping to get lunch in her before nap, but she fell asleep on the ride home. Unfortunately she doesn’t stay asleep when I try to lay her down.

1:30 p.m. / so I try to feed her lunch but she only eats a few ravioli before throwing them all on the ground. The dogs are happy.

1:50 p.m. / I expect her to be grumpy because she’s barely slept or ate but she’s actually being really silly and adorable. She played peekaboo with the curtains and tried to ride our dog Cleo. In the meantime I finish up the advent calendar.

3:30 p.m. / I transition my craft focus to prepping my December daily album.

4:00 p.m. / Meredith still hasn’t napped and is starting to lose her cool. I decide it’s time to take her for a drive and induce a car nap. We pack up and drive into town and park at West Elm in anticipation of the Young House Love book signing I’m going to later. Meredith wakes up after about an hour and I give her some snacks in the car. I try to read but she’s becoming antsy so I put her in the stroller, go buy my book, and get in line.

5:45 p.m. / Lauren joins us! It’s a long 2-hour wait in line but she makes it lots better. Meredith does pretty well but wants to get into everything and I am exhausted from holding her & constantly entertaining her.

7:45 p.m. / we made it to the front of the line! Our interaction is brief, but John & Sherry are super nice. They comment on Meredith’s hair (it’s the first thing anyone notices about her) and how they got their daughter’s name the same way we got hers (a grandmother’s name). Afterward we go straight home.

8:30 p.m. / trying to nurse Meredith to sleep but she’s still restless! What is with this kid today? It takes at least an hour to get her to sleep and when she finally does it’s on top of me, and I’ve drifted off too.

November 16, 2012