kapachino

Blog

  • Not A New Subject Yet

    I was really wanting to talk to you about something other than my job and my wedding today. But, not yet.

    I have been taking care of patients completely on my own for about a week and a half now. One patient I have been the primary nurse for since about a month ago. I have built a strong relationship with her sister (she herself does not speak due to a stroke). Last Friday through Monday I took care of three patients, all of whom I knew and had taken care of before.

    Today, after one day off, I arrived at work and the first thing I noticed was that my patient for the past month wasn’t on the floor anymore. After questioning, I found out that she was transferred to ICU yesterday, having become septic. That was a downer.

    Then I received my assignment for the day and I was given four patients, all brand new who I knew nothing about, and two were due for discharge. You might think that’s a good thing, because they’d be leaving. However, discharges and admissions take a lot of time. There is paperwork, medication reconciliation, fulfilling doctor’s orders, and preparing them to leave to take care of. Both of my patients wanted to leave as soon as possible, and the beginning of the shift is always busy anyway.

    A little bit later, the doctor of a patient I had over the weekend came to the unit and informed us that after he was discharged last night (against medical advice), he went home and shot himself in the head. Wow.

    After I got through all of that, the day got better. And tomorrow, I hope to come to you with something completely new and random!

  • Start of a Day

    My first wedding disaster dream: It was the day of my wedding and I had left the flowers and centerpieces up to my mom to figure out. I arrived to find that the flowers were hot pink and the centerpieces were doll figurines.

    Sorry to anyone who hates reading about other people’s dreams, but I felt it was a duty to myself to chronicle that one.

    I love my day off during the week. Today I plan to have lunch with David at his work, buy my brother a birthday gift, and shop for bridesmaid shoes and other things. I’m also thinking about taking Cleo to the dog park. Thinking about it. Poor girl, I haven’t had as much time for her lately.

    What I have done so far this morning is eat a bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats, read today’s entry in My Utmost For His Highest, and browse the first 75 pages or so of Real Simple’s September issue. A good start, I think. Up next is a shower, and then I’ll consider whether I have time to make it to the dog park and back in time to get to Chick-fil-a before their breakfast menu closes. David loves the chicken biscuits for lunch and I promised I’d bring them to him.

  • I Love My Job…I Love My Job…I Love My Job…

    Even when I have to wake up at 4:30 a.m. on Saturday morning to go.

    Even when I have to clean poop out of an opening it shouldn’t be coming from.

    Even when the hospital shuts the water off on our floor without telling us, so that everyone goes to the bathroom and is unable to flush for hours and hours, and the rooms and hallways start to smell.

    Even when one of my patients spits up phlegm every five minutes into a cup that he leaves sitting at his bedside, and I have an attack of dry heaves in the bathroom just thinking about it.

    Even when another patient vomits all over himself and the floor.

    It’s worth it when they all tell me how glad they are that I am their nurse, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t looking forward to going home at the end of the day, eating burgers, and hanging out with my fiance and my dog. I love my job, but some days I don’t like it very much.

  • Hmm

    Today as I was exiting the bus I looked at the bus driver and had the thought, “I wouldn’t want to have a job like that where all these people’s lives are in my hands. If she messed up we could all die.”

    Then I remembered what I do for a living.

  • Late – Early – Late

    This morning my alarm went off at 4 a.m. and I pushed snooze until 4:45 a.m., apparently. That’s a lot considering my snooze only lasts 4 minutes. I usually don’t do that, but I guess I was especially tired. Anyway, I got up in a rush because I have to leave by 5:10 a.m. to catch the bus, and I still had to shower. I was all of a sudden filled with energy.

    But then when I was in the shower I realized that I have class today, so I didn’t have to be at work until 8 a.m. Immediately I was overwhelmed with sleepiness. I went from being late to being extremely early. So I took my time getting ready, browsed the internet and finished reading a book. I caught the bus a little early.

    Then when I was on the bus I realized that the class time had gotten moved to 7 a.m. Shoot. Luckily, the teacher was running late too.