A weekend of work

Hoo-boy. Saturday was a pretty busy shift for me at work.

- one patient had a heparin drip and needed blood draws every six hours,
- one patient had an external fixator to his leg and required "meticulous pin care",
- one patient had a wound vac to wall suction,
- one patient had feedings via his Pegtube (plus I had to crush all of his meds),
- one patient was starting to have hallucinations,
- two patients were on anti-nausea drugs around the clock,
- one patient vomited an entire liter,
- two patients received blood transfusions,
- all four patients received insulin with each meal,
- all four patients needed pain meds every two or three hours,
- one patient had a PCA started,
- all four were on telemetry, and one was on continuous pulse ox,
- two were on lasix and voided almost six liters between them.

At the end of the day, I walked into the room of the guy I'd been crushing his pills for his pegtube all day, and found him eating pizza he had ordered. You can eat a pizza but you can't swallow your pills? ::sigh::

The good news is - my day was actually ok. I was running around like crazy, things were obviously very busy with call lights going off all the time ("I need pain meds!!"). But at least I've gotten to the point where everything I had to do was firmly within my knowledge base. So maybe I didn't have time to stop to eat even my granola bar, but on the other hand I felt like I blinked and suddenly the day was over. Also, I had some great backup help from my charge nurse and our techs. Yesterday was a lot more under control without having to repeat the blood transfusions and the heparin drip reached therapeutic levels so I only had to draw his blood once. But I'm getting a grip on all this stuff that nurses do, and that is a good feeling.

I still learn new things every shift though. Like I'd never given nitro paste before, and this weekend two of my patients were on it, so now I'm good with that. (And boy does it work for bringing blood pressure down!) Vaseline gauze to external fixator pin sites? Check. I remember the first time I had to give a blood transfusion, and how overwhelming it all seemed, all the double checks, all the paperwork, all the vital sign checks. Now it is just a straightforward task, even if it is time consuming.

Under the category of something you would only hear in a hospital, I heard this being asked from across the entire unit "Hey, can you tell me about that bowel movement?" I won't get graphic, but the response included the phrase "banana-sausage sized". Seriously.

So I'm back to work tonight, and I think I will be getting all four patients back. Except for the guy with the hallucinations, I think night shift will be a bit easier for them. I doubt any of them will actually sleep much, but people still tend to quiet down at night. And I'll only have to give insulin once! Then I'm off until Saturday. Which is great, because I need some time to do some Mother's Day shopping. At least I have a good idea of what I want to do, I just hope the mail gets it there in time.

Now I have to go take a nap. I'm not tired, but I know I'll do better if at work if I get some sleep today.