My day so far

Right now I'm listening to the soundtrack to Moulin Rouge. Because, why not? Who doesn't love Elephant Love Medley?

The last few weeks at work have been somewhat hectic, with very very very busy patients. (in hospital-speak, everyone was high acuity.) That isn't always a bad thing, necessarily, (I did get the opportunity to learn about peritoneal dialysis for example), but it does leave you exhausted at the end of the shift. This week, just before I transition back to working day shifts again, I had two night shifts of the type that reminded me why I liked night shifts in the first place. All of my patients went to sleep! I still had plenty to do, checking blood sugars every hour on my guy with the insulin drip, drawing blood every six hours on my lady with the heparin drip, giving pain meds and pedal doppler checks and dressing changes and answering all the questions of the patients visitors. But still, things got done, I like the nurses and techs I work with, and it couldn't have been smoother. Very nice.

Today I'm staying up as late as I can to try and get my body ready for my Saturday day shift. It took me two to three weeks before I adjusted to nights, so I imagine the shift back will be just as long. But I'm glad I have two more days to get ready.

We had our second couchsurfer last weekend, a young au Pair from France. We were supposed to have a guy from Ecuador here right now, but he never showed up. This is a little irritating, because we turned other people down for this time slot. I mean, I totally understand that schedules can change very quickly when you are traveling, but still, a quick email would have been nice. Oh well. We are learning which kinds of people we prefer hosting - mostly people who like to talk!

In the spring the hospital is making the transition from paper to computer charting. Today I ran over and took a look at some of the equipment they are trying to choose between. In some ways computer charting is going to be totally awesome. But holy crap is the transition going to be a nightmare.