Well, not too much has happened since I last wrote. I bought a bike on Saturday. My dad and I looked around at places for 5-6 hours before I actually decided on which one I wanted to get. But I did get one. It's red and grey. She's pretty good.
Other than that, I dropped a bazillion pound wooden chunk thing on my foot and my toe is purple, got pink eye, and the flu. Or something like the flu. Where you are really nauseated and throwing up and when you move your arm it takes a crap load of energy, and when you stand up the room spins and your ears ring, and then you have a temp of 102. It was pretty sweet.
That's really all. I go back to work tomorrow when I can function normally. Bye!
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Monday, April 7, 2008
cleaning
Today my mission is to clean the house. Which is why I'm writing on this blog. It's pretty dirty in here. I don't think I have vacumed for mmm... about 2 months and I'll be walking on the carpet and I'll step on something sharp, and then remind myself that I should vaccum. I also haven't done any laundry since..... this is hard to admit.. ( and also remember when exacly I last did laundry.)... I believe it was February 20th... And most of that stuff was stuff I wore on vacation. The sad thing is I have enough scrubs that I don't have to do laundry. Except Yesterday all of my scrubs were dirty so I just bought some old lady clearance ones at this scrub sale at work so I wouldn't have to do laundry. I also bought some socks so I wouldn't have to do laundry. Good thing I worked at JC Penney's in the lingerie section. I think I have enough underwear to go for half of the year without doing laundry. thank god for that. Anyways, with that explanation one can imagine how much laundry I really have to do at this point in time.
I really think that if someone walked into my apartment at this time, and I wasn't home, they would think someone tried to come in and kill me and we went through a large arduous struggle. Then the murderer won and took all of my clothes out of the closet and the drawers and threw it on the floor and just picked up the pieces he/ or she wanted. Then he would have had to eat a few bowls of oatmeal and leave the dirty dishes around the house.
See, when I eat, I usually eat in random places. Especially since I'm working day shift. I don't leave myself much time to eat. So I'll make some oatmeal, and eat it in the bathroom in between washing my face and brushing my teeth. Or I'll bring the oatmeal in while I'm getting dressed and find a bowl inside of my dresser drawer. At least I don' t have many dishes to do, because I mostly just eat oatmeal or sandwiches, and Sandwiches don't take dishes.
Well, now that you all think I'm the most un-sanitary person alive, maybe I should change the subject.
Work was not fun this past weekend. I worked evening shifts, and the earliest I left the hospital was 1:30. I am supposed to be done by 11:30. Good joke hospital. I was working on tele, and the only person I worked with that actually worked in that area was the charge nurse. Then there was 3 float nurses. Float nurses are nurses that work on the medical floors, surgical floor, or the telemetry unit. Granted, these float nurses had all been float nurses in the hospital for 20 years plus. By this point in time, you would think they would have worked on tele several hundreds of times before. You would think that, and I'm sure they have, but for some reason, they all have down syndrome. Here are the things I would have to do for them.
'Annie, my patient hasn't had a bm for a couple days and really wants an enema.'
- um.. okay. I guess I'll call the on call doctor and get one ordered.
Apparently, they had no idea how to do this. REally... an enema? You don't even have to explain anythign to the doctor on call about the patient. you just say the name, who their doctor normally is, why they are here and that they are a constipated mcgee and owuld like an enema.
8 seconds later, you have an order for a fleets. NOT difficult.
Then there was this one nurse who had had an actively dying patient on a pca pump. (patient controlled analgesia) They are basically hooked up to a morphine pump that gives them so much an hour, and they can hit a little handheld button every 10 minutes or so if they want another bump or morphine. Anywho, her patient kept complaining that he was having a terrible headache and pain. I had to keep calling the doctor FOr her to get the pump raised up. I had been in her room about 50 times to fix the pump for her, because she also didnt' know how to use it. I hadn't had pca pump training since orientation.. and this was a nurse who had worked on the surgical unit.. where people have these pumps ALL of the time. BUt it really isn't that difficult to figure out. The family even asked me, ' Annie, what is the name of our nurse again?' I had been in their room so much they had no idea who their nurse really was. Then I was fixing their pump and I noticed that the other nurse had not had his handheld device plugged into the pump. So that means every time he hit the button, nothing happened. Dear God.
What really made me mad, is when I was in his room helping him and explaining things to the family and one of my patients had put her call light on while I was in the room. Both of the float nurses that I had been helping all shift just sat there and charted so they could get out on time. I finally got out of his room and ran down to my patients room because her call light had been on for about 3 mintues by then. I opened the door and found her on the floor because she really had to go to the bathroom and nobody came to help her. Then I was at work until 2 am charting and filling out all these unusual occurence forms. The patient that had fallen was fine, had no pain. I told her I was in someone elses room and I was sorry that nobody else came to help her. She was fine with it and knew I had been busy all shift. I'm just glad she didn't pull out her central line when she fell.. because she was still attatched to the iv pole when she fell, in a little puddle of pee. The float nurses didnt' even help me get her off the floor.. the charge nurse had to interrupt her report and help me clean her up and change the sheets. ppbbbbb. Now I see how nurses get burned out so easily.
I work night shift tonight, which should be interesting. I am supposed to be the charge nurse... even though I havent' really been trained in to do that... nor have I even worked there for year yet. 8 months to be exact. It's going to be awkward, because the girls that I will be working over there with started a month or two before me. ... .. Cool. This should be a good time.
Well, I'm going to go to target and buy some cleaning supplies to make me more motivated to scrub stuff. bye!
I really think that if someone walked into my apartment at this time, and I wasn't home, they would think someone tried to come in and kill me and we went through a large arduous struggle. Then the murderer won and took all of my clothes out of the closet and the drawers and threw it on the floor and just picked up the pieces he/ or she wanted. Then he would have had to eat a few bowls of oatmeal and leave the dirty dishes around the house.
See, when I eat, I usually eat in random places. Especially since I'm working day shift. I don't leave myself much time to eat. So I'll make some oatmeal, and eat it in the bathroom in between washing my face and brushing my teeth. Or I'll bring the oatmeal in while I'm getting dressed and find a bowl inside of my dresser drawer. At least I don' t have many dishes to do, because I mostly just eat oatmeal or sandwiches, and Sandwiches don't take dishes.
Well, now that you all think I'm the most un-sanitary person alive, maybe I should change the subject.
Work was not fun this past weekend. I worked evening shifts, and the earliest I left the hospital was 1:30. I am supposed to be done by 11:30. Good joke hospital. I was working on tele, and the only person I worked with that actually worked in that area was the charge nurse. Then there was 3 float nurses. Float nurses are nurses that work on the medical floors, surgical floor, or the telemetry unit. Granted, these float nurses had all been float nurses in the hospital for 20 years plus. By this point in time, you would think they would have worked on tele several hundreds of times before. You would think that, and I'm sure they have, but for some reason, they all have down syndrome. Here are the things I would have to do for them.
'Annie, my patient hasn't had a bm for a couple days and really wants an enema.'
- um.. okay. I guess I'll call the on call doctor and get one ordered.
Apparently, they had no idea how to do this. REally... an enema? You don't even have to explain anythign to the doctor on call about the patient. you just say the name, who their doctor normally is, why they are here and that they are a constipated mcgee and owuld like an enema.
8 seconds later, you have an order for a fleets. NOT difficult.
Then there was this one nurse who had had an actively dying patient on a pca pump. (patient controlled analgesia) They are basically hooked up to a morphine pump that gives them so much an hour, and they can hit a little handheld button every 10 minutes or so if they want another bump or morphine. Anywho, her patient kept complaining that he was having a terrible headache and pain. I had to keep calling the doctor FOr her to get the pump raised up. I had been in her room about 50 times to fix the pump for her, because she also didnt' know how to use it. I hadn't had pca pump training since orientation.. and this was a nurse who had worked on the surgical unit.. where people have these pumps ALL of the time. BUt it really isn't that difficult to figure out. The family even asked me, ' Annie, what is the name of our nurse again?' I had been in their room so much they had no idea who their nurse really was. Then I was fixing their pump and I noticed that the other nurse had not had his handheld device plugged into the pump. So that means every time he hit the button, nothing happened. Dear God.
What really made me mad, is when I was in his room helping him and explaining things to the family and one of my patients had put her call light on while I was in the room. Both of the float nurses that I had been helping all shift just sat there and charted so they could get out on time. I finally got out of his room and ran down to my patients room because her call light had been on for about 3 mintues by then. I opened the door and found her on the floor because she really had to go to the bathroom and nobody came to help her. Then I was at work until 2 am charting and filling out all these unusual occurence forms. The patient that had fallen was fine, had no pain. I told her I was in someone elses room and I was sorry that nobody else came to help her. She was fine with it and knew I had been busy all shift. I'm just glad she didn't pull out her central line when she fell.. because she was still attatched to the iv pole when she fell, in a little puddle of pee. The float nurses didnt' even help me get her off the floor.. the charge nurse had to interrupt her report and help me clean her up and change the sheets. ppbbbbb. Now I see how nurses get burned out so easily.
I work night shift tonight, which should be interesting. I am supposed to be the charge nurse... even though I havent' really been trained in to do that... nor have I even worked there for year yet. 8 months to be exact. It's going to be awkward, because the girls that I will be working over there with started a month or two before me. ... .. Cool. This should be a good time.
Well, I'm going to go to target and buy some cleaning supplies to make me more motivated to scrub stuff. bye!
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
dying
I've been orienting to the ICU for the past couple of days. It's pretty good. I actually get to think a little bit, instead of not thinking.. at all. I really don't understand how people can work on a med surge unit for 20-30 years... or even 2-3 years. Crazies. So boring.
Orientation is pretty fun, but it's like all orientations in St. Joe's. Mmm... we don't have enough staff on ever....and we aren't going to call someone in so they get payed time and a half.... so here are your ICU patients annie! My manager actually gave me the admits. She gave me some guy on a Bi-Pap with a new onset of atrial fibrillation. Sweet. She looks at me and says,' its just like an a -fib patient in tele.' Right kathy. Right. Except they're going to get cardioverted.. and I have no idea how to set that stuff up for the doctor.. nor do I know how to set the controls on the bi pap. (to those who don't know, cardioversion is when you put large conduction pads on a patient and shock them so they go back into a sinus rhythm.) Oh well. Breathing and heart function arent' that important, so if I screw up, it's fine. I guess actually doing it is one way of learning. It's just would be nice to have someone there the 1st time saying... ' this is how you do it.' Instead of me fumbling around with no clue what to do. It was also hilarious because I was putting the pads on the patient, and Dr. Dirks walks in and goes... ' you look really familiar... how do i know you? '
oh yeah, hi dr dirks, I came to see you one time in November or December for SVT.' (supra ventricular tachycardia.) aka, where your heart races for no apparent reason.
Dr dirks: Oh yeah! Hi! How's that goin for ya?
Oh you know.. good.
Then he remembered that my mom was a doctor in st cloud, and that I also liked to run.
amazing. What a good memory. He'll probably forget my name, but if he does I can just be like, 'Hey! Remember me? SVT? ' Then he'll know. Sweet. Good thing he wasn't a gynecologist. That would have been embarassing. Except I've never seen a gyno. It would have been funnier though if I had gone to see a gyno, and he or she walked into the room and said, 'you look familiar.. how do i know you?' then I could say something even more awkward, like, 'Yeah! I came to see you once with those huge pus filled vaginal sores!'
the Dr: 'Oh Yeah!! Vaginal sores!! How are those by the way? Still smelly?'
Amazing.
Today on Orentation I took care of a lady who had pneumonia, an amputation surgery, and lung cancer. She was hilarious. Loved her. We were looking at this card that her granddaughter gave her, and on the front of the card it said her name (spelled wrong of course..) The on the inside it said, (all spelled wrong)
'karen,
I am sorry you had another heart attack. I like you.
Probably the most hilarious card I have ever seen. Then there was a picture of two blobs standing between a bike and all these sticker hearts. Then the lady, (karen was her name,) says, It was a nice effort... but she knows I only have one leg.. how am I supposed to ride that bike?' Hilarious.
Except it's really sad because she's dying. Everytime the doctor comes he tells her she is dying. It's so sad. Plus with me there it makes everything 1000 times more awkward. What the hell do you say to someone who is dying? I remember when I did clinicals on the cancer unit and people were always crying telling me they were dying. that was also horrible, and is also why I don't work on a cancer unit. I like it when people die and are unconcious, and don't know in advance when they are dying. It's real nice that way. This is usually how the conversation goes with a dying person.
Pt: ' I will never be able to leave this hospital.'
Me: 'you wouldn't want to leave right now anyways, it's snowing.'
Yeah. I'm a genius. This dying lady however, is very different from all other dying people that I have seen before. She is hilarious. We pretty much have the same sense of humor so I spent most of the shift in her room with her laughing about stuff, such as the card. Then it took us 15 minutes to get her sitting at the edge of the bed comfortably to eat breakfast and as soon as she takes her first bite x-ray comes in because they needed a chest x-ray. She just looks at them and says,' good timing guys!!' Then we both just started laughing. I would try to titrate her levophed drip to control her blood pressure, and it kept drastically changing, like 60/40 - 120/80.. within 3 minutes. Then she'd look at me and just be like, 'don't worry about it, I'm an extremist!' It was an exceptionally good day, until about 1:30. Then her stupid ass jerk son called her on the phone. I was hanging her potassium drip so I got to listen in for a few minutes. He let her tell him what was going on for about 30 seconds. All she got to say was..'
'yeah.. the doctors told me I have less than 20 percent of my heart function left. '
Then she stopped and listened to her son say something, then she said, ' do you need money?'
Then she started clarifying something like, 'you didnt' get the 5,000 dollars when everyone got it, so you would be getting 20,000 instead of 15,000.'
then there was more silence.
'yeah, I can send you the money. It's not like I'll be able to use it for much longer.'
Horrible. I just wanted to take the phone from her and just be like, would you like anything else you @)*(!)#$&^!)@(#$*!@)*#$%&!*#@($@#)($%!. ooo i guess that last part is a website. What an asshole. His dying amazing hilariously funny nice one leg 80 pound mom is at the hospital and he wont' come visit her, or even let her talk to him and tell him what's going on and get some of her emotions out that she is dying. He just calls to make sure that he will get his money before she dies. Piece of shit asshole dickhead. I hope I see him walking across the road while I'm driving ayesha.She'd take him down. I wouldn't kill him, I'd just do enough to him to paralyze him so he has to lay in bed for years and get bed sores, and think about how much of a wang he is. I guess I don't really know who he is... I hope he wears a shirt that says in really large print.' my mom's name is ___ _____ and I am her asshole son. I want my money.' Maybe also some blinking lights. That'd be good for distance vision.
Well, love to write more, but I gotta go read about concsious sedation. I think I spelled that wrong.. but i'm too lazy to fix it. bye!
Orientation is pretty fun, but it's like all orientations in St. Joe's. Mmm... we don't have enough staff on ever....and we aren't going to call someone in so they get payed time and a half.... so here are your ICU patients annie! My manager actually gave me the admits. She gave me some guy on a Bi-Pap with a new onset of atrial fibrillation. Sweet. She looks at me and says,' its just like an a -fib patient in tele.' Right kathy. Right. Except they're going to get cardioverted.. and I have no idea how to set that stuff up for the doctor.. nor do I know how to set the controls on the bi pap. (to those who don't know, cardioversion is when you put large conduction pads on a patient and shock them so they go back into a sinus rhythm.) Oh well. Breathing and heart function arent' that important, so if I screw up, it's fine. I guess actually doing it is one way of learning. It's just would be nice to have someone there the 1st time saying... ' this is how you do it.' Instead of me fumbling around with no clue what to do. It was also hilarious because I was putting the pads on the patient, and Dr. Dirks walks in and goes... ' you look really familiar... how do i know you? '
oh yeah, hi dr dirks, I came to see you one time in November or December for SVT.' (supra ventricular tachycardia.) aka, where your heart races for no apparent reason.
Dr dirks: Oh yeah! Hi! How's that goin for ya?
Oh you know.. good.
Then he remembered that my mom was a doctor in st cloud, and that I also liked to run.
amazing. What a good memory. He'll probably forget my name, but if he does I can just be like, 'Hey! Remember me? SVT? ' Then he'll know. Sweet. Good thing he wasn't a gynecologist. That would have been embarassing. Except I've never seen a gyno. It would have been funnier though if I had gone to see a gyno, and he or she walked into the room and said, 'you look familiar.. how do i know you?' then I could say something even more awkward, like, 'Yeah! I came to see you once with those huge pus filled vaginal sores!'
the Dr: 'Oh Yeah!! Vaginal sores!! How are those by the way? Still smelly?'
Amazing.
Today on Orentation I took care of a lady who had pneumonia, an amputation surgery, and lung cancer. She was hilarious. Loved her. We were looking at this card that her granddaughter gave her, and on the front of the card it said her name (spelled wrong of course..) The on the inside it said, (all spelled wrong)
'karen,
I am sorry you had another heart attack. I like you.
Probably the most hilarious card I have ever seen. Then there was a picture of two blobs standing between a bike and all these sticker hearts. Then the lady, (karen was her name,) says, It was a nice effort... but she knows I only have one leg.. how am I supposed to ride that bike?' Hilarious.
Except it's really sad because she's dying. Everytime the doctor comes he tells her she is dying. It's so sad. Plus with me there it makes everything 1000 times more awkward. What the hell do you say to someone who is dying? I remember when I did clinicals on the cancer unit and people were always crying telling me they were dying. that was also horrible, and is also why I don't work on a cancer unit. I like it when people die and are unconcious, and don't know in advance when they are dying. It's real nice that way. This is usually how the conversation goes with a dying person.
Pt: ' I will never be able to leave this hospital.'
Me: 'you wouldn't want to leave right now anyways, it's snowing.'
Yeah. I'm a genius. This dying lady however, is very different from all other dying people that I have seen before. She is hilarious. We pretty much have the same sense of humor so I spent most of the shift in her room with her laughing about stuff, such as the card. Then it took us 15 minutes to get her sitting at the edge of the bed comfortably to eat breakfast and as soon as she takes her first bite x-ray comes in because they needed a chest x-ray. She just looks at them and says,' good timing guys!!' Then we both just started laughing. I would try to titrate her levophed drip to control her blood pressure, and it kept drastically changing, like 60/40 - 120/80.. within 3 minutes. Then she'd look at me and just be like, 'don't worry about it, I'm an extremist!' It was an exceptionally good day, until about 1:30. Then her stupid ass jerk son called her on the phone. I was hanging her potassium drip so I got to listen in for a few minutes. He let her tell him what was going on for about 30 seconds. All she got to say was..'
'yeah.. the doctors told me I have less than 20 percent of my heart function left. '
Then she stopped and listened to her son say something, then she said, ' do you need money?'
Then she started clarifying something like, 'you didnt' get the 5,000 dollars when everyone got it, so you would be getting 20,000 instead of 15,000.'
then there was more silence.
'yeah, I can send you the money. It's not like I'll be able to use it for much longer.'
Horrible. I just wanted to take the phone from her and just be like, would you like anything else you @)*(!)#$&^!)@(#$*!@)*#$%&!*#@($@#)($%!. ooo i guess that last part is a website. What an asshole. His dying amazing hilariously funny nice one leg 80 pound mom is at the hospital and he wont' come visit her, or even let her talk to him and tell him what's going on and get some of her emotions out that she is dying. He just calls to make sure that he will get his money before she dies. Piece of shit asshole dickhead. I hope I see him walking across the road while I'm driving ayesha.She'd take him down. I wouldn't kill him, I'd just do enough to him to paralyze him so he has to lay in bed for years and get bed sores, and think about how much of a wang he is. I guess I don't really know who he is... I hope he wears a shirt that says in really large print.' my mom's name is ___ _____ and I am her asshole son. I want my money.' Maybe also some blinking lights. That'd be good for distance vision.
Well, love to write more, but I gotta go read about concsious sedation. I think I spelled that wrong.. but i'm too lazy to fix it. bye!
Monday, March 24, 2008
Today is shift #9 in a row. I guess I shouldn't complain. My sister is on call like every other day. Nothing that interesting happened yesterday. Diarrhea stream was still there. (weird.) Except he was getting supposedly confused. When I went into his room he was oriented and fine. I was like.. what are they talking about disoriented? Then I asked him.. did you get any visitors today? He told me his wife came (which she did...) and they went and sat outside to watch the golf tournament. Damn . You were so close JAmes. You had to say that last sentence. It's funny because whatever he watches on TV he thinks happened. Golf was on at the time. He also sleeps really poorly. I thought he was awake one time because he was moving his arm and his eyes were open... but he was sleeping. Creepy. The lights were all dim and it was like a weird horror movie watching his eyes flutter around and him makign all these grunty noises. I felt like I should start reading bible verses, you know, to exorcise the demon.
hmm... what else. Oh yes, I called JEsse's phone. I couldn't help it. I had to know if he was in jail or not. I went to the liquor store and bought some wine just for the occassion. He answered his phone. Damn. What a let down. Apparently I was right before, he really is just sitting in his mom's basement until he can pay the fines . When I mean, him pay the fines, I mean his mom or grandpa give him the money to pay the fines. Hilarious. Sad, but still hilarious. By the time she gets the money, if he would have just gone to jail, his stay would have probably been over halfway done. Oh well. There's still a chance he can go. The cops just have to find him. Nevermind. They probably are just looking around the office for him. I can just imagine it. 'Jesse...? Are you under this desk? (looking..) mmm.. nope. Guess I'll eat this sandwich. '
I'll find him myself when I go to duluth and turn his ass in. woop woop!
hmm... what else. Oh yes, I called JEsse's phone. I couldn't help it. I had to know if he was in jail or not. I went to the liquor store and bought some wine just for the occassion. He answered his phone. Damn. What a let down. Apparently I was right before, he really is just sitting in his mom's basement until he can pay the fines . When I mean, him pay the fines, I mean his mom or grandpa give him the money to pay the fines. Hilarious. Sad, but still hilarious. By the time she gets the money, if he would have just gone to jail, his stay would have probably been over halfway done. Oh well. There's still a chance he can go. The cops just have to find him. Nevermind. They probably are just looking around the office for him. I can just imagine it. 'Jesse...? Are you under this desk? (looking..) mmm.. nope. Guess I'll eat this sandwich. '
I'll find him myself when I go to duluth and turn his ass in. woop woop!
Saturday, March 22, 2008
new graph
the graph below did not turn out right.. I don't know why. I'll try again
TASK........................ NORMAL PERSON .....................BECKY's
turning a patient................. one........................................... 7
flushing a toilet.................... one................................... .......14
giving meds......................... one ..........................................39
Talking super slowly........ Annoyed................................... one
TASK........................ NORMAL PERSON .....................BECKY's
turning a patient................. one........................................... 7
flushing a toilet.................... one................................... .......14
giving meds......................... one ..........................................39
Talking super slowly........ Annoyed................................... one
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