Wednesday, January 10, 2007

People! Please!

Gotta love an admit like this! Schizo, homeless. Found down on Christmas. Please leave homeless people alone. This man's Christmas gift may have been to finally die. Stage 4 neck cancer is not something you want to continue living with. Not to mention that now we are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a man who refuses to let us take care of the VERY large mass on his neck that is oozing and reeking, who will probably die without invasive care. So what do we do? Let's put a central line and feed him through his IV for about a thousand dollars a bag. Give him a bag a day. Maybe place a PEG tube. I pray I never, never, ever have to have a PEG tube. Life just goes so down hill from there, and stays down. Being alive but not "living." Not my idea of fun.
And to top it all off, the nurse giving report tells me he likes to drink from his urinal!!!!
I am glad it is not me. But if I ever get to that point, please do not revive me!
For now it is good to be me though, because he will not arrive on my floor until after 7....that means I will already be done and if I am really luck will not even have to meet the man. That is a problem for night shift!

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Page for the day

Pager goes off....pull pager off waist band...read page.

"Quit checking your pager like you are paranoid or something!"

I love my colleagues.

Pray for no snow!

Off to Denver Thrusday. There is supposed to be a big storm rolling through. Let's all pray it does not hit until after I have left.
Other than that, I do not have much to add. Except this "Good to be me." One of my good friends, Crystal, is a dietician here at my hospital. One perk, she had to do "test trays." Basically I look through our menu, order whatever I want and a few things some of the other nurses want, and then after it is delivered, she had to check the temperature and quality of the food. Then I get to eat it~! We have the best brownies!!!!! Another perk of being a nurse! It is good to be me!

Monday, January 08, 2007

Smells....ew!

You were probably thinking this would be a blog about work. It's not. You can read it without taking a deep breathe in wondering whether or not to continue with this one....
My roommate is half white boy, half Chinese. Walking into the house after work makes the culture gap that much more apparent. I normally do not notice cultural differences unless I have left to go search it out. But when I open the door and step inside and nearly vomit myself, well, I am reminded.
I have no idea what he makes, but every night it is another funky nauseating smell wafting through the house. Before, when we were still talking, he would explain what he was making, and half the time I could pronounce it. About a quarter of the time I would try it. Half those times I liked it. The past 3 days though, I am holding my breathe to get upstairs so I can light a nice smelling candle in my own room.
You would think nurses could stomach anything. Mostly we can. But we each have our own little "gross out" things. For me, undigested food that has been vomited usually can catch a good little gag reflex off me. List of foods I will never eat again: honey-nut cheerios, certain spagetti sauces, tomato soup and a special "hospital medley" of vegetables (peas, carrots and corn. If they are individual, ok. If all mixed, forget it.)
I still love my job. And a bit of advice: anethesia and food do not mix. Even if your doctor lets you eat after surgery, stick with clear juice until the next day. Unless you like practicing bulemia!