Saturday, June 16, 2007

Happy Father's Day!

My very own Dad!

Dad and his Mother

Now we know where I get it from!


Happy Father's Day, Dad! I love you!


Look Mom! More orange!




These were both taken in my grandparents back yard. It is good to look at such beauty!

Friday, June 15, 2007

What a difference a day makes!

Tonight was so infinately better! I did not have either one of my "challenging" patients back. In fact, I got to go to another part of the unit! The big one that I can walk for 20 minutes on my breaks on! My patients were fabulous. "THank you," "No, please let me turn on the light for you so you can see better," and "I don't mind you waking me up. I know you are keeping me safe."
Very different comments from my patients tonight versus the slander I endured last night!
Ok, so it is good to be me again! I'm off of work for 6 days, and I plan to drive over to Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa to knock off a few more states. I'll try to post pictures. Then I plan of playing. Hard! That means laying for hours by the pool, (with my SPF 50 sunscreen all over and a hat, of course!) hiking in the mountains, and I am flirting with the idea of whitewater rafting. You never know.
Of course, now that I have posted this, people will be able to cheat when I play the "Guess where I'm calling from" game. Oh well!
Watch out world! Laura is on the loose and is headed for a ROADTRIP!!!!!

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

This is me ranting!

My patients are absolutely frusterating me!!! I am just fuming!
The first had the nerve to call me "a snob", "rude," and even went so far as to ask if he could have another nurse take care of him! I wish he could! All this because I asked him what time he wanted to take a shower, when he refused, discussed with him why it actually is important, and asked him again what time he would like to do that. He called me a liar! "It doesn't make any difference." Ha!
When you have had a transplant, the only barrier you have against the world is your skin. I am not going to go into detail why you really do have to take a shower, but, trust me. It's not just cause we like a freshly cleaned patient. It really is a matter of life and death at this point! Why should I have to argue with a patient that they should try to get better? Why should I have to try to convince someone to do something that can literally save their life?
Once I calmed down, I went to see my other patient, who proceded to tell me all the narcotics she wants, what time she wants them, and when she wanted to be woken up. I hate to say this, but this is not a bloomin' hotel!
I try to be absolutely accomodating with my patients, trust me, I know the value of sleep! But to get upset at me when I then agreed to try not to wake her up and if she is sleeping I would not wake her up for her pills in the middle of the night, became very upset! "I don't know why I have to explain this to you nurses! Do I need to talk to the doctor about this? I know my body and if you don't wake me up for ativan, I will be throwing up all night!"
There is a reason there is the joke about waking people up for a sleeping pill!
Trying to explain that giving a very large dose of sleeping pills, with a chaser of ativan, with also her marinol, and clonazepam, well, most patients would never wake up. How dare I be a "safe and prudent nurse!"
I had discussed waiting a half an hour between the ambien, clonazepam and marinol to give the ativan, and well, I got a tongue lashing! I tried explaining the reason why I would like to wait. She had even agreed to it when I first suggested it, but after the explanation became not a happy camper.
Now, I am probably one of the most liberal pain/sleeping pill/antianxiety pill giving nurses I know, so when I hessitate, there is a damned good reason!
Ugh!!!! These are the kind of nights I want to tell my patients to leave so I can take care of people who are actually trying to get better. Not have a spa treatment and care of camping out in a hotel.
I could say a lot more mean things right now, but I am sure I would regret it. So I will stop right there. I kind of miss the days (not that I was even born back then) when patients did what the nurse said, and the majority of nursing was pillow fluffing.
Grrrr!!! Sorry you had to see that. I really am a good nurse, just trying to keep my patients alive. And people wonder why nurses get burnt out!

One of my favorites!


I wanted to share with you one of my favorite pictures. I took this while hiking with my brother in Utah over Memorial Day.
Even after a bad day, looking at this reminds me it is good to be me! Enjoy!