Okay, I know I shouldn't blog when I actually have nothing to say or stories to tell... that was evident to me after my last post. But we don't always make the best decisions when we're tired, do we? So here goes...
It was a LONG night last night at work in the ER. For some reason, the hospital was either full of patients, or did not have enough nurses to take care of patients, so we had to keep many in the ER just waiting to get rooms in the hospital. At one point, half of our ER rooms were full of patients, making the wait even longer for the few patients in the waiting room who still had to be seen by a doctor.
I had a few memorable things happen...
My 94-yr old demented patient who was unsteady on his feet and had a "sitter" because of it, fell onto the floor, under the watchful(?) eye of this "sitter". Nice...I HATE writing Incident Reports and thought I'd fly under the radar here by not having to write one in 3 months, but it was not to be! Luckily he seemed fine...the pt, not the sitter.
I took in an ambulance patient from a nursing home that had a plugged G-Tube. That is a tube that goes directly into someone's stomach through their abdominal wall, and is used to feed, water and push meds into a patient. This pt's tube was blocked...nothing would go in and nothing would come out. Our ER doctor saw the patient and caught me and said, "Use your voodoo magic ways and see if you can get that tube unplugged." So being a resourceful nurse (and an experienced one), I tried my magic and it worked! 30 minutes later, we were ready to send the patient back to the Nursing Home. The cure: Coca Cola and a little patience! How's that for "voodoo magic"?! Interestingly enough, I wasn't actually able to drink my usual Diet Coke tonight.
I also sat and listened to the story of an Iraqi veteran that absolutely broke my heart. It makes me question what our priorities are in this country... we will pay millions of dollars to the people who entertain us (movie stars, athletes, etc), but we truly don't give those who do the "real work" in this country, who create and maintain the country that we enjoy (teachers, soldiers, etc), any kind of recognition, credit or compensation to match their contributions. Then we fail them miserably sometimes when they need us the most. It broke my heart to hear his story... and that doesn't happen to me very often anymore in the ER.
And finally, I realized this morning that I've finally been accepted among the staff here when I had a conversation at 4:00 a.m. with the charge nurse that went something like this:
Charge: It's been an awful night!!! One of my worst ever!
Me: At least it's almost over.
Charge: For YOU!!! You get out of here in an hour. I've got 3 hrs left!
Me: Sucks to be you! (laughing)
At that point the charge nurse flipped me off which would be offensive to many people, but actually means "I love you" in ER language. She told me as much too...the fact that she's comfortable enough with me to even do that speaks volumes...and I might have deserved it. :-)
4 comments:
Wendy, that does sound like a rough night for everyone. Really, Coke? Huh! I agree about our priorities as a nation. Our soldiers are definately getting the short end of the stick. I hope tonight is less stressful.
It was actually just an average night...but it wasn't moving fast at all! That is surprising about Coke huh? 3 other nurses at the nursing home had tried to unplug it before they sent him, even using coffee (which sometimes works, but not as good as Coke). But yes, Coke works every time...not on the first try. You have to shove some in there and let it sit. I did the cycle three times, and it cleared on the 3rd. Each time there was a little more progress though. :-) Makes you wonder what we're putting in our systems!
Sounds like the E.R. is universal! WHen the charge nurse flipped you off I just thought of Brad or Shay doing the exact same thing. Love it! I'm glad you're liking it there, we sure miss you!
Wow, what a night! You are truly amazing. I'm glad I don't like Coke!
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