last night

Last night started out a little rough but got lots better after about 1am.  The high point was when a drunk patient yelled at me "You behave like a lady and I will behave like a gentleman!" when I tried to tell him he was going the wrong way after discharging him.  Here is to hoping I do not get called in tonight!

above-average night

Last night was waaay better than Sunday night even though we were short two nurses.  I knew it was going to be an ok night when I managed to put my eyeliner on perfectly even though I was running behind.  Tonight is going to be even better because I get to have a grande iced carmel macchiato with soy on my way to work. : )  I can't wait.

optimist...or insane?

I work tonight and tomorrow night and then am on call Thursday night.  Right now it seems like I work the rest of my life, but I know (hope) it will go by quickly once I get in the swing of things.  Unable to really sleep today, hopefully I sleep better tomorrow after being up all night. 

Tonight is the last day (remember I am nocturnal) of my cleanse!  I am beyond excited and am going to celebrate with wings on Thursday and look forward to chocolate chip cookies, french fries, sandwiches with more than just meat and bread, and the occasional macchiato before work again. 

Here is to tonight being better than Sunday night : )

After I wrote that I thought of the definition of insanity....doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.  Either I am an optimist or and idiot going to work and doing the same thing and hoping it will be different....

Can't wait for a vacation

I am so happy to be at my place in my own bed, and not have to go back to work tonight.  Last night was rough, I don't know if I didn't go into work with my head in it or what but mean patient after mean patient after needy patient got to me and I was about in tears at 4:30am.  You can never let the patients get to you and I usually don't so I don't know what it was last night but I was on the verge of tears there for a few miserable hours.  The nicest patient I had all night was the drug addict who swallowed a bag of 16 Xanax (tranquilizers - good for anxiety) because the police stopped him and he wasn't supposed to have any controlled substances on him.  I don't know how many times I have to tell myself that patients are hurting, embarrassed, scared, mad and demented, but still mean patient after mean patient gets to you.  So over it.  I cannot wait for Las Vegas in a month or so. 

another week begins

This is day eight of the cleanse, the end is in sight but already I am over it.  Today I had an Izze pop and some goat cheese.  Thursday lower GI issues started and then on Friday I was throwing up, who knows if it was a bug, the cleanse, or what but my poor GI tract!  Remind me never to "cleanse" again.  I am not going to ruin my 8 days of work and go out for wings and beer or anything these next few days, but I might just have a sandwich with mustard on it, and semi-normal bread instead of this brown whole-wheat bread that is like eating everything on corrugated cardboard. 

Last night I slept from 9pm-7am.  Of course being on a beautiful non-nocturnal schedule like that means I have to be at work tonight, I got back to sleep around 1pm and right now would kill for an iced carmel macchiato as a little pick-me-up. 

I can't wait to see The Hunger Games!  The boyfriend better remember that he said he would go with me because I have turned down three invitations to the movie to wait for him.  This week we are pretty much working opposite schedules so it would be a week from Wednesday or so until we could go....

That is all.  Wish me luck tonight, I am not in the mood to go back : (

so good

I am going to be so good with hazardous materials after today.

phew

Finally done with that 4...thank goodness.  Don't really want to go back for the 8 hour Haz-Mat class Thursday but oh well, I will at least be getting some over-time pay. 

The cleanse is going well so far, but I fall asleep dreaming of food usually...chocolate chip cookies, french fries, breadsticks...so annoying.

This morning on my drive home from work an old lady drove the wrong way through the round-about.  She must have had a guardian angel because in the busy morning traffic no one happened to be in the lane she was in coming around the circle on the other side.

Last night I had 2 marriage proposals at work, I think the combined age of the men was somewhere around 150 and they were both drunk.  So annoying when you are trying to do your job and explain to the patient that drinking 1-2 bottles of Listerene a day will erode your stomach lining, and they keep interrupting you with "So will ya marry me?".  Last night we had Mr. Listerene and also Mr. Cooking Wine...Mr. Cooking Wine came in with a blood alcohol of 5 times the legal limit.  When asked why he drank cooking wine, he replied "it's what food stamps buys".  Awesome.

busy bee

We have been ridiculously busy at work.  To throw some numbers out there, the ER here saw 146 patients in the last 24 hours.  That may not seem like too many, but for an ER that normally utilizes 23 beds at a time, that is a lot of patients. 

My cleanse started last night...fiber shake, hard-boiled egg whites, whole grain bread, lots of fruit, veggies, water and green tea and thank goodness for a little bit of peanut butter and jerky.  One day down, nine to go....

Here is to hoping tonight is less busy ; )

ready for it

Welp, I start my cleanse when I wake up this evening.  Yesterday after driving back to my apartment from home and the grocery store, I prepared food for the next week-10 days.  I bought strawberries, raspberries, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli, celery, snap peas, carrots, pineapple, made a big thing of green tea, hard boiled eggs, turkey jerky and whole grain bread.  I am ready!  I also put away my bad tempting food...chocolate, chocolate, chocolate-covered pomegranate seeds, double dark chocolate Zone bars, and salt and vinegar potato chips.  Wish me luck.

Night in

I am having a night in...I feel somewhat anti-social because everyone and their dog is out tonight, but Bertolli chicken alfredo and The Water Horse sound like a better alternative to me.  Maybe tomorrow night I will be more in the social mood ; )

Cleanse

A friend and I are doing a "cleanse" starting next Sunday.  We bought a kit online to assist this "cleanse" but basically it is cutting out ALL fried foods, butter, pop, extra salt, processed foods, candy, chips, alcohol, etc...drinking tons and tons of water and fiber drinks, taking vitamin supplements, and eating primarily fresh veggies and a few whole grains.  This lasts for 10 days and isn't necessarily supposed to make you lose weight, but to help clean you out for better nutrient absorption and get you on the right track for eating better.  I eat pretty good as it is, but since planning for this cleanse an interesting phenomenon has happened: I have been eating worse than I normally would anticipating the foods I feel I am going to crave while on the cleanse.  Last night before work I had a mushroom and Swiss burger from Hardees with curly fries AND a pop!  I never have pop, let alone fries and a burger.  "I will take care of it in the cleanse" is how I find myself justifying that.  Uh-oh.  Anywho, this cleanse starts on Sunday.  I feel like nothing will really change except the fact that I am going to be possibly grumpy because I picture myself subsisting on vitamins and gravel and water but I know that is not true.  I will keep you posted.

Toooooo much

I have been the worst blogger.  Mainly because I have been asleep I think.  I had 36 hours off between Sunday morning and Monday night and I slept 27 of them.  Not exaggerating.  And when I have nights like I did last night it is no wonder why, I was literally running, just trying to keep my head above water until it finally slowed down around 5am.  Overdoses, cancer, seizures, chest pain, meningitis, stroke...the people just kept coming and coming and coming.  It was one of those unfortunate nights where we were so busy that if you were not dying you were going to be sitting there for HOURS.  With this day-light savings and warm weather I am all about Spring and getting outside and smelling the Daffodils but I swear it feels like we have had more suicide attempts and psych cases the last two weeks than I remember in a looooong time.  It is such a juxtaposition to have a patient in one room that tried to kill themselves and in the next room have a patient that by no actions of their own has a disease or condition that is killing them who would do anything to live, especially when it is young people.  I feel like there is so much that my brain subconsciously processes that I don't even realize, no wonder it needs to go on standby and reboot itself occasionally - ie the 27 hours.  Wowza.

?

So last night seemed long even though it was only an 11-hour shift due to daylight savings....weird.  I had the best snack when I got home though, half an avocado and some cherry tomatoes and goat cheese.  HEAVEN.  Bed now.

Tardy

Sorry I have been absent of late, my dad came to visit for a few glorious days and I spent one whole day of my precious time off in bed, reading and napping.  All day.  I did not check facebook.  I did not blog.  I read, and slept.  What did you read? you might be asking, and I will tell you.  I finally, after much delay, broke down and bought The Hunger Games.  Great read, and what finally pushed me to just buy it and read it was the fact that I saw a preview for the movie coming out in a few weeks, and wanted to have read the book first.  The writing in far from exceptional, but the story is original once you get past the whole human sacrifice thing (seriously, was there a civilization in history that has not practiced human sacrifice or something similar?), and imaginative and overall it is a very enjoyable read.  Much like The Twilight series.  Not exceptional writing but a good idea and hard to put down once you start.  I admit it.  I liked the Twilight books.  In The Hunger Games for some reason they eat a lot of fresh berries and goat cheese and a large part of the book revolves around bread...I happen to have all three of those things in my fridge, so I have been eating them and thinking about the book incessantly.  You should read it.  

thanks

The ER gods were good to me last night, we had a non-ridiculous, good night.  Usually Sunday nights are out of control and Saturday nights are dead but this week it was the other way around unusually enough.  I was in the non-psych pod and still had 3 attempted suicide patients though. 

Tonight a friend and I are trying out a new yoga place.  I am kind of excited but don't know how excited I will be when my alarm goes off this afternoon and I am just going to want to sleeeeeeeep....

Bleh

Last night was brutal.  The only thing that is making me go back tonight is the fact that we are not short staffed so I feel like tonight can only be better.  Last night of four.  Back to my mantra...it's only 12 hours, it's only 12 hours.

something new

So I had an interesting patient last night, 21 year old male presented to ER w/chest pain, labs looked like he was having or had had a recent heart attack.  No family history, not taking any cocaine, meth, etc. The cardiologist came in and took him to the cath lab to do a heart cath.  Turned out he had Takotsubo Syndrome, aka Broken Heart Syndrome.  When a person is under a lot of stress ie marital problems, death of a loved one, etc. it can actually cause damage to the heart muscle and pain in the heart, and it presents like a heart attack.  It is treated with medication and usually goes away within a week or so, but definitely requires quick medical attention.  Lo and behold this young man had been having relationship problems with his fiance.  I thought it was so interesting how the body works and that when people get so sad or upset about a loved one, it is possible, in essence, for the heart to break.  I have never had a patient with this before.  Thinking back, after I saw the patient and did my assessment, I went and gave the doctor a quick rundown, and I remember telling the doc that the patient lived with his fiance, I knew because who the patient lives with is a question that is required on our assessment.  Anywho, I told the doc that the patient was not married but lived with his fiance.  I remember because the doc was like "Um, thanks for telling me?  That is so random that you even asked that".  I then informed him it was required for my charting.  Who would have thought that that bit of info might have been some of the most important info obtained on this kid all night?

I made it

Home again home again jiggity jig.  At one point a psych patient came out of her room to yell at me last night, but she was so psychotic all that came out was word (and phrase) salad, something like "You, I can hear you! My family! I fought for that! You! God bless us! Don't judge me!  Hearing behind me! I lived there!" etc. etc.  Later the security guard standing by informed me I looked completely confused which means I failed at being therapeutic because I was trying to look concerned and calming but obviously that didn't work out.  Then when I discharged the particular patient she sang Taylor Swift songs, or just parts of them, as loud as she could through the entire ER as I walked her to the discharge desk, patients, janitors, other nurses and staff staring.  "How were you not laughing??" everyone asked as I came back.  I about split a gut trying not to laugh but was equal parts terrified, not wanting to upset her anymore so I just kept making my go-to fish face that I make when trying not to laugh.  "Why do you get all the exciting patients?" someone asked me.  Trust me, I don't want them.  When I started I had a record number of something like 4 patients tackled by security guards in 2 shifts or something.  The crazies just find me. 

It's only 12 hours, right?

Headed to work, it's only 12 hours, right?  After some time off it is always so hard to get back in the work mode.  I want to stay in tonight and have leftovers and watch a movie or some White Collar or something.  At least it is a Thursday night, usually not too bad.  And in about 13 hours I will be headed home to my perfect bed.  Piece of cake ; )