Come on people...

Whoa.  Work has been busy.  Record number of patients in the ER seen in the last 24 hours.  My feet are sore from being on them so long.

Insane story from a friend of mine....a fellow RN in the ER where I work, my age... was driving home yesterday morning and while in town crossing the railroad tracks she noticed a man laying down on the tracks, about 50 feet away in the snow, waving and yelling for help.  It was cold and there was snow (see my post from yesterday), so she pulled over and got out and went over to the man.  He was yelling that he hurt his leg (she said it was obviously broken).  Of course about this time a train is coming down the tracks, so my friend pulls the guy off of the tracks, maybe hurting his leg more but definitely getting him out of harm's way.  So this is all before 8am on a cold, snowy morning during rush hour traffic.  A train was coming so all traffic was stopped and the thing that shocked my friend the most she said was that out of all the traffic that was stopped waiting for the train downtown, NO ONE got out to help her pull this man off the tracks.  A young woman dragging an older man in the snow and cold and no one even rolled down their window to yell and see if she needed help...can you believe it?  I am so disappointed in people.  After she drug him clear of the tracks she called 911 and police and an ambulance showed up and still no other Samaritans offered their help.  How sad.  He made it to the hospital and she made it home to bed but really??

New Snow

New Year's was a quiet night in the ER, it probably helped that we were on ICU/trauma divert because we were already holding inpatients in the ER so we didn't get any of the drunken car crashes thank goodness.  Last night it rained and rained and then it finally turned to snow.  The drive from work this morning was quiet and gorgeous even though it was icy.  There was so much untouched snow I was wishing for my siblings and mom and dad and the old Land Cruiser so we could get pulled behind it on sleds like we used to do (not in town obviously). I was the first one to turn onto the street where my apartment complex is this morning and besides a giant jack rabbit I saw bouncing around, the first one to walk through the snow.  Here is a picture.  Snow is so pretty....and it muffles outside noise for better daytime sleep ;)

way to unwind

I am having a Smirnoff Blueberry lemonade and folding laundry while watching Gordon Ramsay trying to unwind from last night.  It was the night that would never end, busy busy busy.
   I think my favorite quotes of the night were from two separate patients, both in early 20's, neither with life threatening or even painful situations.  One healthy patient complained that it was taking too long and we should call in a faster doctor. I told her the doctor was literally in a life or death situation with a massive trauma in a different room, the patient was dying, she yelled at me, "and I'm not?!?!".  "No. You are not" I told her and walked out.  Shortly before that, another patient in his mid-20's, delayed for the same reason, in the ER due to no one's fault but his own, had his sister come out and complain "What is he [the patient] supposed to do?  Just sit there!?  You guys have no way of entertaining him!?".  Basically all the staff at the desk started laughing and replied "This is an ER!  We don't need to entertain anyone!"  Those people got me thinking how selfish people are and how much I hope if I am ever a patient in an ER I am not one of those people.  Good lesson to myself.  Jiminy Christmas.

Delirious by 8pm...

Last night upon arriving at work and going to my pod, a strange thing happened.  There are different stages of nurse emotion I experience through the night, which usually go something like this:

7pm - when I come on - motivation/energy (I have coffee)
8-10pm -- still good, pretty motivated (the coffee is still in my system) increasing stress level with increasing patient load
11-12:30 - - Hanger sets in (hunger + anger), empathy decreases, maximum irritability
LUNCH between 12-2
2am-4am - - depression, fatigue, least motivation, all empathy gone, things are funny
5am - Yay!  It's morning time!  A small return of energy, still no empathy
6am - BREAKFAST, cafeteria opens!  (My favorite part of the day)
6:30am-7:05am - time stops, we usually get really busy and run in circles get ambulances and patients in through triage and we die a little inside until the next shift comes out. (empathy still gone)


Well, last night I went straight from 7pm motivation to ALL THINGS ARE HILARIOUS by 8pm.  I think it was because we were so busy and I was in the psych pod and all the patients were so ridiculous I just skipped all empathy decreases and went straight to sitting and laughing at everything.  We had two patients tied to their beds in restraints, drunk patients everywhere, adults yelling "mama!" over and over again, patients trying to fight other patients, patients from the prison and jail, sobbing patients, patients talking to imaginary friends, patients puking and peeing in the bed and ambulances rolling in with patients drunkenly yelling "I'm home!" and trying to fall off the stretchers as they came through the doors.  Plus we were short staffed.  Wonderfully I skipped irritability and increasing stress level and I thought everything was pretty darn funny.  It also was a life-saver that one of my good buddies was my other pod mate. 

Later in the morning another friend and I made individualized anger flow charts and gave them to each other so we can try to figure out why the other person in cranky/angry and how we can fix it in the future.  My solutions to the various anger-causing issues I have included sleep, chocolate, Midol, homicide, and "brush your hair, put your chapstick on and PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER!".  Most of hers revolved around wearing pretty shoes and/or sweatpants.  She is not a nurse, she works in the registration side, so this could be a possibility for her. 

so good

This is THE BEST

http://improveverywhere.com/2013/11/19/harry-potter-in-real-life-movies-in-real-life-episode-8/

sayings

I remember hearing some of these for the first time and thinking "what in the world????"

13 Southern Sayings That The Rest Of America Won't Understand

http://www.businessinsider.com/southern-sayings-2013-10

cruel, cruel world

Last night I got stuck working on one of the more cruel nights of nursing...daylight savings time.  As if 12 hours are not difficult enough, on this special night at 2am we all get to watch the clocks turn back an hour.  It is like being trapped in a nightmare. Also, the computers all go down so we have the added misery of paper charting then trying to convert all the paper charting back to electronic charting once the computers are back to working on top of it.  I had it pretty easy this time, not going to lie, as I was in triage so I just had to hand write the complaint and vitals instead of typing them.  The fact that I was in triage tonight and the fact that I was in triage the night the little old constipated lady came back in for a digital dis-impaction makes me think the ER gods are looking out for me...every once in a great while ; )

On a happier note here is the sweet and precious fur baby sporting an early 2000's Abercrombie zip up jacket.  If he doesn't melt your heart nothing will.