Wednesday, October 25, 2006

damn. yes! oh...

damn
one of my patients had very bad veins. she needs a new IV at least once a day. when i got to work and went to hang her first round of antibiotics, she warned me that the night before she needed a new IV at midnight. great.
i ran through the first two antibiotics sans probleme.
midnight came and went.
at 130am i went to hang doses 3 and 4 and found her IV had gone interstitial. damn.
fact: i suck at IVs.
i had tried to start one on her 2 days ago and had failed. i decided to just ask one of the other nurses to try for me (to save my lady some pain).
both nurses were busy in the ER with a patient.
damn.

yes!
i sat for 10 mins and thought about it.
and then i stood up and declared "I AM TAKING NO PRISONERS" and went and stuck her IV on the first go!!!!!
yes!!!!!!

oh...
i was just taping the IV into place and about to double-check that it hadn't shifted out of her vein when my Vocera went off.
i wasn't going to answer it because i was busy with tape and blood and needles, but we were having trouble with the Voceras (the star trek communicators) and only myself and the ER nurse had one. A patient had recently arrived via ambulance so I figured if she was calling me, she needed help with something.

"JV, could you or Charlene please go get the morgue stretcher?"
"uh... i'm in the middle of an IV here" (and my poor lady could hear what we were saying because voceras are LOUD. damn!)

i finished up and went down to see the ER nurse and did a little "i got the hard stick IV on the first go" dance. And then realized that the resident on call and the back-up doctor (dr. chickenlegs) were sitting there too... still waiting for the morgue stretcher.
oh.
damn.

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