new friends

i have some new friends.
i like new friends.

i spent the weekend in the Big City with 3 coworkers taking our ACLS course (which actually ROCKED... we think all the horror stories we heard from colleagues was from before they implemented the new protocols).
and for the record, i didn't fail. I got 93%.

i scored myself a new doctor. now when Dr. Bushman leaves, i won't be an orphan patient! my new doctor is the one who implied that i was crazy. he's great!

i made new friends last night - "single digit" friends. i went to the OPT clinic because i'm supposed to be volunteering there but they never called me. i was talking to a girl i knew there and it turns out the both she and the nurse who runs the clinic have single digit ferritin levels too! she says we should all hang out. maybe we'll have protein parties!

i spent the morning in the OR today. yesterday when i was at lunch with the Resident, she mentioned that she was going to be assisting in the OR. i asked her to ask Dr. chickenlegs if i could observe and he said yes! Of course he put me to work anyways! The anesthetist was late so he had us all bustling about because he wanted to do the anesthesia (he's also an anesthetist but cant do anesthesia when he's the operating surgeon... which he always is unless we have a visiting doctor). Too bad the anesthetist showed up before he was finished and caught him in the act!

yesterday i brought a new friend home. he's a snowman. we're going to spend the day together napping on the couch and watching the snow fall. don't worry, he's an inside kind of guy!

abandon ship!

i have my ECG course tomorrow and my ACLS course on Saturday and Sunday. i'm having a very difficult time focusing enough to study. i think i would rather watch dvds.

Dr. Bushman says i should relax, take ibuprofen, drink lots of fluids, and not open my books. If i fail, he says, i am still a good nurse.

I went to see Dr. Bushman today because i figured i should since i've already see two of his colleagues and done a drug experiment for hand pain. he's says he cant say its because i'm crazy because there's no such thing as normal and he cant consider anyone crazy until they are crazier than him (which i am not). According to my wise physician, the answer to my problems is to leave this small town. It's what he's doing.

This new year i shall be an orphan patient in a small town with NYD pain, with hostile coworkers, and indigestion. anyone need a nurse?

JV Saves the DAY??

My sister says i saved the day today.
This is the story:

I was working in the ER today (against my will, but that's another story....) and my coworker told me that the Doc on call was going to do a right thoracentesis (removing fluid buildup between the outer linings of the lung by sticking a large needle in someone's back!) and she said it was alright if myself and another newer nurse observed.

cool!

the day before i had helped reduce a hand (pulling the fingers until the broken bones were back in place!) and today i was going to watch a thoracentesis!

so the doctor is all set-up and is percussing down the back to landmark. the other RN with me asks her what she is doing and the doctor explains how she is landmarking so that she does not hit the liver when she inserts the needle. I thought that this was really interesting considering the fact that i was certain that the liver was on the right side of the body. What exactly was she going to do that she could hit the liver with a needle that she inserts on the OTHER SIDE OF THE BODY?!?!?!

i don't question her about the liver but i do casually say "i thought he had a right effusion?".
the doctor pauses.
she looks at me.
she looks at her hands... on the left side of the body.
and says "it sounds as those he has a left pleural effusion as well".
"are you going to do both sides then, doctor?", i ask.
she does a smooth sidestep over to the right side of the patient's back. "no, just the right"
she begins re-landmarking and calmly says, "i guess it's a good thing you are here."

so i didn't really save the day... maybe just the left lung!

referendum

Today is Voting Day here in Small Town.

Voting here is funny. There was only one person on the registered list with my last name but it was definitely not me. The lady asked if there was any way it was even close to being me. Ha.
So i'm at the registration table and the lady next to me was having trouble registering because she had gotten married and didn't have her married name on her ID or her current address. The man was confused about what to do. The person assisting me leaned over to him and told him it was alright, the lady was her niece by marriage.

there was a mini craft fair today. i was sad because THE craft fair of the year is next weekend but i will be out of town at my stoooooooopid course. The fair today was not nearly as much fun as the Oak Bay autumn bazaar with Queenie, but it did have FUDGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(don't worry Queenie, i managed to score a whole plate of it! And i didn't even have to elbow any old ladies!)

big night out

I survived!

I wasn't murdered with a pink satin ribbon or a scarf or anything else.
I was not poisoned!

And... shocker..... i had.... FUN!

But i learned that people in the Big City are UPTIGHT. We saw the new James Bond movie and parts of it were really cheesy so naturally, we laughed. Can you expect anything less from a nurse an a doctor when they are doing a really bad defibrillation/poison recovery scene? The movie-goer seated next to my friend said "ARE YOU FINISHED?!?!?" at one point during our giggles. Really.

And we may have hatched an evil new plan (or two) to keep ourselves entertained in this little place.

experimental drugs

when i got home from work last night, there was a message from Queenie who had had a dream that i had been murdered by a pink satin ribbon.
i didn't think much about it until i got up this morning and was thinking of what to wear today. tonight a friend and i are going into the big city to see a movie. i don't know much about her except she's originally from toronto and she's doing her residency in the hospital here until the new year. i found a pink satin ribbon as i was tidying the bathroom. i very nearly decided to wear it today. and then i thought "what if she's a murderer? i don't know her that well. i can't provide her with the murder weapon!".

Queenie's dream changed though and in the end i had actually died because of a reaction to an experimental drug.
One of the perks of working in a small hospital is that sometimes you can get a doctor to write you a prescription for something (not narcotics) without having to see them officially in their office (which is good because i hate doing that). Yesterday it was decided that i either have carpal tunnel, tendonitis, or rheumatoid arthritis. One of the doctors wrote me a prescription for a drug. i'm going to do a drug experiment. i'm a human test subject (but aren't we all?).
i'm pretty sure i wont have a bad reaction to it. but at least i'll be spending the evening with a med student. almost as safe as hanging out with nurses.

good day?

the last two days at work have been... well... fiascoes.

on saturday i was supernumery so i agreed to spend the day out in emerg with 2 other nurses and "gain experience". And that i did. I got abandoned in the trauma room with a patient at risk of needing intubation. But i survived and she survived and no one yelled at me for things i did or did not do.

yesterday i was back on the floor as per usual. the new resident kept asking me two things: am i annoying you yet? are you having a good day?
i like the new resident because she's nice and when we were in a critical situation i could ask HER to help ME with things and not have to call in another nurse. just because she's a doctor doesn't mean that assistance should be unidirectional.

it was chaos. we had a labouring mother who's labour wasn't progressing and needed an emergency c-section and we didn't have a maternity nurse available in the whole town. luckily, one of the maternity doctors agreed to stay and help out the midwife (who i think is the biggest nob ever. the midwife, not the doctor. i really like the doctor. but the midwife, i just want to shake her to see if it will wake up her brain. so mean of me, but so true).
There was a cardiac patient out in emergency who needed the cardiac monitor that one of my patients was on (the one from the trauma room the day before). We moved my patient into the next room and then.... she has... a HEART ATTACK.

Lots of running around. But at the end of the day, the other RN on the floor, the unit clerk, and myself were reflecting on the day. It was insane but it went well all things considered. I felt very fortunate to have had the staff that i had. The other RN was awesome about checking in with me that i was ok with my lady who was infarcting and if i needed help. I liked that she offered continuously but did not take over. She trusted me to know my limits. And i appreciated that. I need to be able to handle these things. I appreciated that she asked, when all was said and done, if i was ok with what had happened with my patient. If we had had different doctors who weren't easily approachable, who we had to beg to come look at patients, it would have been a bad day indeed. But as it stands, it was just busy with lots of really sick people. Busy, but not bad.

And now i have TWO WHOLE DAYS OFF. Two days to watch the snow fall, clean my stinky house, nap on the couch, and study ACLS.

a la nanita nana

it's friday night. i'm home from work but back tomorrow am so i'm just chillin' on my couch (as opposed to all the other friday nights when i chill on the chair). i'm half-watching a cheesy movie-musical on the family channel when a spanish lullaby suddenly takes me back to high school...

it's our big senior christmas concert in the old stone church downtown. the women's jazz choir is gathered in the warm-up area. we are about to go on and sing when suddenly one member pipes up and says, somewhat panicky "does anyone know the words? can we write them on a paper and put them on the back of someone's shirt?"

...P,Q,R,S,T,U.... and delta?

i love P waves.

P WAVES I LOVE YOU.

i love P waves because i understand their significance.

U waves are my next favourite because they are not always present and their significance has not been conclusively determined by the Experts so i can forget about them.

things i love today

1. snowmen. today i went to the stores to find something and i got distracted by all the snowmen christmas paraphernalia. it reminds me of my lovely snowmen mug i bought last year that broke. i saw several new ones but they werent quite as cute. i almost bought a sign with snowmen that said "flakey friends welcome" but couldnt figure out what i'd do with it.
   
   
2. napping on the couch. i got up early today, ate an orange, and promptly fell asleep on the couch listening to "what not to wear". so good.
   
   
3. chicken nuggets. ok, this one isnt fair because i dont actually have any and i love them often. someone go eat some for me. with bbq sauce.
   
   
4. people who are bothered by poor grammar. i'm not the only uptight one.
   

strange bird

i'm supposed to be reading "the six second ECG" for the course i'm taking near the end of the month. so naturally i've found all kinds of things to do instead.

like the recycling.
which led to a random drive around the area.
i can no longer say i dont know where Wynndel is.

i was driving along the lower road, past the flats, past dr. rose's house, past the potato shed (some historic landmark i dont quite understand) when a strange and somewhat comically ugly creature ran across the road.


its body was rather plump and it sort of waddled quickly across the highway. it reminded me of a turkey with a long stick tail. i think it was a pheasant!

junior, schmunior

i was concerned when i left for work last night that it was going to be hellish, owing to the fact that i had only slept 3 hours after my previous nightshift, it was friday night, it was friday night, it was friday night.

scheduling is a crazy thing. Because of contract requirements, myself and another nurse were supernumerary last night. We had a whole herd of RNs! The senior nurse thought it would be a good idea for me to hang out in emerg last night, so off i went to shadow another "junior" nurse. Nothing like 2 newbies running the place. Both of us had taken time off in the past few months and didnt know how any of the new forms worked. But we had a really good doctor on call (he even took an unofficial, meaning i didnt have to fill out an emerg form, look at my sore wrist!) And for a friday night, it was pretty darn good. We had a stab wound! I didnt get a close look at the wound itself because buddy didnt need sutures. I told the doctor i was disappointed. He was too. We both really like sutures. He's promised to call me if he ever has any when i'm working. woo! sutures!

The night was relatively calm in the end and we had time to sit around chatting and playing cards. There were 4 of us "junior" nurses and one "senior" nurse last night. There's been a lot of talk recently about restricting junior nurses. We had a really nice discussion on that. I definitely appreciated the senior nurse asking for our opinion. Everyone talks and makes decisions about us, without us. We have less experience because no one will provide us with supportive opportunities to gain experience. They are fostering our dependence. I think its fair that we should not want to be forced to work emerg independently, particularly at night when we alone are responsible for triaging patients and sending level 3 and 4s out to the next hospital. Maybe they should think about buddy shifts in emerg. But they wont because we dont have enough nurses and all the "experienced" ones are in shitty moods because we've been working extra these past few months to allow doctors to sleep more and to leave less work for the front office. We've been supporting the doctors, but have we been supporting each other?

And there was a baby. She was born the previous day but we had been too busy thursday night for me to hold her. I got to hold her last night while we played cards. For some reason, we all found her particularly cute. And my coworkers kept telling me how good she looked on me!
Babies look good on me!
woo!
no, i am not wanting a baby.
It did spark them to ask, again, when I'm going to get a boyfriend. One nurse figures its about time since i'm got a full-time job and an apartment and i've been in town nearly a year. Ugh. People.

my belly

my belly is not a lovely happy belly.
not like carly's belly. (my friend carly has a cute belly. it makes me smile. HI CARLY'S BELLY!)

my belly is sad.
it misses, craves, YEARNS for food not of this part of the province.

it wants gomma ae.
it wants agedashi tofu.
and yam rolls.
it wants chinese tofu dishes with lotus root.

and yes, it wants mass-produced, artery-clogging fastfood.

is there a solution?

anyone know what day it is?

it was cold this morning.

my mind was busy reflecting on death as i hurried through the sub-zero calm air to work.
i don't generally think about death on my way to work (i'm strange, but not that strange); however, this morning i was reading a post on justina's blog about it.
i probably should not have done this because, coincidentally, one of my patients died before i had even done my morning meds.

the day was so bizarre after that.
no one could figure out what day it was because it felt all messed up.
dr. bushman asked me how i like working for an inferior health authority.
uh... ???
the new doctor implied that i was crazy and should go see him at his office for some pills.
my patient kept climbing the stairs that go nowhere (well, to the roof but there's no actual exit).
and everyone kept falling.
and one man fell and then his flower vase fell while we were struggling to get him up and so there he was, on the ground, with glass and water and flowers everywhere. and he did a huge fart. and i, of course, was supporting his back. so i'm crouching in glass with a farting patient. and when i left the room, i had shards of glass all down my pant leg.

i was relieved to go home and put up my swollen ankles until i remembered how cold my apartment is.
rejoice! i had called my landlord from work to say it was cooooold and there was an electric heater waiting for me in my kitchen when i got home. what a nice present.