Travel Nurse: ALWAYS Wear a Seatbelt

I saw the saddest situation at work last night. As I was taking report at the beginning of my shift I overheard one of the day shift nurses talking about a 40 year old male patient who had just had major reconstructive surgery done on his head and face. She said the doctors at Shands (a world renowned hospital in Gainesville, Florida) had done an incredible job based on the "Before" pictures she had seen. She also said she didn't know why they had bothered doing the surgery since the patient was almost certainly going to be in a persistent vegetative state for the rest of his life.

Although he wasn't going to be my patient, I had to ask what happened. She said he had been driving west on I-10 near one of the Tallahassee exits when a car pulled into his lane causing him to swerve out of control. He wasn't able to regain control of his car and it began to roll. At some point during the roll he was thrown out of the car, landed face first on the pavement and skidded to a stop about 70 feet from where he had first landed. She said the pictures of him taken prior to his surgery showed an almost bare skull where his face had been and his jaw and right cheek bone had been fractured. I don't say this as an "I told you so" by any means, but he had not been wearing a seatbelt.

Partially out of curiosity, but mostly because I had some spare time and thought I'd help some of the busier nurses with their patients, I decided to look in on the 40 year old patient. The nurse was right. The reconstruction was incredible. She was also right in that he will probably never come out of his vegetative state.

I was told that he has a wife and four teenage kids. When I heard that all I could think of is that I personally would rather have died in the accident than to live like that for the rest of my life. I would hate to put my husband and kids through that.

Let me just say here that I know many of my posts may seem cold and without feeling when it comes to my recounting the facts of what I have seen at work. But I have seen nurses who get too emotionally involved with their patients. They don't usually last very long in this field. I, on the other hand, have chosen to divorce myself (as best I can) from the natural emotions of seeing someone suffer physical and mental anguish of body and soul. For the most part I think I am successful at it. Sometimes it gets to me though. This situation sure got me thinking about how much I need to look back over my Living Will to make sure it says what I want it to say.

Med-Surg II

I am on a medical ward at the RVH, a hospital where I did my med-surge 1 rotation (on a surgical ward). I hate this hospital mainly because it is HUGE and built like a maze... but I am there for the next 12 weeks and so will have to deal. So far it's been alright. Wish me luck!

Stress

No one ever said school was easy, especially nursing school... 3 years of insane amounts of studying. Speaking of which, I have spent my day reading and re-reading my bio notes. Have a test tomorrow, first one of the semester. It shouldn't be that bad, after all there wasn't much covered in class. 40 questions, 20 for class material, 20 for lab material. It's the lab material that is worrying me. Ear and Eye and review of nervous system/muscular system. The ear and eye are driving me mad! It's not complicated, just there are so many little details.

Between the stress of school and wanting to get through med-surge II ALIVE and with a minimum 60%, and the stress of clinical rotation I am not gaining weight, rather losing weight. Most people wouldn't complain I know, but you see I don't have weight to lose. My MDs are always asking me if I am eating enough, that I shouldn't lose more weight... I know I need to eat more, but for me stress = nausea and not wanting food!

My new problem, or rather an old one that is getting to be really annoying, is that my BP is low. You'd think with stress, it would increase, but no, mine drops... so I am now in the process of playing with meds (with my neuro of course). Hope it works, because frankly as fun as it is to see how low it can go before I pass out, I need to be functional! I didn't come this far to be knocked down with hypotension.

Makena

Just wanted to share a pic of my "foster" elephant Makena. On the side you'll see the website where you too can foster a baby elephant. Mine is the smaller one, she is about 18 months old now.

Travel Nurse: Change of Shift

Change of Shift is up at Nurse Ratched's Place. Get over there and read all of the saucy details in this Harlequin Romance version of CoF. How apropos for a Valentine's Day theme.

This year I have a slightly jaded view of Valentine's Day. Maybe more on what brought this about later. In the tone of someone with such a jaded view I offer this little aside. Every year my husband wishes me "Happy VD" on Valentine's Day. He thinks he's funny. Not something that would put any sane woman in the mood for romance. Even if he did get me roses and chocolates. But this year his little "humorous" greeting will be even less funny than usual as I have had two patients in the latter stages of AIDS on my last two shifts (not something usually addressed in Romance novels).

Both of them contracted the disease via unprotected sex. At least that is what they told the day shift nurse. One of them appears to be an IV drug user too; but why lie about how you got AIDS when you're as close to the end as he is. Both seem to be at peace with their situations. Their families are devastated!

Their stories are so depressing it is hard to know how to finish this post. Sometimes there is just nothing else to say. I am about to peruse through some of my favorite blogs. Maybe they will lighten my mood. I apologize if this post puts a damper on your upcoming Valentine's Day!

And he was so proud of himself!

My dad came home yesterday, saying he had bought the cats a treat... turns out he bought DOG food! Small cans, fancy ones, for small dogs... No we didn't try it on the cats, though I am sure Sjoukje would have tried it as she puts everything in her mouth (she thinks she IS a small dog!).

Bear in a Box

He is too funny! He squeezes into the smaller of 3 boxes I put out for the cats with a look that says "What...?"