SIGH.....You know, it just never fails.

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in med-surg, psych, ER, school nurse-CRNP.

OK, my favorite bunch of medical minds, a little something to brighten your day, and maybe give you a reason to get up tomorrow. You never know how or when some small thing you've done for some person, and probably since forgotten, will come back to visit you.

So, yesterday was Monday, and apparently, it knew it.

How do I know this, you ask?

Well, let's see......

Where I live, the high temp for the last few days has been 20. That's 20 degrees FAHRENHEIT, and that's the HIGH. Therefore, the cat had to come in for the night. If the cat is in for the night, it's a safe bet that she will be in the bed with me. It's also a safe bet that if the puppy sees her, they'll do their darndest to level the house.

So, to start, the cat wakes me up at 5:30, scratching at the door to go out.

I open the door for the cat, and then have to settle the puppy, because as far as she's concerned, it's time to get up.

Approximately 30 seconds later, the cat is scratching at the door again, wanting in.

I attempt to get dressed and groomed, and have the sheer joy of chasing my clothes, shoes, hairbrush, and hot rollers (one at a time) down the hall. The puppy likes to help Mama get dressed.

I roll down the driveway, stop for the paper, and realize that the cat it still perched on the roof of the car.

I schlep the cat back to the house.

I head for work. It's freezing. The heater is being stubborn. The bridge is backed up. The Staties have set up a weigh station at the far end for the logging trucks. There are about 10 18-wheelers between me and the end of the bridge. It's a 2 lane road. Praise God for Mountain Dew and Rick and Bubba.

I get to work and find that we're having a fire sale on consults, and that today's special is a-fib. 3 consults in less than 5 minutes.

I get started, and get beeped for my first set of stresses.

I get to the stress lab, prepare to start, doc walks in behind me and scares the bejeebers out of me. He then offers me a script for what he calls "high-dose sedatives".

I run around like the proverbial headless chicken, putting out fires until lunch.

I head back to do more rounds, get beeped, and know that I'm not going to like whatever has happened when the receptionist starts the convo with "Are you REAL busy right now?"

I head back to the office to see a spur-of-the-moment clinic patient.

I decide to take a pee break.

I forget to take off my stethoscope.

The stethoscope slides off halfway, the earpieces get caught in my waistband, and I miss giving myself a hangman's fx by sheer Providence.

I head BACK to the hospital, get all the fires out, and beeper goes off again.

It's my DH. Seems we won't be getting that beach house anytime soon. Lovely.

And just about the time I am ready to commit a mortal crime.........

The patient that came in last month with a K+ in the basement, that we considered a chaplain consult for, walks in, hugs my neck and kisses my cheek. Why?

I was the only one who wished him a Merry Christmas the last time I saw him.

SIGH...............never fails, and the bluster went right out of my sails.

And how was YOUR day?

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Specializes in TCU.

Nice story! Made me smile and re-confirms my decision to become a nurse! :)

Thank You!

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Specializes in interested in NICU!!.

hope your week gets better, i mean better!!

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angelfirern, i love your posts! your life is so hectic, yet i think we can all relate. and they always warm my heart.:heartbeat love your pets! i'm glad for you and your patients that you are so caring. have a wonderful week and thank you for sharing!

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Specializes in Neuroscience/Neuro-surgery/Med-Surgical/.

love it!

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I wished I worked with you, you sound fun. :lol2:

I'd love to see that darlin' pup. Oh, listen, cats can stand the cold. They have great fur coats, they burrow under whatever and keep nice and warm.

It's waaaay colder here and there are plenty of strays outdoors all the time. :( Sad but true.

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Specializes in Staff nurse.

Cats still need to be in, in extreme weather. I can see your kitty on the top of the car, lol!

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Your story brought a smile to my face as I sit here considering whether I should quit nursing or not. I haven't even made it a whole year yet. And then I remembered that a patient's wife hugged me last week and said thank you. Thank you for sharing:)

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Specializes in med-surg, psych, ER, school nurse-CRNP.

Oh the cat also has a blanket, a heat lamp, the 120-lb black Lab who is her best buddy, and a nice carport to sleep in. We let the door down in cold weather. The babies curl up under the lamp, usually with the cat on top of the dog, or curled up into his belly. The odds of them getting a chill are remote. But, Kitty gets to come in when it's REALLY cold, she's spoiled rotten.

The dog gets a new blanket every winter, just for him (and her). He's been really rough on them this year, we're on our third blanket since November.

The pup is a star at work, every time DH texts me a pic, wherever I am, one of the nurses or docs will holler, "Angelfire's got baby pics!" and I get swarmed. I'd take her with me, but she's a bit young yet, and I'd never get any work done for having to run interference.

My boss dreads the day I have kids. We're so slammed, and I know everyone in the hospital. So, between saying hi to all and all wanting to see the baby, it gets drawn out.

We were discussing preferences the other day, and I told him that if I ever have the need for heart surgery, and cannot tell him what I want, I want to go to a large city about 2 hours from here and have Dr. ABC as my surgeon.

Boss just looked at me and said, "We are too busy for you to have heart problems right now. You'll just have to reschedule. I can't spare you."

Hee hee, made my day. And here I thought he didn't like me and I was falling down on the job.

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Specializes in Med-Surg/home health/pacu/cardiac icu.

Just be glad the cat was on the hood of the car. My mom's cat got in the engine and got scalped by the fan blade. That was a bald cat for the rest of it's life. He literally had no hair down the middle of his back for 10 more years. He was pretty funny looking:uhoh3:

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Specializes in Gerontology, nursing education.

Where I live, the high temp for the last few days has been 20. That's 20 degrees FAHRENHEIT, and that's the HIGH. Therefore, the cat had to come in for the night. If the cat is in for the night, it's a safe bet that she will be in the bed with me. It's also a safe bet that if the puppy sees her, they'll do their darndest to level the house.

Angelfire, I love your story but I have to say, in all honesty, you get no sympathy from me about the temperatures. Where I live, the high tomorrow is expected to be TWENTY DEGREES BELOW ZERO. And, yup, that's Fahrenheit, too. Last week, the low was -33 in one community, a record, and -35 in the other. Those were actual temperatures, not wind chills. Oh, and we're supposed to get another snow storm, 3-4 inches plus wind. Thursday we expect a heat wave and the high should be around -7.

It is so freaking cold here that it's difficult for us to get our dogs to go outside. They're Tibetan terriers, so they're bred to withstand the cold and have extra fur on their paws for insulation. Still, the one dog gets outside, insists on walking through the snow---it's about a foot deep in our yard---and then her feet are too cold for her to walk back to the house so she whines and complains. The other dog can't understand why we don't walk her or tie her out when the temps and wind chills are double digits below zero. Last night I let the dogs out around 1 AM and the one tried to go for a walk without me, so I was out in the cold, in my pajamas and UGG boots, chasing after her. Not a pretty sight.

This is when I am very glad I am a cat person and keep my kitties inside. The dogs are my husband's; I call them my step-dogs while the cats are his step-cats. (Do I need to tell you that we consider my son's cats to be our grandkittens?)

Yup, the cold weather has frozen Moogie's brain to the consistency of slush. Like I said, I loved your story but if was living in a place with highs of +20, I'd be wearing shorts (also not a pretty sight.) :D

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Specializes in Cardiology, Oncology, Medsurge.

Funny how things work out; here I am in the morning looking at an Uncle Wiggily book on google (I am so amazed at how many old lost books are on google!) and later I go up and visit our seven cats only to be reminded by your story how special our little creatures are. Lovely story, you write so very well! Two of our three dogs are under my chair as I write this note.

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