buggal1989

Really great article! loved it. really brought me back. I've been "retired" (medically) for 8 years this may and sometimes I really miss it. loved the part about Santa visiting - reminded me of one Christmas when I had a mentally challenged (? what word do "we" use now?) "chronologically gifted" kid (he was about 6 despite his advanced - although they don't seem so advanced now - years who was in the ICU and all he talked about was Santa coming. So I bought him some toys and candy and made him a stocking and as I worked Christmas eve, I was there to put it in his bed. Of course I had to wake him up before I left to tell him Santa had come. The joy he evidenced more than repaid me the ten or so dollars I spent on him. I am so glad I did this because it was his last Christmas here on earth. I can't wait to get to the Eternal Care Unit and hug my Charlie again. I only knew him for a short while but he had become very dear to me. I am not ashamed to admit that tears are running down my cheeks as I write this. God bless you for your care of the elderly. you will be richly rewarded for all you do when you reach the E.C.U. keep on keeping on!

I think thirmisol is still in the flu vaccine. Ask your Employee Health Nurse to check with the companies that produce it.

I don't blame you for not taking the flu shot - there are some exceptions to every rule and you're definitely one! But your internist needs to realise the flu is airborne as well as contact so if the patient you are caring for has a cough and the flu is suspected - YOU should wear a mask. And tell the patient it's because you cannot take the flu shot. And again with it (flu shot) being only 70% effective EVERYONE should wear a mask when taking care of a flu patient!

I'll take the being "sick" for 3-5 days after the shot to being put in the hospital for pneumonia secondary the the flu which happened the first time I didn't take the shot. I was dehydrated and out of my mind until they gave me two liters of fluid then I "woke" up OR X 3 and totally rationale. I mean I laid down on the floor and refused to get up and all kinds of crazy stuff I have no memory off. Then I didn't take it again the next year because I didn't have a doctor's appt during flu shot time and got the flu and then pneumonia. I've learned my lesson - I take my flu shot every year now! I call and make a flu shot appointment (I'm medically retired so I don't get the flu shot free where I work anymore.) :typing

They didn't hit the nail on the head last year, but it is no reason NOT to take this years. And remember, the flu vaccine is only 70% effective. So 30% of the people taking the flu vaccine WILL get the ful - usually a milder case than they would have without the flu vaccine.:loveya:

You were probally incubating the flu when you got the shot. The flu shot WILL NOT give you the ful - it is attenuated (dead) and can not cause the flu.

While waving her nitro patch, "Can I get this off layaway?" A little ICU pschycosis I think!:redbeathe

Ya a shower in 9 mths! No, seriously in this case I'd lower my moral standards and offer a morning after pill. Teens do not need to get preggers and mess up their lives!

Sorry, taxis don't come out to where I live - way out in the country - believe it or not it's true. And anyway I already said you are not in Your "right mind" and thinking like a person without a migraine - you don't begin to understand the hell a migraine can be for some people. So I stand by my first position - people with migraines who call ambulances should be taken seriously - unless they get out of the ambulance and walk in all dolled up - I've stated my position on that before!

Ouch! That had to hurt...hence the intoxication part! We once had an pt come in because she had birthday candles in her bladder - it seems they were celebrating and it seemed like a good idea at the time.....

I like you was a "nice person", but you can find a balance between being nice and being hard. I did, but it took me a number of years. For about the first year and a half of nursing I wouldn't say boo to a sheep - but something finally "snapped" (?) and a tiger came out - that was my ptient's welfare. Where they were concerned, even after I moved to Infection Control, I was a tiger - but must admit on the inside I was still that scared little kteen who got her feelings hurt a lot! But you can find a mix between soft and strong, you just have to find it for yourself and none of our advice is going to help you get there. You have to do it on your own. But stick in nurisng - it's one of the most rewarding jobs there is.

Speaking as a pt who got dumped it's hell on wheels. I have fibro so have been on narcotics for a long time (I'm retired) so I have seen this particular pain doctor for SEVEN or more years! And y'all may remember that I now have bi-polar disorder (another reason to stay retired). Here are the reasons I was given for being "dumped": I was "dumped" for being a "drug abuser" WITHOUT a drug screen or ANY medical evidence - here is what I was DUMPED for: excerpt from letter to be sent one day: Even a person WITHOUT BI-POLAR DISORDER WOULD BE INSULTED TO FASELY BEING CALLED A DRUG ABUSER and not allowed to defend themselves. So understandably I got upset at being accused of being a drug abuser. 1. I fall asleep in the waiting room all the time: I find it amusing that I can talk with other patients or read or pray and still sleep all at the same time in your waiting room. As the receptionist's window faces the door and there is little to no view of the waiting room from their window I am unsure of how they saw me sleeping. I have stopped many times at the side desk to pay my co-pay and I was not able to see the waiting room despite having a better angle. I just am having a hard time believing that you would think I could sleep in what many conversations between me and other patients have determined to be chairs that are not the chairs you would expect in a pain doctors office and we all hurt significantly more after our two and a half hour wait to be called back. It is impossible to walk around as there is little room to even accommodate all the patients sitting. I take Seroquel for my bi-polar disorder, a fact I have made you aware of. It causes me to sleep deeply until about 3am, after this despite a comfortable soft mattress with a pillow top I find going back to sleep difficult there fore the possibility of me sleeping in your highly uncomfortable waiting room chairs would be impossible. If your receptionist are referring to the few times I have leaned on my elbow I am either praying for the patients I have just met, it does not matter that I do not know their names God does, or I am very bored as I had forgotten to bring something to read (and the magazines in your waiting room would not interest anybody), or I have run out of conversation with the people I was talking to or they've been called back and no one else has taken their spots. Now on the day of my nerve conduction test I did spend my time in the corner with my elbow on the chair arm AND I was PRAYING - the Bible says not to call attention to yourself when praying or all your rewards are given on earth - so I simply lean my head to the side supported by my elbow on the chair arm and sometimes close my eyes as I was taught to be respective to God when praying. If the receptionist were concerned I was asleep they could have open the glass door and called my name. Since this method of praying calls attention to me I will not use it again. I have found that asking the receptionist when you will be seen is not effective and wastes their time as well as preventing them from doing their duties. So when checking in and possibly asking them a question and checking out are the only times the receptionists see me. AND my sister accompanies me to my appointments as her appointment is on the same day and I talk with her all the while! 2. I am always groggy when checking in: Again I asked you to call my sister in as she would be able to refute it. I find it amazing that I can travel approximately 20 miles with no accidents, no missed exits and not loosing my way when I appear to groggy to even be at my appointment. I am often tired or in PAIN (my reason for being there) and this shows more greatly on my face every year (as I age). You may ask the technician if I am able to get up gather my things and come to the door without being called twice. There have been a few incidents where another patient has a similar name and we both approach and a very few when I sit in the far side of the waiting room. I do not like to sit there as the conservation is better on the other side of the room. And let's THINK - I am taking other drugs for being bi-polar that may make me groggy - duhhhh! 3. My speech is always slurred: As I have had Bell's Palsy for 13 years and indicated this on my new patient form and have repeatedly discussed with Debra as the last time I saw you before the never conduction test was possibly a year or even more- I do not recall the last time you made an assessment of me as a patient. I KNOW I have a very slight slur to my speech. My neurologist in Houston has told me these residual symptoms will never go away, these include a slight slur, slight problems with the eye on the affected side and pain and a light distortion to the side of my face that is affected. I also have difficulty swallowing sometimes and have chocked on more than one occasion. People who have known me for those 13+ years no longer notice the slur. Only people who are meeting me for the first time or who seldom see me tend to notice it. I find my symptoms, backed up by the Huston neurologist, are worse when I am tired, a weather change is coming or it is raining - at those times my symptoms are more exaggerated and therefore more noticeable. Only one doctor has correctly chosen the affected side - all other doctors except my OB doc at the time and ENT doctor he referred me to - miss by a mile. My Houston neurologist and I know he had not read my new patient form because BEFORE he started to read it he said something like "you have Bell's Palsy don't you? And it's on the ___ side" I believe I was dumped because HE had not evaluated me in YEARS and had just continued on with the same regime DESPITE my comments that I could be decreased or let's try Lyrica...all which were ignored. I think he got dinged on "letting things slide with his long term pts - like just giving them narcotics and not seeing them - I had just been seeing his NP and saw him ONCE a year if even that!!!! 'ing for dumbest dr of the year! That's all I can share right now and not get to ticked off and sad!

That would be major cruel. As a migraine sufferers - ANY noise hurts. And what most people with migraines won't tell you (cause they are afraid they'll wind up in the nut house - and believe me I've surveyed MANY migraine sufferers) is that they do not think logically when having a migraine, that they feel like they are on a different plane, that they feel like they are someone else, and many other weird things they DO NOT tell their doctors. You just simply don't "think" as you would when you are "normal". I only say this cause no one knows who I am and I don't want locked up when I have a migraine! AND I have NEVER read any of this in migraine literature - why? Because migraine sufferers are afraid to speak out. I have talked to up to 50 people who suffer from migraines and they ALL give similar stories - so this person may not have been in her "right" mind and calling an ambulance seemed to be the correct thing to do. It's been a long time since I've had very bad one - but taking overdoses and doing weird things is common when you have a bad one! And besides childbirth it's the worst pain I've ever had and I suffer from fibromyalgia!