beachmom

My doctor told me about a patient of hers who had lots of intestinal issues and was told she couldn't get pregnant. She found out she was pregnant at 34 weeks. Two weeks later she had the baby. She said, "Most women have a bun in the oven. I had a b...

Totally been there, done that. Used to be terrified. Now scared but excited. Changing a blue, limp body into a pink, screaming baby. Quite an adrenaline rush. In babies, you're not really coding them, you're helping them make the transition from the ...

That makes me feel much better!

We had a mom who was hep C+. I know statistically the chances of transmission to the baby are very low. This mom, however, apparently had a small abruption in her pregnancy. The amniotic fluid was dark red/wine colored with some old clots and meconiu...

Babies don't have open cuts, but they "breathe" the amniotic fluid into their lungs, they swallow it, it's touching the mucus membranes of their eyes and nose. I just hope the baby will be OK. One of the hard things about being a hospital nurse is th...

I got a month orientation at the hospital. Our CNA's get more orientation than three days. If I were you, I would insist on more days. It's just not safe. A friend of mine was a new nurse in LTC around the time I was a new nurse at the hospital. In ...

The 90-120 min thing is new. Our car seat techs just a few weeks ago went to a siminar stating it has changed, so we just changed our policy.

Had a young man, frequent flyer for pain control issues. He truly was in pain but always wanted more pain med than was ordered. One time he broke into the sharps container and was sucking all the syringes.

After my son was born, for awhile I would "toot" out the urethra. I guess the birth stretched open the urethra. If I would move one way, a bit of air would get up there, then I would move another way or urinate, and it would "toot" out. Kinda weird f...

I agree with the other poster about discussing all this in detail with your doctor (or midwife.) They are the ones who decide a lot of this. And you need to be able to trust them if they say you need a C-section. One one hand, I have seen doctors wh...

LOVED IT!

In L&D most pts are young and healthy, but you get a few sick ones. We had one with an NG d/t GI issues, and some of the L&D nurses had never worked with one and were quite intimidated. I had two years of med-surg, and I had no problem with ...

There is a nurse, "Janet", who worked at my hospital for years, was a traveler for awhile and now has been rehired and is working as a charge nurse. I floated to her unit last Friday and had a horrible night. She kept dumping stuff on me. I ended up...

In my experience, even if twins are both head down, when the first is born, the second quite often flips to be breech. At my hospital, standard procedure for a twin mom is to get an epidural (turning it on is optional) and then deliver vaginally in t...

Birth has been a "women only" event in many cultures throughout history. Personally, if a man didn't want to be there because it's against his culture, or he thought he couldn't handle it, I wouldn't condemn him. Now, if he left because he was too b...

That was hilarious!

My husband woke up one night feeling a fluttering heart. His HR was 180. Our daughter took him to ER. I was at work, and when I arrived in ER, they were ready to give him adenosine. His BP was 160's/130's. HR 170's. I noticed they had a liter bolus ...

I wonder if the doctor would let someone cut on his winky if he only had sweatease for painkiller?

My father-in-law was 68 and in the ER for chest pain when he coded. They defibrillated him twice and got him back. He ended up with his second CABG, so had a few miserable months. That was 20 years ago. He still lives in his own home and travels to A...

If you don't like your job, there are LOTS of other choices. Nursing is so varied, med-surg, L&D, LTC, clinics, home health, schools, military, teaching, administration, legal or insurance companies, flight nursing, research. Surely there is some...

I discovered once that men can be "innies" instead of "outies." I had one man with so much scrotal edema and so little penile substance, I couldn't find an opening. Neither could the other nurse on my floor. Had to call a urology nurse.

Had some parents name their girl "Srii" after some mythological character named "Tsrii." They chose not to spell it "Tsrii" because kids might call her "tree." I knew a "Summer" once. There is an Asian name of "Fuk" (pronounced "Fook") that I have se...

We get them up as soon as they are ready. No set time. 4 hours is probably the soonest. I work evenings, and I tell them that sometime on my shift they need to try to get up. If all they can do is dangle, fine. If they can walk a bit, that's better. ...

In adult foster homes, whoever runs the homes can check sugars give insulin. They don't have to be medical people. I don't know about your program. If your diabetic is developmentally delayed to the point of having a guardian, that person should cer...

You'll be a better nurse if you're a CNA first. It's embarrassing to be a nurse and the CNA's have to show you how to change a pt. It also helps you tremendously in clinicals, especially if you can be a CNA in the same place as you do the clinicals.