NSDRN

I also had a lap chole and a lap nissen at the same time. For about 2-3 weeks after the procedure I too had severe pains that felt like someone was stabbing me with a giant knife. The pains I felt were in my abdomen not my right side. Had no pain at all there. I called my doc and he seemed to think that it was muscular pain from the stretching of the muscles by the scope and other instruments. He also seemed to think that it was compounded by the fact that I only took two weeks off work. My advice is to call your physician and let him/her know what's going on. Best of luck to you.

If the patient has sheaths they are on bedrest for six hours. Once the sheath is pulled it's usually six more hours of bedrest. For our patients who are perclosed four hours of bedrest. Our patients with sheaths have a really hard time laying on their back flat for 12 hours or more. They c/o of a lot of back pain. Our perclosed patients do much better. Hope this helps.

Thanks for all the input. Our crash carts, procedure carts, and emergency items will remain as they now are. Each room will have it's own pyxis so I can't see that lines will be an issue. Frankly, I feel like supply pyxis will be an uneccesary pain! Honestly, I don't mind the added time to get out the items we charge for, but it irritates me that I have to get unsterile 4 x 4's, iv catheters, and all the other stuff that is currently included in the room cost out of a machine. Us nurses just don't have enough to do!

I'm fairly new to this BB and have found it to be the awesomest(is that a word?) BB for nurses around. I have a question for you guys. Do any of your facilities use pixis machines for supplies? My hospital is installing supply pixis machines in which EVERYTHING will be kept. This includes 4 x4's, iv catheters, fluids, alcohol pads, and anything else you can think of. I'm quite concerned about this because I'm not sure how this system is going to work with emergency situations. How many times have I needed to quickly get my hands on the dopamine. Not to mention my judicious use of 4 x 4's for everthing from bleeding to runny noses. Any feedback is appreciated in advance.

I guess I'm a minimalist like Heather! Left pocket has my cheat sheet, and pen. Right pocket has hemostats and scissors. Stethoscope goes around the neck. That's it. In the ICU where I work alcohol pads, tape, tegaderm and practically everything else you can think of is kept in the patient's room. Keeps it simple. Of course I still have my humongous nursing bag with everything but the kitchen sink which I keep in a drawer at my station. I know several nurses who use the id badge clips to hook their scissors, hemostats, etc to their belt loops or pants pockets.

At our facility the datascope representative gives an inservice 2-3 times a year on the IABP. She recommends turning the IABP ratio to 1:2 to check timing. By doing this you can see the dicrotic notch during an unassisted cycle. The balloon should begin inflation on the dicrotic notch which represents the beginning of diastole. The balloon should deflate right before systole begins. The datascope has a highlighter which you can use to highlight inflation. Your IABP should have a training mode which you can use to practice. Remember, practice makes perfect;)