KYDentedAngel

Absolute favorite for comfort and wear in the past 25 years are ECCO's. They are kind of expensive (at least for my pocketbook, around $135.00) but I never had a bit of pain from the first moment I put them on. Good luck, Lisa

I work in a Lifepoint facility in KY. They are for-profit facilities. As far as I can see, they have made positive changes for us since they took over the facility from HCA. They tend to focus on smaller hospitals with plans to make them very good at the care they provide. We have carved a spot in our community (and the US) for providing care to bariatric patients (among top 10 in the country). We also have very active outpatient services, good ER, Women's Services, etc. Since Lifepoint bought our facility, we've expanced, built all new OR/ICU, rennovated most everywhere else, built two new office buildings, incorporated a busy business health aspect of community care, gotten a free-standing radiation facility, etc. I've been at the hosptial for almost 5 years and they were there approx. one year before I went there to work. Their stock has consistently shown good profit margins. Look up LPNT in the market. My quarterly returns are much higher than one would expect overall. Good luck, Lisa

In addition to a blue million alcohol preps, I've carried home recently a pregnancy wheel, post-it notes, vital signs printed from the Dinamap (I wondered where I'd put them and had to re-print them earlier, duh), nail polish remover pads, OB towelettes, these are just the things I remember off the top of my rattled head! Lisa

I enjoy postpartum for the most part, but do like a break in worlking in well-baby newborn nursery at times, too. I don't want to crosstrain to LDR, but there is a push coming from upper level management for all RN's to be trained in all areas. When I went to this area 4 yrs ago, the managers' idea of training me for labor hall was 1 month on days, one month on nights then cut me loose on my own! This is a tiny facility with 5 LDR beds and 11 postpartum/GYN beds, max of 11 babies. Our typical staffing at night is one LDR RN, one NBN RN and one PP/GYN RN. I imagine you can surmise that the amount of training for a brand spanking new LDR RN would not be adequate in that time frame, so I said, "No, thanks." Hopefully, upper level management will lose the attitude that "You can find another job if you don't want to train for all areas." If not, there will be a major mass exodus of the nurses who have worked there for many years in NBN and Postpartum/GYN. Actually, I am a new kid on the block with four yrs' working in this unit, so the nurses have been loyal to the facility for quite some time. That would be quite unfortunate, indeed! Lisa

I'd initially posted thinking the labs you were quoting with the high AST, ALT and bilirubin were POSTOP, then reread to understand you are saying they are normal now??? If so, I think the patient is likely showing some transient postop elevations of the Alkaline phos in response to irritation and obstructive process preop and surgical manipulation of the biliary system. As to the low Hgb/Hct, mine dropped about that much after reconstruction of a bile duct last year and had a tiny bleed that resolved itself without further surgical intervention or transfusion. Excessive thirst can accompany drops in Hgb/Hct. I "feel" for this patient. I had open cholecystectomy with immediate choledochoduodenostomy due to surgical injury of the common duct in 1989. I subsequently had transient elevations of LFT's, pain episodes that felt just like a gallbladder attack for many years. After 16 ERCP's (I lost count) involving pneumatic dilitation, sphincterotomy, stent insertions, low-grade pancreatitis and bordering on potential blilary cirrhosis, I had revision of the surgery to choledochojejunostomy in April of 2003. Hopefully, your patient will NOT have such a complex course. Good luck. Lisa Lisa