Sunday December 29th 2024

Tweety, BSN, RN · Dec 29, 2024

Good morning!

It's warm in the 70's and very humid. Turned the air conditioner on after work before bed for about 30 minutes. Same today but a cold spell is on the way.

I notice G doesn't have a "brain" but leaves himself notes. I probably need a brain in more ways than one.

I got woken up by a text from my car insurance company thanking me for a payment I made last night. But it was already 8AM and I needed to get up. I was pleased to see the rate went up only $50 for the next six months. Prior it had been going up to the point of practically doubling. I was concerned because thousands of people made claims during the flood of totaled cars, including G.

Speaking of insurance, I'm going to be "depopulated" by the state homeowners to a company I never heard of in May. It's more expensive, but actually not has much as the last company that pulled out was going to charge me. We'll see as the time gets closer what kind of coverage I'm going to get.

Didn't wake up early enough to go to my yoga class. Should have set my alarm but forgot it was my yoga day. I'm a bit off because my schedule the last couple of weeks isn't my normal.

The roofers are off today so the dreadful noise will stop for today. Having the shingles delivered tomorrow when they were to lay down the new one, but because of the problem with some of the wood they still haven't removed all of the old roof(s) yet so not sure when it will be finished. The "project manager" did tell me they lay 25% of the roof and have an inspection and then come back and finish. We apparently have an "in process" inspection rule to make sure things are up to code. I saw on the portal they are going to do some stucco work on the 13th of January. Not sure when the gutters are going to be put on. It will get done eventually. I'm hoping they don't find any more problems.

I didn't post yesterday because I needed time to de-stress. The cloud over me when I work the floor started right away with a 6:1 ratio. During bedside shift change report a patient started complaining of chest pain. Did the protocol and she wound up okay and said it was anxiety. Then I called a rapid response on a patient with a BP of 210/120 manually. Eventually he was transferred on a drip but they then my day was ruined from the start and I stayed behind. I had a massive dressing change on a patient that had wounds in three spots and pooped a river and took 45 minutes for me and another nurse to complete it all.

Again. I question my life choice.

Have a great day.

nursej22, MSN, RN · Dec 29, 2024

ugh, its cold and drippy and I can't seem to get warm. It wasn't raining this morning so I rode my bike to breakfast, and thought I felt like taking the long route home. Mistake! I was so cold--face, fingers, stiff knees. I bumped the heat up a little. I can't go too warm or dh will open the door and turn on a fan.

I got outside for some time yesterday to jog, walk the dogs and do some storm debris clean up. At the end of my jog I saw an eagle soaring overhead, not much higher than the light poles, which was pretty cool. I was close to a park where the ducks hang out, so maybe he/she was looking for ducky McNuggets for breakfast. I spent too much time watching Bondi Vet online.

Tweety, is seems like your patient population is getting sicker, or is that just me? I sense that you have to call rapids every shift. I don't see how that kind of work load is sustainable. And then I see comments on the general nursing forum where people say they don't get adequate care. If your staffing is 6:1, that leaves you 10 minutes per hour per patient. Half of that is documentation, so you have 5 minutes face to face per hour for assessing, meds, teaching, treatments, calls to provider. That's nuts. Okay, down off my soap box.

Stars, ooh, a whole day tomorrow!? I am excited for you.

Stew sounds like a wonderful meal for dinner. Maybe we'll have that tonight. I've also been thinking about shepherds pie.

No Stars In My Eyes · Dec 29, 2024

What's the buzz for today? The usual: laundry, dishes, and trash gathering. It amazes me how much trash two people and a dog can make.....but *I* am not the one who fills up the wastebaskets with used Chux! (thank goodness!)

It rained HARD this morning, and woke me up beating on the windows and roof. The rain was coming in sideways for a while! Couldn't hardly see the house across the street, it was so thick! I listened to the rain for a while and fell back to sleep. Got up at 11:30 in an amazingly GOOD mood! Guess it was all those negative ions from the rains, making me cheer up! I was actually surprised at what a good mood I was in, since I haven't had any of those kinds of moments for a L-O-N-G time!

Yep, SiL texted me she would be coming over to get Nannie up around 8 AM, get her washed and dressed, and take her over to the Senior center. Nannie perked up at that news, I told SiL it was primarily that the words "You are going out tomorrow" were in the sentence I said to her. Nannie said, "Well, I guess I'll go, then," in a cheerful voice! Of course, she started wondering what she would wear tomorrow. I told her SiL would help her choose a nice outfit, and reminded her "God says don't worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will take care of itself"

So, I guess that in a while I will heat up one of the meals SiL brought over Thursday evening, to put in the fridge. That and a bowl of fresh fruit and one of those small cups of Vanilla ice cream and one of those danged Chocolate-Fudge Little Debbie's cookies (ick) that she loves so much. She ALWAYS eats her desserts first! I have also started giving her all the pills at suppertime; I had been holding off on giving her the sleepy-time meds until bedtime, but it works better if I give them just before she eats. supper.....THEN she is actually sleepy enough to not squawk about going to bed 'early', and has been amenable to calling it quits as early as 9 PM or very shortly thereafter. And both Momo and I are all for that; it means we get to go up to my bed! Momo gets her bedtime snacks and then we play with her little rubber squeaktoy, and then it is time for a good belly rub. After that she goes under the covers and sleeps for about an hour. Then she has to come out into the open to be scratched some more. When I start getting all my pillows arranged to support my back and hips, Momo goes down to the lower corner of the mattress and waits for me to cover up. Once I have settled in and quit moving around, she gets her blanket arranged to her satisfaction, and snugs up against my upper thighs and bottom. (!)

The past two nights I accidentally flipped my PM meds pill-cup up and they all fell on the floor beside and under the bed. ARGH! I managed to find some of them and got the others out of their bottles. I have not filled my medisets for months and months! It always seems like I only just filled them when it is time to fill them again. BAH! It's always SOMETHING!

Think I will turn on the TV to distract Nannie from arranging and re-arranging (ad- infinitum) her shoulder wrap so that the ends with the fringe are evenly placed "just so" over her knees. 🙄

Time to transfer Nannie's wash into the dryer. Whoop-dee-dooooo!

toomuchbaloney · Dec 29, 2024

Woke up to a cold snap. The dogs hurry when it's -20°. It might be time to move again.

nursej22, MSN, RN · Dec 29, 2024

toomuchbaloney said:

Woke up to a cold snap. The dogs hurry when it's -20°. It might be time to move again.

Reminds me of the years we lived in Idaho. 9 months of Winter and 3 months of poor snowmobiling. One January the temp never got above 0. I can tell you wood splits much easier when its than cold, LOL.

Editorial Team / Admin · Dec 30, 2024

Hello! Brrrrr, that sounds COLD, tmb! I could tolerate it, with proper preparation (layering, etc) but dh wouldn't be able to.

I made the spice cookies' cookie dough, and it sits in the fridge, firming up. I made the pumpkin dip for them, too. I just need to bake the cookies... maybe later tonight. Dh will NOT complain, LOL! I also made the pumpkin chili and it is cooling down before being frozen in containers. Grocery store didn't have anaheim chilis, which I use instead of the cans of chopped chilis (I don't like the metallic taste from the cans). Some pasilla chilis were available, and when I looked them up online, while they were deemed a little spicier than anaheims, they were purported to have a 'smokey' flavor, and thus a good choice for chiles. Yup, that's what I was going to use them for, so I bought one big one and de-seeded it, chopped it, and sauteed it along with the onion and bell pepper. I gave dh a sample after the whole concoction had simmered 45 min or so, and he pronounced it GOOOOOOOOD! So, we have four meals of that.

No Stars, I hope you have a GOOD Nannie-less time tomorrow!

nursej22, I hope you warmed up after getting chilled.

Dh spoke with our insurance agent on Friday. While we were kinda holding our breath, waiting to see how much our rates would increase, -- apparently they did go up but not by much. Small favors!

It's been in the mid-60's, and supposed to be 71 tomorrow. Nights are cool, which is nice.

Youngest ds texted they had received the little gag gift I sent. As they have two cats, I sent them two small (~4" high) yellow 'caution' signs (A-shaped, that sit on the floor), that say "Cat Vomit." I giggled when I saw the signs, and promptly sent them his way, for Christmas. Glad he finally got them!

Oldest ds has a busy work schedule this week. He is usually scheduled 3 days out of 7, but is on the schedule (as bartender) for 6 out of 7 evenings!! I sure hope he gets some good tips, to make up for the extra hassle of working those days (one of which is NYE)!

That's it for now. Have a good evening!

No Stars In My Eyes · Dec 30, 2024

I'd have to say that -20 degrees is actually an exceptionally RUDE COLD SNAP! I gotta say, I mean, EGADS! 😳 <BUT, if you open your eyes this wide outside, your eyeballs would instantly crack like a 'fried' marble. I don't know if any of y'all ever did that to marbles, so that may or may not make sense. But my bro and I made many a fried (cracked) marble in our day! And then we did nothing with them. We just thought it was cool thing to do. But I wouldn't want to view the world through cracked eyeballs! So tmb, if you or yours go outside, please put on some kind of protective blinders. I'm surprised the dog's pee didn't start freezing the moment it made its exit from their body. It would be like they had a stem attaching them to the ground.