Alright, friends. I'm keeping this one short and sweet because my brain is sore and my dog is annoying.
This week, I have learned....
1. There should be a time limit hospitals should have to fix a problem. If things aren't better after, say, 15 days, let someone else try.
2. I'm in the mid Atlantic of the US with spring travel plans to Florida, and I'm actually feeling nervous about Zika. I had a guillian barre syndrome patient in nursing school. On his way driving home from work, his chest felt off, so he course corrected to the ED. When he pulled up and walked to the doors, he struggled with leg weakness. After he was done in triage, he couldn't stand. He was intubated, and completely paralyzed, before he left the ED for ICU.
3. A patient on neuroleptics will still have detectable epileptiform patterns on an EEG.
4. A good neurologist knows no matter how crazy the patient sounds describing symptoms, what they say is legit and will stay the course for diagnosis.
5. My favorite doctors to work with are the ones who will sit and talk patho with a nurse and enjoy that the nurse legitimately loves to learn.
6. Sliding scale coverage alone for inpatient management is not currently supported by research.
7. If working day shift doesn't eventually make me check into a psych ward, nothing will.
8. The GI doc who left me scrambling to save a guy's life (what felt like) single-handedly by doing no intervention before he got dumped on us (actively bleeding out 2 points of hemoglobin over 8 hours and maintaining a BP that won't leave 70s-80s) has suddenly become cautious enough to send a perfectly stable (hemodynamically, symptomatically, and on CBC) rectal bleed to ICU before meeting or scoping her after I've literally done all the work needed on her for the shift. And of course, I was rewarded with an end of the shift admission.
9. The Florida Man Collective has evolved to include its latest - Wrinkles the Clown. He is a scary-looking clown who is for hire to scare anyone you want, for any reason.
10. The more you annoy the doctor about the same thing, over and over and over, the more likely it is they will listen and maybe put in an order.
I have nothing else right now. My broken brain is feeble!
Been there, done that - in some respects still am. Your brain is gonna keep processing and reprocessing everything you've been through - trying it's best to make sense of everything you learned, saw, heard, felt, etc. It's hard to get it to shut off so you can sleep. Finding a way to de-brief yourself (*snicker*) after a heck of a day like that is going to be super-important. Mine's talking it out to someone (all HIPAA-sensitive data redacted of course). A friend of mine (ED nurse) goes for a slow run around the neighborhood, and one of my cousins (Oncology nurse) cuddles with her fur-baby. You'll find out what works best for you, but in the meantime I would suggest Benadryl or (my go-to) Valerian/Chammomile tea by Yogi Teas.
Slight exaggeration. I've been known to just say stuff it and get up and leave during dental procedures. Or start swinging. If I didn't like my heart valves so much, I probably would have never gone to the dentist again after my last escapade. Apparently there is statistically significant evidence that redheads don't stay numb.
This dentist seems to understand my unique needs.... E.g. He gives me a couple three halcion then straps on the pulse ox and nitrous. He's got Valium on standby.
- Withdrawing from ETOH after an open-heart procedure is a heck of a thing, and hard to catch up to.
- I really, really like creeping on the school nurses forum.
- I should be really careful about making my patients laugh as part of my pre-op anxiety reduction process. It tends to draw a little bit of a crowd.
- Some open heart patients aren't as honest about their medical conditions as they should be, and they pay for it post-op when a wave of what could have been preventable complications arise.
- Not sure why, but I feel like I have more friends on AN than I do in "real life." Any of you wanna grab some coffee sometime?
- I learned that the "cheeky" emoticon () can look wildly inappropriate when a thread takes a certain direction. RIP Bangladesh.
- I learned that I feel the same way about mermaids as some people feel about saltines, and that I'm not alone. Thank you, OldDude/Farawyn.
) can look wildly inappropriate when a thread takes a certain direction. RIP Bangladesh.
Farawyn
12,646 Posts
Melatonin.