I walk onto the floor and we're getting slammed - 5 admits in half hour,
Ofcourse, all during shift change time
Had 7 patients all to myself: One very agitated, combative post bowel resection patient in restraints. A 60 year old with CP, mental retardation, MS, seizures (who should be on the neuro specialty floor but wasn't because neuro was full) who was on tele with a Cardizem and Dilantin drip and weird heart rhythms. An ICU transfer. A post perf'd duodenal ulcer with 5 lines going in and 7 lines/tubes coming out. A post hyst who couldn't stop puking all night. My only "normal" patient was a bilat. prophylactic mastectomy...
... and last but not least, a "direct admit" - LOL all of 80 years old who tends to be "forgetful" at times. Dx: Fatigue and loss of appetite. Hx: Chronic a-fib, osteoarthritis, carotid artery clot repair.
All this on a "surgical" floor :selfbonk:
34 beds. 34 patients. 5 nurses. 1 CNA!
I literally zombie'd through my shift. Naturally missed lunch and pee breaks. :trout:
Come morning time - still doing chart checks at 0530. Haven't started charting for the entire night!
Waiting for AM shift to get out of report. Get called a critical value on my LOL 80 year old:
PT > 120
INR > 13.4
[Yes. It meant "greater than". Values were so far beyond the high range end, lab machines were not caliberated for it!!]
I thought someone was playing an April Fool's joke a week late.
Not so!
Had a total ":eek:" moment right there!
Burned my fingers hitting he MDs pager number on the telephone....
Sweated bullets till he called back.
I read him the values and I can almost see him *shrug his shoulders* and he just says "Ok. Thanks!"
His reaction kinda felt like a let down.
Found out later patient takes 2.5mg Coumadin for prophalaxis following a-fib diagnosis. Wondering if she'd been popping one pill too many ...
Oh well. I finally made it home an hour ago.
Just wondering how common it is to see PT/INR values that high...
