Another Day .....

Today the Father-in-law, who had never experienced surgery ..... is now a pro. I stopped by to check his progress after my 12 hour night shift bearing gifts of *real* coffee...ie: Starbucks and coffee-cake (yes he is diabetic, but it doesn't stop him at home from the constant indulgment...and he really hasn't eatten in two days). He is reclining in the bed, his color is good, his breathing is deep and unlabored (always assessing arn't we???) then his eyes open, and the whining is actually tempered with a smile!!!! His foley was pulled, so he was forced to lever himself out of the bed several times during the night to urinate...Oh God the Evil Demented Nurses must have been torturing him!!!! He actually had the much awaited birth of a turd...and now is biting at the bit to go home to the comfort of his easy chair and the knowledge that everybody within a mile radius is gonna wait on him hand and foot (NOT!). ANYWAY...I think I made daughter-in-law points for *real* coffee.

Frustrated

Today has been a trying day. First, my father-in-law, who has never been in a hospital, had surgery yesterday...and today he is feeling better...hence starts the whining...all nurses know when the patient is feeling better because they whine about everything...my soup has salt in it...I can't eat it...they forgot and sent me eggs and I'm allergic (except when I want to eat them, and then they don't make me sick!), my ice pack has melted again (imagine that), I have a headache and they won't do anything about it, sit me, put me down, turn off the light, turn on the light....and all this in the first five minutes. Being a nurse means when you are visiting someone in the hospital you should be able to fix everything instantly...because YOU are a nurse...even if it is not YOUR hospital, even if it is WHERE you USED to work before you found an even greater and better job................... You tolerate all 30 minutes during which he gets pulled up...you get ice packs....you are forced to TASTE his hospital soup to verify on a stack of bibles that there is indeed no sodium in it....get the nurse to order Tylenol and bring said Tylenol to him....then escape so you can go home and try to sleep for your shift tonight. Before you can sleep you attempt to set up your own appointment for a treadmill test...where the receptionist snidely tells you that you cannot have an appointment until you bring in the referral and sign for the instructions (you know the ones, wear comfortable clothes....ect. ect. ect) so now I have to stay up late tomorrow morning to satisfy the sadistic evil cardiologist that assumes nobody can read a piece of paper....unless they sign for it. Lord, Lord...I hope this appointment is soon and not dragged out over the next month! Surely they will want to repeat the EKG's, blood work and pee test one more time for good measure. Oh, well to bed it is for the quick zzzzzzz's.