I'm a Patient now.

Ok, so I know that PVC's cannot kill you. I've been told that over and over by the cardiologist. However, tell me, why do you have the chest pain, palpations, shortness of breath, and feeling of impending doom...if it really isn't anything significant. And for please don't say it's an anxiety attack, when I am able to continue to care for patient's and calmly give my relief nurse a full concise report to continue care for six patient's. An anxiety attack would not start with indigestion and still be continuing 6 hours later...and getting worse. I drank 1/2 bottle of Peptol Bismol because I was convienced I was just having "gas" pain. Interestingly enough I placed myself on teley and had 3 hours on continous bigemity rhythm .... had to mute the monitor because the alarms were ringing constantly. Not just the 33 PVC's per minute...but the underlying sinus brady of 40. Now, to say I just felt like holy hell and did continue to work...chart, formulate care plans, give medications, and admit a new patient during all this...how does that cause a physican who doesn't even know me from Adam to form the opionion I must have been having an ANXIETY attack. Hell, if I was having an Anxiety attack, bring on the Xanax!!!! I would have loved to have slept for a few hours! My fellow nurses on my floor didn't mind taking care of me. I put on my own monitor, did my own I/O's, fetched my own towels....and alarmed for 24 straight hours with cardiac arrhythmia and sinus brady. Enzymes neg, had low KCL and had to drink some of the nasty liquid stuff we love to foist off on unsupecting patient's...and even though Isral is a new grad, he had enough sense to stay in the room to be sure I finished my OJ and Liquid KCL cocktail (blech!). Anyhow, I'm home now with a "event monitor". The thing is I don't notice the PVC's until they get totally symptomatic. When I have bigemity for like an hour or more I get short of breath and have chest pain....but remember that is probably an "anxiety" attack, and PVC's cannot kill you ... just make you feel like your having a heart attack or dying. The worst part is now I have an ER bill, inpatient hospitalization bill, cardiologist bill, and now a bill for this damn monitor...and nothing will be done. They cannot even increase or change the anti-arrhythmia drug I'm on...because my heart rate is so slow I cannot take it most of the time, and the doc doesn't think a pacemaker is a good option because I'm too "young" and might have to have a few battery changes in my lifetime. So, will all this eventually cause me to have heart damage or Sick Sinus Syndrome???? Who knows. I just know that I continue to feel like hell, and I don't think it's an Anxiety Attack!

Cancer Week

I've decided that it must be cancer week on our unit. Got two patient's in ajoining rooms with very simular diagnoses. Keep getting their labs and stuff mixed up (LOL) because almost same diagnoses. Work a cardiac floor, just not used to side by side cancers I guess. One gent came in for a heart cath and finds out he has a lung mass. The other came in knowing he had colon cancer, was actually already scheduled next week for surgery, but had complications...and wound up on the cardiac floor. Neither of these guys are really young...but it just hits you sometimes, you know, there sometimes is no way of knowing just what is sitting there in your gut or lung just waiting like a spider for the "right" time to spring on you.

I remember one patient I had came in with shortness of breath...she was in her mid 30's, she was a smoker...but what had happened was she was letting her dog out and the wind caught the door and hit her in the ribcage with it fracturing the rib. What she didn't expect was that when the x-ray showed the fractured rib....it also showed extensive lung cancer. She lay there is the ICU barely able to breath....not sure if she really wanted to know what lay ahead. She had on perfect makeup, she had "enhanced" perfect breasts, she had met and recently married the "perfect" man. What she did not have was the "perfect" diagnosis.

So, there ya go....Cancer week.....*sigh*

arrrrrrrrrrrgh

If my arms become to short to wipe my butt...please...please just shoot me...put me out of my misery!

The 15th time the bell went off ....for the butt wipe queen I wanted to call it quits...but I pasted that silly smile on my face and did my job....how pleasant is it to do this over and over. How does anybody live??? I get one or two of these type of patients a week. If this is any indicator of the Obesity Crisis in America, I can swear that there really is one.

New Nurse

Hummmmmmmmm. Well we were all new once. I understand why we were told in Nursing School that "nurses eat their young", especially since I have been training a new grad. I have decided this little gal (well actually woman since she is over 40) must have never worked a day in her life. She has zero time management skills and cannot seem to remember from one day to the next how to even flush a saline lock. Now seems to me, that in order for the University to have awarded her a BS degree in nursing she must have exhibited some type of "smarts" along the way. You would think the NCLEX would be designed to weed out total dumb-asses...but apparently not, a few seem to sneak by. Now if I could just figure out how to get her to pull our the information she learned in school and apply it (as in critical thinking skills) to the actual situations maybe we could get a "Real Nurse" out of her. I wonder if my preceptors thought the same thoughts about me (look at that dumb ass!).

Well I can remember some of the "rookie" mistakes I made that made me look pretty ignorant. I remember when we were in a code and the doc wanted 20 mg of something and I misunderstood and ran to get a 20 ml syringe. Of course everybody looked at me like I had lost my mind...then after the code there was some snickering going on (not quite behind my back). Good thing my "friends" kept me in line...can you imagine something that was 20 mg per cc in a 20 ml syringe...well we sure wouldn't need to code them anymore that's for sure.

Ok, so I am praying for patience. I promise to be better. I promise..I promise.

What's up with spell check?

I've written some great posts, but as soon as I do spell check they get locked into drafts...forever...and I cannot post them. Ummmmmmmm need to take time to read how to fix this.

New Grad's BSN Progam

When will the colleges learn...just teaching a person theory and human anatomy and physiology...teaching about disease processes and lab norms and abnormals is not all there is to being a nurse. The new nurses come out so green and wet behind the ear's that they cannot even hook up an IV line to the patient without breaking out in a sweat and having anxiety attacks. A little hands on...hell a lot of hands on....teaching would go a long way to giving these new nurses some confidence!!! Not that I want somebody who thinks they know it all straight out of nursing school....but we all know it just takes a critical patient that you are trying to get off your floor and to the ICU (GOTTA LOVE THE ICU NURSES!!!!)to bring them down a notch! And if you are training somebody and two of the patients are crashing and burning...they learn really quickly that it is not all about knowing the processes and the drugs...it's about quick intervention.

I've been training a new grad...and I think she is gonna be a good one...if she doesn't quit from lack of confidence. She's afraid to do just about anything that involves actually touching the patient. She doesn't trust her own judgement...mainly from lack of CLINICAL PRACTICE. She will come and tell me "Mr. So n so sounds like he may have crackles...can you go listen....maybe I am not hearing right.... You go listen...yup crackles. I think Ms. So n so 's IV is infiltrated...her arm is swelling up a lot. You go look...yup IV is infiltrated...but the IV is still infusing!!! (INTERVENTION GIRL...TURN OFF THE IV, GET A SYRINGE AND SOME NS...CHECK FOR BLOOD RETURN...HOW DOES IT FLUSH..HOW SWOLLEN IS IT?) IV restart...out of the question...at least for now...the new grad turns red, starts sweating and having palpations....:). God , don't we remember those days? At least I was an LVN and could defer anything I didn't know how to do the RN ( who sometimes ranked right up there with God and Jesus at that time). Now that I am an ADN, and I have 7 years experience....I finally feel like a nurse. Of course...when there are two patients crashing and burning simutaneously...I'm like every other nurse...new grad or not....feeling the heat and the feeling that I'm just barely keeping my head above the water.

Sink or swim....all of us have to go through the trail by fire to eventually become a seasoned nurse. I will have to say though, that preceptoring has done a lot for my own self confidence. I realize how far I've come from where I was. I remember being scared to death to make a mistake...I still am...that's why I preach erring on the side of caution. It is better to use your own judgement and intervene for the patient than to just go along and do what ever the doctor's order's say say. Using one's own brain .... and your own assessment skills can save lives .... the doctor is not always there to see the "picture" and most of the time...you call and the doctor backs you up 100%. If not...giving a drug a hour or two late is better than giving something...that you cannot take back if the patient starts crashing and burning!

New grad's...gotta love them...they are tomorrow's preceptor's...and hey, I'm gonna be old someday and need a good seasoned nurse to save my happy butt!

Work, work, work, work

Saturday night I got called off, here that means you are on call for free all night. Cannot drink a beer, cannot take a Lunesta to sleep, must be ready for that freaking phone to ring all night...lucky for it and my migraine it did not ring...but shit...not like having a night off, right.

Then you come into work on Sunday and everyone is pissed you didn't come in on Saturday and take your regular group...like you had a choice, and you opted out on getting paid or something....jesus.

Then your "not your patient" guy who is confused and in room 26...not your patient, but your very familiar with him as he is a frequent flyer...there every week with chest pain, anxiety. Last week he was there (too funny), he didn't want the foley cath even though he was on Lasix and bedrest....Oh did I mention he was a Mayor in a Local town...and has demential...and thinks everyone is his employee...and OH MY GOD...he must HAVE been a TYPE A personality...because EVERYTHING has to be done NOW....this second? Ok, back to last week and the foley problem...well.... he (thank god was not my patient that day) climbed over the bedrail and DISCONNECTED the foley FROM the collection bag and strolled down the very public hall way, penis swinging, piss aflying...happy as a lark...until somebody chased him down, reconnected him to his happy bag and called for "clean up on aisle 3"!!!!! Shortly thereafter he made Hospial History for begging to be allowed to go and pee in the hallway...."please disconnect this bag so I can go and pee in the hallway,,,,, please!"

Please....somebody stop the insanity...at home, if he doesn't get his way...immediately...he has *chest pain* *abdominal pain* *nausea*...and his "heart palpations" which earns him the RIGHT to be taken the EMERGENCY room of his FAVORITE facility...where is is always admitted...always goes though a battery of tests which .....dat dat da! SHOW NOTHING EXCEPT HE has a normal heart rate, normal enzymes...and IS JUST experiencing demential...

Last night, the MD's in all their wisdom decided to d/c any and all anti-anxiety medications...in order to NOT mask the symptoms for the psych
MD when HE DECIDES TO VISIT.>>> remember this is Sunday and we won't see the smiling face of the pleasant pysch MD until at least Tuesday...so Mr. Anxiety was on the button every 5 minutes and calling "GIRL COME HERE" ....."BOY COME HERE NOW" all night long. I was not his nurse...but he could see me....his pee must be emptied before it is allowed to cool, his commode must be scoured everytime he looks at it. clean his table, move his trash, open his door, close his door, light on, light off, blanket on, blanket off....come on....arn't you his personal servent...mercy of light????

His nurse sat at the other station...she left on time...following her shift...ME...I worked 1 1/2 after my shift charting on the work I managed to accomplish on my own assigned patients...my new admit, my NGT going to surgury w/ small bowel obstruction, my patient going for Greenfield filter (with consent, med reconciliation, and checklist all completed and prep done) ....

I'm tired. I hope the Mayor goes home before my next assigned shift...maybe I should have stayed a secretary after all. *sigh*

Is that an Artery??

Well, this happened about two weeks ago...but I haven't forgotten it yet.

We had a repeat customer...a 90 year old female, readmitted for Sepcemia...high fever, UTI, ect. ect. ect. The family had made DNR decisions...but had her dragged to the ER because she was sick. She had just went back to the nursing facility...can we say for 1 day!!!! She had a handy dandy PICC line in her right upper arm....can we say infiltrated to the max...hard, hot, swollen...but somebody had infused IV antibiotics into it regardless.

We got an order for Anesthesia to come and check the line (Xray showed it was out of the vessell....gee...lack of blood return..hot, hard, swollen...that could have been a couple of cheaper alternatives to the Xray). The Dr. wanted another one in. The RN Anesthesic person had to go to an ER C-Sec, so we get the ACTUAL Anesthesia MD....hummmmmmmmm...how did the DNR pt rate that.

Doc is pissed, called out on a weekend, for a DNR patient to place a PICC line when she is SEPTIC already! Call me callused, but I still thought the Doc should have used Sterile Technique...and when she couldn't get the vein...how about a new needle?? No exageration. She stuck that poor woman over 20 times with the same contaminated needle, she finally got blood return. Spurt, Spurt, Spurt....NURSE, DO YOU THINK THAT IS AN ARTERY??? Yes, Highly Trained MD, I do Believe that is an Artery! NURSE, I THINK THIS IS A VEIN! Sorry Highly Trained MD, but I think Arteries Spurt and Pump Blood in time to the Heart Beat....PUMP, PUMP, SPURT, SPURT! NURSE....ARE YOU SURE THIS ISN'T A VEIN, the Highly Trained MD asks, as she drags the INNER cannula (blue) part of the STERILE PICC line set up over my UNSTERILE arm (she didn't set up a sterile field before she started. No ALMIGHTY HIGHLY TRAINED MD, that is obviously an ARTERY...and you just contaminated the sterile cannula....let me go and locate another sterile kit.

I had to leave the room, get a breath. I left the nurse aide in the room and Paged the Nursing Supervisor. I gave a brief...accurate description of the problem to the House Supv, who went to locate another kit....(she also was in the ER C-SEC.) When I get back the Nurse Aide states...I'm leaving...and walks out. Now I know I'm no rocket scientist...but if the Nurse Aide is worried...hummmmm...now I am stuck alone with pissed off Highly Trained MD. WHO FINALLY FINDS A VIEN WITH THE multi-used *sterile* needle and starts feeding the *sterile* cannula in.

STOP....THAT IS A CONTAMINATED CANNULA....STOP THAT IS CONTAMINATED. Her reply...I finally got a vein, why didn't you tell me before this is was contaminated...you did not tell me.

What part of me leaving to get a new kit did you not understand...you stupid BI***?? Well she wasn't leaving the vein...or getting a new kit, so she settled for *leaving the contaminated part out* and suturing it down and covering it up. "What difference does it make, she is septic, a DNR, and a drain on our medical system...it doesn't matter."

All of which was reported ....completely....to management.

The doc still works here.

Now I know why she wasn't in the ER C-Sec.

If I'm every gonna be knocked out for surgury, guess who I don't want starting a line on me

EVER.

END OF STORY?

It's Been a Hard Days Night....

It's been a Hard Days Night, and I've been working like a dog!

Last night started with a bang. The patient in 26 was confused...as in, I know who I am but who are you and all these other people....and where is my house??? This was not my patient, but became my "task" to "handle" when he got led back to the desk by security...his nurse was hanging a cardiac drip on a pt with a heart rate of 150...sustained...so needless to say she was a bit busy. "CowBoy" (as I dubbed the 70-something gent ... who was trotting around in white pj's with pinstripes and Brown Alligator cowboy boots, was convienced that the *evil* nurses were holding him hostage...but he was more than happy to be hostage...if he could hold my hand...and hug me...and pat me...and it was like he had 15 hands I kept pulling off of various body parts! I finally settled for placing the nursing station counter between us...but I had to let him hold my hand to keep him from taking off for the elevator....as I said...his nurse was busy...and after a snicker...the Nurses Aide...*bless her little heart* disappeared somewhere...leaving me to handle Don Juan "CowBoy" alone....He wanted to know when the "Lobby Party" was starting...since he saw a sign for the lobby. He had to describe in detail...how weird the bones in my hands were (an ex tried to squeeze the hand off and wound up bending it backwards last year) ... but he found the movable bones oh, so, interesting....! I put him back in his room about 5 times...like moving an Octipus with suction cups....and finally found a number for his wife...who lived an hour away! He didn't want to watch TV, but I found some really old Time Mag's and put him and them back in his room...again...well by the time his spouse got there...he was all innocent...asleep. She was PISSED that she got dressed and came all that way...and he was ASLEEP! Well she crawled in bed by him to keep him in the bed...and she proceeded to sleep while he woke up and kept removing his monitor, pushing the call bell (couldn't remember what he wanted) and so on the rest of the night. Remember...not my patient...

Then I had the 450# pt in 1 who was in the big boy bed, that I could barely reach over the rails, who wanted this body part positioned, and that body part positioned and ....ya get the drift. (Nurse Aide disappeared on this one too, as she is 90# and said body parts all out-weighted her!). After about 10 trips in and out of the room, I finally gave in....gave her fluids over her limit...just to make her a happy 450# camper...did peri-care...(all the way to my arm-pitt) while dangling off the side of the hydrolic bed...there was a little 2 inch I-hook that I was able to balance on... for some reason the dang bed would not lower any farther! Anyhow, I have various bumps and bruises from that bed...and a pulled shoulder from helping to bath her two nights ago...when there was just two of us and she was incontinent...again...having to balance on the 2 inch I-hook!

Then my "easy" patient's...the Hypertensive emergency..with 2 hr neuro checks...that had to have a consent signed for a procedure today...and the family wanted written literature on the test (that I had to look up on the system and print out...of course the printer was out of paper...had to get the resource nurse to unlock storage for that)...

Then the patient in 3 who was confused...and the spouse did not stay...a comfort care pt...who decided at 4:45 to get out of bed (door open...direct view of the nurse), except the IV INFILTRATED in 5 and I had to restart...I was standing in the doorway when he went "splat". Hell's bell's...he forgot to use the call bell again...and where was that perky Nurse Aide ??? the one that was watching him while I started an IV....Not in 4...her call light was on for assistance to the BedSide Commode...

Well I picked up 3, checked him out, changed his linens and gown, lotioned him down...no injury..called his wife, paged his doc. Went to 4 put her on the commode, cleaned her bed up, emptied the emesis basin, washed all that up and empty the trash while I wait for her business to be done....Resource Nurse semi-watching the fall patient, because we have another patient (thank God not one of mine) semi-coding in another room. Same room we had a partial code night before (right in the middle) jinxed I guess. Anyway...got all that done, filled out the required paperwork for the fall. Finally got finished after report and left work by 0830! Tired! Wired up to the Max! Two Margaritia's and 2 hours playing Yahoo Bookwork to unwind!

Then about 3 pm my hubby woke me up and gave me a back rub, shoulder rub, foot rub....................well anyway...........I feel much better now!

BAck again for more

Well, I've been off for 3 wonderful nights. Of course *they* asked me to work at least one of my nights off....especially since it is the weekend, and especially since *they* are short. What at *they* gonna do when the new law that is being lobbied gets passed...they we can only work a 12.5 hr day and only so many hours a week, and only 3 /12 hour shifts in a week??? Who are they gonna get to cover then??? And if you work two jobs and work more than the Mandated maximum your nursing license can be suspended...or even taken away!!!! Where will the nursing staff be then??? I bet *THEY* will changing their tunes soon...*THEY* even tried to make all nurses exempt from over-time benifits because we are "supervisory" if we even "change" nurse one time...ever....ever....

Well, the staffing pool is getting empty...all the fish are going to the California waters where they get better pay...and caps on their patient ratio's.

This minnow has swam yet, but it is enticing.

BAck again for more

Well, I've been off for 3 wonderful nights. Of course *they* asked me to work at least one of my nights off....especially since it is the weekend, and especially since *they* are short. What at *they* gonna do when the new law that is being lobbied gets passed...they we can only work a 12.5 hr day and only so many hours a week, and only 3 /12 hour shifts in a week??? Who are they gonna get to cover then??? And if you work two jobs and work more than the Mandated maximum your nursing license can be suspended...or even taken away!!!! Where will the nursing staff be then??? I bet *THEY* will changing their tunes soon...*THEY* even tried to make all nurses exempt from over-time benifits because we are "supervisory" if we even "change" nurse one time...ever....ever....

Well, the staffing pool is getting empty...all the fish are going to the California waters where they get better pay...and caps on their patient ratio's.

This minnow has swam yet, but it is enticing.

Drug Seeker

She is back in the hospital. For the zillionth time. When she leaves here she will go to the sister facility two blocks North. When she leaves there she will go to the smaller facility in the next town, then to the bigger city. In about 6 weeks when she has exhausted all of those she will be back.

She has no insurance. She has no job. Her hubby goes with her from hospital to hospital, he is also unemployed. They are not elgible for government programs (Think "Rio Grande Valley").

She can't afford her drugs. She is non-compliant with her medical management. The MD's know her well. Her drugs of choice: Lasix, Anti-hypertensives, and Insulin.

I doubt they have a home, maybe visit family or friends for the one or two days a month she is not admitted in acute CHF. December bought her a CABG for Christmas...Thanks to the Taxpayer's....even though the doc's know she is a poor risk, non-compliant, what are they to do?? The sad part....she is 41 and knows she is dying.

Drug Seeker...yes, non-compliant...yes, but as a patient...she never asks for anything except a little water. Never complains of pain, never asks for pain medications and is grateful for any little tiny thing that is done for her. I have patient's with the greatest of Insurance, who have a multiple of pills and plenty of help at home. They have food, clothes, heat and a roof over their heads. They demand bowing and scaping, and yes I'll get that right away...after all....isn't this Hotel Hospital???? Yet, this one simple woman touchs my heart.

Day's Off are....Great

Much as I love being a nurse, and plying my skills on the innocent...I love being off so I can recoop from a hard, long and tediously long shift. Working nights, the 1st day, of course, is sleep time, so with the three day weekend, I am in heaven. My last work night was hell on earth, one transfer and TWO admissions. Doesn't sound like much ... but for night shift that is quite a load...especially since there is no pharmacist at night and you are hard put to find medications in the Pyxis, especially since a lot of the drugs need the House Supervisor to overide. Luckily, the House Supv. is on our floor, and her office quite handily was on my pod (yea!!!).

I had one new patient, that I kid you not, had 25 home medications including his daily OTC Vitamins. The kicker??? The doc in ER and the Cardiologist did not choose to continue his medications...until he was seen again the next morning.....after his second EKG....but they didn't bother to tell the patient, who was just convienced that the *evil nurse* was just with-holding his medication...or just too freaking lazy to go and get them. He threatened me "I am going to get chest pain if you don't get my pills NOW!" Well I applied the handi-dandy Nitroglycerin ointment to his chest (it was the only thing ordered), put O2 back on him, and instructed him to breath deeply and slowly (to calm him down), then I carefully explained to him why he could not have his zillion pills at this time. I stressed that the doc was waiting on the 2nd EKG and his ECHO readings...and that also some of the medications would have been held anyway...seeing as he had arrived on the unit "stable" from the ER...with a blood-pressure of 52/30 following the Lasix he had been given ...oh, but they held the NTG paste because his BP was low..... hummmmmmmmm....that was a fancy piece of critical thinking. They did a BNP....thinking possible CHF, but get this....he had a D-Dimer of over 3000 and they didn't do PE protocol or CT of the Chest (oh yes he was admitted with Shortness of breath).

My other patient, a lady, who takes only one med daily, came in short of breath ... Her D-Dimer was NORMAL, but they did PE protocol and a CT of the Chest on her....the difference...beats me. He arrived on Day shift when all the diagnostic tests were quite easily obtained and she arrived at night...! At night we DON'T have a PHYSICIAN, but a PA, who works his ass off. Remind me to only go to the ER at night...when the smart one is working!!!

Anyway, I have been recooping....drank a boatful of good Margarita's, went dancing with my man and some friends...and just chilled to the max. Now I need to recoop from the recoop. Ha.Ha.

Here comes the Judge!

She was emancipated, dirty, dehydrated and confused. Why am I here?? When is the helicopter coming to get me??? Call my husband W...., he doesn't know where I am. What are you doing to me. Why am I here....

*She* had been in the bed sick for two weeks. No one knew what was actually wrong with her. She quit eatting and drinking. She didn't take her pills...any of them...although EMS found a shit-load of them sprinkled on the bed covers. Her daughter had been trying to call her for days, without a response. Her Husband *W* , also has Aizheimer's, but not as "bad" as her case. They are Winter Texan's ... who winter by the sea-shore on the Gulf when the weather gets bad. Unfortunately...Texas, like the rest of the nation, is experiencing unseasonably cold weather. As Winter Texan's these people were unprepared for the cold. They hold up in their rolling homes on wheels, bundled up in the covers...developing DVT'S and waiting for the warm to return.

Her monitor is going off. I dash to the room, Sinus Tach 130....She is sitting calmly in the bed with an electrode dangling from her mouth, nursing it like a lollipop....."What is this?" She asks, shaking the offending tasteless electrode at me. She pop's it quickly into her mouth. She has managed to strip off her gown and almost get on her gray sweat-shirt. She looks at me..This sad woman, with perfectly manicure nails...painted peach...with dirt under them. The sad part...Severe Aizheimer's has robbed her memory of almost everything...she knows she has a husband, who *knows* her medical history, and a daughter...who doesn't live here. She doesn't remember that she was a county Judge in West Texas. She doesn't remember where she is or why she is...just that the helicopter is coming to get her. How sad. Aizheimer's has to be the worst.

Wake Up People

To all the stupid people who think that Mom is gonna live forever...even if she has had both feet amputated....multiple times...a piece at a time...Mom, who has been on Dialysis for umpteen trillion years, Mom who is in ICU, comatose, on three or four cardiac drips....TODAY....TODAY...was NOT the day to decide that MOM needed to be changed to a FULL CODE, against her express desires. Then after your OH SO CHALLENGED mental decision...you left after visiting hours, to go home, to peacefully sleep. WHERE WERE YOU...when she coded...and we called you??? DO YOU THINK we call at 3 am in the morning simply to annoy you...to wake you from your beauty sleep??? STUPID PEOPLE who respond to the nurse...I'll be by in the morning....HUH???? PEOPLE...IF A ICU NURSE IS CALLING YOU AT 3 AM IN THE MORNING AND ASKING YOU TO PLEASE RETURN TO THE HOSPITAL AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.....THAT MEANS NOW........MOM IS NOT RISING UP AND WALKING....SHE IS GROWING WINGS AND THE CHOIR IS SINGING!!!!!

We coded her 4 times...bless her heart, when I left this morning she was still breathing, ventilator assisted, the SON finally showed up around the 4th code, but was adament that everything be done...HIS mother is a fighter....poor woman.......all the doctor's could do was just shake their heads......

In Texas....especially the Rio Grande Valley...the patient's live forever...really...at least that is what the general population expect's...if you are a full code...you are not suppose to die.................EVER!

Help the Patient's are making me SICK!

Knew it would happen one day. Now I have whatever bug is going around...the sinus, sneezy, mucoid type of thing that makes ya not want to pick your head up off the bed!

My comment when I left work this morning: Discharge all these people, when I come back, I don't wanna have "sick" patient's...I want well patient's ...the kind that complaint that their *coffee pot* is empty again....smile....and ya better bring the coffee...or he will suddenly have those pesky *chest pains* with the accompaning interventions....EKG, NTG, CALL THE MD....do ya thing CAFFIENE could be causing any of the pesky symptoms..................nah....that would be too easy. :)