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!