Favorite patients
"Mary"~ An 80-year old woman, very heavy (at least she looks heavy- but she wears so many layers of clothes under her robe at once that it is hard to tell), and sleeps in her chair at night because her bed is covered with all her bingo prizes. Mary has a wheelchair, but she does not sit in it. Instead, it is used to push around all her favorite belongings, most of them bingo prizes. Mary is the nursing home's version of a bag lady, and she makes me smile every time I see her. She always has large curlers in her hair, with a surgical hair net over them. I have never seen her take these out- I think they are just a part of her hairstyle. She also is always wearing medical gloves and also surgical shoe-covers over her socks, but inside her shoes. She always has a funny comment, and tries to share her dessert with me. She gave her lipstick to my friend Josh, but I don't think it was really his color.
The married couple~ These two really crack me up. The woman is really bossy, but has dementia, so she leads us student nurses on wild adventures taking her where she is supposed to go (such as to her room- 328, when her room is really 210). The man only has one eye, and he pretends like he has no idea what is going on, but I can tell he is putting on an act so his wife leaves him alone. There is a spark in his eye that gives him away. The funniest thing about this couple is that they do not share a room. They are actually on completely separate halls. When my classmate asked the woman if she wanted to sit by her husband, she snapped, "I already saw him once today." When her husband does try to say something, instead of being patient with him, she yells, "Speak English!!!" Oh, love is grand.
The yeller~ This woman sits in the hallway shouting "Nure!!! Nure!!!" (nurse) all day. When a nurse finally comes over to her, she says, "Hab to go bafrom!" The nurse will put her on the toilet, and as soon as the nurse closes the door, the woman starts screaming "Nure!!" again. After repeating this purposeless ritual several times, the nurses start ignoring the screaming. This is when it gets interesting. This woman has no teeth, so she sits there acting like she is chewing gum, but her bottom lip goes all the way up to her nose. It is really interesting to watch, and I don't know how exactly she does it. (Just trying to give you a picture of this woman sitting in the hall.) So anyways, she is sitting there pluggin her nose with her bottom lip, then randomly screaming "Nure!!" and when no one responds, she throws back her arms and head, and screams "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH". It is not funny. At least an old lady having a temper tantrum should not be funny. And I feel evil for this, but I laugh my head off every time. You can hear her screaming from most of the rooms, and no matter what I am doing it makes me laugh. If I thought she was in pain or actually needed something, I would not laugh. But because it is purely a temper tantrum, I can't help myself.
I am leaving for Chicago tomorrow! Can't wait to see you Joo Ok, Nathan, Adam, Mike, Rebecca and Steve!
You have how many siblings?!
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Chocolate macaroni anyone?
The milk is expired, so you decide to have a bagle. There is no cream cheese. So you decide to have instant macaroni and hot chocolate. The macaroni powdered cheese comes in a white package, so does the hot chocolate powder..... it's going to be a long day.......
1.5 hours until my big pharmacology test. At this point, it might just be in my best interest to go back to bed.
Cute kids
During the vision test, we have the kids cover one of their eyes with a cup so it is hard for them to cheat. I watched my friend Colin testing his student, and after testing both eyes individually, he tried to get her to use both eyes for the test. Apparently she didn't understand, because I saw her standing there with the cup between both her eyes trying to read the chart.
While talking to my second student today, I asked him if his teeth hurt when he eats. He said 'no'. I then looked in his mouth and saw that two of his teeth were so infected that all that was left was a small brown stub, and four other teeth had huge holes in them and you could see down to the root. OUCH!! I asked him again if it hurts to eat, and knowing he was caught, he said that it hurt really bad. Maybe this explains why his weight is below the 25th percentile? Poor thing. I really hope his parents go against the trend and actually do something about his teeth. The problem is that their parents all think that because these are baby teeth, it's ok to let them corrode away. Healthy new ones will grow in, then they will take care of those, right? Wrong. These teeth get so bad that they can actually hurt the new ones coming in. Plus, these poor kids have to be in so much pain!! I've had a not-even-visible to the naked eye cavity, and I remember how bad that hurt.
Working with children is such a relief after being in the nursing home for a few days. At least I'm starting to cross potential areas off my list for future work.
Today was a very bad day
1. Dealing with poop
2. Getting stuck with a dirty needle
3. Doing something wrong and injuring our patient.
Thankfully, #3 did not happen today. Unfortunately, #1 and #2 did.
The day started off normally, and I went in with Danielle to check on our patient. She seemed a little more responsive today, so we thought we might have a good day. We came back an hour later with her Albuterol mask to help her with her asthma, and when we put it on her, she suddenly started taking these huge gasps and her face and neck turned bright red. Dang, what did I do wrong? Am I killing her? I lean down to listen more closely to her breathing when all of the sudden, I hear an explosion. I have heard the expression "explosive diarrhea" before, but I never would have believed it could be this bad. When we were finally brave enough to conquer the diaper, we had on masks, gloves, eye goggles, and a gown (our patient has Shingles so we are supposed to take these precautions). We pulled the sheet off of her and I looked down at my glove and there was poop on it. I hadn't even touched her yet, where did this come from? Remember that explosion? When I saw how much liquid diarrhea was all over her and her bed, I felt the vomit rising. I can't vomit with a mask on! There would be nowhere for it to go, and I'm not touching my face with poop on my hand!!! Thank God, I just made some interesting sound effects and was able to keep my breakfast down. It took us almost an hour to clean all the diarrhea up. The interesting thing about it was that there was none on her backside. It was all on her side or up on her stomach. Oh, I am getting sick just thinking about it. You probably are too. So I'll move on....
After the explosion incident, I thought the day had to get better. Ignorance can be bliss, until reality pokes you hard with a dirty needle. Well, reality actually poked my two good friends, Danielle and Rachel, with dirty needles. I will spare you the details, but today two of my classmates were poked with two separate dirty needles from the same patient. We are praying this woman does not have any diseases, because it will be absolutely devastating if she does. Poor girls!!
Lessons for the day:
1. When a patient is turning red and taking deep breaths or holding their breath, step away, DO NOT lean towards them.
2. Do not poke yourself with a dirty needle. Too much paperwork to deal with, AND they poke you again with another needle (this one is clean though) to do blood tests on you. Two pokes in one day? Not fun at all.
3. When putting the pants on a 102 year old woman, do not "tuck her girls in". Breasts sag when you get older, and I guess it's not fashionable to wear them tucked into your elastic pants.
Oops! Sorry (again)
Unfortunately, a few more lessons:
Lesson 1: When giving an IM (intramuscular - deep) injection, you really have to use a lot of force. It's almost like throwing a dart. Want to know what happens when you don't use enough force because you are shaking and scared you will hurt the person? The needle goes half in, then you have to push it the rest of the way with the patient yelling "OWWWWW, what do you think you are doing?" By this point, your legs feel like jello, and your arms are shaking so badly that you find it hard to push the medicine into the patient. Now to pulling the needle out: Looks easy, but when you've really pissed the person off, and are already shaking and concentrating on not collapsing to the floor or running out of the room screaming, this can actually take some skill. Once the needle is finally out, the cruical moment arrives: running away from the patient as fast as you can before they turn around and smack you (even though you probably do deserve a smack or two for what you put them through). If any of you want me to give you a flu shot, let me know, I'd be glad to help you out!! ;)
Lesson 2: When changing an adult's diaper, make sure you have the front in front and the back towards the back. After all the rolling you have to do (while paying close attention to the rolling lesson from yesterday), it is extremely frustrating to realize the stupid diaper is actually on backwards.
Lesson 3: People with dementia can be extremely convincing. Check their chart before you allow them to do something, like go on a walk outside.
Lessons
Lesson 1: If your elderly patient is on a feeding tube and her stomach is distended (2x its normal size), when you go to change her diaper, roll her butt AWAY from you. Sudden movements will cause a lot of that built up gas to escape quickly, and you do not want to be in the line of fire.
Lesson 2: It is always a good idea to check the bulletin board to see what your patients will be eating during the week. Jot down any days they will be served peanuts or corn, and make sure you call in sick the morning following that meal.
Lesson 3: The cute little old ladies are the ones that yell at you the loudest.
Lesson 4: No matter how grossed out you are by needles, do not close your eyes when giving someone any type of injection. Especially when you are practicing finger pricks on your friends. They get mad when you almost poke them in the fingernail instead of by the pad of their finger. Sorry Danielle!!
Nurse Blog
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
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Things about me
1. I am 5’1”. I plan on growing again soon. I just like to take my time with these things.
2. I am a usually pessimistic.
3. I am a tomboy.
4. I was the only girl in my entire baseball league when I was in grade school and middle school.
5. I was the fastest on the team, until all the boys hit puberty.
6. I am dating a guitar player. In college, he was in a band called Gryphyn.
7. I went to all his shows. I loved watching him play, and he was great. He is no longer in the band, but you can check out their website at www.gryphynmusic.com
8. I hope he proposes sometime soon. J
9. I actually like my hopefully-future in-laws.
10. I am in an accelerated nursing program, which means I will go from 0 nursing experience to being an RN with a BSN in 12 months.
11. It has been four months and I feel like I know almost nothing.
12. I am normally a competitive person, but I enjoy helping my classmates out.
13. This is probably because I actually like most of my classmates.
14. Except for people who I am stuck in group projects with who do absolutely nothing.
15. My Dad used to be a pediatrician.
16. He told all his children not to go into the medical field.
17. Some days, I completely understand why.
18. Other days, I think he might be crazy.
19. I am the second oldest of five children.
20. Although I didn’t when I was younger, I really like all my brothers and my sister.
21. Even though one brother made the awful mistake of going to K-State.
22. I am a Jayhawk.
23. I really enjoyed going to KU, even though my education there didn’t get me too far.
24. I graduated with a 4.0 in psychology, and a 3.92 overall.
25. And it took me three months to find a job as a receptionist (high school diploma required).
26. I would get really mad when people would come up to my desk and say, “Did you just graduate?” I would get excited that someone was acknowledging all my hard work, until they would say, “Which high school?”
27. I got paid $600 to get the smallpox vaccine a few years ago at a pharmaceutical research company.
28. It really hurt for several weeks.
29. And I didn’t grow any extra limbs or anything like that, so I am assuming that the vaccine was safe & effective.
30. I have a scar on my left arm from that vaccine.
31. I have two cats: Isis and Skitzo.
32. I am too much of a perfectionist.
33. I am against the death penalty. I believe that by the time people are actually executed, they are no longer the same person who committed the crime.
34. John Grisham is my favorite author.
35. My favorite movie is American Beauty.
36. I lent American Beauty to my apartment maintenance guy six months ago, and he still hasn’t returned it.
37. Grey’s Anatomy is my favorite TV show.
38. I should be studying right now.
39. My biggest pet peeve: Girls who show up 45 minutes late because they had to do their makeup or choose which shirt to wear.
40. I rarely wear makeup.
41. On the occasions I do, I only wear eyeliner and mascara.
42. I don’t floss everyday.
43. I drive a Cavalier. I hit 100,000 miles on my way back from seeing Mike a few months ago.
44. I took a picture of the numbers changing to 100,000.
45. My first car was a Beretta. I paid the $1,500 myself.
46. When the headlights were on and I accelerated, the speakers would buzz really loud.
47. To use my left turn signal, I had to turn on my brights.
48. I want to have two or three kids.
49. I will refuse to put them in Catholic school, even if my husband insists on it.
50. I love playing Super Nintendo. I am not a fan of the X-box or Nintendo 64, I get a headache from all the “3D” graphics.
51. I also get headaches from strong perfume. This makes sitting in class all day literally a painful experience when my fellow classmates bathe themselves in perfume.
52. I am stubborn.
53. I am really bad about holding grudges.
54. I hate when people quote the bible to put other people down.
55. I really hate when people are homophobic.
56. I completely support gay marriage. Why should we forbid two people who are in love from getting married? How can that be “degrading the value of marriage” when so many heterosexual people degrade the value of marriage every single day?
57. I believe in Jesus, but I don’t know what religion I belong to.
58. I was raised a Catholic, but get nothing out of going to church. I stopped going when I realized that I was only there just in case God was taking attendance.
59. I get very angry when people say that anyone who does not believe in Jesus is going to Hell. I don’t believe that Jesus would ever be so vindictive as to punish people for choosing the wrong religion.
60. I actually believe that all prayers go to the same great being, no matter what name you call him/her.
61. I have a Cingular cellphone.
62. If it gets anywhere close to the TV, computer, or any kind of speaker, there is an awful buzzing noise.
63. I am inspired by watching nurses who love what they do.
64. I am also inspired by watching nurses who don’t love what they do. It makes me more determined to make a difference.
65. I have never been fired from a job.
66. My dream wedding would be on a beach somewhere with only my best friends and immediate family there.
67. I would much rather spend my money on a down payment for our first house than on food at a reception.
68. I am cheap, or as Jocelyn describes it, I have simple tastes.
69. I really don’t enjoy drinking alcohol.
70. If I even have one drink, I will not drive. Even four hours later. I know this is crazy, but I’d rather be crazy and safe than stupid and kill someone.
71. If I didn’t force myself to get out of bed, I could easily sleep until 1 or 2 pm.
72. I steal the covers. I always wrap myself up in my own little cocoon.
73. I am an extremely picky eater.
74. When eating out, I usually don’t even recognize half the foods on the menu. I always just get nachos, a club sandwich, or quesadillas. Everything I get brave and try something else, I end up disliking it.
75. My favorite restaurant is BD’s Mongolian Barbeque. Not any Mongolian BBQ- it has to be BD’s.
76. I really hate when people forget about all their friends when they are in a new relationship.
77. I was a gymnast in grade school, but I was never graceful.
78. I enjoy working out, but not when I am in school.
79. I haven’t been to the gym since school started.
80. I am starting to feel chubby.
81. I suffer from extreme road rage when people drive down the exit lanes to get ahead of traffic and then cut in at the last minute.
82. I get way too much enjoyment out of letting these people think that I will let them cut in front of me, and then accelerating so they can’t get in.
83. Otherwise, I am a really nice driver!
84. My only wreck was with a parked car.
85. And it wasn’t my fault.
86. A girl who was really mean to me in grade school now has the lead role in the Broadway musical Hairspray.
87. I am not happy for her, and do not think she deserves it. She was really mean!!!
88. See, like I said, I hold grudges.
89. I consider my mom to be one of my best friends.
90. And my dad is a wonderful teacher.
91. I wish the people all my tuition money is going to were good teachers.
92. But unfortunately, they are just a bunch of disorganized, torture-loving punks.
93. One of my teachers in high school looks like Matt Damon.
94. I had a huge crush on him.
95. I skipped my senior year of high school. My only regret: not getting to take more classes with him.
96. I dated the same boy all through high school.
97. My favorite place to go when I’m stressed out is this small pond isolated from everything.
98. I used to go catch turtles and frogs at this pond when I was younger.
99. I still have amazing turtle-catching skills.
100. I need to study.
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