We also have no stock of N95 masks.
Lovely. I work for the biggest joke of a hospital.
The other night, I was working with snooty childrens hospital as they
were picking up a 1 month old from our ER. The baby was extremely
sick, intubated with a post intubation gas of 7.01.
The transport team wanted a capillary gas before they left, so I poked
the heel, filled up the glass capillary tube & headed off to the
department.
As I'm putting the cap tube in the analyzer...
SNAP!!!
The tube snapped in half, cutting my fingers & spilling blood
everywhere. Mine & my patients' blood.
CRAP!!!
I spent the next 2 hrs in the ER getting blood drawn, filling out boat
loads of paperwork all while trying to convince the doc that I was
allergic to Tylenol, motrin & toradol and needed something for my
10/10 pain. No luck. I tried to get off work for 6 weeks. No luck
there either :)
My lead therapist, however took pity on me & let me go home early.
"Thanks, cool rt, for letting me go home early. I'll see you tonight
as long as I don't die of hepatitis or aids."
Without even batting an eye, he comes back with...
"Dont worry, we will keep you alive forever on a vent."
Sent from my iPhone
Yes, trauma junkie, this has been a fabulous new year!
Sent from my iPhone
My bonus daughter is in labor.
Will my son & granddaughter have the same birthday?
Stay tuned.
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Can you come down? Mr. 2lpm is desating.
So, I walk down & the nurse tells me that he is sob & sating in the
low 90s. She also tells me that he just finished getting blood. He is
in renal failure & scheduled for dialysis in the morning.
I look in on him as he on q4 txs already. He is obviously in distress,
pitting edema, crackles like crazy.
The nurse gives him some lasix as his wife watches our every move.
Since Albuterol makes everyone feel like we are doing something, I
decided to give him another useless treatment.
As I'm squirting the med in the naebulizer, his wife says to me,
"Is that really going to help with congestive heart failure?"
Touché
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But seriously, do you really think it is a good idea to feed turkey
with mashed potatoes & gravy to the night shift?
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"Someone put acid in my Dr. Pepper when I was in the bathroom"
Or
"We don't care how the drugs got into your body, we just have to work
on getting them out"
Or
"I don't know how she got into this situation again".
This is the second time in two months this 14 year old girl has been
in our er for etoh mixed with a variety of things.
Really, lady, get a clue. Your daughter is LYING TO YOU!!!
This is for a patient who is clear & refusing med nebs. So let's beat
the crap out of her, but only once a day. And toiletry...do I keep her
toothpaste stocked? Or should housekeeping take over?
It's gonna be a long night.
"You have the luckiest couch!" said by my 5 year old daughter her
first time seeing a couch with a pullout bed.
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We went to the park with a bunch of friends, the men played softball
while the women chased around the kids. We bbq'd hot dogs & then i
went into psycho rt mode. My little kids are 5 & 2 years old. I cut
their weenies into pieces & made them sit and eat quietly. All the
while I am planning ahead...
Heimlech manuever. Flip them upside down & thump them on their back.
Which is the closest hospital? Do I know anyone who works there? Could
I really do CPR on my own kid? Is there a pen in my purse so I can
trach them? I've seen it done on tv. I know, I'm a freak. I already
admitted that.
As I'm making my plan for the worst case senario, I see someone elses
1 year old running around with a whole hotdog in her hand. WTF!!! Are
you freakin crazy? Do you really want to hear stories of the f'd up
stuff I've seen?
Crap! Can't I just relax & have a good time without constantly
worrying about a patent airway?
Please, if you care about my sanity, let alone my blood pressure, do
not let little kids eat unattended! Be careful with hot dogs, grapes
& whatever else is the perfect size to occlude an airway.
Thank God it turned out to be just a nice uneventful day at the park.
This morning, I wanted to say what I was thankful for.
The sunrise was amazing today.
I have a great husband.
I have 5 healthy kids & our first granddaughter due in January. But
wait, IE, didn't you say you just turned 34? Yes, it's true, but it's
my 19 year old bonus daughter that came with my husband who is pregnant.
I have a job which isn't subject to layoffs. We all need to breathe.
Yesterday at work, I went to a disasterous csection. Baby's 1st apgar
was 2. After a few minutes of bagging & stimulating, the baby turned
it around & decided he wanted to live & looks great. Whew!!
And the best news today, my doggie looks pretty good. Actually, she
looks pretty funny. A german shepherd mix who's fluffy winter coat is
half shaved with sutures everywhere. Vet says she will be just fine.
She just gets to be babied for a while.
Sunday goes like this...
Driving at 0430 down a rural road at 55 mph, on my way to
work...BAM...right into a dog. It had no chance. Blood & guts
everywhere. I didn't see it at all.
So, I'm crying all the way to work. As I get out of my truck, I lock
the door just as I realize that I've left the keys in the ignition.
Thankfully, a NICU nurse had her roadside assistance come help me.
That afternoon, a frequent flier coded. We worked him for an hour
until his wife & son got there. I HATE stopping CPR in front of the
family. Then he's just laying there, dead, with broken ribs & an ETT
hanging out of his mouth all purple and, well, dead. . How horrible to
see your loved one like that.
Then I had a guy come in the ER in severe respiratory distress
clutching a bottle of Primatine Mist. They decide to let the PA work
this & he has me put him on BiPAP. 30 minutes later his gas shows a
pco2 of 179. Our brilliant PA says, "Wow, that's high. Let's see how
he does."
WTF?!?!
So I went to the ER doc & he wants to Intubate yesterday.
Thank you.
When I got home. Yep, I did it again. Locked my damn keys in the
truck again.
So I just poured a glass of wine & went to bed so nothing else could
happen.
And that was just Sunday.
Today, I get home from a 12 hr shift to find one of my dogs limping
and bleeding with a huge lac on her left shoulder & another on her
right hind leg. We have had trouble with these dogs up the road
trying to get in our yard. Apparently today they were successful & my
girl got f'd up. What if she was attacked early morning & I didn't
find her until tonight? I feel so bad!!! How long had she been laying
there bleeding & in pain?
Like the RT in me, I can't deal with wounds, not even my own dogs. So
now it's 2300 & my husband is at the vet getting her stitched up --
800 dollars later.
I think that dead dog has cursed me.
Another glass of wine for me & hopefully this nightmare will be over
when I wake up in the morning.
So why is death so upsetting when it's someone I know?
