MY new years, a little late I know

My "happy new years" was quite an interesting one, I spent it working. Though I wondered if it was a full moon!!! The 30th & 31st I worked 12 hrs each night... and boy were they interesting!!!

The evening started like most nights, vitals then meds then diaper changes then sleeping pills for everyone and tucking them in for the night.

Then at like 10pm my co worker comes to me all worked up that her patient had peed all over the floor, was SUPER confused and needed to be restrained. Sure enough, we went in there and the floor on the side of the bed was SOAKED.

Thankfully he didn't put up much of a fight and we sucessfully restrained him.... but that wasn't to be the end of restraints...

I helped finish restraining one patient, just to be asked by another one of my co workers yelled for assistance from one of her rooms because one of her patients was trying to hit and kick her. When I entered the room, the patient was naked, poo was in multiple different spots. Thankfully I'm STRONG...

And I got the patient tied.... poor guy, once we had him tied he was sounding so pathetic.

My co worker and I were able to use team work and thankfully protect us and the patients.

We brought in the new year with non alcoholic bubbly and TONS of food. One of our patients even brought us new years hats and mardi gras type bead necklaces

which we LOVED!!!! And we were loud - not that our patients noticed as we rang in the new year together.

Too bad our celebrating didn't last all shift as the same patient that we restrained earlier in the night had a full blown, grand mal seizure - lasting 11 minutes.... my first one. Nice way to cap our shift huh?!

Anyways, HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone out there, I hope it's everything you wanted it to be and soooooooooo much more!!!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays

Merry christmas everyone!

Last night the family went to a cousin's house and had christmas eve dinner there. We didn't get home until about 10:30, put the kids straight to bed and hubby and I watched some tv via the net. I told my eldest, who's 10yrs, that he couldn't wake us until 8am. And he ALMOST listened - he woke us at 7:45am.... too bad I didn't get ANY sleep last night. Unfortunately it wasn't for lack of trying either....

Little tyke sprung a fever in the middle of the night and was sporting quite the diaper rash, so she woke me up being MISERABLE! I changed her bum and of course, she woke up enough that she thought that we should then wake up.... uhhh I don't think so!!! She made me make her a fresh bottle and back to bed we went.

When kiddo woke up, he first went and had a shower (like I had talked to him about having the night before) and then he came to wake us up... poor mommy made him wait the 15 minutes to open presents. Such torture I know, but hey, I learned from the best - MY parents. Hahahaha

Then I allowed little girl to turn on the tree and we opened gifts. Since kiddo's the oldest I let him be responsible for handing out the gifts, not that I didn't have to give a few reminders that he had to take time to enjoy people OPENING their gifts.

All in all the kids enjoyed opening their presents. They enjoyed what they received and I had a ball watching them through the entire process. I even got a couple of pictures. Too bad I don't know where my camera is right now and I had to use my new phone (which I'm still working out the kinks for), so we'll see what kind of quality I will get.

Now if you didn't already know, I AM a muslim - but that doesn't mean that I have to leave my roots - my culture behind just because I found myself a different religion. This is something that my husband and his family struggle with. They equate celebrating christmas to celebrating another religion's holiday. HOWEVER, the way I was raised was that there was no religion in play, just simple giving and receiving of love, presents, time and happiness....... oh and a good ol' homecooked turkey (which I'm having tomorrow since I'm a bonehead and forgot to take it out early enough.

Well there's more to say, but I have to get to bed, I have to wake up early to get my turkey ready for the oven.

What nurses talk about....

At the end of my shift last night, a bunch of us nurses gathered to talk about a couple of things.... we talked about one of the new hire nurses (got hired at the same time as I) experiences and how it differs from the veteran nurses experiences - more like what one would do vs. what another would do.

The situation was this.... if you did a bladder scan on a patient because they were complaining about fullness and pain - found that there was a substantial amount that was being retained, would you do a straight in and out THEN call the Dr for the order OR would you call the Dr, report the finding and request an in & out, also, what would you do if a Dr refused it....

Veteran nurse said that she would NOT have waited for a Dr's order, would have done the in & out and called the Dr for the order - neglecting that policy indicates otherwise... and even said that she didn't care if she got fired for it because it was in pt's best interest.

Newbie nurses (I included) - have called Dr's for such FIRST - but this is seen as us not having a back bone.

So what would YOU do?

When I have called Dr's for in & out's, I have already done a bladder scan and feel that information is a girl's best friend. I think it's like arming yourself for when questions get asked. Now, if I had a pt who required an in & out but a physician was refusing to give one (did happen to that newbie btw), I think I would go to the unit leader/charge nurse to speak about it, since having the leader on your side is like arming yourself - it's peer review and support. I know that the nurses on my unit support one another, and their patients - and ultimately would do what's best for the patient. Even if that means going against a Dr.

The newbie kept paging that Dr. for several HOURS, probably not realizing that the other option available to him was to do the in & out without the order and that one could be obtained later from the MRP (most responsible physician).

We also talked about our past patients and where they are... one of the nurses generally checks out various units within the hospital, as some of our patients end up on rehab units, we like to know if they're still there or not...

Last night this nurse revealed that one of our patients.... the one I told this blogging world about - the woman with the MASSIVE CVA (AKA stroke). Turns out that she aspirated at home - from the family trying to feed her! And she was back in ICU, intubated and STILL not a DNR (Do not resuscitate)... it amazes me, truely astonishes me that a family would WANT to watch someone suffer. If that was MY family member, I would NOT want my family member to be a full code if they are going to have crappy quality of life. If they can barely move, can barely communicate, and are entirely dependent on others for EVERYTHING, and that the family isn't all that interested in learning to take care of this family member.

It's crappy when people keep a loved one around for THEIR need, not caring about how it is for their family member. I guess this is something that I will learn to live with, because there is NOTHING I can do about it.

My life is a drama and everything that follows

I have two children - a boy who JUST turned 10 last week and a girl who is now 2 1/2 years.

I had my son with my previous marriage and the man was abusive - physically, psychologically, and emotionally - but I was naive to think that just because I was pregnant I had to stay. When kiddo was 4 months old, he hit me and choked me while I was holding him in my arms - that was the straw that broke the camel's back. I left him and haven't looked back.

I have since gotten married to a wonderful man - one whom I met and married within 4 months - I just KNEW that he was the one. We have the little girl together - little tyke.

My husband and I moved from my hometown (hubby was there for studies), as we didn't really have a future in my hometown so we moved south... unfortunately, I was stupid enough to think that my ex husband had grown up and could be trusted - boy was I STUPID!!!! Now I'm paying the price with the relationship b/n kiddo and myself.

I was stupid and tried to arrange things outside the courts - and it seriously backfired on my ass, I COMPLETELY got fu**ed over. We had to go to court afterall and STILL I got fu**ed by the courts.... even though I provided documentation that he was abusive and controlling and manipulative. Other people even provided affidavits and STILL the court gave kiddo to live with him, because they didn't want him to move from his hometown. The Office for the Children's Lawyer (OCL) even interviewed everyone to make a decision on what's "best" for the kiddo... you know what they asked kiddo???

OCL - "kiddo who do you want to live with"
kiddo - "my mom"
OCL - "If the court decided that you have to live with your dad, would you be alright with that"
kiddo - "yeah"

Well what child who isn't being sexually or physically abused is going to go against that other parent, but it should tell you a LOT if a child says who they "prefer" to live with. And STILL the OCL guys decided that it would be best for my son to live with that man.

I have fought for TWO years - having to go back to my hometown for court - for naught.... and even now, with a court order in place - that a-hole has the gall to keep my son from me - AND manipulate him so that he wants to leave early.

My son thinks that I am the bad person, he thinks that I have abandoned him - but he doesn't know what's happened - to his father getting me criminally charged as pay back for when he was charged with assault. He doesn't know that I didn't feel safe in my own hometown city. He doesn't know that his father is STILL verbally abusive to me and STILL tries to control and manipulate me.

Last week was his birthday - our court papers indicate that I was supposed to get him that weekend - from thurs to sunday - and I also am supposed to get him every other long weekend during the school year, and this coming weekend it was supposed to be our weekend with kiddo. The week before his birthday, the A-hole asks my mom to convince me to switch my weekends for his birthday to THIS coming weekend. And I agreed, but more for the sake of my mom because she wanted to take my son to a hypnotist show that was going on in my hometown last friday.

But where it gets really crappy is that when I explained that I should be getting him from thurs to mon (the extra day on the monday is considered the long weekend part) and the thurs & fri are due to his birthday weekend - he refuses to let me have him that period of time and tells me that unless I go to my hometown (9 HRS AWAY!!), I cannot have him.

My mom intervened on my behalf and said that she would bring my son half way so that we could see each other - but my son informed me last night via telephone that he wants to cut it short because he has a hockey game on monday... which in my opinion, I feel that family is more important than a hockey game. I get that he's 10 and hockey is really important to him but I think that his controlling and manipulative father is the one whose really behind my son's verbalizations.

Sometimes I feel so down and low that I wonder if I can continue to have my relationship with my son this way - that it just may be easier to cut all connections and tell him to get a hold of me when he's old enough to make his own decisions and at that point I'll tell him the REAL truth....

I don't know, who knows what is best!

For those who maintain our freedom, we remember

Tomorrow is rememberance day and I want to pay tribute to those who have served and still do....

Although you serve with every part of your being, you are so often not recognized and today I want to make sure that you are.

Thank you for our freedom!

My own bucket list

I saw this on a fellow blogger's site and figured that I would write one myself...


#1 - Become an RN

#2 - move to Texas

#3 - get a RN job at a children's hospital and work in a NICU

#4 - Become a neonatologist/neonatal nurse practitioner

# 5 - Visit Pakistan and see where my husband grew up

# 6 - Be solely responsible for saving a life & making a difference

Hospital addiction syndrome - who would have thought!!!!

At work we've had the "pleasure" of taking care of a particular lady.... I'll try to paint you a picture....

Age - over 18 - so an adult
Diagnosis - Sepsis secondary to abdominal absesses & NARCOTIC ABUSE
Additional information - VRE positive and thus in isolation

Now note that our unit is NEUROLOGY... not Gen. Med! But we had an open iso room and thus this patient became "ours"..... shitty luck for us!!!!

This patient became the BANE of our existance!!! He was DEMANDING and insistive.... to the point that he would have a BM on a commode (which he is COMPLETELY capable of going onto a toilet - but refuses to) and expect us nurses to empty it!!!!

Also, EVERY TWO HOURS, ON THE HOUR would this patient ring his damn bell and expect us nurses to come running with his PRN narcotic med. And then indicate that we're causing him physical AND emotional pain when we get busy (or just ignore him) when we don't have his narcotic available.

What would rightly irritate me would be when this patient would complain to me that we were causing him anguish and that "no one knows how it feels to break a bone and have pain from it".... UMMM YES I DO!!!! When I was 23 I was in a 4 wheeler (ATV) accident and had soft tissue damage and a hairline fracture of my femur.... to be in the hospital for 3 days for IV pain relief.... so YES I know how you feel!!! But I assure you, I wasn't on the buzzer paging my nurses when I was due for my pain reliever and then questioning whether they're giving me the "FULL" maximum amount - HELLO NARCOTIC ABUSER!!!!!!

Now, this is the type of patient that no matter WHAT you do for him, he is going to complain, complain and complain some more.... which causes nursing burn out..... ever heard of such a thing?! Yep, sure have... in literature, not in real life and boy was he creating it for MANY a nurses on my unit! So much so that the UNIT AS A WHOLE indicated that whoever was doing the schedule would only allow nurses to have this patient for ONE shift a week - unless they wanted him (there was ONE nurse who could stand this patient) - because anything more would cause one to think about quitting or switching units, or just calling in sick.

And an interesting thing started to happen.... based on our documentation, the doctors and administration started taking notice. And I kid you not, one of the doctor's orders is as follows:

If patient does not take prescribed antibiotic, he does not get ANY narcotic medication until he does &
If patient pulls out PICC line, he is to be immediately discharged from hospital.

OMG did this order MAKE OUR DAYS!!!! No more could he try to manipulate us nurses with his crap! We held the upper hand.

More information also started to come to head as administration got involved.... obviously we knew that this person was a narcotic abuser, but he's also a hospital hopper (we figured as much) but from the hospital that he was at last, we found out that he was diagnosed with: HOSPITAL ADDICTION SYNDROME!!!!!!

Boy did THAT one explain a few things!!! Now for those who have never heard of such a thing (I never had), it's along the same line as munchausen syndrome - which I googled and found out that it's sort of like hypochondria - the difference between the two....

munchausen syndrome people KNOW they are lying about the condition that they "say" they have..... whereas
hypochondria people BELIEVE that they actually HAVE the condition

The possibility is that this patient probably created the absesess by injecting narcotics into his abdomen to create this so that he could be admitted to a hospital and have people wait on their every need and demand!!!!! So guess what our doctors and administrators did?! GET him discharged.... now that he was MEDICALLY stable and could be managed as an outpatient, there was no reason to be in the hospital anymore.

The day that he was discharged was of course the day it was my "turn" to have him again..... I could have called in sick (seriously) then found out that he had JUST been discharged.... what a freeing feeling!!!!!!!! I could have had a party!!!!!!!!!