Hi, my name is Clutzo!

If you know me, you know how prone I am to accidents. If you know me, you know that there are often unexplained bruises on my body. Bruises that are weird shapes and in weird places. I will tell you right now-I am not abused, as this may sound like some of the similar case studies we deal with in class. No, no, I am just a CLUTZ!!!! But if you have read my earlier posts you would know this from my most embarrassing moment that happened first semester of nursing school. I have been really sick for the past week. I have had many moments lately where I felt like my head was unattached because I was clearly not thinking straight. Tonight at clinical, my head was attached, I just wasn't walking straight! A few friends and I were walking back from Shands in the tunnel to head back to the VA. We were laughing at me for some reason (probably at how funny my man voice sounds or how ridiculous I am sometimes) and walking and talking and B A M! No warning at all, I ran smack into the wall/doorway. I hit it so hard I flew across to the other side of the hallway and landed on my butt! I smacked my arm pretty hard into the door to where it was instantly red. I gave my friends a real good laugh, but at least they made sure I was ok. Tomorrow is my last day at the VA. I really enjoyed clinical for the most part this semester. My group, instructor and the fun stories were all great! It's even more great that I only have 5 more months til I graduate!!!

Pizza Flavored Pretzels

THANK GOD I only have one more week left at the V.A. Hospital. I have complete respect for the men and women who have served this country and was proud to be able to serve them by caring for them and giving them a chance to share their stories with me, but I can honestly tell you I am ready for something new. I don't think I mentioned in my last post about what happened in the elevators on thursday evening. Anne (a fellow student) and I were shadowing down in the CTICU (Cardio Thoracic Intensive Care Unit) and had wheeled a patient up to the floor that our clinicals usually were held each week. We had a few minutes to eat our dinner while we were up there and were evaluated by our instructor. On our way back down to the CTICU I carried a bucket of bite size pizza flavored pretzels and was eating them by the handfulls. A man (employee of some sort) got on the elevator and I offered him a few of my pretzels (being the kind human being that I am). The man says "Oh yes! I would love me a few of 'dem. But my hands are dirty." So thinking that he doesn't want to reach his dirty hands into the bucket of pretzels to contaminate them all- I poured a few out onto the lid and handed him the lid to pour them into his hands. Well really-the man was thinking his hands were too dirty to put into his mouth or touch any food that was going into his mouth (understandable when you work in a hospital and touch weird things). My friend Anne and I were not thinking this at the time. When he took the lid from me he put his mouth over each individual pretzel on the lid and sucked them up like a vaccuum. His lips and spit got ALL over the lid. Anne and I looked at each other in complete wonder! When I got back to the CTICU I sterilized the lid for about 10 min before I put it back on. When we left to go home Anne and I were in the elevator and another employee got on with us. Anne looked at me and under her breath said "DON'T YOU DARE OFFER ANY MORE PRETZELS!". The man in the elevator didn't hear her, but he was confused when I broke out into a loud roar of laughter.

Dun dun dun...another one bites the dust

So when we were still having our acute care lectures our teacher Trudy taught us a good way to remember how fast a rate to do compressions (for cpr) by singing out loud the song "dun dun dun, another one bites the dust, dun dun dun". I have been in the ICU this week for clinical and was assigned to a patient who was fresh post-op from open heart surgery. Before he arrived in the ICU the charge nurse got a phone call from the OR saying that this patient was very unstable. A comment was made (it might sound horrible for all of you non medical professionals) that this one could be dust. Then two of the nurses started singing the song. I chuckled a bit. (FYI-patients are not allowed to die on the table)

The ICU has been pretty interesting. Open heart guy was too unstable for me to really do anything other than watch the nurses do their thing last night, but tonight I got to see some pretty cool stuff. I discontinued an A-line (arterial line), which is no big-its like removing an IV except you have to hold pressure to the site for about 5 minutes to keep them from bleeding EVERYWHERE! Then there was another patient who had a brain tumor that was wrapped around his pituitary removed. He had a HUGE incision with staples across the top of his head from ear to ear. That was pretty intense, but the best part was he also had a JP drain coming from out of his head. You could see where the tube was sitting under the skin on his forehead! I didn't help other than by holding the patients hand when the Dr. came in to remove the drain and stitch up the hole where it was, but that was pretty neat to see! Only one more week of clinical for this semester! I can't believe it!

Patience with Patients

I was nuts for signing up to work today after the weekend that I had. It was physically and emotionally draining. I really needed today to be my rest day but instead, I got up (an hour earlier than I should have bc of day light savings time), went to church, went to lunch and went to work. My shift was from 3-11. When I went to CSO (the central staffing office-where I report and find out what floor I'll be working on for the day) I found out I would be sitting. This was quite a relief but also a little worrisome. It was great to be able to sit and do nothing for 8 hours and get paid for it, but I was so exhausted I was afraid I was going to fall asleep. I almost did many times! Then I got a phone call-I was sent to a different floor to work as a PCA (patient care assistant-aka buttwiper). I was excited because I was going to be able to pass the time faster, stay awake and work on the floor my friend works on. I was quick to realize that the floor I was transfered to was a rather difficult one! I was assigned a team of 14 patients. Half of these patients were very easy patients that required little. But of course that leaves 7 more. Those 7, well they gave me a run for my money! They wanted to teach me what it really means to have patience and really love on them. I started my 2200 vitals at 2130 (military time people), and was hoping to be done by 22:30-45 so that I could give report and leave by 2300 when my shift was over. As I was doing my vitals I was called to clean up a patient (not on my team) who had vomited all over himself. I was quick to do this and had no problem helping him out. Really, could you imagine?Being so sick you vomited on yourself in your bed and couldn't do anything about it? I returned to my task of doing vitals. I was called away again to clean a patient who was dreaming she was on a bedpan and really wasn't. Ah this poor woman. My heart hurt for her. Finished with her and got back to my task of doing vitals. PCA needed to room 22. DEEP BREATH ok.. PATIENCE! GRACE! I was called away 3 times during vitals to clean patients who had messed themselves. It wasn't the cleaning them up part that I had gotten flustered about. It was that I still had 8 patients to do vitals and chemsticks(blood sugars) and I/O's (ins and outs) on and it was 2245. What time was I supposed to get off tonight? answer: 23oo. What time did I really get off tonight? answer: 0020 (12:20am for those of you who don't know military time). The stupid part is this! It is now 0143 and I am still up and blogging about this night. I should go to bed-school starts at 0900.