My dog got sprayed by a skunk yesterday at about 5am. I know the time because I actually smelled it in my bedroom!
I would like to announce that this is exactly one year and 8 days since my niece Sarah spotted the adorable ferret/gerbil which was actually a skunk in our culvert!
I had to change scrubs when I got to work because I could still smell skunk...
My bedroom smelled like skunk last night.
I fear that my house STILL smells like skunk, but my olfactory bulb has adjusted...Darn that rapidly adjusting sense organ!
Bookworm is pretty pumped to be on leadership at school. She is the hall monitor in the mornings and the line monitor in the lunchroom...
She heard a kid say the "P" word today. She informed the kid that he shouldn't say bad words.
"P isn't a bad word, IDIOT!"
I asked what she said to him then..."Nothing! I didn't know what to say!"
"Was he in 4th or 5th grade?"
"NEITHER!! He was in KINDERGARTEN!"
Kids these days. She was quite disillusioned. I think she realized she has been given much responsibility with no authority.
I had a "why am I nurse?" moment today....
A patient was very unstable with a massive infection in his left kidney. The urologist had tried putting a stent in the kidney and giving antibiotics. They both proved ineffective. Subsequently, the patient went into septic shock. Septic shock results in increased heart rate and massive dilation of the vessels, which causes blood pressure to drop dangerously low. Other stuff happens, but I was concerned at this moment that the patient was on 3 medications to bring up his pressure and his heart rate down and he was still only in the 80s for his systolic (top number,) and his heart rate was still in the 120s, and his platelets were 12. Platelets are needed to make your blood clot. We like them to be over 150.
Did you catch that? He was 12. We like 150...
I personally like to think that we can actually stop bleeding if it happens to occur.
"Dr, I'm not sure about putting this patient on the table. Can we do this in the ICU using ultrasound?" Translation: I really wanted this to be on the ICU nurses plate, not mine. Just bein' real here.
He looked at me with his serious face and said, "I can only do this under fluoro (that's xray to you non radiology folks). We have to bring this patient down."
"I'm a little uncomfortable with this patient's stability." Never say I give up easily.
"Andi, if we don't get this drain in his kidney, he's going to die."
Allllllllrighty then.
I went and got him. But I wanted to say, "I'm afraid he's going to die on the table."
We don't say that stuff out loud though. Instead we do our job.
And sometimes I think I'm crazy for doing it.
But when I stop and think about something so simple (if using live digital xrays to insert a line into the kidney to drain the infection is simple) can make a life or death difference....
That's pretty cool. And I'm glad God gave our doctor's the knowledge to know what to do. And I'm glad He has made me a small part of it.
So, who wants to grow up and be a nurse?
I would like to announce that this is exactly one year and 8 days since my niece Sarah spotted the adorable ferret/gerbil which was actually a skunk in our culvert!
I had to change scrubs when I got to work because I could still smell skunk...
My bedroom smelled like skunk last night.
I fear that my house STILL smells like skunk, but my olfactory bulb has adjusted...Darn that rapidly adjusting sense organ!
Bookworm is pretty pumped to be on leadership at school. She is the hall monitor in the mornings and the line monitor in the lunchroom...
She heard a kid say the "P" word today. She informed the kid that he shouldn't say bad words.
"P isn't a bad word, IDIOT!"
I asked what she said to him then..."Nothing! I didn't know what to say!"
"Was he in 4th or 5th grade?"
"NEITHER!! He was in KINDERGARTEN!"
Kids these days. She was quite disillusioned. I think she realized she has been given much responsibility with no authority.
I had a "why am I nurse?" moment today....
A patient was very unstable with a massive infection in his left kidney. The urologist had tried putting a stent in the kidney and giving antibiotics. They both proved ineffective. Subsequently, the patient went into septic shock. Septic shock results in increased heart rate and massive dilation of the vessels, which causes blood pressure to drop dangerously low. Other stuff happens, but I was concerned at this moment that the patient was on 3 medications to bring up his pressure and his heart rate down and he was still only in the 80s for his systolic (top number,) and his heart rate was still in the 120s, and his platelets were 12. Platelets are needed to make your blood clot. We like them to be over 150.
Did you catch that? He was 12. We like 150...
I personally like to think that we can actually stop bleeding if it happens to occur.
"Dr, I'm not sure about putting this patient on the table. Can we do this in the ICU using ultrasound?" Translation: I really wanted this to be on the ICU nurses plate, not mine. Just bein' real here.
He looked at me with his serious face and said, "I can only do this under fluoro (that's xray to you non radiology folks). We have to bring this patient down."
"I'm a little uncomfortable with this patient's stability." Never say I give up easily.
"Andi, if we don't get this drain in his kidney, he's going to die."
Allllllllrighty then.
I went and got him. But I wanted to say, "I'm afraid he's going to die on the table."
We don't say that stuff out loud though. Instead we do our job.
And sometimes I think I'm crazy for doing it.
But when I stop and think about something so simple (if using live digital xrays to insert a line into the kidney to drain the infection is simple) can make a life or death difference....
That's pretty cool. And I'm glad God gave our doctor's the knowledge to know what to do. And I'm glad He has made me a small part of it.
So, who wants to grow up and be a nurse?
2 comments:
Aren't you so glad Kelsey is not a house dog? And I don't want to grow up and be a nurse. I get stressed enough that my students struggle with head stuff that is not even lethal! And if Miss Bookworm hears enough stuff like that, she will need to develop her sarcasm for comebacks!
I'm not being sarcastic...what is the P word?
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