Happy Easter!

For those of you who celebrate (now or later), may the joy of the Risen Christ be yours all throughout the year.

For those of you who don't, enjoy every bit of candy while you can. Most will be 50% off tomorrow. Cadbury eggs are awesome!

I have already hidden my chocolate marzipan eggs (I prefer dark) from prying characters in my home.

Until next time...I raise a glass to you and then go check the ham.

Happy Easter

And if you don't celebrate Easter, I wish you a blessed Passover. Don't celebrate that either? If you were here in RehabLand today, it was glorious. Enjoy the spring weather wherever you are. It only comes once a year.

I didn't fall off the earth, I got a little busy this week exercising and watching various astronomical phenomena, like a little space station buzzing by and the latest Blood Moon.

Bubba, Dahey and I finally went out for the brunch that was so rudely interrupted by a terrible virus for Dahey's birthday weekend last weekend. It was a good coincidence that it was Easter, since I was fortunate enough to excuse myself from galley slavery with some of my relatives. That felt just as glorious as the weather.  Since we went to one of our favorite pizzerias last night, we had leftovers for dinner so I did no cooking AT ALL. Ah! My idea of a wonderful day.

I did have a temporary lapse when I decided to thoroughly vacuum and mop all the floors upstairs. I corralled Dahey and Bubba in the basement, so I got to enjoy the quiet and drying when the floors were done. For one, brief, shining moment (in a house where everyone must wear shoes with a soon-to-be  teenager who is constantly eating) they were  clean.

Now, we're getting ready for the big chamber music night at Bubba's neighborhood junior high. He's going to play this song with some other brass players. Sounds like it will be a tuneup for the Spring Concert in a few weeks and the auditions for the symphony and jazz band groups. Bubba was so excited to wear a suit to church today, that I will be very surprised if he doesn't go formal for the next concert. He looks very longingly at some of those tuxedos when we are out shopping.

Work is still work. I have to go back for a full week tomorrow. I need a day off every week to motivate me, but I don't think that will ever happen. It would be nice, though. I'd like to know if I'm going to get another job at the Hotel, but with my luck (and our illustrious HR department), I'll be waiting six more weeks to find out. Nothing ever happens fast.

I'm going to stop here. All the cleaning and fun have made me tired today. I bid you all a good night wherever you are.

Stay tuned...

Happy Easter!

To all of you who celebrate (whether it's now or later)! Enjoy!

Kids say...

The darnedest things. Since I wanted to watch a grown up movie from a Redbox this weekend, I went looking online.Bubba, who sees lots of movies, told me the one I chose to rent (The Intouchables--good for a rehab nurse, eh?) is "basically rated R, Mom". Yes, I knew it was since I had to prove I was over 18.

His assessment of the last rated R movie he saw (he caught bits of Dahey watching Silkwood): "they say a lot of bad words."

Somehow, he mentioned Lincoln was rated PG-13 and had "a" words and "b" words. Then he says, "Isn't booby trap a bad word?"

It all depends, dear, it all depends. Should be an interesting Easter weekend here in RehabLand with the gathering of relatives, Dahey's birthday, and all the other assorted excitement.

Hope you all enjoy whatever holiday you'll be celebrating wherever you are.

Something to keep in mind...

This is going to be my motto today:

To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone and a funny bone. ~ Reba McEntire

One more workday, then it's a LONG weekend with Bubba and Dahey to celebrate Easter.

Stay tuned!

Rebirth

No, I don't believe in reincarnation (sorry!), but I am reminded how much hard work goes into anything worthwhile. I cleaned, scrubbed, cut, chopped, mixed and baked away for today's Easter lunch. It was gobbled up relatively quickly, but many happy, content smiles were shared sans alcohol. (Yes, they were driving!). We had a grand time at the RehabRN house.

I'm saving my alcohol (as tough as that was...I enjoy a nice glass with a good meal) for tomorrow. When the test is over. Yes, I'm taking one of the biggest tests of my career so far. I'm as ready as I can get. 

Back to studying. More to come.

What winds will blow...

Happy Easter to all of you who may have celebrated yesterday.

How many admissions will we get? And when will they go home?

All these questions will be answered soon enough. Thus, I keep on charging away...one more evening shift.

Stay tuned!

Let it rain?

Will it rain on my Easter egg hunt? Only time will tell. May have to move it indoors.
If so, no real Easter eggs will be used. They smell funny if you don't find them right away.

More to come...

Child plus...

Easter egg hunt in freshly mown grass plus multiple other little kids, equals mess for mom.

It's always fun until you feel like you're in a detergent commercial.

Happy Easter to all!

Chug-a-chug-a...

Choo choo! That was me, just putting nose to the grindstone getting work done. Boss gave me a crazy a&sed assignment and I felt like calling him/her on it. Thankfully, I got slowed up by the regularly scheduled rounding on each and every patient, so I had no choice but to squeeze things in here and there, between hanging IVs and medicating the minions here and there.

The Slug actually talked to me...in several sentences related to work. Darned near fell over from that since it's the most I've heard him/her say directly to me (not a jibe, mind you) since I started here years ago. Maybe he/she was being good on this here Good Friday. He/she's an atheist and lords it about on occasion and started to do so today. I'm all about the American view of freedom of speech, but his/her diatribes make me want to seek out the folks who can do something about harassment.

I found out recently my traveling partner and I will be hitting the road, not once, but twice this year. Unfortunately, one trip is with the boss, who apparently has groupies. The nice thing is, we can wear high heels if we want, since our show does not require standing for hours...hooray! Should be interesting...if we don't kill him/her before we get on the plane. The good thing: Dahey and I may get to celebrate our anniversary in one city while I'm there. Oh, I can't wait!

Now, it's back to prepping for Easter dinner company. Lots of cleaning, folding, egg dyeing and basket building going on here and some homework thrown in for good measure. Should be fun...stay tuned.

Drama returns...

Ah, yes, it's just so much fun when you get melodramatic patients...and nurses.

One patient came to us after a stay in the ICU due to respiratory issues. Patient had a very productive cough, thanks to some aggressive respiratory treatment.

"That nurse beat me! Don't do that!" was the response when I asked if I could do chest PT when the patient was turned. Nice. Said patient did let me do a quad cough, though.

The Slug was back recently. "Oh," he/she said to a patient, "I had to move all of my relative's heavy wooden furniture. I didn't let anyone take breaks." Guess what...he/she made up for it while at work.

It wasn't a surprise, but one of my favorite charge nurses will be gone in May. S, one of the nice, sweet regulars will be going to an area with less heavy lifting since her back is going out. We will miss her.

I will be so glad to be off this weekend. I get to dye eggs with Bubba for a party. Fun!

Stay tuned...

Bowel obsessed

And to think it's so early in the week! Yes, we have our share of bowel-obsessed people at the Hotel right now.

Here are a few examples:

• We have a patient who wants a quantifier on any BMs, i.e. "how much?" all the time. Let's just say you're doing fine, thanks.
• We have another patient right now who has magnesium citrate, bisacodyl tabs and glycerin suppositories (because they use them at home) ordered PRN, just in case said patient feels "a little fullness." Patient's full of something all right...
• Another patient is on record taking one cup of GoLytely every day for his/her bowel routine. I guess if it gets you going!
• Finally, we have the patient who's gotten addicted to mini-enemas. "Oh, I can't go if I don't get one of those!"

And we don't make it any better...we were just reminiscing today about one nurse's Halloween costume a couple of years ago. She wore a white outfit (with white hoodie) with "bisacodyl" taped on the side. None of the therapists got it...but the nursing staff was ROFL big time.

One of my patients unloaded today right after lunch. He made his numbers before we even got the magic bullets out for the evening shift. "I swear it's that chicken," he told me (referring to today's lunch). Hmm....just make you wonder how much chocolate candy he really did eat today (the Easter basket's almost empty...)

Finally, before I was getting to scribble this down I found this bowel obsessed post at dethmama. Oh, do I feel your pain...and did I enjoy this...totally. I know EXACTLY where you are coming from!

Dreams

Yes, I've been having that conversation with patients a lot lately. Maybe it has something to do with the sleeping pills. Otherwise, it just seems that people are a little more apt to talk about certain things when the sun goes down.

First, one of our guys keeps dreaming he's not sleeping at night. Yes, every time someone rounds on him, he's snoring and doesn't wake to calls of his name, but he swears to the docs that he's been up all night. Sure, they say Ambien can be a factor in sleepwalking, but for our non-ambulatory folks, I guess it could make the dreams seem as if they're awake all night. And, as you know, the patient is always right, just like the customer, until proven otherwise.

So what does that mean for us? More charting. Order that reads, "chart all times patient is awake at night." Nice.

Next, another guy, a fellow Ambien user, who never goes to bed earlier than 0300 anyway, was telling me about his dreams before he was injured: the new Harley that never was, the job offer that disintegrated, the house. He's working on some new stuff, now, since he'll be leaving us soon and going back to the area where he grew up. And he's hoping to make some of his new dreams come true. We're all excitedly crossing our fingers, since he's got everything set up for success.

Another guy seemed like he was dreaming, but he wasn't. He's going to leave us soon and he was just bawling his eyes out when I went into the room recently. Not because he's leaving right away, but that he's an old softie for a spot in one of these old movies they tend to show around Easter on TV. "Every time I see this, it gets me," he said between sniffles.

Finally, the nursing staff has a few dreams, too. Lots and lots of people are dreaming of vacation as the spring hits and summer is on its way. I'm dreaming of passing my certification and GRE exams before summer, since after that, it will be a long time before I get any more vacation. However, I do believe that we need to dream. It keeps you going.

To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe. Anatole France

And so I go...to work again. More later...