Throttle and hum

My day was humming along. I got my people cleaned up and all ready for the day. Then it was time for the tasks.

We had to move one patient around because, per our isolation status, his room had to be cleaned and he had to get a new bed. What fun....move patient to new bed, move him to a different spot, get the room cleaned, then put him back. All this so he can get his GoLytely for a colonoscopy. He was not thrilled once he tasted it. "Yuck. No way I can drink two gallons of THAT!"

My other patient was relatively easy. Get him a new Foley and rotate him around. No fuss, no muss. He stayed up really late watching TV so he slept most of the morning.

Then the throttle...the call to go home to get that necessary utility fixed, since they keep messing with it outside. Fun. Husband can't leave work, so I get to leave. I'm so glad the commute is short. I made it there just in time to let the repairman in the house.

More to come...

Still going...

I had the colonoscopy patient again today. I had to try to sell the GoLytely gallon again, and I fell short of my quota (only 3/4 of a gallon went down). I did have plenty of help from the other nurses on the unit to get Mr. Colo turned and cleaned up each time.

Did I mention that Mr. Colo is big? Not just big, really big. His bariatric bed takes up most of the room. Imagine your favorite football linebacker in bed and you'll have a pretty good idea of his size. Mr. C. has very large legs and he cannot help us turn. As a result, he has the usual pressure sores: on the sacrum and legs. Surprisingly, since we're doing the prep, he's turned a lot. We have to get him clean, and we have to turn him to do it.

Mr. Colo finally got his liquid lunch after I scoured the unit looking for broth and juice. I only found broth, so we got out one of his clear sodas until it arrived. Thankfully, our dietary staff did not include red gelatin on this tray. I'm just hoping he got enough GoLytely that he's cleaned out for the procedure. If not, he gets to do it again next week.

Besides Mr. Colo, I got one of my other patients up in the wheelchair and I got the med wagon on my favorite end. Most of the people on that end are pretty mellow, but they were getting antsy today. It must have had something to do with their special monthly luncheon or something. The volunteers served it early, so they were wigging out when I wasn't down to there rooms by the stroke of 12. Eventually, they calmed down.

Happily, I got the last round of meds passed and I didn't hear a peep out of any of them. There weren't too many pills to deliver and everyone was in a good mood.

One more day...hopefully, Mr. Colo's prep is done by the time I get there tomorrow. More later. The weekend's just a day away!

No going lightly...

It was a non-stop day. I didn't wake up late, but it seemed like it. After I got up, I had to get Bubba up and ready and he was in no mood to get moving. Finally, we were on our way about 15 minutes later than usual.

I got to work and realized I needed to run some errands this afternoon. I talked to the boss before report and he let me use my "get out one hour early card" today to achieve all my backed-up errands.

Then, it was to the trenches. I got one guy up and in his chair so he could go off to therapy. I set up his roommate to get ready. Then I went to the third patient and found out no one had given him his GoLytely. Arrgh! I went to the med nurse, got it mixed up and I started getting patient #3 ready.

It's not much fun getting a big guy cleaned up, only to mess him up later with GoLytely. Here's how I did it. First, I brought the gallon in and explained he'd have to drink it all. Much moaning and groaning proceeded...so I told him, "You can drink some, we'll stop, get one thing done, then you can drink some more and we'll keep rotating." It worked. Patient drinks a pitcher. RN shaves patient. Patient drinks another, and on and on until we got the entire gallon down and all the AM care done. Elapsed time: 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Thankfully, his dressing survived the onslaught, based on it's location, so I changed it later in the day when we had to roll him to do cleanups. I had to find a willing participant, each time I cleaned him up. Nobody, of course, wants to help, but you can guilt trip them into it if sweet-talking doesn't work.

Lunch was the clear liquid diet. This afternoon, the bisacodyl tabs. Tomorrow, if he lets me, another gallon of GoLytely.

And yes, if you're asking, it really does roll downhill in this bed. Thank goodness we have extra absorbent pads!

Back to days

I got the pleasure of no med cart today with my patients. Hooray! I always feel trapped every time I have to drive that thing.

I had two colonoscopy patients (one got his today, other gets his tomorrow) and Mr. B., who I took care of over the weekend. It was relatively placid. I got Mr. B. up in his chair by 1030. He had one big request, "Don't scrub me today. I feel like my skin is falling off." Ah, yes, we do offer spa services at Madison--the VA has a laundry contractor who doesn't use fabric softener, so we have really hard washcloths and towels. I try to pat carefully, so people don't feel like they're getting their skin rubbed off. I also use lotion, which for some strange reason, many of our employees will not use.

Mr. B #2 was getting his second gallon of GoLytely today at noon. He's scheduled for a colonoscopy tomorrow, so you can guess what I was doing all afternoon--cleaning. He'd turn and he'd be dirty. Turn him again to get it out from under him, and more came out in spurts. He is a very nice man, so I made sure to keep him clean. He just couldn't keep his external catheter on, and he used about four this morning. He ran out of his own, so I had to get him a couple of ours. Hopefully, they lasted until C. got back there this afternoon. I left her with a hamper, bags and a large supply of towels, pads and washcloths, just so she could deal with the outflow.

I was really, really happy to hit the road today. More tomorrow...