Nuggets for December 6

Happy St. Nicholas Day to all! It's been a busy week at Hotel Madison, but it's been fun.

Evenings is always a blast of a shift to come back to if only for the havoc we sometimes have with staff. (One was a no-call no-show last night.) Patients are generally good, unless of course, they're busy sundowning. Last night was decent enough, so I am happy for little things. Our shift missed the annual holiday party that our manager has, so said manager sent pizza.

In addition to all of the early in the shift hubbub, we had a TV crew show up to talk to one of our patients. Nothing like having hospital PR staff, the nursing staff and TV people on your floor roaming around just before the craziness of dinner time.

Here are a few of the interesting topics I've encountered recently.

One of my patients I noticed was taking Demeclocycline. I thought it was an odd antibiotic to use until I read this article about SIADH.

Last night, our charge nurse and I were talking about one of our patients who has a tenodesis splint and one who needs one. Another option for this problem: one of our docs talked to a patient this week about getting tenodesis surgery to improve his pincer grip.

Finally, I saw a drug I haven't seen in a long time at our place...good old hydralyzine show up for one of our new patients on the floor. This patient was a character. He looked exactly like a famous criminal and when I checked him to give him the hydralyzine and told him what it was, he denied hypertension. (Surprise, surprise.) He's with us only for a short visit, so he'll easily be home by Christmas.

More later...