Down for the count?

Mr. S. got discharged recently. He told people that "two ladies jumped on my chair" and now it won't do anything. He claims the ladies "broke it". Mr. S. also tells a patient or two (via phone call and one, Mr. Chatty relays info to us) that he's sitting in his shower chair on his porch waiting for his neighbor to fix his chair. Our wheelchair specialist is not amused.

Oh, the heave ho going on at the Hotel is getting better. They've fixed us up with top-of-the-line ceiling lifts. The renovation's coming, but, in the interests of safety, and the fact that they've already spent the money, the Powers That Be deigned we get them. It's about freaking time. Who else moves more patients than us? Only one other rehab is in our system, and they had lifts way before us. To top it off, 95% of their people walk, even the amputees.

So I'm not sure if all the excitement of the new power equipment or if it's just the weather, but my back is acting up. So much that it warrants a trip to Dr.B to figure out what's up. I don't really want to be out of commission, but I really don't want to end up really injured either.

Stay tuned...

The weekend? Yes!

I'll be so happy it's the weekend. My day was not bad, but lots of physical labor. I found out today a few people wonder if my true calling is "upstairs" (in the offices).

Sure, if it means I can keep my back a bit longer!

I'll be resting up this weekend...sort of. Should be interesting. I hope the rains will wash ALL the pollen away.

More to come...

I'm gettin' old...

And I may be getting creaky from flinging people around, but this here nurse ran a darned good race and lived to tell about it.

Or so that computer chip on my shoe said...

Now I'm gonna go raise a glass to all of you who are still at work, doing the heave ho.

This (insert your beverage of choice)'s for you!

Crusin' into the weekend

Even though, I will be busy doing homework this weekend, I am looking forward to it. My day was a lot of heavy lifting today. Thankfully, I used a technique one of our newer nurses pointed out to us the other day, and I still can't recall why we hadn't thought of it in the first place. (We have used it before!) Life is so much easier, when you can get people in and out of their wheelchairs simply.

Mr. X., our patient from a recent post has gotten more not so good news. His surgery has become more complicated. He's got a lot more thinking to do, because it will be life-altering.

I have a moderate to large manual I have to read by the weekend.

Stay tuned for more updates....

Heave, ho!

There was a lot of heaving today. I had Mr. Colo again, and for a while, they had him on a prep. The gallon of GoLytely I delivered at 1600 yesterday was still in his room. He only made it through half of it. Since Mr. Colo was still stooling a bit, that was the beginning of the day. One of the nurse assistants told me the boss should assign him to two people. Yes, he should when we have really heavy patients (literally and figuratively), but he doesn't, so you have to go roaming the halls looking for help, as I normally do. Some people will help you (and I always try to reciprocate) and others will run when they see you going down the hall, so they're "busy".

Thankfully, J. was in charge, and I recruited her and K. and one of the LPNs, so I didn't have to ask the same person too many times. J. does a lot when she's in charge. She goes out looking for things to help people with and it's nice. I helped with a couple of orders, but not many, because my two patients and the meds kept me running literally the whole day. I sat for 20 minutes while I charged my cell phone today and ate lunch and that was it.

Tuesdays can get crazy because the docs have meetings early, then they round with one of the specialists, and sometimes they don't get done rounding until just as lunch is arriving. It makes for some interesting predicaments such as one today with Mr. Colo. I'm in the middle of passing my pills to the whole hall to which I'm assigned. Mr. Colo was very distended with gas. The docs tell me..."oh, we dig stimmed him and relieved some of the gas, so you'll need to clean him up." What.In.Hades.Is.Going.On?! I'm in the middle of passing pills and I have to stop, drop and roll to do a clean up. Yes, this was not a drill. Since no one told me exactly what kind of results I'd find, I had to stop and get J. to go in with me so I could clean up Mr. Colo, then go back to my pills. One of these days, the docs will figure this out!

I also had DQ on my team again and I managed to get him up into the shower and he was all fine and happy until we told him he had to move next door since his double room was needed for two isolation patients. (I so love bed bingo!) Of course, he skipped out on afternoon therapy, since he had to make sure we didn't mess up any of his stuff. He just hung out in the halls and got in the way as we moved Mr. Colo to DQ's room and then DQ to Mr. Colo's room as the housekeepers finished cleaning the rooms. DQ wasn't happy with the way we arranged the room, so he rearranged it several times until he found a configuration he liked. He's not happy with it, but we had no choice. The inn is full of isolation patients!

When I wasn't busy with my own patients, I helped K. get a couple of hers up to go places. One guy went and bought a pair of reading glasses. He was the happiest I've ever seen him. He was sleeping all morning, and when he came back he was so alert and social. K. left him up on his stretcher for the evening crew to return to bed.

At 1400, K. got an order to send another patient to x-ray for a hip film. We got him loaded up for the transporter, then put him back to bed when he returned.

I left the med cart for the 12 hour nurse (and her orienting student) and got everything cleaned up. At 1600, I told J. and K., "Let's run before we have to move anyone else." and so the day ended.

Evenings creeps up again Thursday. I'll rest my heaving shoulders until then...more to come.