Harbinger of things to come?

Sunday started with a migraine, which did not go away. It just subsided here and there until the migraine drugs came out (thankfully, no nausea and vomiting!)

Went over by the Hotel and saw one of my coworkers, F., getting ready for the night shift. Long discussion. Had to cut it short to do what I had to do and get two friends to bring home for Dahey and Bubba.

Those friends: Ben & Jerry. Yes, we ran out of ice cream (found this out yesterday) and you would have thought the world would indeed end.

But alas, as I'm leaving I saw it. The harvest moon. 

I hope F. has a really boring night.

That is all. Stay tuned...the night (and the week) is young.

Heard on the unit...

I love M and Em, two of our RNs who work weekends. They both have a hilarious sense of humor. M works AM 12 hour shifts and Em works the PM ones. M came from a gero unit, and Em came to the Hotel from a cardiac ICU at an academic medical center where they do groundbreaking stuff, including chilling folks after heart attacks.

So this is a story M told me about what happened recently when she answered a call light for Mr. X., one of our regulars.

M: Good morning can I help you your call light is on?
Patient X: Yeah how the hell do I check out of this swanky hotel!!
M: As soon as you are able to walk out of here. (Patient is paralyzed and has been for many years)
Patient X: Hell, if I could have done that I would have stiffed this bill long ago.

Yes, just another day at the Hotel. Sometimes, I miss working the weekends, but not always.

Stay tuned!

Fun things to do early in the AM

I love getting to work early, because you see things in stillness, when it's quiet and not quite crazy as they will be when the regular day shift starts.

So, I try to be efficient. Yep, I find people who are already there and we work on stuff that might not get done early.  Here's what I did recently.

1. I roamed around with our new campus tech guy (aka New Guy). He saved my butt and I got SU work done the other day. (NG is not new to the role as campus poobah, just the Hotel).

2. During roaming, I helped him with his equipment inventory. It's nice to show up when no one's around and get it tagged and checked.

3. If people were around, he got introduced to the staff: on the floor, in the offices, to the docs, everybody (I didn't leave anyone out who I could snatch as they walked by).

4. Really funny introduction: startling the boss when he/she brings in his lunch, coffee and everything first thing.

Intro went kind of like this, after Jess the admin let us in his/her office:

Me (with NG): "Hi Boss, we're doing inventory. Jess let us in."
Boss: (startled) "Hi! " (Wanders in...coffee cup looks full.)
NG: "Sir do you use this device (pointing at inventory item)?"
Boss: "Not really. I need a different one, like the radiologists use."
Me: "BTW, NG, Boss has to look at a lot of procedures where he needs to know where his needles go, by looking at MRIs, etc."
NG: "No problems, Boss. Mr. R (equipment guru) can get you one...or two if you really want."
Boss: "Thanks. One's fine."
Me: "Bye boss." (exit stage right)

You  just never know what will happen roaming around the office at all hours.

Stay tuned...

I keep telling myself

I love evening shift, I love evening shift, I love evening shift.

Even if I don't. I know it's not nights, but I'm still tired!

Pondering the universe

When it's a slow shift, I often go out looking for stuff. It's just my nature to be busy. Perhaps a little too much of the "idle hands are the tool of the Devil" stuff when I was a kid.

I was surfing away this morning and ran into this post at Reality Rounds. Thankfully, in rehab settings, we don't drop "the bomb" on people too much. That bomb has already exploded by the time we get people, due to accident, illness or other random idiocy, and we're busy picking up pieces and putting things back together for the rest of life.

As a result of too much time, I started looking at labs, and found a high alkaline phosphatase on one of our old timers. We don't diagnose, of course, but when you can historically look at trends, it makes you wonder what's going on with people. I also think it helps me to talk to doctors to see what their take of the situation is with said patient.

Of course, when we have free time, there's always something silly. One nurse buggered up her iPhone and it would not vibrate. We tried to get her to check out www.apple.com to find out what was wrong with it (maybe in the user's guide...hmm?!) but she waited to see what her significant other would say about this problem, since he could fix it since he has the same phone.

Another patient got a generic gadget catalog similar to Harriet Carter. But, he was in for a surprise when he opened one page...they weren't selling any Billy Mays stuff or SlamChops, no they were selling vibrators. He's wondering if the person who gave him the catalog is trying to drop a hint. We shall see, as this becomes yet another inside joke on the unit.

Yes, we have inside jokes everywhere at our place. It's simply a way of coping with time, space and personnel for a lot of our people, who spend an enormous amount of time with us. One guy has his "wife" on our unit. (that's what he calls one of our nurses, who constantly nags him to check his blood sugar).

Finally, a couple of our people said goodbye this week. They went home. One is travelling to a home he's never seen with his long-time fiancee. Another patient is going home, then travelling across the country to live near relatives and meet his online girlfriend. His wife has been gone for a long time and he's finally decided he doesn't want to be alone anymore, after surviving one health issue after another. He is a very smart man, often moody, but frequently nice when he wants to be. With all he's gone through, he deserves whatever happiness he can get.

More later...stay tuned.