In a hurry

If we are in a hurry, there are a lot of things we don't see. We run past people on the street, in the halls, in their rooms. Just like this guy, a noted researcher in a hurry.

Some people just don't move fast enough: they're slow. E. was one of those folks. He just meandered around in his wheelchair, sometimes numbed and slowed by his brain injury. Frankly, I was surprised when he wandered into my clinic a couple of weeks ago to ask some questions. It was something he rarely did, but he needed help.

A staff member at the nursing home told him he needed to be seen at the Hotel. So when I looked into things and checked his appointments, I saw, he was right. I sent a message to our clinic nurse down the way, Q. and he/she said they'd get him on the next clinic list. I escorted E. to make sure he wouldn't be distracted and forget. Our scheduler was waiting and put him right on the schedule.

E. was happy when I saw him last week. He got his appointment, and everything looked good. "Thank you." he said slowly. I smiled and told him, "Any time, E. Just come bang on my door (pointing at it) if you have to."

He smiled, his driving cap, turned jauntily to the side and rolled out to the home's bus, awaiting him outside.
That was the last time I saw him. Today we found out that E. was found dead in his room.

I always wonder when I'm in a hurry about what might happen if I slow down. As I reflect, I see it now. I just might catch a glimmer of a light that may never shine the same way again.

Take your time and remember those little moments. They could be the last.

More later...

Heard on the unit...

In the offices, under the bed, outside, in the halls, you never know what people will say.

"What? Mr. X was 'ambulatory' at the scene of his slow motor vehicle accident? It's a miracle!" --Nurse Q.

Mr. X hasn't walked in years, partly because he doesn't have two legs. Q always is so observant when reading the notes the referral centers send to us.

"Mr. X was 'clean' according to the note. WTF? Did he have his accident in a car wash?"--Nurse Q

Yes, Q is a little too funny. Mr. X hasn't been clean in all the years I have known him, Q told me later. Said character is afraid he'll melt in water.If you can picture Pig Pen all grown up and missing a limb or two, you know what I mean.


"No wonder that pump didn't work. It did flip flops in his/her abdomen."--Nurse Madge

Nurse Madge is in charge of filling medication pumps at the Hotel. One patient's pump flipped so many times, it required surgical intervention to fix.

"It's better to ask forgiveness than to ask permission." --Doctor Barnum, our new boss.

Not when you piss off your referral nurse, it's not. Referral Nurse had to set boss straight, because they need to talk to get patients admitted to the Hotel. No customers is not good business, especially to the big bosses.

Stay tuned...the people I work with (and even the patients) say the darnedest things!

Charging on

Yes, I'm out of the charge nurse racket for another bit. Thank heavens!

It was reasonably pleasant on the last round of Charge-o-Rama, even though RPIA LPN  tried starting a riot by mentioning all the lazy people I had on my shift. Really? I replied. I'm keeping everyone busy, myself included, and we still had time to sit down.  I was just thrilled to death I didn't have her to schedule around now that she's on light duty for twisting her ankle. (Thank you boss!)

I'm still in holding pattern re: my future in a new position at the Hotel. It looks good, but  I'm not holding my breath. HR around here is slower than dirt, and to top it off, they're even advertising on TV more lately. I'm sure my lowly, newfangled Hotel position is way down the list, since they're recruiting ICU and OR nurses, as well as ICU docs on the slick commercials in our area. "Come work at Washington, where we know patients."

We'll see...back to grad student studying while I have some free time today. Stay tuned!

Adios SU

I left the SU in good hands. The nurse I replaced temporarily came back and she looked quite happy. All that had been in shambles in her world at was right with the world and she was ready to celebrate at work.

We celebrated by eating donuts. She and I ate most of them, since many people chickened out, since they all started New Year's diet programs. Life is made to be lived and a good donut is still a good donut, she said.

The floor is still the floor. It was the crazy busy place it always is, only there was much quiet today. I don't know why, but things were very, very slow when the lunch trays came (we pass out any to isolation patients). A couple of senior nurses and I just looked at each other wondering where everyone went.

I had a decent assignment, but as many of you already know, when you go from one job to another, it can be challenging. I use a completely different set of skills when I work the floor vs. SU.

The majority of people were happy to see me--one so much that even though he usually squanders time lolling around in bed driving nurses nuts, he actually got up when I went on rounds and stopped in his room. This particular patient has been around regularly since I started at Madison and we have a very good rapport.
"What are you doing here?" he asked me and his nurse. I replied, "I came back and I'm here to tell you to get your a&$ out of bed." We chuckled and he complied and got up when his nurse came back.

The doctors acted as if they hadn't seen me in years, even though, I saw some of them every day while I was reassigned. Surprisingly, they were happier to see me than some of my coworkers. The Slug, happily, was at a conference and not available.

Overall, the day flew by. I was lucky enough to squeeze my lunch into it all. We'll see how it continues...stay tuned.

Wrapping it up

Happily, with all the snow, the SU has been slow. I've been busy putting things back together for the nurse I replaced. The crew is all looking forward to her coming back. I'm not looking forward to going back to the Hotel, but I'm dealing with it. At least, my boss let me be on days for a week, so I can float over if needed to help out. Hopefully, her first week back won't be too stressful.

I'll really miss having my own office with a window and relative quiet. I won't miss the psycho secretary, though. We'll see how it goes.

Recently, I went to a unit meeting and it was interesting. The council started giving out candy awards for the nice things that people do and write up on cards for others. It's nice to see the sentiment, but I wonder if it will last. They are giving some other prizes, too, that people really want (i.e. the get out of the office for an hour free cards). At least, it feels like changes are coming. We can only wait and see.

Finally, I got a note from a family member of one of our deceased patients. The bright orange note really made my day. I could hardly believe that they remembered me.

And so it goes...more to come.

The little blizzard that wasn't

Sometimes I thank my lucky stars when things go wrong. Today is one of them.

We have snow, we have ice and we have subfreezing temperatures. However, we also got about half of the snow predicted for our area, as the thunder and heavy snow moved northeast.

Off I go to de-ice the car and see how many brave souls will venture out onto the snow/ice combo to see us. Should be another slow day.

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.