Life in Hell

Wow! Work was somethin' else today! The past few days have been hellish, so I was only expecting the worst. Fortunately for me, I had a wonderful group. All my little oldies were so pleasantly confused, I was actually JEALOUS of their state of mind. I need to slip into that every now and then for a good mental break.

The nurse next to me was having the worst night I have ever seen in the history of nursing. For one, she got on her shift and had a rapid response going on on one of her patients. What a great way to start your night! I know I have talked about this patient before...she has a history of closed head injury. She is very impulsive, aggressive, and she can scream like it's nobody's business. In other words...nightmare. It's the saddest thing ever. She wasn't always like this. Her dear sweet mom doesn't know what to do. NO ONE will care for her. Seriously...no one. Their insurance money is gone. So when we see she is coming tonight (after we just sent her off to rehab about 2 months ago after a 90 day stay with us) we weren't real excited. She arrives on the floor and she is actually really quiet. We get her vitals. Heart rate 136, BP 106/66, temp 103. Nice! She's going septic. We get her off the floor and to the ICU. We had her all of 15 minutes. So we all recoup from that. I am at the front desk with some CSP's and a few nurses, including the charge nurse. We hear the code blue light go on. 90% of the time it's a false alarm. We hear "HELP!" Yeah...not false. We all go sprinting down the hall and what do our wandering eyes see? But a little old man, butt naked, laying on the floor saying "I'm cold! Where is the bathroom?" It was the most pathetic site I've ever seen. After a few x-rays and a ct scan....diagnosis is fractured hip. Stay in bed, little old man!

Next up! Little old lady "I'm feeling winded and sweaty". We get her vitals. Blood pressure 180/97, heart rate 150's, pulse ox 85% on room air. Any jaw pain? Do you feel any pain radiating down your arm? Call another rapid response! Here they all come...my job was to document. Our little old lady was getting the work-up for an acute MI and she was being transferred to the unit as I left for the night.

This ALL happened within 4 hours of ONE persons shift. It was crazy.