Spring fever

This is the time of year that is so hard to live in the northern half of the country. We have had a nice, mild winter but spring fever is running rampant. The sun is shining, it looks like a nice warm day but it is not. This time last year my husband and I were headed to the Caribbean on a Carnival Cruise ship; that doesn't make this year any easier. I can't wait to head outside without a coat on, work in the flower bed, plant some new flowers or bushes. Spring fever is terrible. On the positive side, at least it isn't snowing and there is no snow on the ground. I miss living in the south, the azaleas will be blooming soon; the grass will be nice and green and all the trees budding. Another 6 weeks or so and we will be there too, I can't wait!

Olympics

The Olympics are an amazing event; a little too hyped but amazing. I love to watch the skiing, ski jumping, snowboarding and of course ice events. The truly fantastic thing about the Olympics is that now we have something to watch in the middle of the night when we take our lunch breaks. I have been enthralled with the ice dancing the last couple of nights; what grace and athleticism these people possess. Of course I possess neither of these qualities so I am naturally impressed.

My New Year's resolution was to eat healthier and exercise at least 3-4 times a week. I was doing really well with my resolution until I got sick. Then I started thinking, this is the first year I have actually stuck to my resolution and kept exercising and eating healthy...this is the year I got sick. Is that a coincidence? Maybe the lifestyle change messed up my immune system. Well, I haven't exercised since I got sick over a week ago but I guess I should get back into it, once I am healthy again. I have to think I will be healthy again some day.

So back to work tonight for 3 nights in a row, I haven't done that in a few weeks because my schedule got screwed up. Back to school today, my routine is complete now. Eat, sleep, school, work. Nothing else to do during the winter anyhow.

Back to work

So it's back to work for this nurse. I am over the worst of my sickness, I hope. My voice is almost back to full strength sometimes so it is time to head out. After 12 hours of constant talking I am a little squeaky on the way home but much better than it was. Yeah for me, now I can start to pick up all that overtime I wanted to work last week but was unable to.

There is a new drink at Starbucks, I haven't tried it yet but maybe tonight on the way in to work. I have to take it easy on my stomach since I am on about every over-the-counter medications you can buy...I may overdose on Ny-Quil. If you think about it, 10% alcohol is really not that much. Maybe for someone who has never drank in their life, but for the average social drinker that is nothing.

So that is my week so far, tomorrow we are heading to the Cirque Du Soleil show downtown. I am really excited about that, this will be our third show. I'll let you know how it is.

Laryngitis

An interesting thing happened to me last night at work...laryngitis. Now picture this, little me trying to talk to an old, mostly deaf patient with my half crackly voice. What a picture. I had laryngitis about 4 years ago and it was torture, the same as this time. What an eye opener about myself and my habits...a lot of them include talking. So now I know that I talk to myself out loud alot, talk to my cats a lot and talk on the phone a lot (all of these things I can no longer do). Not talking for me is a death sentence.

On the flip side I walked in the house this morning after my shift and found one dozen roses, chocolates and a beautiful necklace. He really came through this year! It may be a stupid holiday but I like it. What did I get for him??? Laryngitis, the best thing possible.

Nursing

I read an article earlier this week entitled "What nurses really do". It was a disappointing article which spoke mostly of the need for nurses to have a larger voice than they currently do. Today in our local paper's help wanted section there was a large article about nursing being a great career...the qualifications for this apparently are only job security and good salary. Nursing does have both but it is so much more than that, so I am going to tell everyone what nursing is to me. Please be aware this is only my opinion.

Nursing is hard work, it is long shifts and a lot of overtime. Nursing is taking care of your patients without getting too involved. Nursing is pushing every medication you have available on your patient so the family can have one more minute with the patient "alive". Nursing is holding your patient's hand after they have found out they have terminal cancer and their closest family is in California. It is sitting with the family of a teenager and listening to their stories about her while the rest of the staff is busy finding organ recipients for the ultimate gift her parents are making. Nursing is dealing with family members who want to sue you for being 5 minutes late with medicine. It is having patient's yell at you, hit you, kick you, spit at you and swear at you. It is one back injury after another.

Nursing is walking in a patient's room and have them smile and say "thank goodness you are back tonight, you are the best nurse I have had", having family members thank you through their tears for taking care of their loved one. Nursing is a box of chocolates left by a patient as a thank you gift for being kind. Sometimes it is even having a doctor say thank you for taking such good care of his patient.

Nursing is dealing with doctors who don't want to deal with you. It is constantly being put down by doctors and your fellow nurses. It is a doctor who doesn't have time to come and pronounce his patient dead, you get to do it. It is also awesome teamwork and the understanding that the patient always comes first, even if I don't like you as a person. Nursing is full of near misses, close calls and optimism even in the face of death. It is falling asleep hearing the alarms that you heard your entire 12-hour shift.

Nursing can't be described in a 1,000 word article. It is a profession that I am proud to be a part of and one that I think about leaving a couple times a year. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

I'm alive!

Just a sinus infection, I will be okay. My doctor assured me I would live to see tomorrow but did recommend I take tonight off, so I called in sick. At least I wasn't lying, but I never call in sick. The last time I did was 2002 and we were living in Connecticut. No point in being more miserable at work though so I will be miserable at home. At least I got to watch the hockey game which was really a pathetic display of athleticism or lack thereof. Did I tell everyone I bought a hockey jersey?

Can someone please explain to me why the athletes are walking in to disco music at the opening ceremonies of the Olympics? Donna Summer just doesn't scream Italian Olympics to me. I wonder who picked the music and why they chose disco. Bon Jovi is obviously the better choice when any music choice needs to be made.

A Quick Post

Just a quick post so I can whine about being sick. Like most nurses, I am not a good patient. I have the best immune system in the world, or so I thought. It has been years since I have been sick, so why now? I am eating Vitamin C like it is its own food group. I went to my favorite martini restaurant tonight and ordered hot tea. That is how you know I am not feeling well (I'm not sick, just not well). I even found little pleasure in shopping (the second sign). So I will overdose on Vitamin C, hot tea and water just like a good patient and hope I fell better in the AM so I can go to work. I'm done whining now.

Stuff

I have been on a really wacky sleep schedule and I am pretty sure that I have aged about 10 years in the last 2 weeks. I guess that means I am pushing 40, but since 40 is the new 30 I should be right on track. I have been averaging about 3 hours of sleep on my days off and 13 hours of sleep the night before I go back. Part of the problem is working one night, off one night for a week. I had such a busy night at work on Sunday night, thank goodness I was working with some of the most awesome people ever. How often can you say that?

My friend who is in town from Phoenix leaves to go back tomorrow. I saw her yesterday for the last time, that sucks. I miss her so much, I guess I will just have to go out and see her. I'll be having a small pity party for myself for the rest of the week and then I will buck up.

Karma

I watched the first episode of "My Name is Earl" when it first came out...I swear that is the only episode I watched. If you have ever seen it you know that he talks about karma all the time. I don't think I really believed in karma until this week. It is true that what you do will either come back to bite you or reward you. My last post described a perfect night at work, I paid for that comment dearly. I arrived for work on Thursday night, I had a different assignment and actually only had one patient...thank goodness. This was a sick patient and after we put almost every line possible in him he was wild. I mean knockdown, drag out wild. This other nurse and I were literally wrestling with him almost all night. I was exhausted after having only a 20 minute lunch break all night...no movie watching for me. I was sore the next day from wrestling with this man.

My karma turned around the next day when I was able to go shopping with my friend who was in town from Phoenix and another friend who is local. After a martini everything was fine again. Nothing better than a girls afternoon out.

My night

Last night I took care of a patient who renewed my love of nursing. This patient was cooperative, happy and thankful...that doesn't happen very often. He was eager to take care of himself and had a great sense of humor. I love patients like that who make me want to go to work and make me happy to be a nurse. He had me laughing all night long which made the night go so much quicker. So this is the lesson learned from my awesome patient..."I would rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy".

Another lesson learned, there really is no need to have extra shots of espresso in the Starbucks beverages. So I had to go into work 4 hours early for a meeting. As I was anticipating a 16+ hour shift I stopped at Starbucks and ordered a Cinnamon Dolce Latte with extra espresso. I think I finally calmed down about 8 hours later. Not a good situation as I was pretty sure I was going to have a heart attack. Note to self: don't order extra espresso.

I work with a woman who is passive aggressive, that always makes for an interesting night. She usually leaves me alone and I leave her alone, speaking to each other as little as possible. Apparently last night was 'mess with Michelle night' and I didn't get the memo. I don't take that kind of behavior very well (anyone out there who knows me can see what happened next). Anyhow, I didn't back down and now her panties are all bunched. Let me tell you how I slept today after that interaction...GREAT. I don't know what her point was but it was lost on me. Can't wait to go back tonight, at least my patient is cool.