Category Archives: nurse

morning has broken

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Mornings mean a lot of different things to different people. Me, I’m not much of a morning person.

Neither are some other people…at least until after he has his breakfast. He might look like he could use a cup of coffee but he swears he doesn’t need it. He’s a kid and kids don’t drink coffee, he chides me. It is then that I tell him as a micropreemie in the NICU for four and a half months he was a total pain in the butt until he had his morning dose of caffeine. He thinks that it is absolutely crazy that he was given caffeine when he was so tiny…CRAZY!

But after breakfast is eaten, my happy boy is there to warm my heart with sunshine…er, son-shine.

Still I am not a morning person. Not at all. Which explains why, with the exception of three years, I have always worked the night shift as a NICU nurse…working nights for over twenty years now. So while the world is slumbering I am here, in the NICU.

Yes, most nights sitting here, or running around but always working very hard in the dark. We vampire nurses like it that way as do our patients. And when y’all are getting up, having coffee, eating breakfast, heading out the door to work or school and your busy, busy days, I am here…

Here unwinding and powering down before I try to sleep. Y’all need to please keep it down while you are living your lives (so loudly) during my sleep time…your daytime.

Today is Nurses Day, which is the beginning of Nurses Week, and ends with the remembrance of Florence Nightingale’s birthday. If I was queen of the world we would be celebrating nurses all month long…and nurses would be celebrated all month long…not sharing it with anyone else. Alas, I am not queen of the world. I am just a lowly bedside, per-diem registered nurse which is the best place to be for me and for my patients. Tell a nurse that they are awesome and you appreciate them. It makes the missed meals, the missed bathroom breaks, the dehydration, the achy feet, backs and legs and all the stress and headaches worth it. And again, keep it down just a little. I’m trying to sleep.

This week’s Focus 52 assignment was morning. Be sure to check out other people’s view of the morning and compare it yours.

Good night, er, morning!

let’s pretend…

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…that I have not completely FAILED in prepping myself for this Sunday’s death march mud run that I will be doing with my son in law. Yes, I can handle the running distance…bitch please…it’s the mud and the upper body strength needed obstacles not to mention it is going to be 80 degrees HOT when we start our race at 12:30 PM. I’m. Going. To. Die. I hope Ben will kindly drag my body to the finish line…for my loving circus clowns who surely will miss me when I am gone.

Let’s pretend that I have not STILL have not finished that staircase railing paint project…Y’all know I will probably finally finish it around August which would be a year after I started.

Let’s pretend that the NRP mega-code simulation test that I did today was not the hot, sweaty mess that it was because I am so nervous in testing scenarios like that (yes even if I have been doing this for over 22 years…don’t judge) and let’s pretend that I was not given the scariest delivery from hell scenario because I’m a NICU nurse and I can handle it. I know my mega-code partner, who at first was happily announcing that this was her last NRP renewal ever because she is retiring next year certainly wishes it had never happened. Don’t worry. We saved the baby mannequin patient. Oh, and we both passed.

Let’s pretend that the usual war of the worlds that is between Hazel and Daniel when he comes home from school to discover that I am babysitting his nieces never happened. I know Daniel and Hazel wish that it never happened…or at least the time-outs they received never happened.

Let’s just pretend all the annoying shit that has been bothering us all today has never happened…

But Jenny, the Bloggess‘ new book, available on sale today and on my Kindle WAITING for me to read it now…THAT we should all be so happy, so very happy that it happened. Seriously. I’m so GLAD this has happened and I have the book and wine and I will be reading it tonight while drinking a glass of wine.

Go.

Buy.

This.

Book.

something to appreciate

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I got to work last night…only for a few hours covering lunch breaks, still, I was working last night. Oh, hey, I’m working, earning money which is most excellent. I have missed the babies and my colleagues and wearing scrubs for weeks…maybe even months. I really have missed it all a lot. I really appreciate the fact that the census has picked up and instead of being cut from the schedule I am being called and asked to come in to work..a lot…compared to not at all.

I really appreciate being able to do what I am educated and trained to do.

I appreciate the ability to actually pay my bills…or at least try to catch up on them. Of course this means that I will appreciate not being called numerous times every day by said bill collectors just in case my sad financial situation has changed from two hours ago…I could have won the Mega Millions lottery you know…if I actually played the lottery…with the money that I don’t have to pay the bills.

Yeah, it is good to be working and doing what I love and do best. I’m sure my patients appreciate that.

I hope my patients appreciate the fact that I wore my hair up in a sock bun for them last night…they should…just saying.

it’s how you know

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Oh sure the unit where you work is now closed to slimy, snot-nosed, RSV-carrying, darling creatures siblings visits in order to protect the most vulnerable of your tiny patients from simple bugs to you and me that could literally kill them. Yes, you got your annual flu shot to protect yourself, your family and your patients. But how do you REALLY know that it is truly colds and flu season?

You know when your daughter messages you on Facebook late at night when your cellphone is turned off for the night because she needs some advice about what she must do to help her child who sounds like a barking seal. Make note that if your daughter is 34+ weeks pregnant and posts such a message on your Facebook wall the extended family will FREAK OUT because, OMG your daughter is 34+ weeks pregnant and in the late, late hours of night such a wall posting must mean something is going on with the baby.

So you turn your cellphone on. You call your daughter. You reassure her and tell her what to do with a feverish, croupy child because you have done your fair share of time in the cool night air and the steamy bathroom in the late night hours with a few members of your own circus act. You also post a response on your Facebook wall so everyone knows it is NOT time for the Coming Attraction 2.0 to arrive. It’s just a sick baby girl and colds and flu season is beginning.

But how do you REALLY know?

You know when your sweet grand daughter tells you in her whiskey and cigarettes voice that not only does she have a frog in her throat but also a TURTLE! Can you imagine? This poor child not only has an amphibian in her throat but she also has a REPTILE! She must be sick!

Of course when she sits next to you on the sofa all snuggled with her favorite baby blankie and her binkie looking so pale and sickly you KNOW she really is sick and it really is colds and flu season. The fact that she keeps on sliming you with her green snot  when she kisses you helps to remind you too.

At least she is sick BEFORE her baby sister is born. Hopefully her mommy and daddy…and Mi-ma and the rest of the family circus won’t be getting sick soon because, yes, her baby sister will be coming sometime VERY soon!

Wordful Wednesday is like Wordless Wednesday, only WITH words. It’s for those of us that can’t contain the chatter, but in a good way. Have something to be Wordful About this Wednesday?  Head on over to Seven Clown Circus and Parenting by Dummies to link up and share.

what I won’t do to get 10% off

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Its colds and flu season which means it is time for flu shots. It’s kind of, sort of mandatory in my workplace…kind of…sort of… I mean no one is forcing me to get a flu shot but if I choose to defer I get to wear a mask while in the workplace throughout colds and flu season…wear a mask for a 12 hour shift.

I know.

I can scarcely handle a mask for 10-30 minutes at a time in a patient’s isolation room. I seriously can’t breathe when I have to wear a mask. Of course there was that one time but it is amazing the super-human powers a mother develops for the sake of her babies. I can’t handle wearing a mask and I prefer protecting myself and my family from that which I am exposed to in a hospital so I get the flu shot…except I missed the cut-off time to get it done for free from Occupational Health at work. I missed the cut-off by a couple of hours. My fault, I know. But I still had no intention of having to wear a mask at work all winter long…when I am lucky enough to work. I could have gone to my doctor’s office and paid for the shot there…or…I could go to my local grocery store, pay for the shot and get this:

I went grocery shopping. After all the cupboards were very bare. Thirty bucks paid for the flu shot and I get a $35 added discount plus $90 more off in coupons I’d say I did pretty good this shopping expedition.

I’m protected.

I don’t have to wear that damn mask at work.

My family gets to eat for the next week or so.

It’s a win.