I'm so glad I'm not in Kansas, errr, I mean Oklahoma anymore!! Geez, it's cold here too! It was only in the upper 40s or low 50s for the high today, but tomorrow it is supposed to be 68. Is that possible? I was so cold driving home this morning. That makes me not look forward to Christmas in Texas, among other things (like flying!).
I was talking to Hannah today and she told me they got 6inches of snow in OKC overnight and today in between the ice and and rain. She said everything was closed up. Even Elizabeth had her clinical canceled, and it's got to be the end of the world to do that! Oh man, watch the skies, lol!
How about you? Are you keeping warm wherever you are?
De
Hi guys, sorry I've been absent so long. Been busy! How about you? How was your Thanksgiving?
. Had way too much food and dessert left over since I prepared for 7 and not 4 and plotted ways to get rid of all the food. David was tired and didn't feel good so he went to bed, and CMB went with him. Kathryn and I stayed up, girl talked about her new man, and watched 
) I made David take an extra pumpkin pie, and I had Stephanie take hometons of food, too.
. I was so tired because of all the running around I did last week and only sleeping 4-5 hours a night. Geez! Holidays are hard work! So tonight I just bummed around, did some dishes, laundry, and am going to go to bed here in a little bit, but first I've got to get on the stationary bike as I gained back the 2 pounds I lost before Kathryn showed up. Yikes!
How was your Monday & Tuesday? Busy here.
After the Dream Dinners thing, I went to Caleb's Thanksgiving Play. He was so cute and just knew all his lines, and was telling everyone else theirs. It was great! I then came home and just crashed having been up for 23hours at that point. Ugh! I did have plans on Thanksgiving meal shopping, but instead I just slept for about 4hours. I couldn't sleep any longer but I was too tired to get up, so I just laid in bed for 2 more hours. I then got up, got a shower and went and got Kathryn from the airport. Yea! Kathryn is here!
One was a little 2yr old boy that had been bitten by an "insect". I didn't initially think much about it because there was hardly a mark on the little boy, but he just wasn't acting right. I kept asking the mom all sorts of questionslike did she see what bit him, but she didn't. Finally she said "I got bit too, do you want to see it?" I'm like "uh...yeah!". So then I look at her bite and I said "Did you see a scorpion?" "No" I said "I think your son got bit by a scorpion". Now for most people being stung by a scorpion isn't that big of a deal except that it hurts, but in young children they can have severe reactions with some pretty serious neurological symptoms. To me that little boy fit the bill. So I tell the doctor and he says "tell the PA I'm in the middle of an admit". So I tell the PAand he's like "oh great, I'll see him in a little while" and never did. He left! So then it's an hour later and I didn't know the little boy had just been seen when I hear the other nurses talking about transferring him to Children's. I'm like "what's wrong with him". The doctor said "oh he got stung by a scorpion and he has serum sickness, he is going to have to get the anti-venom." Oh really? The good news is the little boy got the medicine and went home that night. But damn it! These are the times I wish I had gone ahead with my Nurse Practitioner program! Instead I am just the lowly nurse who can only do so much.
De
Hello everyone. How was your weekend? Mine was spent either at the ER working or sleeping.
Friday night was c-r-a-z-y! Two hospitals close to us were "closed" or on "divert" because they were critically overloaded and didn't have admit beds. So guess who got 36 ambulances Friday night? We did! Count them, 36! I knew it was a lot, and I even joked around that it was over 30, but when I actually got the number I was shocked. I don't think I've ever worked when we got that many ambulances in one shift except at the OKC bombing. Now I know that there wasn't any terrorist activity, but I do know that there were a lot of stupid drunk people out and about. We ended up seeing 58 people between 7p and 7a. That is 4.8 patients an hour. The American Society of Emergency Physicians (ASEP) has determined that a safe number to be seen in one hour is 2.5. We almost doubled that. Thank goodness a lot of what came is was minor, although we did admit over 10 patients and filled up both telemetry and med/surg. Thank goodness we got all our admits up. I just hate having to hold patients, and they really hate it too because the beds are very uncomfortable and it can get quite noisy in the ER. Half of our rooms only have curtains, no doors. So...nothing to close off and shut out all the noise.
Last night wasn't as bad, although it does seem as if I have a black cloud hanging over me (fondly called a "shit magnet" by my co-workers) whenever I go to work. The tech last night asked me "how come you are always the busiest person here, why do you always get the sickest patients no matter what rooms you have?" You know, I've thought about that. I've even gotten bitter about it too when a bunch of people are sitting around doing jack nothing and I'm running around sweating. I've come to a determination that has saved my attitude and sanity...I think God gives me what He knows I can handle, and what my patients need. I don't mean to sound like I'm bragging here, but I'm a darn good nurse. I have 11 1/2 years of experience with 10 years of that being in theER (minus 3 months in CCU). I know what I'm doing, I just don't say I do. I have a bachelor's degree vs an associates, which better prepares you by giving a more well founded knowledge base. The AMA has determined that mortality and morbidity decrease when RNs over LPNs are placed in patient care, and are greatly reduced when an bachelor prepared RN is placed in critical care areas. So it just makes sense to me that since I'm the only BSN (Bachelor of Science in Nursing) on the night shift, that I should get the sickest patients. I don't always think positively this way, but I try to because it helps me get through the night. 
Did I tell you I was in charge on Monday? I kind of freaked out about it when I first walked in and I was the only staff person. So no matter that I hadn't been charge there before, here I was, lol. Oh I could do it and have done it multiple times, I was just worried that I do the paperwork right so no one would gripe. Here I go bragging again, but I did a darn good job. I charged, had my own patients, answered all the ambulance patches, triaged all the ambulances, and after the 3pm nurse went home did all those triages too. New charting system and all, I kept up really well. There, now I really am bragging, ha ha!
Okay, okay! Enough about me and my greatness, tell me how your weekend went.
De
Good evening, or should I say night, lol. How is everyone doing?
De
Oh this is kinda silly, dumb, a waste of my time. I'm sitting here filling out my "orientation packet" for work. I'm mean, come on. I'm not even on orientation as I've been working at this facility for a year now. Forget the fact that I just signed on as an employee, I've worked in this facility, in this ER, as a registry nurse for one year. Okay, so no orientation for me, "it's not needed" according to the Nursing Director. So why am I having to fill out an orientation packet, can someone please tell me?
So basically here is what I am doing. I'm going through the stack of papers and checking off on each one that I've "met my goal" on a million little tasks. Now I've got to rate my orientation experience and my Mentor. Huh? How the heck am I supposed to do that? Am I supposed to play pretend and make up comments? Oh geez!
Just sneaking an entry under the radar. Not much happening here today. Just sleeping after work, picking up Caleb from school, hanging out with my boy and doing homework together. Talked with Hannah on the phone. David at work. Night night!
You are a movie buff of the most obsessive variety. If a movie exists, chances are that you've seen it.
Hey guys! Did you have a good weekend?
De
Not much happening here today, thank goodness. Monster headache going on all day. Or I should say since I woke up because I slept until 4:00pm, lol. Couldn't get to sleep this morning until after 7am, ugh. I do hate sleeping the day away though, because I feel as though I don't see my kids, especially if it's a school night.
De
I had to get up and take Hannah to the airport today. I swear I just couldn't get it right. First of all I forgot to print her boarding pass last night and then we were at the end of the street today when I remember. I backed up and ran in to print it off the Southwest Airlines website and I got a nice little message..."The number of online boarding passes has been allocated. You will need to check in at the kiosk." What? I've never seen that before. Oh great, I hope she makes her plane. So that means we are running late now. Southwest encourages you to check in 90 minutes before your flight here because Phoenix is such a busy airport and it was now 1:15 and her flight was at 2:55. We are going to cut it close. Speed to the airport in my nice new zippy fast car, park and get in line at Southwest. Short line for a Saturday, so why isn't it moving. What? They only have 6 attendants and they are slowwwwwwww. We wait for 45 minutes to check in and the lady helping us must be new cause she is having major problems. Finally! In the meantime, Stephanie, who is flying with Hannah, calls me like 15 times asking me "are you on your way, are you here yet, where do you want to meet, are you checked in yet, do you have your boarding pass yet, are you headed through security yet, etc, etc, etc". And I'm like going to kill Caleb because he is bouncing around and asking me fifty-hundred questions and not staying beside me. The we finally get through security and to the gate and Stephanie goes "so I guess your luggage won't be on the plane with you". I'm like more than annoyed with her by now and go "Why would you even think that?" She said "Oh I asked the ticket agent if you weren't check in by now would your luggage be on the plane and she said no." Long glaring stare by me. "I'm going to go with the agent who actually checked us in and that if that was a possibility she would have informed us." Geez. Did she just want to make my day any worse?
I almost forgot...It's Veteran's Day! I just want to say "Thank You!" to everyone out there who is working hard to fight for our rights and feedom. Without you we wouldn't be the Greatest Nation on Earth! 
), so you guys have a great rest of the day! D
I'm pleased with some of the election results here in AZ, and obviously not with others. I was hoping for a new Governor, but that wasn't to be. And we may have lost one of our Representatives, JD Hayworth. I was very disappointed that the "Protect Marriage Act" wasn't approved, although it was close (51%). AZ was the only state whose referendum for banning same-sex marriage didn't pass. I wonder why that is...must be too close to CA, lol.
You aren't a full fledged Republican yet, but it's probably the party that fits you best.
If you have anything in common with the Democrat party, it's by sheer chance.