After dutifully discharging my responsibilities as Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy (NJFW) ... or at least trying really hard not to kill the patient or the care-taker ... I think I'm slipping some and am gonna get canned from this position.
I'd love to blame it on being tired and loopy, but I did get a short nap before I cooked dinner. Or perhaps it was because I had to use brain cells I haven't used in a while as I drove a car for the first time in 17 or 18 days. Can't blame jet lag .. there's no time difference between home and Cleveland (well, metaphysical time perhaps, and architectural time, or winning-sports-team time...).
But it's probably grounds for firing from Nurse Jane duty when in the midst of trying to help the patient retire for the evening, getting him comfortable and adjusting the new wedge pillow, NJFW first makes the patient laugh ( a no-no often with patients with giant zipper-like scars and such down their sensitive chests -- was bad enough earlier in the day when M sneezed for the first time post-surgery and his eyes went all cartoon buggy and little tweety birds & stars appeared over his head) -- and then in attempt at bad nurse-patient joke of some sort, NJFW pokes the patient. In the chest / tummy area. Oh crap. In the chest tube drain scar site. Oh double freaking, cheese-n-crackers, %^&*(#$ !!!! He was laughing, but crying, but laughing and crying and I was so fall-over-myself apologetic. Oh dear oh dear.
And then the one thing the patient asks for when I go back downstairs is to bring his best buddy, his heart-shaped chest pillow (he even named it ... "Chester" .. get it .. he hugs it to his chest to relieve chest pain & pressure ... awwww ). So I go downstairs .... and start checking email, scroll the TV guide, check other emails and generally forget what I went downstairs for in first place. Forcing the poor patient to get back outta bed and call for his NJFW to please throw up the pillow. D'OH!!
See!! I'm SOOO fired.
J
Showing posts with label pain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pain. Show all posts
Friday, January 15, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Rough night
Perhaps I shouldn't have skipped my routine nightcap -- either because I pissed off the karma fairy that was looking over me, or maybe it was helping more than I thought beyond placebo effect.
Although I have little to no room to complain on this because while I didn't sleep well, I wasn't the one in pain. So a minor inconvenience really.
Weird sleep pattern last night in our first night back together and with no nurses or whatever. I was hypervigilant apparently and jumped or woke up at every move, moan, shift or whatever from him (he tried sleeping in bed first, mostly sitting up with umpteen pillows). To the point that somewhere in the midnight to 2am window he merely reached over to give me a pat or rub on the back and I immediately responded with "what, what??!! what do you need? are you ok?"
We're now working out a new system where I only jump up if he pokes me ... hard ... and I try to just go "mmmmmm" at anything else. He eventually left and went to sleep on the couch in the other room of the suite because it was harder, firmer, and narrower - so he was not tempted to turn over, lest he fall out, hit the table and then the floor. All the extra pillows and blankets I requesistioned came in handy.
He finally got some sleep after the 5:15am advil/tylenol triple dose. But he also asked me then to find out the pharmacy hours and get my butt there to fill his percoset pain pill scrip ASAP. So I reset the alarm, got up and ran to pharmacy to be there shortly after opening at 8am -- waited the hour or so for it to be filled. Wandered to hospital for ice tea and Au Bon Pain, got rest of the OTC meds and came back. Thankfully he hadn't woked up during any of this, and not until I got back. At which point I'm not sure whether it was the hotel door sorta slamming shut (hey! they're heavy!) or the pain that woke him. He says he's back at a 6-8 on the pain scale, nearly ICU levels. Percoset seems to work quick though b/c he was back to a 4 when I left to go type this. Cross fingers he feels better and doesn't need the percoset on a continual basis.
We're staying here at the hotel next to clinic until we leave on Fri. He has an outpatient follow-up on Thursday. And we're trying to see my good buddy Jen when she gets back to town after being called away for a family emergency/death in her husband's family while she was waiting with me on day of MLK's surgery.
Peace
Jenn
Although I have little to no room to complain on this because while I didn't sleep well, I wasn't the one in pain. So a minor inconvenience really.
Weird sleep pattern last night in our first night back together and with no nurses or whatever. I was hypervigilant apparently and jumped or woke up at every move, moan, shift or whatever from him (he tried sleeping in bed first, mostly sitting up with umpteen pillows). To the point that somewhere in the midnight to 2am window he merely reached over to give me a pat or rub on the back and I immediately responded with "what, what??!! what do you need? are you ok?"
We're now working out a new system where I only jump up if he pokes me ... hard ... and I try to just go "mmmmmm" at anything else. He eventually left and went to sleep on the couch in the other room of the suite because it was harder, firmer, and narrower - so he was not tempted to turn over, lest he fall out, hit the table and then the floor. All the extra pillows and blankets I requesistioned came in handy.
He finally got some sleep after the 5:15am advil/tylenol triple dose. But he also asked me then to find out the pharmacy hours and get my butt there to fill his percoset pain pill scrip ASAP. So I reset the alarm, got up and ran to pharmacy to be there shortly after opening at 8am -- waited the hour or so for it to be filled. Wandered to hospital for ice tea and Au Bon Pain, got rest of the OTC meds and came back. Thankfully he hadn't woked up during any of this, and not until I got back. At which point I'm not sure whether it was the hotel door sorta slamming shut (hey! they're heavy!) or the pain that woke him. He says he's back at a 6-8 on the pain scale, nearly ICU levels. Percoset seems to work quick though b/c he was back to a 4 when I left to go type this. Cross fingers he feels better and doesn't need the percoset on a continual basis.
We're staying here at the hotel next to clinic until we leave on Fri. He has an outpatient follow-up on Thursday. And we're trying to see my good buddy Jen when she gets back to town after being called away for a family emergency/death in her husband's family while she was waiting with me on day of MLK's surgery.
Peace
Jenn
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