Busy week

4 days in a row and now 3 off. I have to work Monday, which only sucks in the fact that I have not been there long enough to be getting holiday pay! Double time would have been NICE.

In other news, this week has been filled with actual nursing. I have been talking to doctors, charting new orders, & dealing with an aspiration experience that resulted in an apnea episode and a visit from some , too bad not hot firefighters.

Plus I have had 2 actively dying residents this week. 1 died an hour after I left, thanks RC and I will miss you. The other is still hanging in there now but with their pulse rate so irregular, 69-250, and respiration's in the 40's, its not looking promising that it won't have already happened as I type this.

I had a few BG levels that needed reporting to other various doctors that needed clarification of orders and I talked a doctor into ordering Ibuprofen to hold off my PIA of a drama queen between hits, I mean doses, of MSIR and Percs q 4.

Ah... so now to celebrate my birthday with a nice relaxing weekend to include cake!

PS.... The diet day one didn't turn into an actual start date. I decided that due to the fact that we were going to Disneyland and my birthday was coming up, starving myself with some powered products was not going to be successful. So June 1st will be Day 1. Ugh... I am hungry just thinking about it!

50/30

In a blood pressure is probably a sign that something is wrong. Taking it every hour doesn't change the fact that it is low. That this person is actively dying. So why does the MPOA want me to keep taking it every hour on a hospice comfort measures only person? Like I have time for that, plus I am sure the person doesn't want to be disturbed for a BP check every hour. Not to mention the BP at this point isn't really telling me much.

Besides once the BP is so low that it can't support life.... they'd see the changes in the person. Yum like those normal pulse and respirations they are having would stop.

Disneyland a Review...

First let's start this by saying that I spent the entire time fighting off some horrible flu/URI or something. Keeping a 103 fever at bay, along with a raging sore throat and horrible hacking cough took alot of effort and really rained on my parade.

With that being said there were sparks of fun, some great family bonding and an OK time had overall.

The Disneyland Hotel. Well let's just say that it ain't no Hilton! All in all it was like a Motel 6 or a Days Inn. Hell not even a Days Inn, because at least there they give you a coffee maker in the room and some pastry for breakfast. This was not what I expected from a Disneyland Resort Hotel. Small room, uncomfortable beds and no extras. Hell even the soap and shampoo smelled funny.

The best thing was that we could go into the park before the general public and for the first few hours there were no lines and we got to go on everything without a line.

Now if you have ever been to Disney World, NEVER go to Disneyland. You'll spend the whole time comparing the two and I swear its like Disneyland is the redheaded step-child or something. It's small, the food sucked and the portions were tiny for the cost. $6 a bottle of water... what the hell!

Downtown Disney had good food. We ate at the House of Blues and the Jazz Kitchen. It was about the same price we pay here in AZ for dinner when we go out. The portions were huge and the food was amazing. The Jazz Kitchen was my favorite.

Since I was sick, and we had finished nearly everything Disney had to offer for our age group of kids by noon, I went back to the Hotel room to take a nap and hubby and the kids went to see the new Shrek movie at the AMC theater in Downtown Disney.

When we went back to the park after the movie @5ish, we did the train, watched a parade, had some ice cream, and searched for an affordable sweatshirt or long sleeve shirt because it was freezing and we'd forgotten sweatshirts. After hitting Toontown and waiting in our first long line for the Roger Rabbit ride we headed over to find somewhere to watch the Fireworks, which ended up being cancelled so back to the room. My fever went to 104 and it was a hell of a night.

We drove home via the 5 to the 8 down the San Diego way. Stopped at a beach, I got nailed by a wave up to my knees on accident. Then headed home where my fever returned about 50 miles from home and soared over 104 again and did not want to break.

So yeah... Disneyland... @ $72 bucks a person for 1 park which can been seen by noon, not worth it overall. I miss Disney World!

I think we should have gone to the zoo!

And the winner is....

Disneyland.

The kids wanted Disneyland over Universal and Seaworld didn't even rate. So it's a rental car and a 6ish hour drive, according to Mapquest, for some much needed family bonding.

Now to get through work tonight!

Disney or Universal... Seaworld or stay home?

Can't decide what to do this weekend because the joys of car troubles have risen again. Fuel pump on daughters car blew yesterday. I need another new tire and the Jeep, although running is bad on gas.

Instead of taking a nice family vacation that we really need, should I just buy another car? Have I mentioned I hate cars!!!

Day 1

Of the Medifast 30 day experiment. Already I can tell this is going to suck. I am not really big on the drinks that go along with dieting. I am pretty much a picky eater, so of course this food is going to take some getting used to. The only thing I can really foresee as being tricky will be the fact that 1 meal I have to make. A lean protein and veg. I am going to try and make some stuff in advance so that I can just grab it and go. The worse part is that I work second shift and am hungry now at odd times and sleep at odd times.

But I will give it an honest month and see what happens. I am hoping to lose at least 50 lbs by October. But am hoping for a total of 110 at some point. So time will tell if I can stick with this.

I am already down a total of 14 pounds since Feb, having gained back 2 of the pounds I had lost in total. But since I wasn't really dieting... I guess that makes sense.


Today's menu:

Dutch Chocolate Shake
Chili
Cappuccino
Chocolate pudding
Oatmeal raisin crunch bar
3 oz lean chicken breast w/ 2 cups of spinach & seasoning of my choice ( I think )

Massive asses call for drastic measures!!

Weekend

Go by way to fast and have been very nice. Alot of family time and a double date with my daughter and her boyfriend. We were going to go and see Robin Hood, even though I didn't want to. But once dinner was done we would have had to wait too long and the next movie was Letter's to Juliet. So doing the happy dance, I got my way and we all went to see that. It was very cute and even the guys had to admit that it was funny and good. Even if it was all full of love instead of violence.

So now back to work for a 3 days this week and then its off to California for the weekend.

Post Mortum

Life is short so take what you have and enjoy. Work for what you want and appreciate what you have and never take tomorrow for granted!


RIP Ariel & Alex, & BH

Two lives taken wayyyyyy too soon... and 1 lived long and well!

Blisters Abound

I have never seen so many cases of blistered areas on one population in my life as I have been dealing with on my floor. Can they be from wetness ( ie. overheated skin areas?) I mean its AZ and its hot and of course the elderly think its cold when their bodies are still sweating.

It just seems like its some infectious nosocomial thing or something. But all these freaking skin issues are really increasing the amount of treatments and dressing changes that need to be done each shift. I swear out of the 26 people I have every night, 20 of them require a bid dressing change as well.

Sometimes....

I wonder how much more I can take. Chronic pain is one thing but adding to the mix & not being able to take anything except Motrin us getting f'ing old.

My labs came back and on top of the foot issues (which caused me to call in today), I manged to get a raging UTI Tip for new nurses, DO NOT HOLD YOUR PEE FOR 12 hours every freaking shift! (Of course this could be in addition to some honeymoon cystitis too lol)

So to help with the inflammation for the feet they gave me Prednisone and Bactrium for the UTI.

In good news my Medifast stuff has shipped so I'll be starting that. I managed to get someone to cover my shifts for the 21st and the 28th... so I can do something fun... like go to the dentist... lol and we can go to Universal. If worse comes to worse I may need a wheelchair to get around the park... but we ARE going!

Bilateral Calcaneus Stress Fractures ...

About 1mm right now. The bad news is that they are on the medial and lateral aspects of both of my feet. Week feet that are prone to stress fractures already and an over weight body that is not used to being on my feet for over 10 hours is the culprit.

I put all of my weight on my heels and since my ankles are weak also that caused the and inward rotation, thus the locations.

Double shock absorption and taping right now to give them support. Lots of Motrin. But Other than staying off my feet there is nothing to be done at this time.

Feet Fail

As in my heals have failed me. For some reason they hurt so bad that I can't even put pressure down on them. I have tried so many types of inserts and orthodics at this point I have no idea what is wrong. They just aren't bouncing back this time and they didn't hurt like this last weekend.

The weekend turned out really great, even if it started awful. Friday night I came out to a flat tire and had to wait an hour for someone to come and fix it because my jack didn't work right.

Saturday it was dinner and a movie with hubby. We are dating again and that's been a great start over.

Today was a great Mother's Day! The kids bought me a Fondue set, an electric griddle and hubby bought me a deluxe foot spa. The kids also made me a bacon and egg breakfast. It was a wonderful day!

I just wish my feet didn't hurt so damn bad I am wondering how I am going to make it into work tomorrow!

Night from hell

Just when you think you'll have a good night because the usual person that is demanding of your time is not there, the others simply pick up the slack. When change of shift starts with an incident report you know its going to be a bad day.

Wow I wonder why I ever thought I wanted to be a Nurse? LOL


Today is online driver safety to satisfy my ticket that I got on the interview day for the job I didn't get. BORING! The cost was $6 less than the ticket it self, but at least no points on my record. So that's good.

Birthday trip.... each year we go somewhere for my birthday since its usually Memorial Day Weekend. This year I have to work Memorial Day, although i don't qualify for holiday pay yet, which sucks, so this year we are going the week before, hopefully. So we decided to go to Universal Studios LA. I can't wait!

Warning... watch for falling toes

Gangrene, zero palpable pedal pulse and a toe that bends in the wrong direction.


& All it gets is betadine and a dry dressing. Yup this dressing change is going to be so much fun!

YUCK!

The joy in employment

Cable... lol yeah its been awhile since I have actually had cable or in this case satellite. We had rabbit ears so we could get a few of the local channels but now I have HBO, Showtime, Food network & HGTV...woot!

Money... I have almost forgotten what it was like to actually have some left before the next pay day gets here. Two days until payday and my bank account still has a positive number in it and I only have car insurance and the cell phone bill left to pay for May bills. CRAZY since its only May 3rd!

Unexpected expenses... are not as mind boggling as they used to be. The car I bought the daughter has turned into as much a money pit as the Jeep. The ignition switch fell out! So its at the shop being fixed and gone over for other things that could be issues. Might as well get it all fixed while I have a few dollars in this next paycheck. Most importantly it needs to be safe!

Nails... yup got them done and they looked great, made me feel great and now it is time to get them done again. So Wednesday I am going to get my haircut and my nails done again. They are two weeks old and in need of a fill. Plus I think they are way too long on a few and may need to get them redone all together. They kinda suck to type with and with work I don't want them to get in the way or God forbid, scratch someone.

Excited.. the new Sookie Stackhouse book is supposed to come out this month. I read Chapter 1 online. Can't wait to finish it!