Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Moments: Episode 2

When thinking of names for my posts, I'm a dunce. When thinking of ways to tell stories without the ability to imitate voices or actions, I'm at a loss.  I've already said that so many of the things that happen are just a moment in time. Also, I'm a terrible story teller. I've decided the best way to relate my experiences are by reliving some of my memorable moments. So here's my second edition of moments.

-I had a patient who would ask me for the alcohol wipes I used so she could smell them. She also collected all of the medicine cups we used for her art.

-Confused patient rips off his heart monitor and when I go in to put it back on, he informs me that they are extension cords and need to go back to his office.

-I walk into a young patients room and find her crying. Even though it's during the busiest time of the evening, I had the opportunity to pray with her and take a walk around the unit with her. She remembered my name and mentioned it to my manager the next day.

-Tiny old Polish lady who barely spoke any English grabbed my head in between her hands, dragged it down to the bed, and kissed my forehead. She then proceeded to tell me that I had a blessed mother.

-I do a silent fist pump every time I can sneak into a patient's room at 3am and get their blood pressure without waking them up. Victory!

-A patient (who was not mine) was upset by the construction noise going on around midnight and accused the entire hospital of breaking at least three different laws she could think of- the ones I remember her saying specifically was that we were Disturbing-The-Peace and Causing-Intentional-Emotional-Harm.

-The patient mentioned above along with a few other confused patients have threatened to call the police. Mostly because we tell them that they can't leave the hospital at two in the morning in a gown with an insulin drip, restraints, or 2 IVs and go back to Edinburgh.

-A patient confides in me that the only reason he keeps fighting is because of his son.

-We're moving a patient to a private room at 1:30 in the morning. She has one of those wheelchairs with the controls on the armrest. There's no other way to control it. One of the PCAs is trying to get the wheelchair down the hall, but it's not straight. She presses the button, runs alongside it until she bumps into the wall, turns it, does it again. All the way down the hall.

-Nurses sit at the station when all of us are hitting the 4am wall and start relating stories of the craziest patients.

-I call the doctor late in the night for admission orders and he hangs up on me when I'm only half done. I page him again and have to wait another 45 minutes before he calls back.

-I've started a new game with myself- it's called hide-and-seek-alarm edition. You have to guess which the alarm is coming from before trying to track it down. I'm getting pretty good.

That's all I can think of for now. I'm sure there are some moment's I'm missing, but I'll save those for another time. Have a great day!

-C-

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