Nurse on the Run

I’ve worked six out of the last seven nights and therefore have nothing to say because, well, HIPAA.  I don’t think it breaks HIPAA to say that it’s really fun when your patient weighs more in kilograms than you do in pounds, and who needs a gym when you can do burn care?  Seriously.

Since I don’t actually have much noteworthy to say, I will share with you the most exciting thing in my life right now and a bunch of other random babble.

The most exciting thing in my life right now:  My electric toothbrush arrived.  It’s currently charging and I can’t wait to use it.  This is how you know you’ve worked too much, in case you were wondering.  (Note:  I have horrible [soft?] teeth, which I inherited from my father who has neverending dental work.  I’m hoping a super powered toothbrush will prevent annual $1,000 dental bills.  Or any threat of the words “root canal” and “crown.”)

Now that we have that totally thrilling information out of the way, let’s move on.

i haven’t seen the light of day in a week

Unless you count my twenty minute walk home, where I don’t want to see the light because I want to go to bed.  And then in my apartment when I curse the fact that my blackout curtains fell down, and I haven’t fixed them yet, so my room is so bright.  Otherwise, on my one night off, I slept until the sun went down and that’s how people become depressed.  (Santa:  I need one of those light/Vitamin D lamps for Christmas, thanks.)

which also means i’ve only worn pants with drawstrings for the past week

I put on jeans to go to dinner tonight.  SO CONSTRICTING.  Especially since I got size medium pants at work for a couple nights…which was perfect for the role of Thanksgiving pants, not so perfect for any attempt at looking professional.  (Not that scrubs really ever look professional…)

Muscle shirt in size large scrubs definitely screams “I’m here to help you!”

i’ve been watching too much SVU

It’s on all night long.  Let me tell you…it’s is not the show you want to be watching alone in your apartment at 3am when no one else is awake to hear you scream.  Or, when you go running in Central Park at 5pm and it’s already pitch black.  My eyes dart left and right and try to make an escape plan…just in case.  Luckily other people are out running, but I’m convinced all of them are out to get me.

i have the wackiest dreams

Apparently I’ve been sleeping well enough during the day to be able to dream.  My most recent dream involved Erica, Robert, and Jeri.  Robert and I road tripped to Florida for a weekend of racing, where we planned to meet Erica and Jeri.  Erica flew down later because she was making jewelry for Deena Kastor so she needed to finish that.  Jeri met us there too because…South Dakota isn’t exactly a convenient pick up location from the east coat.  I slept most of the way down because I was post-night shift (timely, I suppose).  I woke up close enough to the destination and felt bad that I hadn’t talked to Robert, so I asked him how he liked growing up in Florida.  (Pretty sure he didn’t grow up in Florida.)  Then there was a dog that looked like my parents’ new dog, and we played with it in one of those Little Tikes cars that kids have (you know, the red ones with the yellow roof that they move with their feet?).  Then I woke up.

Totally normal.  Someone analyze me.

“i woke up before my alarm…people don’t know how AMAZING that is”

I got dinner with one of my coworkers because I haven’t seen her in a week and I haven’t done anything but work for the past week.  She is on her day shift rotation and said she actually woke up before her alarm this morning…which never, ever happens on night shift.  I can hardly wake up before noon these days.  Night shift ruins lives.

the best christmas decoration i’ve ever seen

Forget the Rockefeller tree, this Bathurst (Australia!) ICU wins:

I just don’t like when this actually shows up on the monitor.  Strong work, fellow nurse friends.  Also, I should study for CCRN.  oops.

i need to pick some races to run

More to come on what type of races I want to run (hint:  leaning towards not running a spring marathon).  Otherwise, I’m lacking motivation.  So if anyone wants to run with me, let me know.  Slow since I basically took off the entire month of November, post-marathon.  However, I think my legs appreciated it, so I’m happy for that.

Who wants to run??  And not at 6am because as you can see above, I can’t wake up before noon.  (Except I have a PALS class at 8am tomorrow in a room that doesn’t allow coffee.  What place that teaches adults does it in a classroom that doesn’t allow coffee at 8am?  Especially for a profession that chugs coffee?  The worst.  End rant.)

Now that the Thanksgiving weekend is officially over, I can discuss my Thanksgiving curse without jinxing myself.  In my four and a half year career as a nurse, I’ve worked three Thanksgivings.  One of the harder parts about being a nurse is working on holidays.  I’ve heard people say, “Well you knew when you became a nurse that you’d be working holidays.”  I’m fairly certain that no future nurse thinks about that when they’re applying to nursing school, so it kind of rubs me the wrong way.

The patients I had this year were all very appreciative of me working with them on Thanksgiving, and they even asked if I got time to spend with my family or if I celebrated somehow.  All I have to say is…the third time is the charm!!  The first two Thanksgivings that I worked were total disasters and it made me nervous to ever sign up to work it again.  Here’s why:

My first Thanksgiving went very well until one of my patients left AMA (against medical advise), and I’m here to tell you that when someone leaves AMA, it’s never a happy “Well, I just don’t want to be here anymore, thanks for your help, though!” and it’s more of an anger fest with possible yelling and threatening.  Sometimes IVs get ripped out and such.  I may have chased the patient down the hallway with the AMA form that never actually got signed.  Happy Thanksgiving to you too…

My second Thanksgiving was spent laying on top of a patient to prevent him from crawling out of bed.  If you put a million lines in me and a tube down my throat to help me breathe, I’d probably try to crawl out of bed too.  We have medications to help control that, but sometimes it takes awhile to get that under control.  Not exactly how I was hoping to spend a holiday…

So needless to say, I was nervous going into work, but luckily I had a fantastic group of patients who were really sweet.  (One called me “cheerful” at 3am and told me my positive attitude was really helping her see the bright side of her situation…high five.)  The Thanksgiving curse has been broken!!

As for Thanksgiving as a holiday, I actually ended up with three Thanksgiving meals!  My family had Thanksgiving dinner when I was home last weekend.  On Thanksgiving, I headed over to Kelly’s for our third annual Thanksgiving dinner with her sister, Melissa.  I showed up with coffee and pie in hand, then ate a full meal.

Picture actually of Kelly’s plate.

We huddled around her table and someone had to sit on the couch (#nycproblems), but the food was delicious with a special guest star of brussel sprouts and quinoa from Thug Kitchen…I will be researching that recipe!

Sadly, I headed to work instead of watching Love Actually with Kelly and Melissa.  At work, we set up a feast at 10pm.  Everyone just kind of came in and out throughout the night and ate whenever we had time.  We had SO much food since everyone was awesome and brought something.  The highlights were stuffing balls and spaghetti squash…although we did have turkey!  The burn unit knows how to celebrate.

MIDNIGHT FEAST.

I didn’t do a Turkey Trot, or even run at all over the weekend.  Four nights in a row combined with the fact that I just feel exhausted on night shift led to no running at all.  Hoping to get back into gear later today.  (I almost said tomorrow since I’ve been up all night and will go to sleep soon, but it’s really this afternoon…night shift, you ruin me.)  I’ll admit I’m having motivation issues due to not being signed up for any races…more on that later.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend, and that my fellow nurses (or firemen, police, retail, movie ushers, etc) had a wonderful time at work.  Fill me in on your Turkey Trots, please!