nursing and the poop story

I've decided that it's about time I talked about what I do. I am an RN (registered nurse). I don't really like to tell people what I do because really, if you have never worked in health care, then it's hard to get a grasp on what it is I do. The other reason I shy away from it is because when people hear that you are a nurse, they start asking you to look at and diagnose stuff. Which brings me to the first reason... I'm not a Dr. I'm a nurse. Dr's diagnose and tell you what to do. Nurses assess a patient from head to toe, find anything abnormal and report it to the Dr. We do what the Dr's tell us. (When we graduated nursing school, someone told us that now we were safe to TOUCH patients and it's true. You really start learning when you start working. more seasoned nurses could probably identify things better than I could. I think when I got out of nursing school, I got asked the most questions about what things were, and I didn't really know. I don't like not knowing, so I just didn't "advertise" that I was a nurse and I avoid having to say "I don't know")
That being said... Most hospital's have an Intensive/Critical Care Unit (ICU/CCU). The patients they get there usually have serious cardiac/ respiratory illnesses and can be on vents and have IV cardiac drugs that require frequent cardiac monitoring. Then there is a step down unit Progressive Care or Telemetry. These pt's aren't as serious as the ICU patients, but still have a lot of cardiac or respiratory stuff going on and are still monitored.
The medical floor is for everyone else, the people with pneumonia, COPD, pancreatitis, cancer (we don't do chemo), UTI, sepsis, cellulitis, intractable pain, GI Bleeds, etc... This is where I work.
Usually when I get to work, if I am working on the floor, I get my patient assignment - up to 7 patients, and get report from the night nurse (I work days). Then I look at all my patients and pull up their charts and look at what medications they have when. Then I start going to see every patient and assess them from head to toe, see if they are with it ( know who they are, where they are and what the date is), listen to heart, lungs, bowels, check pulses, look at their skin and assess whatever it is they are admitted for. Then meds are passed. Meanwhile the Dr's are rounding and writing new orders, so I have to check the charts and see what else I have to do that day. When I'm not assigned pt's then I'm charge. I oversea all the nurses, help with discharges, assign new admits to nurses and rooms, help out where ever is needed and so forth.

We do have nursing assistants that help bath the patients and take them to the bathroom, but they can only be in one place at a time, so to the part about getting pooped on...

I was helping an old man to the bathroom and he got dizzy right in front of the toilet, so we stopped to let him get his bearings... and then liquid poop starts falling and hits the floor with such force that it splatters. I can't let go and jump back like I'd want to do, the best I can do is take a step back on my tippy toes while leaning to maintain my grasp on the poor man's arm, all the while the never ending "waterfall" is splashing on my shoes and pants. The liquid poop always smells the worst. I can tell the old man is ashamed, he's apologizing. I try very hard to NOT have a disgusted and grossed out look on my face while telling him that it's okay, it's not his fault, don't worry, we'll get it all cleaned up. I get him sitting on the toilet and call for help. After he's clean and tucked back safe in the bed and I've talked to his wife, I get out of earshot (so I don't hurt their feelings or make them feel worse) and get to be grossed out and whiny as I don gloves and with germicidal wipes, scrub my pants and shoes.

Anyways, I'm supposed to be working on my resume, but instead I'm telling poop stories...

!!!!

I got pooped on today. At work. That's all I have to day about it.

the cat pole

This is my invention, a Christmas gift to the kittahs, a cat pole. You know, instead of catching fish, you catch cats. Get it? A cat pole?
I know that you are all dying to see what a cat pole looks like, so here are some pictures:

make-do plans

Adam and I were planning on hanging out by the pool in MB, we even bought new swimsuits and a floaty for Blake. It just didn't work out. So we filled the tub with water and put Blake in the floaty. His little hiney was touching the bottom of the tub, but he seemed to like it. At least we got some use out of it. Adam couldn't stand to deflate it after he worked so hard to blow it up...

He didn't know what to think at first, we were laughing at him. It's all for our amusement, really.

rolls

Blake's been very alert and wanting to get at everything! So I have to make sure I have some baby food for him when we go out, because he wants to eat too. We took the missionaries out to Golden Corral for lunch yesterday. Here's Blake gumming a roll, he loved it! We had to take it away before he got any pieces and he wasn't very happy.

myrtle beach

This was the view from our room, nice huh?

Adam and I decided to get away before Christmas and we have to start buckling down to get the house ready to sell. We are going to put it on the market the beginning of January.

Anyways, we got to see the Christmas show at The Carolina Opry. It was great. We had first row seats. Blake did really well at the show. The performers in front of us kept looking at him and smiling. He is a cute boy.

I was going to take a picture of our hotel room, it was nice. But as soon as we get in the room, Adam would take of his clothes and hang out in his underwear on the bed. Can't really post pictures of that, even if I think he's sexy.

ROSWELL!!!

I just love this picture of him, I'm taking a picture of him as he's trying to get my foot. But on to the story....

For some time, Roswell has been running into the bathroom whenever we go to use it. Adam and I were commenting on how stupid this cat is.

The other day I was cleaning the bathroom and went to sweep around the toliet and the floor was wet. I thought Adam had gotten some pee on the floor. Let's face it, he's a male and sometimes stuff drips, okay? So I started to yell at Adam as I got down to clean it up, when I noticed that it wasn't urine, it was water.

Where was the water coming from??? I started feeling around the floor and the toliet but couldn't figure it out. So I flushed the toliet... and Roswell comes running.... I noticed that I had water dripping from the toliet tank. I lifted the lid and a tiny water fountain was coming out of the pump thingy.

I guess Roswell isn't so stupid after all. He has this way of letting us know things, like how he lays outside of the closet because Vegas got herself trapped in there, letting us know that she's in there....

Here are some pictures of Roswell and the toliet, in one you can see the drop of water.

If anyone wants a kitty, let me know. I want him to go to a good home before we leave for Maryland. (March) I love him too much to let Adam drop him off on Catfish Lake Rd (the middle of nowhere).

no wonder they recommend keeping it on the floor...

Blake was getting tired of being on the floor on his tummy, so I put him in his bouncer. He was having fun playing with his toys.


He's starting to sit up by himself.


Well his toys kept falling on the floor.


He decided that he didn't want to wait for me to get them.


So he's going to reach for them himself...


See mom, I can do it.

We can't believe how big he's getting. He's started recognizing his name. Yesterday he lifted his whole body off the floor in a manly push up. I keep checking for teeth, but there are none yet... he's drooling and chewing though.

the borrowed jumper

Lenette let us borrow it and it's precisely at the right height to gnaw on.


This is so cool, I can just hang out all day, well except when it's nap time and eating time.


Not only do my legs fit in these holes, but my hands too!!!

twilighters

The pre-movie dinner. Adam ended up crashing the party. He took the picture. The best part is Joseph's face! He was totally playing it up for the camera, pretending to be tortured. Adam actually saved him from being the lone male in the sea of estrogen.


Debbie SO wasn't prepared for this snapshot and that's what makes it great.


Just seconds before Brook had a totally different look on her face. She couldn't believe we didn't want any popcorn... We had a big meal and she didn't eat anything.


Lenette is BOOTYLICIOUS!!!!

You can't tell, but I was trying to stick my chest out. If Lenette can do it, so can I.

The is what Lenette looks like from the front. HAHAHAHA!!! (love you Lenette!)

Diane and Suzie...

Jamie and Debbie. Everyone was expecting me to be screaming, they didn't realize that I'm much too reserved for that! These 2 ended up being the trouble makers, laughing loudly. Diane had to shush them.

All in all the movie was okay. It was a little cheesy and a little funny. Some parts were missing and some were made up. But I think that we all had fun going together.

Mar and Anna, we missed you!

my baby is 5 months old today!!!

This is how my baby wakes up in the morning, with sleepy eyes and a sleepy smile and red cheeks.


He roles from back to tummy to back again and moves around quite a bit, epecially when you're not looking.


Everything he can get his hands on goes into his mouth, like fingers and camera straps.


Daddy left too early to get in on the picture.

He makes such a mess eating his cereal and he thinks he's funny. I think I'll have to strip him down to his diaper soon.

Adam says he is perfect and he pretty much is. He's so easy going. Heavenly Father has blessed us with the sweetest little monkey. You just can't resist kissing his little cheeks and eating him up.

deciding not to go private

I've been hearing that people have decided to have their blogs viewable to only those that they send out invites for. Mar didn't like that she could do a search on google and have pictures of her children pop up. After playing around with it, I've changed the setting to NOT allow search engines pull from my blog site. Now when a google search is done, nothing pops up. So I've decided not to make mine by invite. I suggest that everyone do this.
Now my family that doesn't have a blogger site can still go to my site and see Blake.

german chocolate cake

This is a box cake mix that I decided to dress up with a little ganache.

Who knew that Kirk Cameron is a Mormon basher???

One of Adam's friends from work told us about this show on TBN that bashes Mormons. So Adam recorded it. I wasn't really interested, but when Adam was watching it, it kinda grabbed my attention. Normally I don't pay any attention to this kind of thing, but it was just ridiculous.

Kirk said that we have been deceived into following Satan. Basically Satan disguised himself as an angel and appeared to Joseph Smith. Our Mormon doctrine is not biblical and he encouraged fellow Christians to pray for us and try to save us.

If any of you read my previous blog entries, you know my testimony. I am so grateful for that testimony. It is so simple for me. All we ask is that after you ponder the teachings of the gospel, that you pray for an answer. Why is that so difficult? I have a hard time wrapping my head around it.

Patuxent River

I've been wanting to post these pictures I took on our trip, but it was giving me trouble.

deciduous

This is just for you Lenette:
deciduous is Latin for "falling off", deciduous trees are the trees with leaves turn colors and fall off in the fall, like maples, oaks, etc...
If you were wondering, in NC, we are surrounded with coniferous trees, or pine trees.
Deciduous trees are my favorite.

Carley:
The baby is at home, we didn't think he'd like being in the car all weekend as we drive around.

road trip

We are drivers, ever since we've been married we have driven everywhere we go (in the US, of course). Today we drove up to Maryland to check out the area.
I decided that I need to snap a picture of the man driver and thought I might as well snap one of myself. I think it's cool that you can see me taking the picture in my sunglasses.

It started off sunny and then we hit the rain. But it pretty much was smooth sailing.

One of the reasons I'm so excited to move further north are the deciduous trees. I love how the leaves change color in the fall.

When we started rolling into town, we saw a Target, Lowes, BJ's, Walmart, Oldnavy, Ross, Michael's, Pier One, and the list goes on. We were pretty excited after living in Havelock for so long. The down side is there is a lot more traffic. They don't slow down and let you pass when you are leaving a store and trying to get to your car. It's a game of Frogger on level 12.

tagged

I have been tagged many times and I PROMISE you all that I have intentions of doing it.... I've never done it before, so I was going to make up my own and I have some cool ideas, but honestly, it's low on the list of priorities and involves scanning and my office at this moment has a black hole that has sucked everything into the center of the room so the walls could get a dose of primer and paint. I still have touch ups to do.

PS; Kelli, if I was really THAT obsessed with Twilight, I would have broken my leg and worn a blue gown to the ball like the one Bella wore to the prom...

happy birthday

Tonight we went to the Marine Corps Ball. Debbie came over to help me get dressed and believe it or not, it took 2 people to get me in the dress and done up. It's a corset top that laces down the back. It's not as modest as I would like, but who can beat a ball gown on sale that I pulled off the rack and didn't need to hem?

edward bit me

hahaha... just kidding, it was really lab corp. You would think that with all the practice, they'd be a little better. I got stuck 7 times for 4 blood draws. I'm hoping they'll be a whole lot better by Friday, for the ball.

one of those days...

Have you ever had one of those days when all you wanna do is get back in bed, throw the covers over your head and cry? I couldn't even give a specific reason, it wasn't even a bad day. I was just busy, running around all day. I couldn't even get up enough enthusiasm for Debbie's really cool gift, the Twilight Movie Companion.
Here's a funny story: I was drawing a map at work of where Pax River, MD is and I realized that it looked just like a penis. You should try drawing a peninsula...
Anyways, we should be leaving here in March.

PS... still haven't renewed my license.

my bad!

Adam gave me fit that I put a NAVY CH-53... so here's a MARINE CH-53...

Patuxent River, Maryland

Adam has been going crazy here, trying to get out of the black hole that is Cherry Point, NC. He tried getting orders to Beaufort, SC and Yuma, AZ and was not able to. I had the feeling that we would be stuck here for a while.

Monday the monitor (the person who decides your fate in the Marine Corps) was in town, of course Adam went to see her. She gave him 2 options: 1) Cherry Point 2) Pax River. Can you guess which one he choose? Of course he called me and we talked about it all night before we decided. Don't ask me what he's going to be doing there... I just asked him, he says "I'll be working at PMA 261 with the CH53 Kilo upgrade in logistics as a configuration manager". I still don't know what that means. Adam says it means he'll be riding the desk.

I'm excited that we get to go somewhere that has changing seasons!!!

Now all I need is to find a job there, sell the house here, buy a house there and find someone as awesome as Regina there. The last one's going to be impossible.

Here are some pictures of Pax River and the CH-53: