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.