I don't really have a lot of time to write much here today but I thought I would put a little something up on the Ol' Blog.
I was off for 3 days and when I get back it's crazy busy here. This is the classic "Feast or Famine" in my little hospital and we are definitely feasting over here.
When I last worked I had a whole two Q4's to do through the night, now 3 days later there are 7 Q4's and a ventilator to keep me busy. Much to my surprise though all of these Q4 treatments are actually really sick. Forgot to mention the 2 bipap's we have running also which are not for sleep apnea but for respiratory distress, so yes they happen to be pretty sick to.
A common theme I noticed with these sick patients and with some of the QID patients also was that there is a Mucomyst craze right now that just seem to have started. Not only is it Mucomyst there is this large concotion of Mucomyst, Albuterol or Xoponex, and Atrovent together ... but wait there is more, not only do we throw in those 3 meds we add it all to a Ezpap. This takes FOREVER! There are also the bonus patients who twice a day get to add in Pulmicort, WOW what treatment that becomes.
Sounds like the last 3 days there have been an extra RT per shift which is good but very unusual at my hospital. My night tonight I had someone here til 2am then again at 4am so I only had to brave it alone for only 2 hours, really wasn't that bad but most of the other RT's have never worked in a Large hospital and are not used to a heavy patient load...I am so I was fine.
Well gotta run just ran a ABG with a CO2 of 91 and a PH of 7.20, time to go save someone.
After that my next task is to get off work and hope my car starts since it is -20 degrees Fahrenheit right now and I will be wearing the nice and thin scrub pants...brrrrr
Keep em breathing.
Showing posts with label nightshift. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nightshift. Show all posts
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Monday, January 14, 2008
My Mirror RT.
Back again for episode ... Umm something or another.
OK so I live in a small RT cave at a small hospital in a small town on night shift. I also happen to be the only RT on at night, besides my mirror RT who works the nights I don't work. Which if you think about it is kind of funny in the way of social interaction type thing. You see here we only have a total of 9 people here in my RT department and the other night shift person is the only person I really don't know all that well. Why you ask? It's because there are only 2 of us night shifters here and if I'm working he is off and if he is working I'm off so with this little interesting arrangement we never really see each other, we will never really attend the same function together, we will never meet out with coworkers to have a drink together, nothing. The only real interaction we have together is over the phone if one of us wants to make a switch of shifts. I hear stories and anecdotes of him, some good, some bad, some interesting and there is a day shift RT who is dating him so I'm assuming she knows him well.
There is a shelf of our coffee cups here were we store our personnel cups, mine is up there right next to his and sometimes we play jokes on each others cup because he happens to have a Minnesota Vikings cub and I have a Chicago Bears cup. Yep 2 teams in the same NFL division so they play each other in the season and if the Bears lose I get a little note or something done to my cup and visa versa. Kinda makes for some fun.
There it is My Mirror RT, possibly me in a alternate universe, like I'm Spiderman and he is Venom or I'm Superman and he is Bizarro Superman. OK maybe not, I don't think we are complete opposites of each other but I just find it interesting that I have a opposite RT from when I work with whom during my time working here I may never really get to know as a coworker or a friend, just as that person on the other side of my RT mirror.
Just another tired night when the mind gets to wandering...
OK so I live in a small RT cave at a small hospital in a small town on night shift. I also happen to be the only RT on at night, besides my mirror RT who works the nights I don't work. Which if you think about it is kind of funny in the way of social interaction type thing. You see here we only have a total of 9 people here in my RT department and the other night shift person is the only person I really don't know all that well. Why you ask? It's because there are only 2 of us night shifters here and if I'm working he is off and if he is working I'm off so with this little interesting arrangement we never really see each other, we will never really attend the same function together, we will never meet out with coworkers to have a drink together, nothing. The only real interaction we have together is over the phone if one of us wants to make a switch of shifts. I hear stories and anecdotes of him, some good, some bad, some interesting and there is a day shift RT who is dating him so I'm assuming she knows him well.
There is a shelf of our coffee cups here were we store our personnel cups, mine is up there right next to his and sometimes we play jokes on each others cup because he happens to have a Minnesota Vikings cub and I have a Chicago Bears cup. Yep 2 teams in the same NFL division so they play each other in the season and if the Bears lose I get a little note or something done to my cup and visa versa. Kinda makes for some fun.
There it is My Mirror RT, possibly me in a alternate universe, like I'm Spiderman and he is Venom or I'm Superman and he is Bizarro Superman. OK maybe not, I don't think we are complete opposites of each other but I just find it interesting that I have a opposite RT from when I work with whom during my time working here I may never really get to know as a coworker or a friend, just as that person on the other side of my RT mirror.
Just another tired night when the mind gets to wandering...
Sunday, January 6, 2008
30 Minutes past tired.
First off Happy New Years everyone and I hope it's a great one for you all.
So anyways this is my weekend to work and we consider our working weekend to be Friday and Saturday for us 2 night shifters here at my small Hospital and this is why I'm 3o Minutes past tired which in my opinion why I'm so awake right now, I'm past tired but it makes work easier so I'm not falling asleep here.
Friday started early trying to find someone to cover my first 4 hours of my 12 hour shift. Why would I do that, well my daughters (9 and 10) are on a private swim team here in my town and they have a meet this weekend out of town which would of been Saturday and Sunday, BUT the coach put them in to do their first Mile (1650 yards) race. Now as swimmer in High School myself and a proud Dad there is no way I'm missing this. Of course they have to be at the pool at 15:45 and school gets out at 15:35 so of course we have to pull them out early with no complaint from my girls and drive 45 min's away to get to the meet which will officially start at 17:00. All goes well we make it there and they really impress me and Mom with they way they swam their miles. I was amazed, 9 and 10 years old and swimming 66 lengths of a 25 yard pools. Now if you remember one of my earlier posts about athletes who have asthma I now have to put my 9 year old in that categorie also. She has a mild case of it but takes advair and uses her Albuterol MDI before meets and practices and it seems to do the trick and she has only had one issue during practice in 3 years. My 10 year old is fine just has ADD.
Well the first day of the meet is over and its after 18:00 so we go get something to eat and head back home so I can get into my scrubs and head off to work, so now I've been up since 08:00 and am off to work all night, not to big a deal done it before.
Now I'm at work and I start feeling like crap, itchy eyes, running nose, sneezing and head all stuffed up with sinus pain. Crap this is gonna be a horrible night. I go to our med vending machine (Great prices here, Children's Tylenol for $0.75 in here, yep I stock up, along with other types of meds) and I get a cold anithistamine med out of there for only $1.25 and hey look $0.75 in change I will get some more children's Tylenol for home (I have 4 kids). Anyways I take the med and notice it does say it may cause drowsiness....Ahhh Crap. So I'm like in and out of different stages of tiredness during the night and it's a busy night of little crap like the pulse ox machine isn't picking up, I need more supplies on our floor, EKG this and that just the little things. I think because of the med I took I was also forgetting to sign off my MAR on some patients, leaving my papers around, ect...wow this hit me good but I feel better.
So finally the night is over BUT there is still day 2 of the swim meet so I rush home and get like a 1 1/2 hour nap and my wife wakes me up to get ready, quick shower and off we go. Warm ups at 10:30 and meet starts at 11:30. OK well it was supposed to, the older kids swimming earlier in the day was running late meet now doesn't start until 12:30 and I still have to get some good sleep and work yet Saturday night. So finally it finishes at 15:30 and I feel fine but I'm sure it's from adrenaline from cheering my girls on because they had a great meet. We finally get home about 16:45 and I get to sleep about 17:00 but I have to get back up at 20:30 to take some things to my in laws who are watching my kids (wife is at work) and be on my way to work no later than 21:50. Yep it will be a long night after 3 1/2 hours of sleep, NOT GOOD.
So this brings me to now, I do feel Half past tired. I'm wide away for some odd reason, the night has been relatively uneventful and nothing to exciting, but the day is not over yet I still have Day 3 of the swim meet!! Wonder if I will make it or pass out over the railing into the pool today.
I love my family and will not miss a event of my kids if I can help it at all and my wife is the same way and we want to be there for them. I guess this just shows how night shift can really put a hardship on thing sometimes but due to being used to not sleeping more than 5-6 hours on my work days it can be done, it's just hard and sooner or later something will have to give but for now I'm going to do my best to make it work. One of my goals this year it the classic get into better shape, it's not that I'm in bad shape I do lift weights pretty consistently but I need to add more cardio and watch my eating a bit more, hopefully 20 pounds later things will be good. I guess looking at it being in better shape will help with the harshness of night shift on the human body, namely mine.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it, at least until I pass out from sleep deprivation. I hope you can understand why I might be 30 Minutes past Tired.
So anyways this is my weekend to work and we consider our working weekend to be Friday and Saturday for us 2 night shifters here at my small Hospital and this is why I'm 3o Minutes past tired which in my opinion why I'm so awake right now, I'm past tired but it makes work easier so I'm not falling asleep here.
Friday started early trying to find someone to cover my first 4 hours of my 12 hour shift. Why would I do that, well my daughters (9 and 10) are on a private swim team here in my town and they have a meet this weekend out of town which would of been Saturday and Sunday, BUT the coach put them in to do their first Mile (1650 yards) race. Now as swimmer in High School myself and a proud Dad there is no way I'm missing this. Of course they have to be at the pool at 15:45 and school gets out at 15:35 so of course we have to pull them out early with no complaint from my girls and drive 45 min's away to get to the meet which will officially start at 17:00. All goes well we make it there and they really impress me and Mom with they way they swam their miles. I was amazed, 9 and 10 years old and swimming 66 lengths of a 25 yard pools. Now if you remember one of my earlier posts about athletes who have asthma I now have to put my 9 year old in that categorie also. She has a mild case of it but takes advair and uses her Albuterol MDI before meets and practices and it seems to do the trick and she has only had one issue during practice in 3 years. My 10 year old is fine just has ADD.
Well the first day of the meet is over and its after 18:00 so we go get something to eat and head back home so I can get into my scrubs and head off to work, so now I've been up since 08:00 and am off to work all night, not to big a deal done it before.
Now I'm at work and I start feeling like crap, itchy eyes, running nose, sneezing and head all stuffed up with sinus pain. Crap this is gonna be a horrible night. I go to our med vending machine (Great prices here, Children's Tylenol for $0.75 in here, yep I stock up, along with other types of meds) and I get a cold anithistamine med out of there for only $1.25 and hey look $0.75 in change I will get some more children's Tylenol for home (I have 4 kids). Anyways I take the med and notice it does say it may cause drowsiness....Ahhh Crap. So I'm like in and out of different stages of tiredness during the night and it's a busy night of little crap like the pulse ox machine isn't picking up, I need more supplies on our floor, EKG this and that just the little things. I think because of the med I took I was also forgetting to sign off my MAR on some patients, leaving my papers around, ect...wow this hit me good but I feel better.
So finally the night is over BUT there is still day 2 of the swim meet so I rush home and get like a 1 1/2 hour nap and my wife wakes me up to get ready, quick shower and off we go. Warm ups at 10:30 and meet starts at 11:30. OK well it was supposed to, the older kids swimming earlier in the day was running late meet now doesn't start until 12:30 and I still have to get some good sleep and work yet Saturday night. So finally it finishes at 15:30 and I feel fine but I'm sure it's from adrenaline from cheering my girls on because they had a great meet. We finally get home about 16:45 and I get to sleep about 17:00 but I have to get back up at 20:30 to take some things to my in laws who are watching my kids (wife is at work) and be on my way to work no later than 21:50. Yep it will be a long night after 3 1/2 hours of sleep, NOT GOOD.
So this brings me to now, I do feel Half past tired. I'm wide away for some odd reason, the night has been relatively uneventful and nothing to exciting, but the day is not over yet I still have Day 3 of the swim meet!! Wonder if I will make it or pass out over the railing into the pool today.
I love my family and will not miss a event of my kids if I can help it at all and my wife is the same way and we want to be there for them. I guess this just shows how night shift can really put a hardship on thing sometimes but due to being used to not sleeping more than 5-6 hours on my work days it can be done, it's just hard and sooner or later something will have to give but for now I'm going to do my best to make it work. One of my goals this year it the classic get into better shape, it's not that I'm in bad shape I do lift weights pretty consistently but I need to add more cardio and watch my eating a bit more, hopefully 20 pounds later things will be good. I guess looking at it being in better shape will help with the harshness of night shift on the human body, namely mine.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it, at least until I pass out from sleep deprivation. I hope you can understand why I might be 30 Minutes past Tired.
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