Birthday Nurse

Called in sick again for work tonight, figured better to not risk it since walking down the hallway to get a drink wears me out. So I was scheduled for 3-in-a-row, and now it looks like I'll only be working the last 1 of them, then I was already scheduled for 7 days off. I feel like a slacker, but I knew there was NO way I could keep up tonight, and I'm still running a low-grade fever. I know everyone gets sick, but I can't remember the last time that I really got hit with something. I really, really, really hate being sick! I think it's my "controlling" personality coming out, ' cuz being sick isn't something I can control. So I've been in bed all day, I am bored out of my mind but don't have the energy to do much besides lay here. I really hope I get some kind of energy back by tomorrow night, I am DETERMINED to work at least one of my shifts this week!

The only thing worse than going to work when you don't feel good is going to work, getting nauseous, having to rush out of a patients room to puke and then coming home and puking all night. I've been in bed all weekend and hadn't really thought it was anything more than a sinus infection. I never felt sick to my stomach, never felt anything more than just stuffed up with a sore throat. But as soon as I got to work...uh-oh. At least I just had a cervidil that was supposed to come in at 2000, so I seriously sat in a chair, drank 2 full water bottles and tried to focus really hard to get my nausea to go away. Seriously, I can take a stuffed nose and a sore throat, but if there's one thing that bothers me about being sick it's puking. I hate it with a P-A-S-S-I-O-N. So luckily they were able to call someone else in and I feel like a horrible person because I left her with lots of things not done. I had a triage that I hadn't had a chance to chart on, and hadn...

You know you need a break from work when... *I took 2 Advil this morning and the first thought that crossed my mind was "I need to remember to chart this!" Sheesh...

I don't think there is ever gonna be a shift where I don't do something I've never done before. Last night it was actually "starting" someone on mag, with the 4gram bolus and then the 2gram/hr thing. I've heard too many stories about people forgetting to change the pump rate after the 4grams in 15minutes when they hang the "big bag" and send their patients up to ICU because of respiratory failure, so I was a little nervous. The awesome day shift nurse helped me roll the patient out of the OR and get everything straightened out and the mag started and the paperwork organized and stuff before she left. So I had a fresh section on mag and the patient wasn't one of those who I would call "stoic", actually quite the opposite. This was about her 7 th admission in the last 2-3 months of her pregnancy for various things, but when she got hit with the PIH she got hit hard and really was sick, so even though she was only 33 wks it was a good ...