Birthday Nurse

Just finished up working 12 shifts in 14 nights...not something that I would recommend doing again for a long time to me or anyone else. That's a lot of work in a not-very-long amount of time!! We have been so busy that the norm anymore is to have no empty room and have to put the elective inductions on hold just because we don't have anywhere to put them!! I could have easily worked both of the nights that I didn't if I had wanted to...but I just couldn't knowing that the first time it would have been 9 nights in a row and the second time would have been after I had stayed over from night shift 'till noon the next day and couldn't force myself to go back at 1900 that night. Anyway...is everyone else seeing a big increase in baby #'s for October?! Our thing is too it's not just "babies" it's pre -term stuff and antepartums filling up the board! A complete previa at somewhere around 30 wks ...that's gonna hold a bed for as long as po...

I promise, promise, promise that I still blog once in a while! Somehow, when I'm so exhausted in the morning, blogging's the first thing that gets put off. So I have to wait 'till I have a day off to do it! Those seem to be pretty few and far between anymore... I was scheduled to work Thurs/Fri/Sat last week, and I did. But Wednesday I went in and worked extra at the last minute. I was mowing all day long, and they called looking for help during the day shift that afternoon, and I couldn't do that. But then the 2 nd time they called me @ 1700 looking for help that night I felt too guilty to say no. So I jumped through the shower and went in. I don't think I've caught up on sleep after that... It has been raining antepartums and pre -term patients for the last week! I swear, we'll have 5-9 antes on the board every night...and when there's only 17 rooms total...that doesn't leave room for too much else! I can't wait for our new unit that is supp...

So after my stint on Mom/Baby on Tuesday...I picked up the back half of someone's shift and went in 2300-0700. 2 great couples (one of them I saw 3 times since she was a cervidil and already tucked in when I got there) and what I thought was a great delivery right before shift change. Then I found out on Sunday that they had just shipped the baby off to the high-end children's hospital in town because she had pulmonary hypertension and was not doing good AT ALL!! She was pretty unstable and they were thinking about maybe a heart/lung bypass machine. Poor girl! Poor parents! I loved them!!! I haven't heard anything else about the baby...but I'm worried. I hate it when anything goes wrong with one of my babies. And I hate it even more when it's a term baby where everything's expected to go perfect! Sigh...I know it was nothing to do with the delivery or anything I did, but it's still tough to swallow. Babies today : 1f Babies total : 56M/62F = 118 Vag :42M/...

I was so thankful to have a day off yesterday! I knew how crazy it had been, so I took brownies up to work last night about 2100. The board looked beautiful!! Couple green names and 2 ROL's . Why can't I work on nights like that!?! So I dropped the brownies off and on my way out the door I made a funny comment about "now I don't want my phone to ring tonight because I've already driven over here once tonight!" I should have kept my mouth shut...! Sure enough, about 0245 my phone rings. When I'm in a dead sleep I don't really think about what I'm doing and I just grab the phone and answer it. Sure enough "we need help! People just keep walking in!" Ok ...I'm on my way. I couldn't say no after what I'd said earlier, and after the week we'd had, I know what it's like when nobody will come in to help. Only as I was getting ready to walk out the door did I realize that it was torrentially pouring buckets outside...no wonde...

They called me to work extra tonight in the middle of the afternoon...I told them that I am NOT super nurse and I can't work 8 nights in a row! Sigh... The rest of the weekend was as crazy as Thursday night, only with less staff. We all ran our butts off! I had really nice deliveries both nights, so that was at least worth it. My girl on Friday night pushed 2 1/2 times...I'm glad the doctor came as soon as I paged her or she would have missed it!! Baby came out with a nuchal and was a little floppy, but pinked up pretty quick once he got moving. Saturday night was just one of those nights that I got the triage crown and as soon as I would send someone home another would walk in the door. I did 7 admission data bases (the ump-teen screen computer form we have to fill out for everyone)...that is TOO many! I did get a nice delivery out of the night, so that was good. I felt sorry for Mom, it was her 2 nd baby, she precipted with her 1st baby, and almost did with this one...tha...

12hrs Monday night, 12 hrs Tuesday night, 13.5hrs Wednesday night, got a call and went in @ 0430 on Friday morning, then got another call last night and went in from 2300 to 0400. Part of 5 shifts in 1 week! I took tonight off before I start my 3 IAR tomorrow. When I got there last night they re-evaluated the board and kinda figured that they hadn't needed me as desperately as they thought they did, several of the patients ended up going home, and they did some re-assignments. If we get called in, we get paid for at least 2 hrs, so I figured I'd sit for 2 hrs and then go home. I helped move a patient or two, did some random stuff and was just about to leave when one of the doctors came down from the lounge and said he had a patient coming in who thought her water broke. He said that her own doctor was coming on call at 0700, so to just tuck her in and wait for the morning. So I said I'd hang out, get her started, then leave. Story short, she delivered an hour and a half ...

Seriously, I think we're running a special on pre-mature deliveries at work...plus a special on twins. I think we've had more I was just thinking yesterday that I was actually gonna go a whole week without working any extra shifts. That was until my phone rang about 2000 last night. I think my message was something like..."you can have double time, triple time...and free coffee!" There were no empty rooms at one point, a C/S going on, vag twins, 4 extra nurses, 2 or 3 mag patients, my 29week twins contracting and 3cm, and 2 more SROM's on the way...it was a mess! I wasn't too thrilled on hanging out all night, 'cuz tonight is when my 3IAR (in a row) starts and I'm sure it's gonna be crazy. Miraculously, I think after a couple deliveries, handing over early recoveries, etc they were able to get all the "extra" nurses out of there by about 0200. I left at 0145, made a McDonalds run for everyone still there, and then got home about 0230. Go...

So I've been impressed that I haven't been into work since I got off after that staff meeting Wednesday night! I had a great weekend in Branson with my brother's baseball team and my favorite Branson show, so that just topped things off! I'm sitting freezing my butt off at my brother's baseball game yesterday afternoon at 1630 and my phone rings...go figure! I felt guilty, ' cuz they had called me Saturday night and I wasn't in town, so sure, I'll come in for time and a half. They called me back an hour later and said "well, we're OK now, but will you be on call?" Sure why not, I've just been up since 0830 this morning. I know nurses do that all the time, but I'm not most nurses and I need my sleep! Now a smart nurse would have left the baseball game and gone home and slept in case she got called in. No, I sat there for another hour or so, saw my brother blast a 2-run homer over the fence to win the game, and then went and ate,...

So I worked Thursday , Friday, Saturday nights and was planning on enjoying 2 whole nights off before my next set of three. I slept really well yesterday afternoon, got up about 1730, took the dog for a 6mile run then was doing laundry and just relaxing in front of the TV. I love to watch PBR bull riding, so I was just finishing up round two from the weekend about midnight. I took out my contacts and climbed into bed...ah, sweet sleep! And then my phone rang...seriously?! So into work I went, and left about 9am this morning. It really did get crazy last night, it was a good thing I went in. I thought right at the beginning that they might send me home after my obligated 2 hours, but then the flood gates opened. I took a SROM about 0200 and then I was set for the night, got her blocked, comfy, etc. Meanwhile the madness kept happening . We had a mom walk in with 3 beats of clonus , horrible super reflexive, etc. I swear, we're continuing our PIH special! This was the kind of gir...

Seriously, we have been a little busy at work. Last night was my second extra partial shift this week. When my phone rang yesterday afternoon and I saw it was work I knew what they wanted and let it go to voicemail. After what the board looked like last night I'm not surprised at all that they needed help. I called back as few hours later and the Charge said that a few people had called back, but one nurse had called in sick, so she wasn't sure if they still could use help or not. I already had plans for the earlier part of the evening so I said I could come from 2300-0700 if they still needed someone...I went in at 2200 and left after 0730. It was crazy. All I ended up with was a post- partum mag post C/S which was fine. We actually "slowed down" a little for a few hours, then the bus rolled up and we got 3 or 4 walk-ins, then one of the docs called us and told us that one of the other "bigger" hospitals in the city was on diversion, so guess where all the...

I must have a really, really sensitive conscious. They called me tonight while I was walking through the mall and said they were desperate for help again. I told them no because I've worked every night but Wednesday this week...but then about 20minutes later I called them back and they still hadn't found anybody, so I went in...and just got home about 0830. I'm pooped... Yesterday when I was wishing for babies...I got 2 of them last night. I took a SROM that had been there all afternoon who was still 2-3, she was doing great, I liked them, we were bonding...then another SROM came in and I ended up taking her back for a section partly out of her choice (she was "thinking" about a VBAC ...) and partly because baby looked like poop. So I handed out my first patient to her 4 th nurse of the day and took the new SROM to the OR. I circulated her section, then they called another nurse in and she came in just as the doc was closing the skin. So she finished the recov...