Have you missed me???

Well, sorry for the long pause...i thought life would slow down now that I'm just a working nurse but it has kept it's usual chaotic pace!!! On the days that I work, I am just exhausted when i get home. I usually take a shower and then lay in bed and watch TV until I pass out for the night. The days off are filled with all those daily tasks of life...laundry, cleaning, groceries, etc. One thing is for sure...I do NOT miss all that studying!!!

Here are some of my favorite new experiences so far-

Probably the juiciest experience so far was our crazy guy. His family brought him in for "altered mental status" over the last week. It was getting progressively worse. He was somewhat combative but easy to calm down. We tried to send him for a CT scan of his head but he was too restless and uncooperative. I went over to CT to give him some more medication to calm him down and was greeted by 4 security guards who were having to control him. I tried to reach in and give home more IV meds to calm down but he grabbed my arm instead!!! Before I even knew what was happening, all 4 of those security guards were on top of him! I even heard one say, "Don't hurt the nurse!!". That's me! Haha!! :) Sounds dramatic but our security team did such an amazing job of protecting me that I never felt scared. In the end, we had to intubate him. I had never been a part of an intubation procedure so that was great for me too (considering it involves paralyzing and sedating someone!!). His blood pressure and heart rate went kind of wacko on us after he was intubated so we had to play around with BP meds to fix those. You have to titrate the IV drip just perfectly to have the right balance...he got lots of attention from us! He wound up on a Propofol drip to help keep him sedated...remember the drug that Michael Jackson was taking? Yep, that's Propofol! MJ was messing around with some serious stuff!!

I also survived my first full cardiac arrest!!! Wow, what an effort! I think I got to give every cardiac med that can possibly be given in a matter of minutes. It was quite an attempt to save our patient...and we did, in fact, save him! It was neat to see all the different people in the room (docs, nurses, pharmacists, respiratory therapists, chaplains) all working together towards the same goal...saving a life! Now, it was quite a complicated scene and I need about 100 more of those to be ready to handle it on my own but I am glad to have the first one out of the way. In late April, I go to a 2 day class where I will earn a certification for cases like that. It's call Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS). So, the good news is that I am not totally expected to be ready for that until after my class. Whew!

Well, thats enough for tonight. In case you were wondering, I am still loving the ER and so proud to be an RN!

Check back again soon...Have a fabulous week!