This Weekend was Better
So far, this weekend has turned out to be much better than last weekend. For one thing, I finally had Friday through Sunday off. Not only that, I even have two more full days off after today, for a whopping total of five days in a row off. It's been sweet so far.
I worked Thursday night, and after the whole exposure deal from last weekend, it was a fabulous night. I only had one patient, who turned out to be the sweetest little lady. I was a little worried at first, because she had apparently thrown a temper tantrum right before shift change. They told me that she had become quite upset and belligerent, threw a few punches, and even kicked someone in the head! And what happens when you try to punch out the nurses? Naturally, we tie you down to the bed. So when I received report on the patient, she was in four point restraints, and still very crabby. I was like "Oh great, here we go." I went in the room and did my little routine, introducing myself, and doing a quick assessment. She was still being very uncooperative, so I decided to just let her go back to sleep. About an hour later, I went back in there to see how she was doing. She seemed better, so I untied all of her extremities and gave her a bath. I spent about an hour in there with her, getting her all cleaned up and ready for bed. By the time I was done, she seemed calm and cooperative, nothing like what they had described earlier. So I tucked her in, told her goodnight, and she was golden for the rest of the night. There was no punching, no kicking, no attempting to get out of bed, and no crazy, delirious behavior. Only nice, pleasant, normal sleeping. I wish all my patients could follow her example. Anyway, in the morning when I was about to leave, she even said "I love you." (It wasn't in a weird, creepy way, but in a cute, grandma way.) See what a little extra time spent with a person and a little compassion can do?
Friday I spent most of the day catching up on sleep. That evening, we had plans with some of the other travel nurses I have met here. For those of you who may not know very many nurses, they sure do know how to blow off steam. We may appear calm and composed at work, but believe me, most of us are completely different outside of the hospital. Once the alcohol starts flowing, it's all over. It was one of those nights where the place we ended up at last was a three-level dance club, complete with strobe lights, booty music, and everyone grinding on each other. Not really my scene, but we had fun anyways. When it was time to leave, we practically ran to try to make it to our favorite neighborhood bar in time to have one last drink. We didn't make it in time, but apparently our appetites for alcohol were not quite satiated, because when we got home, we made probably one of the worst drinks I have ever tasted. All we had at home was tequila with no margarita mix, so Dave got us some Vault out of the vending machine to use instead. Believe me, it was gross. But desperate times call for desperate measures.
On Saturday, we dragged ourselves out of bed just in time to meet the invisible bunny and a friend of hers that she had come up to visit. We met them in Davis Square, a cute little area of Somerville, which is just north of Cambridge. Lucky for us, the invisible bunny's friend was a Boston local, who had all kinds of great tips for us as to some great restaurants and shopping areas that I'm sure we'll check out when we have a chance. We lunched at a great pub called The Burren, which not only had really good food and drinks, but also had some really cool live Irish music for our entertainment. It was fun! (And it helped us forget about our hangovers.)
Today has been mostly a napping and "snuggle day," as we call it (laying around the house in comfy clothes, watching TV, relaxing.) We did manage to take a lovely walk through the Public Garden and Boston Common this morning over a cup of coffee. It's starting to get a little colder up here, like in the 40's. But once you start walking, and have a nice warm beverage, you can get warm pretty quickly. It's supposed to get into the 30's tonight, and a few flurries are possible in the forecast. I'm not that worried about the weather anymore though. In fact, I might even be looking forward to a little snow!
I worked Thursday night, and after the whole exposure deal from last weekend, it was a fabulous night. I only had one patient, who turned out to be the sweetest little lady. I was a little worried at first, because she had apparently thrown a temper tantrum right before shift change. They told me that she had become quite upset and belligerent, threw a few punches, and even kicked someone in the head! And what happens when you try to punch out the nurses? Naturally, we tie you down to the bed. So when I received report on the patient, she was in four point restraints, and still very crabby. I was like "Oh great, here we go." I went in the room and did my little routine, introducing myself, and doing a quick assessment. She was still being very uncooperative, so I decided to just let her go back to sleep. About an hour later, I went back in there to see how she was doing. She seemed better, so I untied all of her extremities and gave her a bath. I spent about an hour in there with her, getting her all cleaned up and ready for bed. By the time I was done, she seemed calm and cooperative, nothing like what they had described earlier. So I tucked her in, told her goodnight, and she was golden for the rest of the night. There was no punching, no kicking, no attempting to get out of bed, and no crazy, delirious behavior. Only nice, pleasant, normal sleeping. I wish all my patients could follow her example. Anyway, in the morning when I was about to leave, she even said "I love you." (It wasn't in a weird, creepy way, but in a cute, grandma way.) See what a little extra time spent with a person and a little compassion can do?
Friday I spent most of the day catching up on sleep. That evening, we had plans with some of the other travel nurses I have met here. For those of you who may not know very many nurses, they sure do know how to blow off steam. We may appear calm and composed at work, but believe me, most of us are completely different outside of the hospital. Once the alcohol starts flowing, it's all over. It was one of those nights where the place we ended up at last was a three-level dance club, complete with strobe lights, booty music, and everyone grinding on each other. Not really my scene, but we had fun anyways. When it was time to leave, we practically ran to try to make it to our favorite neighborhood bar in time to have one last drink. We didn't make it in time, but apparently our appetites for alcohol were not quite satiated, because when we got home, we made probably one of the worst drinks I have ever tasted. All we had at home was tequila with no margarita mix, so Dave got us some Vault out of the vending machine to use instead. Believe me, it was gross. But desperate times call for desperate measures.
On Saturday, we dragged ourselves out of bed just in time to meet the invisible bunny and a friend of hers that she had come up to visit. We met them in Davis Square, a cute little area of Somerville, which is just north of Cambridge. Lucky for us, the invisible bunny's friend was a Boston local, who had all kinds of great tips for us as to some great restaurants and shopping areas that I'm sure we'll check out when we have a chance. We lunched at a great pub called The Burren, which not only had really good food and drinks, but also had some really cool live Irish music for our entertainment. It was fun! (And it helped us forget about our hangovers.)
Today has been mostly a napping and "snuggle day," as we call it (laying around the house in comfy clothes, watching TV, relaxing.) We did manage to take a lovely walk through the Public Garden and Boston Common this morning over a cup of coffee. It's starting to get a little colder up here, like in the 40's. But once you start walking, and have a nice warm beverage, you can get warm pretty quickly. It's supposed to get into the 30's tonight, and a few flurries are possible in the forecast. I'm not that worried about the weather anymore though. In fact, I might even be looking forward to a little snow!
posted by Bean at
11:56 PM
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