A belated Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to everyone out there in blogland!
My visit to my parents' was not the relaxing get away that I desperately need, but was indeed fun. We went straight from there to my brother's house for a couple of days of chaos then back home to our own brand of chaos. I have had to work for the last 3 nights (that includes Christmas Eve, Christmas in case you were wondering). There has not been a patient in site for 3 entire shifts. The first night it was a nice break, but by the third night I am going a little crazy. It is compounded by the fact that the other nurse got floated to another unit, so I have been sitting here for going on 12 hours by myself, trying to stay awake.
Christmas went by way too fast and I missed way too much of it sleeping. My precious little Z was a joy to watch and was overwhelmed with presents from both sides of the family. I felt like I was spoiled rotten, not necessarily by the volume or the expense of the gifts, but by the thoughtfulness. C did give me a new iPod nano which felt a little indulgent, but I have to say I love it.
Not much to report on the IF front. C and I weren't even in the same state during what I'm pretty sure was my "fertile days". Honestly, I don't even feel like I have the energy right now to track these things. A couple months off of obligatory intimacy is just what I need. My 15 pound weight loss is not going well, although I thought I was doing great until I got home from my travels and stepped on the scale. I exercised every day...EVERY DAY. Before I left I was doing 30-40 minutes on the elliptical trainer, then while I was at my parents' house I went to the gym with my father and did 35 minutes on the elliptical and 25 minutes on the treadmill. When I was at my brother's my SIL and I walked (briskly) 50 minutes every day....even in the rain. And after all this hard work, I am rewarded with a one pound weight gain....damn it! I was very discouraged. Then when I get to work there is fudge, cookies, chocolates.....etc. Given my discouraged state and the need to do anything to stay awake....I have eaten way over my quota of Dove's chocolates....although I did manage to choke down carrots and celery at some point during the shift. I know I have to get back on the exercise horse, but it is probably not going to happen until Friday.
Friday I will also get fingerprinted for my nursing license in the new state. There is something about going to the police department and asking to be fingerprinted that just seems wrong. I have only 5 more shifts left at this job, then I have almost 2 weeks off before starting at the big hospital. I guess I should savor these slow shifts, because it is not likely to happen at a hospital that does 5 times as many births as we do.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Stork
Don't get excited...it's not what you think.
I'm on hiatus at my parent's house for the week. Then we are off to my brother's house for the weekend to celebrate my side of the family's Christmas. The week has actually been busy, but with the kind of busy that is enjoyable. Trips to the pool, the gym, making gingerbread houses. In a rare moment that I was alone, I had a conversation with my DH that took a bad turn. I don't want to get into details, lets just leave it by saying that I often feel like I can't live up to my husbands' idealistic expectations at Christmas. We resolved (I hope) some hurt feelings, but I was still feeling a little blue. Later I received another phone call from DH, thinking that it was going to more about the earlier conversation....but it was worse. Our tree had fallen over and the water in the base soaked all of the presents that I had wrapped right before I left. This event happened at about 11pm and C was up until 3 am cleaning up the mess. He ended up putting a hook in the wall and stringing wire around the trunk to keep it stable. We usually buy ornaments as souvenirs of our travels so I was worried that some had broken. Well, the ONLY ornament that broke was a glass stork that my MIL had given us a few years ago. If that isn't appropriate I don't know what is.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Scare
*Warning....child mentioned*
Oh, where do I begin? Yesterday morning I went into my daughter's room around 8:30. She is our alarm clock, and that was a bit late for her to be waking up. When I walked in she was standing in the middle of the room in a daze saying "I can't walk, will you carry me?" I sat down on the floor, she climbed into my lap and promptly fell asleep...sound asleep. My first thought...well that is odd. Then for the next 20 minutes, I try to wake her up. She had moments where she was awake, but they didn't last very long. She even fell asleep in the middle of a sentence.
There are two routes that I will typically take in a crisis involving family, over reacting or under reacting. As a nurse, I will often assess the situation and usually come away with "She'll be fine". I also come from a family where my father's motto was "It doesn't hurt if it's not bleeding". Let's just say that in general I am not quick to turn to medical help, after all I AM medical help right? Well, this thinking is seriously flawed for a couple of reasons. The first being that when it is my child or family member, I usually turn into an idiot and my assessment skills are impaired. The second reason is that I am a Labor and Delivery nurse, so pediatric illness/injuries is not my forte.
So after about 20 minutes of the flaccid somnolent child, I decide to call her doctor. Big surprise - she wants me to take her to the ER. As we are packaging her up (it was 20 degrees outside) she almost collapses. I immediately start thinking that there is something neurological going on, she's sort of acting like she has a concussion. And I'm really hoping that pre-school didn't somehow miss a child who had a severe enough accident to sustain a traumatic brain injury.
She stayed awake on the drive over, and I thought about turning around and going back home. But there was something that was just not "right". She continued to act groggy, but not as lethargic as she had earlier. When we get to the ER and go through registration, they almost tried to send me back to the waiting room, but there was no way I was going to wait a minute longer before someone other than me assessed her. She got through triage without lifting her head off my shoulder. Next is the history - recent illnesses, complaints, new foods, exposure to illnesses etc.....her history is benign expect for the previous 1.5 hours.
So then comes the IV and the bloodwork and trying to get a urine specimen. She was amazing. The only time she cried was when I told her not to pull on her IV. C met us at the ER with portable DVD in hand. We watched "Ala.din" and "Chick.en Run". After 5 hours the verdict was "moderate dehydration". She received a bolus of IV fluids, she had lots to drink and 3 popsicles and she was a new girl. I have no idea how or why she was dehydrated. By 5 pm she was running and jumping around like nothing was ever wrong. By the way she was acting, you'd never have known that just 8 hours earlier I was crying hysterically (but only briefly) while I put on a baseball cap and quickly smeared on some deodorant. I called out from work, but then felt guilty because she was acting just fine. Of course now it is 4 am and I am now feeling guilty because I am not at home.
So she will be under the watchful eye of my husband this weekend, as work Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. On an amusing note, the ER told us that since our last visit, they always put chocolate syrup in the charcoal when treating a child...although now they have added a dollop of vanilla ice cream.
Oh, where do I begin? Yesterday morning I went into my daughter's room around 8:30. She is our alarm clock, and that was a bit late for her to be waking up. When I walked in she was standing in the middle of the room in a daze saying "I can't walk, will you carry me?" I sat down on the floor, she climbed into my lap and promptly fell asleep...sound asleep. My first thought...well that is odd. Then for the next 20 minutes, I try to wake her up. She had moments where she was awake, but they didn't last very long. She even fell asleep in the middle of a sentence.
There are two routes that I will typically take in a crisis involving family, over reacting or under reacting. As a nurse, I will often assess the situation and usually come away with "She'll be fine". I also come from a family where my father's motto was "It doesn't hurt if it's not bleeding". Let's just say that in general I am not quick to turn to medical help, after all I AM medical help right? Well, this thinking is seriously flawed for a couple of reasons. The first being that when it is my child or family member, I usually turn into an idiot and my assessment skills are impaired. The second reason is that I am a Labor and Delivery nurse, so pediatric illness/injuries is not my forte.
So after about 20 minutes of the flaccid somnolent child, I decide to call her doctor. Big surprise - she wants me to take her to the ER. As we are packaging her up (it was 20 degrees outside) she almost collapses. I immediately start thinking that there is something neurological going on, she's sort of acting like she has a concussion. And I'm really hoping that pre-school didn't somehow miss a child who had a severe enough accident to sustain a traumatic brain injury.
She stayed awake on the drive over, and I thought about turning around and going back home. But there was something that was just not "right". She continued to act groggy, but not as lethargic as she had earlier. When we get to the ER and go through registration, they almost tried to send me back to the waiting room, but there was no way I was going to wait a minute longer before someone other than me assessed her. She got through triage without lifting her head off my shoulder. Next is the history - recent illnesses, complaints, new foods, exposure to illnesses etc.....her history is benign expect for the previous 1.5 hours.
So then comes the IV and the bloodwork and trying to get a urine specimen. She was amazing. The only time she cried was when I told her not to pull on her IV. C met us at the ER with portable DVD in hand. We watched "Ala.din" and "Chick.en Run". After 5 hours the verdict was "moderate dehydration". She received a bolus of IV fluids, she had lots to drink and 3 popsicles and she was a new girl. I have no idea how or why she was dehydrated. By 5 pm she was running and jumping around like nothing was ever wrong. By the way she was acting, you'd never have known that just 8 hours earlier I was crying hysterically (but only briefly) while I put on a baseball cap and quickly smeared on some deodorant. I called out from work, but then felt guilty because she was acting just fine. Of course now it is 4 am and I am now feeling guilty because I am not at home.
So she will be under the watchful eye of my husband this weekend, as work Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. On an amusing note, the ER told us that since our last visit, they always put chocolate syrup in the charcoal when treating a child...although now they have added a dollop of vanilla ice cream.
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