Monday, October 13, 2008

it really feels like winter now



Husband and I are sick with a flu like virus. I guess it was bound to happen, working in health care, you get exposed and you may luck out every now and again but eventually you will catch something. Turns out, my last full time shift at my old hospital (I now only work for them on a PRN basis due to being put in situations like this one too many times), I ended up doing one on one duty with an big guy that was withdrawing from drugs and alcohol. He had been in a bar fight and had a rib puncture a lung. His patient history didn't say if he was homeless but I suspect he was as he was filthy and after swabbing out his mouth four times with hydrogen peroxide based mouthwash, the swabs were still coming out black. Yep it was pretty gross. I washed his hair and gave him a bed bath. I thought the evening was going to be okay as the nurse before me had kept him medicated regularly but then he woke up and proceeded to beat the heck out of me and four other staff members. We medicated him with everything we had ordered and even called the doc for more and it would only make him pass out for a few minutes them he would wake up fighting again. We ended up restraining him with wrist, ankle, and a chest restraint. We even had to put mitten restraints on his hand to keep him from trying to pull his chest tube. During this whole process, he coughed and sputtered on all of us. Do you recall what I said about his mouth? The doctor ordered him intubated and transferred to the ICU. The woman that intubated him actually vomited afterwards from the smell of his breath. I have never seen that happen before but none of use were surprised considering the condition of his mouth. I had to go to the ER that morning to have several x-rays of my right arm as he had pulled and twisted it pretty badly during the time we were trying to restrain him. So that is why I haven't been posting much in that last few weeks. First I was working both jobs and having one day off a week then I was beaten and got sick. I have so many products that I need to write reviews on, I promise I will get to them this week. I just need another day or two of antibiotics before I feel 100%. I also can't go back to work at the new job till I have been on antibiotics for 3 days since it is the nicu and those little babies don't have the immune systems to handle this. At least I didn't have the 3 days of 101+ fevers that husband did but then I couldn't take the Dayquil or NyQuil he has been (because of breastfeeding)either. I have been making do with Tylenol and hot decaf chai. It has been fun but atleast Lilith hasn't caught it.

No comments: