the thrills of nursing life
I interrupt the adventures in India to share a nursing post.
I had a new tracheostomy patient. Since surgeons had placed a fresh hole to his windpipe, he had some difficulty voicing his communication, and he was also at risk for aspiration (things going to the lungs instead of the esophagus). So he hadn't eaten in several days. But this particular day, he had just received the news that a speech therapist would be evaluating his swallow to check where the food was going (lung or stomach). He was very excited. He caught me in the hall as he was walking with his family, and mouthed to me, "I'm going to eat dinner tonight." He was smiling so broadly. Practically beaming. I said something along the lines of "That is awesome!" And then he mouthed to me "It's better than sex." I could be missing some parts of what he said, because he actually wasn't saying them, but I'm pretty dang sure that was the gist of the message.
It's hard to give you a history on this next story because there are so many parts I don't know, but what I have put together is that medical marijuana was not legal before 2008. Apparently it is now. With that background, one of my patients had a poor appetite as a side effect of the treatment of his disease. So his doctor wrote for an appetite stimulant. As I looked up the information on the pill before giving it, I realized something: I was holding marijuana. This was so exciting. When I updated the next nurse at shift change, she was as excited as I was. We give drugs all the time, but there are certain ones that make us feel extra special. Yes, nurses are weird.
One of my other patients was transitioning from a pain pump to an oral pain pill. So I was telling her about this pill, and the side effects, and her options if she still has pain. Her husband interrupted and said, "What did you say that pill was called?"
"Tramadol"
"Oh. I thought you said Damn-it-all"
My last vignette has nothing to do with patients. I had just taken a temperature, and then set the thermometer down on the bedside table, the kind that has a food tray that can pull out. The thermometer was the kind with a long coil between the display and the actual probe. Somehow or other, that coil got caught in the track of the food tray. I could not get it out. I got my clinical nurse leader to help me, and as we wrestled with the wire, I suggested that maybe we should just leave the thermometer there. It's convenient to have one in the room, you know. She laughed, but wasn't convinced, and with a hemostat got that cord out. Darn it all.
I had a new tracheostomy patient. Since surgeons had placed a fresh hole to his windpipe, he had some difficulty voicing his communication, and he was also at risk for aspiration (things going to the lungs instead of the esophagus). So he hadn't eaten in several days. But this particular day, he had just received the news that a speech therapist would be evaluating his swallow to check where the food was going (lung or stomach). He was very excited. He caught me in the hall as he was walking with his family, and mouthed to me, "I'm going to eat dinner tonight." He was smiling so broadly. Practically beaming. I said something along the lines of "That is awesome!" And then he mouthed to me "It's better than sex." I could be missing some parts of what he said, because he actually wasn't saying them, but I'm pretty dang sure that was the gist of the message.
It's hard to give you a history on this next story because there are so many parts I don't know, but what I have put together is that medical marijuana was not legal before 2008. Apparently it is now. With that background, one of my patients had a poor appetite as a side effect of the treatment of his disease. So his doctor wrote for an appetite stimulant. As I looked up the information on the pill before giving it, I realized something: I was holding marijuana. This was so exciting. When I updated the next nurse at shift change, she was as excited as I was. We give drugs all the time, but there are certain ones that make us feel extra special. Yes, nurses are weird.
One of my other patients was transitioning from a pain pump to an oral pain pill. So I was telling her about this pill, and the side effects, and her options if she still has pain. Her husband interrupted and said, "What did you say that pill was called?"
"Tramadol"
"Oh. I thought you said Damn-it-all"
My last vignette has nothing to do with patients. I had just taken a temperature, and then set the thermometer down on the bedside table, the kind that has a food tray that can pull out. The thermometer was the kind with a long coil between the display and the actual probe. Somehow or other, that coil got caught in the track of the food tray. I could not get it out. I got my clinical nurse leader to help me, and as we wrestled with the wire, I suggested that maybe we should just leave the thermometer there. It's convenient to have one in the room, you know. She laughed, but wasn't convinced, and with a hemostat got that cord out. Darn it all.
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