Good day...

Today was one of those days at work where I'm just so grateful for the job that I have. One of those days that reminds me why I wanted to do this ...ya know as opposed to the days when you have shit thrown at your head (figuratively ...and literally unfortunately) you're called every name at the book and yelled at by every ungrateful patient and their ungrateful family members. Don't get me wrong, I (and my coworkers) laugh at most of the names we are called, and roll our eyes at the impatience and sheer ignorance of our ...more challenging patients. But every once in a while you get a few morsels of gratitude and experiences that make all the crap worthwhile.

I had been at work for about three hours and was BORED out of my mind. As was the charge nurse, the nurse working in the zone with me, and one of my good friends who was in our zone chatting. We were actually bored enough that we tried our hardest to tempt fate by repeatedly vocalizing how bored we were and how quiet it was. Usually a sure recipe for disaster. It didn't work. For a long time. But then the medic phone rang :) We all grinned and waited to see what it was going to be ...hoping for something truly gruesome or super sick and actively dying. Turns out it was an 86yo gal with a sudden onset of abdominal pain, who had passed out and had a blood pressure in the 40s. And no IV access :) Woohoo!!! Twisted I know :) The medics had tried multiple times in her arms, and twice to get a central line in her neck and couldn't find anything. Without getting too far into the medical details of it all, the patient likely had a ruptured hole in the aorta in her abdomen ...she was loosing lots of blood really really really fast. So me and my three bored friends prepare to converge on this actively dying patient. Within minutes of her rolling through our doors, I had thrown a 14g in her left arm, and another nurse had thrown an 18g in her right. The medics who were still giving report on the patient looked at us stunned, each took a dollar out of their wallets and handed them to us. A 14g is big. Like really big. Like almost ball-point pen (the metal and ink-holder part) big. And an 18 is big too. But more importantly, the patient was in the OR having her ruptured AAA repaired within 57 minutes of hitting the department. We even got to use the rapid transfuser ...that's always a good time :)

A few hours later after we were all bored again, although not quite as bored as before, triage brought me a patient. I already had three and there were several nurses with only one or two patients. I didn't mind, because I like to be busy, but it was just a little strange. The triage nurse that brought the patient back came up to me and said, "Toni, I brought you a patient because you are the best." I laughed and he said, "No. seriously, I was thinking about where to put this kid and I thought that if my kid was this sick you would be the first person I'd pick to take care of it." And he was SERIOUS!!! And we had some pretty rockstar nurses on shift. I detest febrile child workups. I don't mind doing them if the kid is actually sick, but more often than not we get roped into torturing them because of the numbers. But this time I was glad to do it ...what can I say, I'm easily manipulated ...flattery will get you everywhere :)

Anyways, that's it :) I love my job and I love my coworkers!!