The Man strikes again

The Incredibles start, and the boys are watching it.  I’m on the couch with my laptop, thinking of something to blog.  I should really be studying,  but doze off for a few minutes.  Next thing I know, the Man knocks over my Coke.  I snap at him telling him to watch what he is doing and to get a towel.  After we clean it up, I ask him what he was doing.  He holds up his pillow, and says, “I was giving you my pillow for your head.” Awwww, how sweet make me feel like shit.

He climbs on the couch next to me and says, “I’m going to read this book Mama.”  I asked how he was going to read and watch the movie at the same time.  “Mama, I have both eyes.  One for the movie, one for the book.  Everyone has both eyes.”

 

Vent

yes, another.

I don’t have a lot of nice stuff.  But, I do take care of my stuff.   The issue lies with the men in this house. 

Someone just took me “L” key.  I have no “L” key.  I must use a pointy object to use my “L”.

I was getting dressed for work.  I tried to tie my scrubs, and one tie is missing.  It’s a rough edge now, which leads me to think that it was the four legged male.  A smooth cut would be the middle child.

My Lo-real bare minerals type makeup is gone.  $9 is a lot for me to spend on a thing of makeup.  I can see where is was dropped across my bedroom.  There are little spots of ivory dust.  Then it disappears.  I believe it was the Baby.

I have a roast in my fridge.  I would love to put it in my crock pot.  Oh, I don’t have a crock pot pot.  I have the crock pot.  But not the pot.  Why?  Oh, the eldest male thought he could reheat the chili on the STOVE TOP.

I bought nice curtains when we bought this house.  Twenty bucks a panel.  Yeah, that may not be a lot to you, but it is to me.  They are now folded in a closet because some people can’t keep thier hands off it.  The curtain rods were tossed out because they were bent.

My $120 Birkenstock have been eaten.  My kitchen-aid red pots are now an ugly color, from being put in the dishwasher.  I have chocolate milk stains in my truck.

Ugh, thanks for the vent.

 

Really? That’s what you are going with?

Travel nurses.  What a bitter taste it brings to some RN’s mouth.  They often ask, if they can pay THEM that much, why can’t they pay US that much?  Of course during this nursing shortage, travel nurses can be a life saver to the already worn out, overworked staff.

So after those lovely thoughts, last night was my first experience with a travel nurse.  Our group had 10 patients on a med-surg floor.  Quick run down of clients  (very vague-HIPAA!):  A mix of 1, 2, 3 day post op clients, most with PCAs, one  DNR on a 100% non-rebreather.

One client is suppose to go home, but wants to stay until the morning so he can get the results of a certain test.  One is still in surgery, may or may not come to the floor (vs ICU).   The DNR has O2 sats in the 70s.  After asking me several times if she needed to pass any of my meds (and me declining several times), she still passed meds to one client (couple of POs).  In passing I tell her that one clients IV has gone bad and I’ll fix it later.   In the meantime, the charge nurse was dealing with the one wanting to go home (calling all the doctors, making sure the client could stay), with the DNR client’s family, and with one client who was throwing things (calling their doctor).  The surgery client comes to the floor, the travel RN goes and assesses him.  Next thing I know, she’s is leaving.  Like leaving to go home and not finish her shift, or the remainder of her seven (of eight) weeks.  WOW.  Just WOW.

Her reasoning was that it wasn’t safe practice, she was having to give meds (really now?) and it was too much to deal with.  She had charted on not one client at 10PM, only really dealt with the post op client, and the one to be discharged for a few minutes.  There were two other strong RN’s on the floor (plus the charge), three LPNs (experienced) and the two PCTs.

Really, I just would think that this would be considered abandonment, but since she gave report to the other RNs, I was told it was not considered as such.  Is this what we are to expect from travel nurses?  This is the first time in the 100 year history of the hospital that we have brought in travel nurses.   This is my only hospital I’ve worked in, and like I said, my only experience with travel .  Am I missing something?  Are we expecting too much of the RN?  Yes, our ideal modality would be 5-6 clients, but right now, because of the nursing shortage, it’s not a possibility.

Two words:  Not Impressed

 

Ohhh exciting!!!

lol, it’s lame when you get excited for having a whopping 32 views to your blog in one day!  Yesterday was my SECOND biggest viewing day!  WOOT!!!

 

Dirty Needlestick

 

This goes with my hindsight is 20/20 post.  As an afterthought, WTF did I  do?  After a long shift dealing with a clotted catheter (which ended up having 79cc’s of saline in the balloon!), nauseated clients, and endless whining, I go to my final client for the night.  A very self care type of client.  Tells you where and what to inject, what time his meds are due, and in which order they should be in.  In with a multiple of issues, but one that goes with this story, he’s a renal client, a very hard stick.  But, working on a renal/cardiac floor, I am a fairly good sticker and got two IV’s in earlier in the night and his morning lab earlier that morning.

I give his PO meds (liquids first, pills next).  He requests his heparin shot sub-q in his right arm.  No problemo.  I don my gloves, clean the arm with alcohol, pinch and inject.  When I go to flip the safety lock I drop the freaking needle.  Here is when the out of body sensation comes in.  You see yourself standing there, the needle dropping, and you think, “Hey grab it”!  But, you stand there and watch it fall . . . into your other hand.  Fuck!

A quick rub with a alcohol pad, and a good scrub at the sink, all I could do is cuss at myself under my breath.  I call the house supervisor and get a exposure pack, fill out the paperwork, have a newly arrived day shifter draw my blood.  I go to draw the two tubes of blood on the client.  Yeah, now I can’t get him.  Two sticks from me, two from my RN, two from another RN, and one final one from the day RN that got my blood.  Yeah, the client was NOT happy.

Off to the lab, I hand in my blood samples and said I needed to pee in a cup for them.  They tell me no, you need to go to business health and do it there.  Issues:  1)  I am finishing my 2nd 12 hour shift, and do not want to wait until 9 am for business health to open.  2)  Our business health is also a quick care clinic open to the public, again NOT waiting.  3)  It’s Saturday, there is NO way in hell I am going to sit in the business health office with my three kids and waiting.  Another call to the day shift supervisor (yeah, I should be in my own bed by now), and she tells them that they need to take my pee.  Fine they say.  Well, the dumb-asses didn’t know HOW to do it.  I had to tell them to take off the handles in the bathroom, color the water, fill out the paperwork, how to seal it, etc.  Dumb-asses.

But thanks to modern technology, the rapid HIV and Hepatitis tests have come back negative.  I called my husband and told him congratulations, he didn’t have to wear a condom for the rest of his life.  Lucky him.

 

Stressed out Mom

 

I  have a confession.  I’m not a good SAHM.  Actually past the 2nd day in a row, I am going nuts.  I’m not good at doing arts and crafts with my kids, I’m not good at teaching them.  I love staying at home, by myself.  In a quiet house.  Maybe if I didn’t work at night, and needed sleep during the day, I wouldn’t mind so much.

This last week was hard.  I normally work Thursday night, have the Baby on Friday (the other two are in school and preschool), and can nap during the day, without worrying about him getting into things.  However, we had a lovely “snow” day, which it never really stuck, but everything closed anyhow.  So I had to manage some type of sleep with all three at home.  I’ve resorted to sleeping in the hallway, while the boys are in their rooms.  If I try to sleep on the couch or my room, I zonk out, and they make a mad mad mess.  For example, I did fall asleep at one point on the couch, and they managed to eat an entire box of pop-tarts in 45 minutes.  Next time I dosed off, I found them in my room with a bag of chips and cereal.

By the time I work Friday night, try to recover Saturday, with all three boys, I’m just worn out, have no patience for them.   I’m too tired for play, too tired to cook, too tired for noise.  In all this I have to find time to clean, laundry, cook, and study.

Due to monetary reasons, we have to pull the Man out of his preschool.  At least for now.  I have 2.5 more months of school, and since I’m doing this for the second time, I really really need to study and pass, so I have to keep my work hours down.  I feel bad for him, he goes to a lovely place, he loves his friends and his teacher.   I’m worried about my nerves, having both the Man and the Baby at home with me.  I tend to act out of anger instead of whatever other way  I should react. 

I yell, spank, and sometimes just scare my kids, but I don’t mean to.  I just get tired and stressed out from them.  I’ve tried reading those mommy training books (super-nanny, anyone?), but frankly there’s no time!  I try positive reinforcement, but am not a gusher.  I don’t want to be a mom that my kids grow up to hate.  I want them to have fond memories of being a kid and of me.  Perhaps when I’m done with school, and the financial stress is off us, and I don’t have to study, things will be better.

I just feel like I’m always yelling at my kids.  “don’t hit your brother”, “why do you have a box of cereal in your room”, “clean this up”, “go to sleep”, “who colored on the wall”, “why did you cut his hair”, “who broke my necklace”, “who pulled all this mess out”???  But I go out and see other moms, they are all so sing song like to their kids.  Is it a facade?  Is this how they act in public?  Heck, if my kid acts up in public, they get a flick on the ear, smack on the butt, hand or whatever.

I know I can’t be the only one that feels like this.  I know there are other moms who aren’t feeling their Mrs. Cleaver coming out.  If any of my few readers, or those lurking have any help ideas, I’m open to any and all.  I may even try to squeeze in a good parenting book.

 

Kids Say

Last week we took a trip to Little Rock.  We went to Chuck E Cheese, Target, and Coldstone Creamery.  While at target we told the boys we were going to go get ice cream.  The Dude and the Man thought it was fun to shout, “I want ASS cream!  I want ASS cream!”

 

Snow Crock

Yeah, so they closed schools two times in December, for possible snow.  It now actually snows and nothing closes! WTF?

 

Snow!!!

lol, I’m seeing a theme in my posts!

What a pleasant surprise to wake up to falling snow!  A good two inches here.  Funny because two days ago, we were sitting outside all day in t-shirts.  Normally, a flurry makes the town shut down!  Coming from Colorado and Nebraska, it’s a funny thing to watch!   I am going to let the kids sleep, and just wait for the cancellations.

 

Snowballing

 

Yeah, not that kind, you have a dirty dirty mind (if you don’t get it, go to www.urbandictionary.com).

I’m talking about how if you are mad, let’s say your spouse is off for a week, no work at all.  And they take the first four days and do nothing.  Then the next two to paint some railing and trim outside, and then the last day to move stuff around on the carport and maybe toss a few things out.  But there is the painting inside, tools everywhere, wires that need to be fixed on the television, laundry to put away, floors to be mopped, walls to be cleaned, and every other thing you can think of that needs to be done in a home.  The the spouse goes to work for one day, and is off the next two day.  Remember, this is all speculation!  And on that first day off, he he or she does nothing, once again.  Meanwhile, you work 4 twelve hour shifts, (overnight) then a 10 hour clinical day.  You come home and finally just lose it.  You say mean things, they say mean things.  Mean things are said to the kids.  Everyone is angry, no one is happy.  It all builds from one little thing and snowballs into a huge avalanche.

It’s frustrating.  I wish at times we could go back to the simpler times.  When kids could play outside all day, families ate dinner together (we do), people worked 9-5 jobs.  It wasn’t about the big TVs, how many channels you have, what kind of car you have, or how much money you could flaunt.  People were friends with their neighbors, had backyard bar-b-ques and went to the ballgame on Friday nights.

I know we’ve come a long way since then in terms of civil rights and technology, but the stress of today can have so much pressure on a family, that it breaks it up. 

I wonder if groups in America, that live minimally (Amish, Mennonites, etc) have the same percentage of divorce, depression, suicides, drug use, etc in their communities.

 I try to be a good parent and good wife, but sometimes it’s so hard not to lose yourself in those roles.  You just need a break sometimes.