12 days down, 5 to go

The last three days of this 17 day exercise have been the busiest and the "hardest". We have worn our gear every day, carried our weapons every day, and today we got issued our gas masks to add to the number of items we carry all the time.

Tuesday we started the ranges. We were issued our M16's and than ranges started. As a nurse, we all went to a charting class which set us behind everyone else, but we went to the M16 simulator and did a practice zero and a practice qualification. The simulators are a lot of fun. I did very well too which helps the fun factor. We also did convoy ops. A lot of our training are blocks of instruction or BOI on site. We didn't actually go on a convoy, but we walk through simulations and get the basic idea. They ran out of ammunition on the real firing ranges so we had to wait until yesterday to fire our real rounds.

Wednesday we got up even earlier to get the range earlier than the unit ahead of us. Well, they had the same idea, so all it ended up doing was making us stand around for a few hours just waiting for the range to even OPEN. Then the group ahead of us got to zero and we had to wait another hour or so. I have never zero'd like we did hear. Some called it an "admin" zero because you're sitting at a desk with your weapon on sandbags and firing while sitting. Who fires while sitting??? We got 18 rounds in 6 sets of 3 to adjust the front and rear sites of the weapon so that we were shooting 5 of 6 consecutive rounds in the center of the target. The target is TINY to resemble a person at 300 meters away. You fire 2 sets of 3 rounds before you adjust anything and then you look at the grid superimposed on the target which designates if you move right left up or down on your sites to adjust your fires into the center of the target. Some weapons you have to adjust yourself to the sites of the weapon. with the M16, you adjust the weapon to your sites. So every set of 3 rounds you go down to your target and reevaluate the adjustments needed.

Once we finished with the zero range we moved over to the qualification range. I have never fired on this type of qualification range. I'm used to a 300 meter long range with scattered pop up targets. This range was 25 meters away and a large sheet of paper with 10 silhouettes of various sizes representing various distances. We did 20 rounds prone supported with the weapon resting on sandbags over 2 minutes aiming 2 rounds per target. Next, we did 10 rounds prone unsupported using only our elbows to support the weapon with 1 round in each target over 1 minute. Thirdly, we did 10 rounds kneeling shooting at the largest 6 targets over 10 minute. I have never fired so poorly in my life but I still qualified on my first try. Many people had to try twice so I can't complain. Qualifying is qualifying. That was a simple day, but it takes FOREVER. I hope we do it all again in Kuwait because the weapon I was using is MY weapon for the next 6-12 months. I want to know that I'm comfortable carrying, aiming, and firing my weapon.

Today was another ridiculously early day. We drew our gas masks and went out to the NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) range. It was a cold and rainy morning but that's about how long it took.. alll morning. Some gas chambers are overkill. This one was a confidence test. Outside the chamber, our instructor yells "gas, gas, gas". We have 9 seconds to reach to our left thigh, open the gas mask bag, extract the mask and close the bag, place the mask to our face, tighten the 6 straps that attach it to our heads, and clear the mask to create a seal. We were lead into the chamber and placed in a circle. Sometimes they'll make you do jumping jacks to sweat because CS gas feeds on the moisture in your body and burns that's why you cough, your eyes water, and your nose runs profusely. This chamber definitely had CS in in, but not to the extent of burning our exposed hands and necks. Instead of making us take our masks off and feel the full effects of CS, they kept us in the chamber for aprox 30 minutes and gave us a class on the NBC suit that we will have with us in case of an NBC attack. Then we had the option of removing the mask before exiting the building. The NBC chamber sounds awful, sucks to go into, and the instructors are so used to CS gas they seem mean when they're telling you to sing the Army song and give them your social security number while trying to breath CS gas and dry heaving on their boots. But when someone has a problem with their mask seal they are like moths on a light bulb to the person to get them out and check their equipment for malfunction. I have full confidence that my mask protects me and that's the whole point of the NBC chamber.

I am really looking forward to coming back to Germany for the holidays. It just doesn't seem like Christmas in this training environment living in barracks. I'm pooooped. Early day tomorrow AGAIN. 5 more days and back to Germany I go :-)

Brief Update

Well, I'm in training right now in Texas. Other than the fact that I have not "finaled out" on the medical Soldier Readiness Process (SRP) because I need to have my gall bladder checked out by a GI doc next week, we continue to prepare for our rapidly approaching deployment. We have been here for 7 days with 10 to go. The days themselves are going quickly but the number of days we've been here seems disproportional to the amount of time it feels like I have spent being busy.

My roomie, K, is from the midwest. We must be deployment soul mates because we are getting along great and are very similar. It makes the whole training a lot more fun. The rest of the nurses that are coming to our FOB with us also seem really cool and I think we've got an awesome group.

Texas has been COLD. I was shocked how cold it was when we got here. Of course, now that we finally have all of our cold weather gear, the weather has become more pleasant again. Yesterday we spent the day training. We wore our full "battle rattle". The bullet-proof vest (50 lbs), the helmet, and occasionally an M16. Lots of weight. We did some battle drills, some field medicine, and used a laser weapons simulator where were zero'd the M16. My helmet was not arranged for laying in the prone position in full gear and I couldn't see ANYTHING, I was so frustrated at how long it took me to get a sight picture, my hair was flying around everywhere, it was funny. I was more pissed than amused at the time, but in all my frustration I zero'd in 15 rounds and my 4th set of rounds was a lovely shot group right through the target's head. I have a feeling if I were in a combat situation and put three bullets through the enemies head, no one would reprimand me for not hitting center of mass.

We also did HEAT training. I don't remember the letters, but it's a Humvee rollover simulator. They put 5 people in a Humvee, seat belted in, and then go through a series of rollovers. There's a seatbelt confidence rollover, a land rollover, and a water rollover. It's pretty nerve wracking the first time. Let's just say, WEAR YOUR SEATBELT!! HOLY COW! The doors aren't the easiest in the world to open either and when you roll your head knocks on the ceiling, so you're hanging upside down, trying to open a door, then you snap your seatbelt and in all that gear the only way down is with a huge THUD. We also had a "gunner" who was standing up in the vehicle and when it rolled we had to grab him and hold him in. It's always me, but I managed to get my left hand smashed between the edge of the gunner's hatch and the gunner (a rather burly male). My hand looks like the stay-puft marshmallow man's, but nothing is broken, it's just sore, fat, and scratched. We have 4 more rollovers to do when we get out of country.

Today was a nice day of rest (yes we work through the weekends) as all of our shoulders were sore after carrying 60lbs alllll day yesterday. Next week we have to do it again for a few days in a row. It's pretty crazy equipment and I have a lot of it. I'm getting really excited to get this deployment on the road!!

Coming Soon...

I've been pretty busy lately getting ready to go on my training event. I also have been spending as much time as possible with Joe and not really in the mood for writing. I have a ton to write about over the past few weeks. I went on leave and saw my beautiful new baby sister Sophia and played with big girl Chloe. There's just so much to say. I'm hoping while I'm trainning at Ft. Hood that I'll will have some free time, get motivated, and sit down and write a few good posts. I will also have to re-think the log in process for making my blog a private account. It seems to want you to have a gmail account for more the 30 days access, which is stupid overall and annoying for me to reinvite people without gmail accounts every month. In theory it's supposed to allow me to speak more freely about where I am, who i'm with, and what I'm doing, but it probably doesn't really matter. So it may just go back to public blog like it was before. I'll write more soon.

Invitation Only

Because I will soon be posting from the desert resort of Iraq, I'm severly limiting access to my blog. I tried to just password protect it, but I guess that's not the option. So I have sent the e-mail to all those who I thought might read it. If I have missed e-mail addresses, let me know and I can add them.

Cologne... where eau de cologne came from

Joe and I took a quick weekend trip to Cologne over Saturday and Sunday. I had never been there and it has the largest Cathedral in Germany. I let Joe sleep on Friday for quite awhile, we went and got some admin stuff done thinking that we could drive up on Friday, but when adjusting from nights to days for a weekend, the first day is total bust. I went and visited a friend who was medevac'd from Iraq to Germany for a bug and was inpatient for awhile, got a 2nd PPD because I forgot to get the first one read. Then, we went to the Holiday Bazaar on Rhine Ordnance Barracks.

All the bazaars are the same but, I had an advent calendar that I wanted and knew it was going to be there. When we got there we ordered dinner from an Italian stand and, since it got SO cold, we ate in the car with the heat on before we went in. I have a process for getting through bazaars. I always do the perimeter first, and then I weave through the middle. They have an array of cheeses, meats, wines, liqueurs, pottery, clothes, furniture etc. Always predictable, yet fun to meander through.

Cologne is only a 3 hour drive away so we got started Saturday morning and checked into our hotel. Then we walked along the river to the Chocolate Museum. They joined with the Lindt Swiss chocolate company and there was free chocolate all over the place. It was a cute little museum. Then we went up and down the shopping streets. It was raining, as Germany does so well in the winter, and we were getting hungry. We swung back to our hotel to drop off some bags and then took a cab to the wrong side of the street that's supposed to have all the restaurants. Eventually we found the coble stoned alley that had restaurants of all kinds. We settled on an Italian restaurant and sat out on the bad patio with the heat lamps on us. We made a good choice for being very picky about our restaurant options. Sadly, I hadn't been feeling too well so we pretty much went back to the hotel where I crawled in bed and we both crashed until about 2am when Joe's night shift clock woke him up. I woke up too, but I had really strange dreams about walkman space ships until we got up around 9-10.

I have a thing with picking hotels. I like hotels that offer breakfast. In Europe it's a little different than in the states because breakfast is a very different kind of meal here. However, we stayed in a Marriott and they had EVERYTHING. It was well worth it this time. Sometimes, it's better to just get food at a nearby bakery, but this was better than bakery breakfast.

We checked out walked from the hotel to the Cathedral for a closer look. It's a ridiculous cathedral. Once you get up close, you can see places where bullets chipped away at it during WWII and there are entire places where the stone is white replacing parts that had been bombed out. Cologne itself was pretty much leveled by bombing. We went in the Cathedral and it's a pretty restricted space. You can't really just wander around and get a good look at it, but there was a mass starting so we stood in the back and listened to the Liturgy of the Word in German.

We wandered from the Cathedral to a museum that had medieval art and saw some neat paintings that were really old. It had a Van Gogh, a Monet or two, a few Degas, and lots of medieval art. We didn't spend a whole lot of time, but I was glad we went. We left after the museum for the drive back. About an hour away from home we needed gas. Here we have a gas card that we have to use to get gas. It acts dually as our gas rations card on post and a gas card off post. I had about 45.00 dollars on it and I've used it on base as a debit card when i don't have a lot of cash. But, you can use this card on the Germany economy and you get the American price for gas. I had never actually tried it before. You can only use it at Esso stations though. We kept our eyes peeled, saw one, and pumped 20 Euro. When I paid for it, the US total was 11.43 dollars. 20 euro right now is about 30 dollars. So, it was DEFINITELY worth finding the ESSO station. They're not always easy to find and it can be annoying.

I wet out to a new German restaurant tonight with some people I know but don't see very often. It was nice to get together with them and every time I do I think, "we should do this more often." but we don't. I was the only "single" person there. It's too easy to just get used to doing your own thing and stay in your own neighborhood and your own schedule.

I've done some Christmas shopping tonight. I have more to do, but I remembered some of my ideas and had to act on them before I forgot them... again. I need to write things down or I can't remember anything. I'm excited to get to shop in states soon.

Back in Action

Hello, Familia and Friends! It has been far too long since I have let everyone know what is happening in the far reaches of Germany. I know a lot has happened, but time has gone so fast I don't know where it all went.

Joe and I are still together. He and I are on the same brain wave. We think the same things at the same time and frequently find ourselves saying, "I was just going to say that!" He is currently cooking up a fantabulous meatloaf. It's better than watching the food network (which i still don't have because I still don't have television programming.) I moved... AGAIN. This new apartment is my 3rd residence in Germany. My house in Hohenecken was ridden with mold in the walls between the kitchen and the guest bathroom. It was also far away from work and the base I was 5 minutes from was shutting most of it's resources down to move to the new "mall" on Ramstein. So, yet again, I went house hunting and after about 2 weeks I found an ad on the Kaiserslautern American newspaper website that had been placed Thursday night for the Friday release. Joe and I went together the next morning before work and it was pretty much a no brainer that if we wanted to live in Landstuhl anytime soon, this was the place to take. We moved in August and we're still getting settled. I have way way way way way too much stuff and there is an entire room dedicated to stuff I'm getting rid of. The bases have occasional flea markets and the word-of-mouth says they're well worth the $15 a table. Joe talked to a guy who made $1000. So, that's the goal. The next flea market I have the weekend off for, I'm sitting at a table all day. Then I don't have to try to have a garage sale at my house. I'm am very much looking forward to that day.

Joe and I have continued to travel. We did Phoenix and New York City in June and July. We went back to Paris in August. We've seen Poland, Luxembourg, Bavaria, and day trips around our area to Mainz and Bingen. On our last trip, we went to Neuschwanstein Castle, Garmisch and the Zugspitze (the highest peak in Germany), and Linderhof Palace. It was GORGEOUS. We drive through Austria for a little while. The leaves were orange and blowing across the road. Bavaria is the most beautiful part of Germany.
We also just got back from another jaunt across the ocean. We took 5 days of leave and went to New York for one of Joe's childhood friend's wedding. We were allllll over the place, but it was fun. We went to New York City the day after the wedding with Joe's brother and his girlfriend where we met up with my mom. It got RAINY!!! I have not been in a downpour that hard in forever. We were all soaked and I was getting crabby. Luckily our hotel was nice, we got refreshed, and spent a wonderful Sunday with great weather. Mom and I went to the American Girl Place where we had lunch and goofed off like 8 year olds. Then we grew up and went to Tiffany's & Co. I tried on some sparkly jewelry while mom actually bought some.

In 2 weeks Joe and I are going to span the ocean again for 10 days. Joe and I will fly together to Dallas and then I will head to Wisconsin and he will head to Phoenix for a few days before meeting me in Madision. We're going for Sophia/Sofia's (I haven't heard a ruling on the official spelling) birth-day. It will be the first time I have seen my brothers in over a year and the first time my brothers and I have been together with our dad in almost 2 years. I'm excited. The next two weeks of working will be hard.

So, I worked in the Recovery Room for about 5 months. All of a sudden, I was told I was moving to the ICU. I'm "on loan" but working the ICU schedule exclusively until I deploy. Oh, deploying. I have gotten the word that I leave for Ft. Hood, Texas on December 6th. I will be there for a few weeks, come home (Germany) briefly for the holidays, then report back to Ft. Hood before lily padding our way in Iraq for 6 months. I do not know which base I will be at or where I will be working in the hospital. Hopefully, since I have been so lucky in Germany with my nursing experiences I will have the same fortune downrange and expand my skills further. I am mentally preparing myself that on this deployment I will see my first code, my first grusome death, and at the same time become an expert at Rock Band.

Well, it's time to spend some time with my man before we go to sleep and I dont see him for 3 days. He works nights on the days that I work days. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday is long and we get to say "hi" and "bye" for about 5 minutes between shifts. We also took our PT test today and we're tired. We're going to relax with some red wine and watch a movie.

Another Door Opens...

So, I realize it's been awhile again since I've written. A lot has happen.

1. I will NOT be accepted into the 2010 CRNA school board.
2. I am STILL deploying, though communication between LRMC and the 47th CSH Chain of Command is probably a little limited.
3. I'm dating someone ;-)
4. I am now working in the PACU (Recovery Room)

1. Since I will not be accepted into the 2010 class, the CRNA's are encouraging me through other options. Of course, some of them are die-hard Army Program advocates, but many of the CRNA's are encouraging me to look into the VA or find a hospital who will pay for it in exchange for my employment there. There's a million ways to do it, and I'll figure it out.

2. I have mixed feelings on deploying right now. It sounds like I would be entertaining myself in Iraq by playing Rock Band, having unicycle races, and limbo contests instead of taking care of soldiers. May or may not reflect the reality of MY hospital, but that's what it sounds like. I asked COL Cornett yesterday if I was required to go to a pre-deployment Combat Trauma course in San Antonio in June because I had heard nothing from the CSH since before Christmas. She said yes, and she said that the extension packets for those already there were rejecteted so that I would have the opportunity to replace them... yippe....?? So, again, the Army is a giant tease. I am training for deploying, yet I have no definitive orders to go.

4. (skipping 3 for now) I work in the PACU now!! YAAY! I started the 3rd week of April. I was on orientation for a few weeks and now I'm off oritentation and on my own. I'm a big kid now!! It's very different than ward nursing, but it's deffintiately great to be next to the OR. The schedule is 8 hours Mon-Fri and the occasional Saturday, I happen to be working today. We only had one scheduled patient for the OR, I fought for it and got it, and I already sent him back downstairs. Soooo.... now we're just waiting for some doc to decide someone needs surgery... as long as it's before 4:30pm when we GO HOME!! I like the staff up here, it's an entertaining group of people. It's also right across from the ICU. Since working here, I haven't been able to work the ICU really. I thought it might be easier, but it's really not. That's one of the downsides to not working the ward schedule anymore, but some places do consider PACU to be critcal care, and if I really AM going downrange, hopefully I'll get put in the ICU there.

3. So, here's number 3. Many people already know I started dating someone, but they don't necessarily know the story. Well, here goes:

His name is Joe. He's an Army Reservist- Captain. He arrived in Germany in November of 2008 and he's here for 1 year, although he's applying to extend until November 2010. He's a Nurse in the ICU. He's a Police Officer in real life. We met in the ICU when I was being Crazy Michaela. We started talking, we became facebook friends, we worked together with the same patient one day, we went to lunch soon after and that was the start of it all. That was late March. Then I went on leave to Paris and Wisconsin (whoo hoo!) and he picked me up at the airport the morning I got back. We have spent every day together since. It's kind of nuts. Sooo... if I HADN'T worked in the ICU trying to get into CRNA school for next year, I never would have met him. He's also been a great help exploring my options for school. He too is trying to finished advanced degrees so we can help each other out. Once he finishes the degree, he'll make Major.

Joe and I have taken two trips. Amsterdam and Paris. Both are great. He's very easy to travel with. We're coming back to the states in June for another one. We're going to Phoenix and New York! I'm so excited. I hope to see Kristen in Phoenix and a Broadway show in NYC. I also get to meet Joe's family! Joe has a 9 year old son from a previous marriage. He has 4 brothers, he's the middle child. His brother is graduating police academy, which is what we're ultimately going to the states for.

Joe is a great cook. He made a wonderful dinner for my birthday and he's got all these great ideas for summer grilling. He did t-bone steaks a few nights ago at a friend's apartment and they were great. It's nice that he's the chef because I'm the baker. So far, I've liked everything he's made. He's been getting me to eat my veggies.

Joe is also a great interior organizer... in other words, he's a neat freak. He's helped me complete the moving-in process that I started way back in October when I actually moved in to my house. The weather got really nice last month so we started doing some gardening in my front yard, I have beautiful flowers blooming. We also planted a rose bush that is flourishing. I'm very excited for it to get bigger and bud. Next is the back yard so that I can have nice BBQ's when the summer weather returns.

Well, we've had our one patient for the day... just hanging out for a few more hours, then I'm going home for a nice relaxing Sunday off!

Burned Out

So, long story short, I have spent the last 3 months working 60-80 hours a week on 3 different units to apply to Graduate School for a Master's in Nursing Anesthesia. I wanted to go in June 2010 back in San Antoio, TX through the Army program. I completed and submit my pack just this week. The chief CRNA of anesthesia had me and my buddy Jason as #1 and #2. We wanted to go together because we're a good team and it would have been great to have that support system in place. I rocked the GRE and had been assured by many people who had connections that I was practically accepted into the school. Unfortunately, Branch has other ideas...

When I came to Germany, I signed piece of paper that said I was in Germany for 36 months, no excuses. I had to submit a waiver to curtail my assignment by 6 months. My chief nurse enthusiastically signed it with confidence and I sent it to branch Christmas Eve. Do the math, they have had it for 3 months and said "great, I got your waivers!" I am due to leave Jan 1st of 2011. Like I said, the school starts June of 2010. Supposedly, the Army is down something like 40% on CRNA's. It appeared that the needs of the Army would outweigh the fact that I wanted to leave Germany a little early. Heck, I'll even come back to Germany. However, Branch decided they don't care. My DEROS waiver is being denied. They just decided that last week. So, three months of working my ass off later, my packet will not even be considered for this year. The board only meets once a year in April. Now, I will have to apply for June of 2011. Not only will I have to apply for a 2.5 year program that starts 2.5 years from now, I now have to stay in Germany for 42 months. I went to 5 different senior officers including 2 full-bird colonels and all of them had already gone to Branch to try to pull strings for me. I have turned LRMC upside down since Christmas trying to make this happen. Again, Branch didn't care. I went to the Overseas Service Army Regulation. LTC McKay had told me to find the regulation that stated 30 of 36 months count for an overseas tour and qualify you for things like curtailment. If I had something in print, I could fight Branch. Oh yeah, that policy is from 1988 and has since been revised. Now, there is no way out.

Needless to say, I'm pretty upset. Everyone said, "oh, 1 year won't make a difference. No big deal, don't worry about it." But to young little me, it is a big deal and a year is lot. These last 3 months I've been tired, stressed, and working my ass off to finish this packet. It was literally the day I was finishing it up to mail it that COL Cornett came to the floor to tell me Branch was being a butthead. It's one thing to work your ass off and get results. It's another to work your ass of and be shut down late in the game. If they had seen my waiver in December and told me right away, I would have thought, "well, that sucks" but I wouldn't have been so devastated. I would have enjoyed the last few months a little more, not worked quite so often, or created quite so many waves with a few of the higher-ups. I honestly have never worked so hard for anything yet. I don't remember getting into undergrad being this time consuming or difficult.

It's hard to imagine being 29 years old before I get to complete this program. I wanted to do it now so that maybe I wouldn't be in my 30's before I met a nice guy and wanted to get married. I didn't want to get married, have a family, and then abandon them for 2.5 years to go to school. I'm ahead of the curve at LRMC. Many of my peers still enjoy ward nursing, or they are just deciding what they want to do. I know what I want to do and I hate feeling held back. Honestly, if I had known that it would be impossible before coming, I wouldn't have come to Germany as my first duty station. Germany is great, it's fun to travel, but the war is different now. We see very few battle injuries and mostly get 23 hour post-op admits. It's not very acute and not the best place for a brand new nurse to be. Germany is a much better follow-on duty station for someone who would be here doing what they want to be doing.

So, because I have amazing superiors, we haven't totally given up yet. My packet is still being submited from the LRMC end, and I will still try to negotiate with Branch. Flexibility and always being prepared were stressed to me. Things COULD change. People have asked me if I've thought about just getting out and doing it civilian... but, the Army is the 2nd best program, turns out some of the most independent practitioners and I'm still eligable to go sooner by Army standards than civilian standards. Not only that, it's paid for and I still get paid. It's too good a deal not to stay.

I'm still supposed to deploy downrange. The dates have been pushed closer to August than June or July. The first group just got there a few weeks ago. In the meanwhile, I am going to independently take an Organic Chemistry course. It's 16 weeks and it's all distance learning. It's rather expensive, but it'll make next year that much easier when I start the re-application process in the fall.

Soon, I am supposed to be moved to either the Post-Anesthesia Recovery Unit OR the Emergency Room. It's kind of a toss up. PACU is as close to the OR as you can get. BUT, ER is critical care. The catch is, LRMC's ER is a conveniency clinic. All REAL ER cases go to the German economy... Of course the occasional real emergency comes in. But that's a rare situation. I do not know when I'll be moved or where it will be. It's still in the works. But again, great superiors are working very hard for me. Well, in exchange for me being "sponsor of the month" again. Apparently of all the LRMC nurses, I'm the only one in the hospital who can do this job. They did it to me in February, some of March, someone else took over, I got it back, they took back over, and now it's back to me in April.

Since I'm now suckered into staying in Germany longer I've got more trips that I'll need to take. Travel is back on, 80 hour work-weeks are over (for now). Paris is this weekend (YAAAY!! I need a break!!), Greece is May (hopefully), and who knows what else. Maybe Egypt will manage to fit in there somewhere. I work on my brithday, but Paris is close enough to it. Ultimately, all I want is the be able to pay for that Organic Chemistry class.

I know that everything happens for a reason and that I will later understand that reason and that whatever happens will be happening for the better. But right now, I still don't feel that way and I'm still getting over the disappointment.

Well, I have got to get some sleep. Tomorrow is my 5th 12 hour shift in a row...

Floating

The first two days on days I was lucky enough to not have to work with my team. I floated to the ICU on Monday, Pediatrics on Tuesday, and was back in the ICU again today on my day off for my volunteer hours. It's been interesteing. On Monday, I had a patient from Poland who'd been in a blast injury with a frontal depressed skull fracture. He was ward transferable... almost. He was extremely agressive, very aggitated, and kept trying to pull his trach out. It's hard to have a patient who one minute is nice, cooperative, and smiling and then the next minute is trying to hit you, break you hand, growling "fuck off, you nasty woman" for trying to put oxgyen on or restrain him from pulling out his own trach. Again, frontal lobe injury. Even if he's a totally ass hole normally, this is still an extreme version of ass hole and it's not personal, it's just the result of a neuro injury and likely over stimulation from the ICU environment. It was a busy day and a little bit of a rough day but it was a nice day to get re-familiarized with the ICU.

On Tuesay, I got to work and just before report we were told Peds needed a float. I jumped up and ran out the door to go. I got there, it wasn't too overwhelming but there had only been 1 nurse on nights. There was a horrible family there with 4 sick kids, only one of whom was actually admitted, and the parents wanted all the kids treated, put all their kids in the other beds in the room, and the oldest child was running into all the other rooms. The next day a previously fine new type 1 diabetic started running a fever. I was lucky to not take that family and the Dr discharged them very quickly. I had a post-op 9 year old girl from an appendectomy who was extremely anxious and scared, but by the end of the day we got to discharged home. My 2nd patient was a bronchiolitis 1 year old boy who was the cutest thing in the world and was a total tank. He was so cute. Towards the end of what had been an increasingly peaceful day, we got an admission from the peds clinic. A two-weeker in continuous SVT. His heart rate was in the 240's and higher for 20-30 minutes. He was a command interest patient so the charge nurse took him, but I was with the doctor at the monitors so I got to hear the whole process going on.The second time he had a 20 minute run of SVT on the ward they actually cracked the crash cart to get adenosine. Right before they gave it, is spontaneously resolved. I don't know what happened over night. Hopefully he was fine, but I've met his parents before and they were absolutely distraught, I felt so bad they were going through that.
Today, I was in the ICU again with a totally new team. There were 4 nursing interns on the ward that day so they were paired with most of the more critical patients. I was floating between the vented patients and then ultimately decided to stay with one patient who has ARDS. He was sedated, ventilated, and on an insulin drip. There was plenty to do. He's a large man made much larger by all the edema. His scrotum was the size of canteloupe. He was so puffy it looked like it hurt. We got to play with sedation, arterial lines, central lines, pushed some labetalol for systolic blood pressure in the 180's-190's, did all sorts of stuff to control a temp up to 101.8. In the end of the day, he only had a low grade fever, he was Normal Sinus for the first time in days, his central venous pressures were steady, his bp was low 100's/60's. Hopefully night shift will have a good night.
So, in the last few days ,I got a few things signed off my checklist. Tomorrow I have one day off before it's back to work for another 3 days. I HAVE to get my car inspected and re-registered and I have a meeting with the chief of the education deparment to talk about my application process. Hopefully I learn something new, get my promotion orders, some good mail, and REST.