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Name: Jennifer
Birthday: 10/2/1982
Gender: Female
Interests: First of all, I LOVE playing my guitar and writing songs--I cannot express this enough. Singing them in public is slightly less fun, if only because I forget my own lyrics on a regular basis, which generally leads to some degree of embarressment. I am a huge movie buff and will chat films with people until my brains fall out. Last but not least, I adore socializing, meeting new people, reminicing with old people (not to be confused with the geriatric community), and I am almost always up for an adventure.
Expertise: Bachelor's degree in nursing and I work at Phoenix Children's Hospital, but my real expertise is to risque to post on this website. ;-) Actually some people might say that I'm best at being ridiculous.
Occupation: Nurse (RN)
Industry: Medical
Message: message me
Website: visit my website
AIM:  Sayhitothebunny
Member Since:
1/27/2004
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| I can't believe it's been so long... holy shit. I think I may need to make a new and more secure blog for future postings.
It's like *sniff* seeing an old friend.
Good times Xanga...
Good Times. | | |
| Wow! I'm updating twice in the same month! How odd...
So in the pediatric world, we are now fully into what is known as "respiratory season." This means that just about every kid who walks through our hospital doors between November and March has a case of RSV, adenovirus, meningitis, or some form of parainfluenza--all viruses that ultimately cause bronchiolitis or asthma exaccerbations--and a good deal of them end up with pnuemonia on top of it all.
My nights at work now consist of five basic acitvities:
1.) listening to babies cough and sneeze uncontrollably, which makes for fussy babies, which makes for fussy parents, which makes for bitching and moaning from everyone
2.) gowning, gloving, and masking every time I go into a room, taking it all off on my way out, and washing my hands before starting all over again to attend to a different patient. Hopefully. Sometimes the same patient needs something the second my gown, gloves and mask come off, in which case, I have to start over.
3.) suctioning endless volumes of mucus out of tiny noses and deep down clogged throats in an attempt to clear airways enough to enable babies to eat.
4.) running fluids and meds and titrating oxygen on 4 different kids, which results in me chasing a dozen incessant beeping noises throughout the shift.
5.) scrambling to document everything I do in case one of the fussy parents decides to sue me and/or the hospital for some stupid reason.
In our not so spare time, we play a little game called "musical beds." Because virtually all of our rooms are double-occupancy, and since every bed in the hospital is utilized this time of year, the only available bed is often in an inconvienient place. For instance, if a kid with RSV (very contagious) needs to be admitted, and the only available bed is in the same room as a kid who just came back from surgery, we need to find a more suitable roommate because the post-surgical kid could catch RSV and get sicker.
Every game in respiratory seasons is a losing one. If you don't suction enough, the kid can't breathe because there's too much mucus in the way. If you suction too much his airways will get more and more swollen until he can't breathe because they're too narrow. If you don't gown, glove, and mask EVERY time you touch a kid, you are really likely to get sick. However, if you gown, glove, and mask when the kid is turning purple or seconds away from jumping out of his crib, the patient is likely to suffer for it. There are too many patients and too few supplies. Stressed out parents can't understand simple instructions and explanations, while stressed out nurses lose patience with seemingly brainless parents and doctors who won't return pages.
So.... Last night I started with 4 kids. One family needed to be informed that the patient's 3 year old sibling couldn't stay, even though there are signs posted ALL OVER the hospital that say (in English and Spanish) that no one under 12 years old can visit in the hospital until further notice. Had to get an interpreter to communicate with the mom of one of another patient because she only spoke Spanish. Musical beds kicked in about 3 hours into the shift, so I scrambled to document on and transfer one of my patients (my only non-respiratory patient) to the other side of the unit. Less than an hour later, I got an admission: one of 2 premature TWINS; diagnosis: bronchiolitis and pink eye. *cringe* About an hour after that, the IV infiltrated (went bad) on one of my babies with pnuemonia, so I had to start a new IV. A little while later, the one mom had to leave to go take care of the 3 year old at home since her husband was going to work, so now we have to feed and change her baby until she comes back. Then my charge nurse calls a little pow-wow together at the nurse's station so we could help her figure out which two kids to move to a completely different floor because a baby that needs hemodialysis needed to come to our floor and needed a room with no roommates at all because of that. Whadda ya know, one of my kids has to move, so that takes another 45 minutes to arrange and complete, and the parents are pissed because it's 5:30 AM. In between all of this, I am tending to beeping machines, fiddling with oxygen, infusing antibiotics, trying to help change and feed my babies because even though the tech is running her ass off she's still way behind. I gowned/gloved/masked about 90% of the time, called two doctors, and charted on 5 different patients throughout the course of the night. Around 2 AM one kind soul ran to the cafeteria and brought me a big cup of water and a little cup of soup. I downed the soup in approximately 4 minutes (was interrupted and had to get up twice to deal with something during that time), it took me the rest of the shift to finish my water, and I only used the restroom once in 13 hours.
I think it's time for me to go back to Hawaii... | | |
| Jesus instructed me to spread the good news, so here I go!
1.) My follow-up colonoscopy was fab! I got more medication this time, and as such was appropriately quite out of it. Additionally, my ulcer has healed completely, so I don't have to go on prednisone and I don't have to see my gastroenterologist for like 6 months if I stay symptom free, which I am determined to remain optimistic about. Yay for no more ulcers!
2.) Grey's Anatomy is once again part of my life, and the return of Boston Legal is quite enjoyable as well.
3.) Bella is making lots of progress in PetSmart puppy school. We still have to work really hard on not getting aggressive while playing, but I think she needs to have play dates with a larger dog. I'm working on arranging for something like that.
4.) It's finally cooling off here and the weather has been beautiful! Lots of pretty sunsets and sunrises and occasional showers. I think I'll start hiking again.
5.) Weird Al has a new cd out, and I feel like a little kid when I listen to some of the songs. He is a genius of sorts... sometimes his version of a song is far better than the original!
6.) I'm contracting for overtime during our peak season, which means that not only will I be guarenteed to work my overtime, but I'll be paid an extra happy incentive bonus for each overtime shift I'm contracted for... which rocks, namely because it will enable me to afford Bella's inevitable spay and also visiting Hawaii this coming year.
7.) And last but not least, Scott: the best news in a long time for me and also the reason I will be visiting Hawaii. For the sake of avoiding mushiness, I'll leave it at that. 
That's all the good news I have for now (but it's a helluva lot better than anything on TV or in the paper), but until next time, this is Jennifer Rice, signing off!
(That's Gergely and I at the Keys last time I was in Tucson! Who the hell needs bar stools when you can sit on a SWING?)
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| I've seen this "confessions" entry done before on other peoples' blogs, and I've never done it myself, so here it goes...
I'm very addicted to Grey's Anatomy: so addicted that I have been trying to figure out how I can schedule myself around Thursday nights. This, as I have discovered, is nearly impossible. I love my bed, and I'm lying in it right now. You know, I bought a "big girl"Â bed (a queen to be specific) and I still only sleep on one side... like I'm saving the other side for someone who isn't here. Sometimes, when I feel an emotion very strongly, it comes out in tears, and that annoys me. I never play my guitar anymore... that used to be such a great outlet for me. I'm trying to start again, but the fact that I've forgotten almost all of the music that I created over the past few years is very discouraging. A couple weeks ago I got my legs waxed and it was a bit more painful than I expected, but now I have to decide if I want to stop shaving for like a week so I can do it again. I try not to worry about tomorrow and just focus on today, but I'm the kind of person that needs to have plans; I don't need to have details all at once, but I need to have plans in place. There are some days when I wonder if Bella is ever going to behave or if I have somewhat unrealistic expectations for her at this age. My expectations of people are often set very high, and as such, I'm frequently disappointed. Then again, with as many losers as I've ended up with, I guess some might say that the previous statement doesn't apply to the guys I date. This time, however... this one gets an A+, and I'm so happy but in the strangest way.
That's all for now I guess... Goodnight!
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| - Jesus Take the WheelSo I haven't updated in approximately 5,000 years, but things have been a bit crazy around here lately. For instance, my parents moved to Yuma, two roommates moved in, I've gradually become totally infatuated with the guy who lives in Alaska, I got a new puppy, and then I got horrendously sick. It's quite possible that my Crohn's Disease is flaring up, which sucks enormously, but at least this time I know what it is, and how to get help before it gets out of control. Perhaps more importantly, this time I will have a lot of friends I can count on for support, especially if it gets really bad and I have to have another surgery.
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