. . .
Well on New Year's eve, I worked for the first time in 7 days! It was different because our unit got moved temporarily to 7SE to try and save money. (Surgeons don't much like scheduling knee and hip replacements over Christmas and the holidays, and most people don't want to have their surgery done either. So, our unit sometimes has to close down. This year we combined with 7SE who also sometimes empties out.
So while I had my ortho patients, it felt like a float (for you non-nursing peeps, floating is when a unit has too many nurses, and floats a nurse to a unit that is short staffed. It is different to float, because 1. you don't know where things are, so it takes you longer to find materials. 2. you aren't used to that type of patient so it takes longer to assess them and 3. you aren't familiar with the staff or the way things are run. )
The staff on 7SE are nice, but I think they feel like we (the staff from 6SE) are intruding on their turf. But anyway it is hard on us all...
While I was at work they asked me if I wanted New Year's Day off ahead of time, and I agreed. Fortunately Jamaal had the day off too, so we spent it together, and did a few errands in F-dub.
Friday, I worked a 12 hour shift, and floated, this time for real, to 4SE, which I have been to before. The patients I was assigned were quiet and simple, and while the nurse assistants weren't as helpful as I hoped they would be, it wasn't that bad.
After I gave report, I didn't get back to the floor until 3:45, so I was a tad late. I was assigned a patient who had just arrived at 1500 (and therefore had nothing done) she had critical lab values, and her doctors hadn't written orders yet. It was irritating, stressful and sucked all my time. The HAs (from 7SE) kept calling me and telling me my other patients were calling and weren't very helpful about the fact that I was busy with other things.
It was a day that I almost cried during. If it were a year ago, or perhaps less only 7-8 months ago, I probably would have cried. But I sucked it up and bared it. 4 hours flew by and I stayed 1.5 hours after to chart.
I was exhausted. The night before I only got about 5 hours of sleep, and by the time I settled down for bed, I again was only going to get another 5 hours of sleep.
On Saturday, the day after my 4 hours of "hell," I was called again by work, but this time I was nearly there, but since I was so exhausted from the night before, I decided to go back home and rest.
Now I am back where I started...
Since I had Saturday off, I decided to ask my mom if she wanted to go to the wedding expo instead of waiting until Sunday. She agreed, and we got there around 1230.
The first thing we did, was look at wedding gowns. They were on sale, and I tried on a total of 3 and settled with the 3rd. It fit me perfectly and made my curves look so natural, and my waist appear narrow. I was happy with it immediately and my mom said "oh Aubri, that is beautiful"
For $500...it was more than I expected to have.
It was a fun day, we had plenty of opportunity to taste cake samples. I got a total of 10 pens, some candy, and many many pamphlets of wedding vendors. I am most freaked out about the flowers now, because they are so freaking expensive, and I honestly don't really care about them...we plan to check out Safeway and Costco...because they both do flowers. I plan on making my own invitations, and so got a few ideas from people, but mostly have an idea in my head about what I'm going to do. I entered my name in a million drawings, and I hope to win something. But I doubt I will...
Things are slowly getting checked off of the list....
I'll have to add to this list as I remember things I need to do....I apologize in advance because you'll see a lot of this list...
mmm cake! :)
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to hear you had a stressful time at work recently! I am glad you were able to hold together and not cry, although I'm sure you were very frustrated. I hope that work gets back to normal and that you are not stressed out and can enjoy it!
PS I really like how you did the check off list there!