I have spent the last 3 days working on a tragic, complex pediatric hospice admission. Pressure was high as the medications were complex, the logistics were complex, and you have to be so carefully measured with every word you say to families. We had to change our medication orders so many times due to shortages and meds precipitating out at the pharmacy. I am so grateful for the staff at our local PICU that patiently helped me with refreshers on central line maintenance and confirming med calculations.
Now that my work on this case is done, I’m ready to cry about it, because it ranks near the top of the list of sad pediatric cases. I wish I could say more, because man, I really need to vent.
@somethingwendythiswaycomes tagged me for a life update, and I’ve been super lazy about posting on Tumblr, so I suppose it’s time.
Work has been crazy with training FOUR new nurses at the same time. They moved our offices to a different building, and they haven’t given us the tools we need at our new office, so that’s been frustrating. Like, all we’re asking for is to stock our paperwork at our new office, and give us some tables and working phones so that we can finish our documentation at the end of the day. Instead, they’ve given us a tiny room full of leftover garbage from other offices, 2 desks, and no phone. And that’s for 10 nurses and 3 social workers to document in. One of my trainees was doing an evaluation for hospice last week and said “I was talking to the wife, and suddenly I heard the patient breathing strangely and then he just died!” She’s been a nurse for years, and that was the first time she’d been with a person when they died. Our jobs are strange indeed.
Covid was mild with nausea, dizziness, headache, and body aches being the worst of it. Strangely, the volume of the constant ringing in my ears has doubled since, and that’s my least favorite part of the experience.
My daughter’s wedding went off without a hitch, and I’m so glad she hired a photographer because I was so busy having fun that I took maybe 3 pictures all day. Here are some of my favorite images of the day:
I love this picture of my kid, and that you can see all the tattoos peeking through the lace.
FYI, I am not short at 5′ 5.5″, my husband is freakishly tall at 6′ 7″.
Gangster.
And this is what pure happiness looks like. I rarely look at a picture of myself and say “gosh, I really like that picture.” But gosh, I really like this picture.
