First Breakdown

Everyone told me it would happen...I'm not sure I believed them. Everything finally got to me yesterday at work and I broke down and teared up a little. I had five patients to start, with two who were demanding right off the bat and one who needed to be transferred to another room closer to the nurses' station. The transfer itself took awhile since the patient was pretty much non-weight bearing and was sitting in a chair, not in the bed...so that was quite the effort. Two families called about half an hour after I got there, and I hate when families call for updates right after I get report because at that point, I haven't even met the person (except to say "Hi, I'm Susan, I'll be your nurse tonight"...which, FYI, is still so weird to say) and don't really know what's going on quite yet. I was still behind, and I was told I was getting an admission, moving me up to six patients...which is about when I lost it. Luckily the other nurses weren't as crazed and someone else took the admission.

So that was fun. I was wayyyy behind until about 7pm, then I thought I'd be good. HAHHAH, not quite. I was reassessing one of my patients, and something just seemed...different than before. Blood sugar low? No. Grabbed some vital signs...whoaaaa! Something's not right. Put on some oxygen, called the doctor on call...who immediately came up. The patient went into new-found atrial fibrillation (thank you, EKG) and was then transferred to a monitored floor.

Soooo that was a good find on my part (nurses were like...how'd you find that? "Something just seemed...different"), but the rest of the night was terrible. At the same time that the above event was happening, another not-really-with-it patient had a low blood sugar. Time for some dextrose! Blood sugar came up, life is good.

Another one of my patients was having a terrible time getting her pain controlled, so I finally called the doctor and got her pain medication switched. By the end of my shift, her pain was at a 0/10. Victory!

Overall, I felt like a good nurse and an absolutely terrible nurse all at the same time. Someone please tell me if I just totally violated HIPAA. (I always want to write "HIPPO"...oops?)

Anyway...running! I'm moving my schedule around so my long runs are minimal when my parents are here...They're arriving Friday night, so I'm hoping to do my long run on Friday before work. I'm doing the schedule shuffle, which basically means cutting out some rest days, which will be added in next week when my parents are here...good plan. This past Friday I headed out for four "recovery" miles. I did a new route, which apparently included a gigantic mile-long hill. Recovery certainly doesn't feel easy with giant hills thrown in, but I can't escape the hills, so I guess we'll make it work.

Friday, July 24
4.03 miles in 33:49, avg pace of 8:24

The Rocket Scientist came over Friday night (he was sleeping in his car until I finished work...I should get him a key for the house...), so we did a long run on Saturday morning. In a perfect world, I would be home by midnight and we'd be able to get up at a decent time, but I think I got home more around 12:45 and didn't get to bed until 2. Let's just say that we didn't exactly beat the heat for our long run on Saturday. By the time we woke up and finished getting sucked in by the Tour de France (did you see that mountain they had to climb?? I hurt just watching them), it was about 10:30 and in the high 80's.

Saturday, July 25
12.03 miles in 1:37:48, avg pace of 8:08

We passed few other runners on the trail...mostly bikers. We stopped at the water fountain along the way, and it's not until I step into the bathroom that I realize how drenched with sweat I am...what a lovely feeling! The run felt good until we had about 2.25 miles left to go, when I just felt...tired. We took a little stretch break and were back at it. It was the first time in a long time that I actually stopped in the middle of a run (water stops not included), so I was really feeling it. I love summer, but running in the heat isn't so fun.

Time to mentally prepare for work. Ugh.