Blood

Sometimes I think that I have a very peculiar job. Perhaps its not really all that strange in reality, but there are times I can't help but stop and think, 'How the hell did I manage to find myself doing this?' The human body holds from 8-12 pints of blood (higher end for men, lower end for women), and I have carried that much in baggies down the stairs on a busy day. I pull it from people who are too high in iron, and infuse it into people too low. I draw it out for labs and have my gloved hands covered in it during central line insertions. I constantly evaluate veins and puncture them with increasing success. More blood. Everywhere I turn and everything I do seems to revolve around it. Considering just how much I used to recoil at even conceptualizing it, I often think it is such a queer turn of events that has led me to a specific part of a profession which has me around it almost constantly. I no longer see it as anything other than any other fluid, though I am consistently amazed at the variations of viscosity and hue. Now, if I could only being to feel that way about fecal matter. Somehow I doubt it.

things are settling at work. Well, I am acclimating anyway. Perspective is a beautiful thing and, sadly, a number of my co-workers are having far rougher goes of it than I was. Work is work and you can get away from it, but personal turmoil follows you. I wish them the best as they deal with their separate situations. I have just decided to embrace the cart and all that comes with it, from the difficult starts to the always unpredictable PICC lines. The clinic is easier, and often more predictable, but I will do what I have to until the next challenge presents itself, and try to do so with as little grumbling as I can manage.

I am off to enjoy a day without work. Not a hard thing to do I admit.

Another week in the books

This week was best defined as a mixed bag. Thursday was spent mostly on the floor because of a mandate from above that I get more practice on central lines. I don't mind practicing more (they are not spectacularly hard, they just don't appeal to me all that much, but I am open to doing more if need be), but why does that necessitate that I constantly be on the floor? If there was a line, it isnt as though I couldn't still go do it. A big whatever. The bid Thursday revelation was, and this is a credit to my immediate supervisor for telling me at least, that the higher ups don't think I do altogether much. It was a shocking revelation to me (and loudly disputed by my immediate supervisor evidently with support from my coworkers). Where the impression came from is beyond me honestly since I see them MAYBE once or twice a month tops. All I know was that my first inclination was to say a big FU to the higher ups and walk. Immediately thereafter (and thank god for inner monologue) I decided instead to say nothing at all. In talking with my coworkers, they say to just ignore it. No one has a whole lot of respect for the higher ups, and they put little to no stock in their opinion on anything. In truth, even before this, neither did I. However, it did sour my mood significantly that day.

That same day Tia accepted a new job at a significantly higher pay making for a slightly higher probability that I will be able to retire and be a kept man! (up from 0.0% to 0.1%) A man can dream! Kudos to her though. She has managed to do a whole lot of grown up things long before I even made enough money to live on my own and now it is paying off for her in a big way. I guess there are some benefits to being a responsible adult (I can only assume since I refuse to be one myself :)

To conclude the whiplash like vacillations of the day, we went out to brinner to celebrate and I ended up quite sick with food poisoning (or something that mimiced it quite convincingly) and missed Friday at work. I will not be eating apples or bacon for some time. Definitely not in combination with one another.

The weekend was spent at work, but evenly split between the park and the big hospital. Not my favorite place, but at least the big bananas are not working weekends. I spent most of the days wandering the halls and trying to make it until 5:30. I feel about as uncomfortable as a Republican at a gay bar there.

So, another week lies ahead...........meaning more days spent pushing my cart and roaming the floors. Applications are already being floated around just in case.

liquor

As intolerable as last week was, the weekend was its antithesis. An antidote to the poisons of short staffing, bizarre and needless shift floating, and unexplainable focus shifting that makes me feel like less of a nurse and more of a salesman.

We spent Friday night trying out a new brewpub down the street in downtown Tigard with the Neely crew in tow. The beer was quite good as was the food and company. The only downside was the oversaturation of urchins, but that petered out rather early. Saturday we met up with some of Tia's friends from school for a birthday celebration that involved the evidently famous (Diners, Drive-ins and Dives shot there) Pine State Biscuits It was quite good, though perhaps not as good as the line snaking out the door would indicate. They do have damn fine biscuits though! We then wandered out to fulfill Chris's birthday wish of a distillery tour. Who knew that the microbrew capital of the country also was a prolific purveyor of spirits as well. Worth checking out for sure if you haven't...who doesn't like free booze after all? The nicest part, you can wander to each one without once returning to your car. http://distilleryrowpdx.com/

After finishing up our wanderings, we found ourselves at Grand Central Bowl, where the drinking (and some bowling) continued. Dave bowled a 256 in the first game.......higher than the combined totals of the rest of us for both games we managed to complete (though sadly, despite that fact, I managed to win the second game). Great place to kick back and bowl.

Sunday was more subdued with some football, some cleaning and a pleasant dinner with the folks. If only all weekends could help erase the week like this one did.

what happens when..............

...........you take two unenviable factors and combine them? Well, stupidity evidently.

I am NOT a morning person. I hope to make that crystal clear. Never have been, never will be. My whole body revolts at the merest hint of the alarm clock and the idea of seeing the sun rise holds all the pleasure in my mind of have my teeth drilled upon. Also, I don't function well being tired (hardly revelatory), which I have been of late. Don't know if it is the change in the weather, the sun not rising before I do, or the amount of things I have been doing with my awake hours, but I have been beat of late. Plus, I have been working a lot of contiguous days, which makes me feel even more burnt out, which leads me to this morning. I managed to get into my car, pull it out of the garage, and started ever so slightly down the road when I realized two things: my feet were awfully cold and the gas pedal felt funny. You see, I forgot to wear my shoes. The only thing similar I can recall was when I wore two completely different shoes (one brown, one black, though similar in style enough to be not horribly incongruous) to one of my student teaching days. Honestly, this is all but a short step to walking into work one day without pants on.

Wish luck to all my early AM patients.