11 hours!

Sorry I am a day late with everything, but life is busy here at the Ashburton House.

I worked my first (almost) full shift yesterday/Monday. It was 11 hours, and surprisingly wasn't too bad. There were a few dead hours where I was walking around looking for something to do, but other than that I enjoyed it. The regular nurse aide's sat down and chatted while we had free time, which I think is acceptable, but I felt uncomfortable doing that on the clock. Maybe my views will change over time, but right now I prefer to be busy. The first patient I had was paralyzed from the chest down. He was an old insurance salesman, was divorced, negative, and depressed. I tried to hang out and talk with him as much as I could, but he was draining. Speaking of draining, at one point when I was talking to him he started to self-catheterize himself to use the restroom. He told me I could leave if I was embarrassed, but that he was used to everyone seeing everything. I don't feel uncomfortable with human anatomy or urine, but I do find it inappropriate that he didn't excuse himself from the conversation or notify me until after he had already started. Later, the same patient asked me if was mormon because I had mentioned I went to China for the summer. He said mormons often go to China when they are my age because they think the Chinese "need our help", he rolled his eyes as he said this and told me that we need China's help. I disagree.

Some other experiences I had were removing a Naso-gastric tube from a woman's nose, discontinuing an IV catheter, as well as taking vital signs and emptying urine bags. I had another patient who was an elderly man who started crying while I was in his room with another nurse. He had gotten his foot amputated on Thursday due to diabetes complications and said that it had all "just hit him." I wasn't sure how to be very therapeutic, so I stood next to the patient while the other nurse sat on his bed and rubbed his arm. The patient was from New York, and was a clean-cut man. His foot problems started out as an ingrown toenail that a pediatrist cut out, but then the foot continued to exhibit circulation problems and eventually turned black. This all happened within 6 months. I always assumed that only uncompliant diabetic patients were the ones that needed amputations. I see now that that is not true.

I had another male patient who was probably around 60. He was really sweet and was on the floor because he had been having gastric pain and was being held for further testing. The poor guy was not allowed to have any food by mouth, so every time I asked him if I could get him anything, he said he wanted a "big ole' cheeseburger." Haha. I ended up having a nice conversation with him about my career goals, and how ultimately I want to travel and perhaps even do missions overseas. When his friend and wife came to visit him later, he told them all about me and they all talked about how some folks from their Church just came back from a mission trip to Honduras. Before my shift ended, I said goodbye to them, and he winked at me saying: "Sarah, go do missions." As I closed the door he told his wife, "she is such a sweet girl..." It was really encouraging to hear that.

Speaking of mission work, a doctor at this hospital is going over to Uganda to set up an OR and teach the doctors how to perform surgeries. How cool is that? I also talked to one of the the traveling nurses again and she told me to work night shifts because the camaraderie is better. From what I have seen of this floor so far, I think the day-time camaraderie is fine to me! I do NOT want to work nights. No, no, no.

When I came home, my roommates were cooking dinner again for a host of guests. I went for a quick run to de-flate my mind, and then joined the group to dine. They had made hamburger pie, salad, and banana pudding with marmalade. I was weary of the hamburger pie, but I tried it and it wasn't bad. They all went out for "pint night" down town, but I decided to stay in and catch up with Sarah and another friend, and go to sleep. Working 12 hours is mentally tiring. My body can handle it, but my mind is ready to sleep.

Today I have the whole day off. YESS!! That is definitely a benefit of working 12 hour shifts is that you get 4 days off. I have all kinds of errands to run and tasks to take care of, but I have a feeling it will be a great day :)