http://jen.ceejayoz.com/

Here’s all my nursing gear in my trunk:

All the boxes go in my trunk.  Laid out on the floor is all of my wound care supplies–we do a lot of wound care, as you can see!

The boxes are arranged as follows: General supplies, wound care, IV/Lab, foleys, and ostomy care with some random supplies.

I think I could just about stock a hospital unit right now!

(photo taken with the new Iphone!)

I felt like I did good for a patient today.

10/10 neuropathic foot pain, and refusing all pain meds except neu.ron.tin.  Says that he doesn’t want to feel stoned.  I’ve been arguing with him over this for 3 visits…today, I finally thought of Lido.derm patches!  Brought them up, and he agreed immediately upon hearing what they were.  Hopefully by tomorrow, he’ll be out of pain.

Cancer patients can be so rewarding.

When I started this job, my friends and I took bets on how long it would take for me to get into a car accident.

Two months.

Edit: I guess I should probably remember to say I’m fine, it was just a fender bender. No worries.

My GPS is dead!

I’ve only had it for about a month, and now everytime we start it up, it says, “Updating GPS firmware,” counts up to 100%, says, “Firmware update complete”…and then does the whole thing again.  And again.  And again.

Garmin website doesn’t help.  Circuit city doesn’t help. My IT husband doesn’t know how to help.

Anyone with ideas?  I need a new GPS by Tuesday morning, because I can’t read a map at all!

When you find yourself stealing your wife’s fentanyl patches, you know there’s a problem…

So, after 5 weeks, I’m finally done with orientation/preceptorship.  I had my first day alone yesterday(Friday), and I think it went pretty well.  Saw three patients, spent about an hour on the phone, got all my paperwork done…overall it went well.  Once I got started, I was fine, however, making that first phone call was a little nerve wracking.  I know that will get better.

Monday I have another three patients on my schedule–including a wound vac that I’m covisiting on, a daily wound visit, and a pain management case.  Should be interesting.

One year ago today, my coworker Maureen died at work, after a 2.5 hour megacode.  I miss her terribly, and the horror of her code gave me PTSD that’s finally starting to ease up.

She wouldn’t want me feeling sad about her today, and yet…

Rest in peace, Maureen.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much going on this week.  Classroom, classroom, and more classroom.

Busy day today: meetings at  Suburb Location 1 from 8-10, class at Downtown Location from 10-1230, one visit in Suburb 2, then back for class and paperwork at Suburb Location 1 from 215-4.  Lots of driving from place to place, which I guess is the way of the Road Nurse, yes?

So, remember how my first patient died?

8 days in the field, and already I’ve had a second unexpected death.

Jeez.  Even my preceptor says I have a black cloud now.

A quick note to my patients:

If we’re going to fill a mediset(pill box) for you, you have to take them in order.  Taking whatever day’s and time’s meds whenever you feel like it doesn’t work so well…