AWKWARD AND AWESOME THURSDAY

This week I am starting with awkward...

Thanks to the new medicare laws, any time a patient comes in with any kind of skin breakdown or wound the admitting nurse has to take a picture of it for the chart.  To prove that we didn't cause the wound.  This week a very old man came in with a breakdown on his buttocks, inner thighs and very red and swollen scotum.  So I had  to take a picture of the skin issues, including  his genitals for the chart and it's not just a picture, I have to stick a measuring tape and a piece of paper with his name on next to it too.  Talk about awkward! No, I was not measuring the size of his genitals!  I did my best to be professional about it.  When the printed picture came back the supervisor discretely handed me the picture for the chart.  Now generally we post these things right in the front of the chart, I started to do that, but I just couldn't, I ended up burying it way in the back somewhere......Nurses have to do some crazy awkward things and act like they are routine every day things.  It is a weird thing, the profession of nursing sometimes.

That's enough awkward

I always try to come up with at least twice as much awesome as awkward, some weeks it's tougher than others:)

Today's awesome was that my sister gave me a whole bunch of apples off her tree and I was able to spend 14 hours making applesauce (I did take a time out to run in the middle of it, but thanks to a sore ankle it turned in to a walk).  I now have 4 cases of applesauce.  It always feels awesome to be able to look at canned goods and know that you did that.  Being as making applesauce doesn't take a lot of thinking and it is something I almost never do,  it was a real change of pace, si it gave me a good mental break. 

The biggest awesome is having a husband that is so supportive.  After a rough day he was willing to go to the store and get me the stuff for nachos and rootbeer floats for dinner and not say one critical or judgemental word..  I have decided that while 2 plates of nachos and 3 rootbeer floats over the course of the evening tasted awesome, they were not what made me feel better.  It was the thoughtfulness, love and kindess of my husband that did that.  Sometimes just being there is all it takes.  Of course the extra housework he did this week helped also:) 

I like awesome and awkward Thursday, it reminds me to recognize the humor in the awkward in my life, and watch for and focus on those awesome moments. 

What about you? Have you started your awkward and awesome thursday blogs?

waiting...waiting...waiting...for bad news

Today was a day of waiting.  Waiting for labs, doctors, tests, radiologists and then the doctor again.  Although it turns out I really didn't want to hear what they had to say. 

Being on the other side of the "waiting game"  has sure taught me a lot about nursing and what my patients and their families want and need from me and the place I work.  Like a more comfortable chair to sit in and good food available at the time when I can go get it! 

I am in kind of a weird place, it's like I am in this bad dream that I am waiting and working to get through, but I know what the end is, and I don't want to reach it, so I keep waiting. 

Having the chance to spend with my dad is priceless and I am very glad that I am living where I can be close and I have a job that is allowing me to be there as much as I need to. I am blessed with the experience of being a nurse that helps me explain all the tests and labs and medications decisions etc that seem to be coming at my dad so quickly.  My dad worries he's a burden, and in a sense he is, but, that's one burden I don't really want to let go of, so he just needs to deal with the fact that yes it may be inconvenient at times, or painful and difficult, but at this moment in time I wouldn't want to be or do anything different.  I love my dad and I want as much time as I can get, making up for a little lost time  here, but i don't want him to suffer any more than he has to. 

Sometimes I just have to cry and get it out of my system, that's just the way I am, then I can move forward and do what needs to be done.  I have a lot of great people supporting me, as do my dad and connie.  I am very thankful for that.

I heard a new Martina Mcbride song today where she says "I'm gonna love you through it"  and that is exactly what I plan on doing.  Gotta find that CD. 

PS  I have no magic ball that says how much longer my dad will live, I am a nurse, and I can see he is not doing so well, but I am not God, and only God knows when he plans on bringing him home, so please quit asking me, it's stressing me out.