Oh, that's right! I'm a nurse!

I went back to work today - and what a day it was!  It was supposed to be a day of class/orientation to catch me up from missing the summer and be sure I knew my stuff.  Last night, the recorded message of our daily schedule told me that instead I would go to one of our hospitals and work with a nurse there, getting familiar with some of the new policies, then go to our main hospital to go over missed material from mid-day on.  I was called at 4:45 am to ask if I could go straight to the main hospital instead.  One of our morning staff got called in and was already in the ICU since 3 am.  Sure, no prob.  When I got there at 6 am, lo, our third person had called in sick.  So it was just me and one other nurse to run a room full of patients at our craziest facility!  So much for easing into it! 

Somehow, when I put my familiar, bleach-stained scrubs on my muscle memory took over and I was a nurse again.  I strung machines and assessed my patients.  Right away I stuck needles in a guy who had infiltrated his fistula yesterday during a stick - and mine worked!  I gave medications, I troubleshooted poor access flows, I managed fluid volume with saline and meds.  It was kind of amazing.  All these things I hadn't thought about in months came flooding back. 

It was a crazy day and we didn't get a third person in the room until 9.  I ran out as soon as possible to pump.  Pumping is the worst part of returning to work.  I really dreaded it.  It wasn't so bad.  I managed to get three sessions in.  I spilled about 6 ounces :-(  but it wasn't too messy and I tried not to cry.  (Ha! crying over spilt milk.)  I was on my feet for all but 60 minutes today.  Boy am I glad to have tomorrow off.  And hurrah!  They gave us a teleconference number so I can call-in instead of attending a staff meeting in person.  I MUCH prefer to attend with Jack in my lap. 

Speaking of Jack, he's been asleep since 5 pm so I haven't been able to hold him yet.  It sounds like he had a very nice day with his Dad.  He doesn't want to go back to work tomorrow :-)  I'm so so happy with our Jack-watching arrangement.  I can't wait for him to wake up so I can feed him and cuddle with him.