Health, Home, Work, Sleep

Wednesday I had the pleasure of a sick day where neither I nor Jack was sick.  It was strange.  Our nanny called in sick and we have no back-up.  Since Ben missed work last time, I called my boss to say I would not be at work the next day.  We had so much fun!  It was a bright and sunny day, so we took a long walk.  Jack held the leash for most of it and does a good job of telling Jem where to go.

We also took his camera.  I haven't uploaded the photos from that day yet, but I'm looking forward to them.  He made some interesting choices, like this:

The next two days of work were surprisingly hard.  I had two really difficult patients Thursday morning all to myself.  Almost every complication (except the biggies: cardiac/respiratory arrest) happened.  Vomiting, panic attack, catheter clogged, clotted systems, hypotension not responding to albumin, antibiotics to hang, alarms on machines I haven't been trained on, and cranky nurses to deal with.  I was so happy when a helper arrived mid day and I could get out of the room for a few minutes.  The afternoon was a bit better and I would have been able to go home early except we had a staff meeting at that hospital at 6 pm.  So I video chatted with Ben and Jack for a little bit before the meeting.  I didn't get home until 8:30.  What a long day.

Friday I had an ICU patient with dementia.  He kept calling out "help me help me!" Then when I asked him what he wanted, he either said "I don't know" half the time, or the other half it was a small thing that didn't satisfy him ("cover my legs," "give me water") or something I refused to do ("get me out of here," "my butt is itchy").  He was also positive for flu, so I had to wear an itchy mask the whole treatment (5+ hours).  But he at least tolerated treatment kind of ok, so it wasn't too hard.  Plus he left his TV on the history channel.  When you spend a lot of time in ICUs, you appreciate it when they don't watch Spanish language talk shows, faux courtroom shows, trashy paternal testing talk shows, or horror movies.

The afternoon patient was cancelled so I just helped out in the big room upstairs before going home in the late afternoon.  Good thing too, because I was on call.  I had been on apheresis call the previous two nights already, but we rarely get called out for that.  Friday I was dialysis call, first up.  1 1/2 hours after I fell asleep the pager went off.  I was at the hospital from midnight to 4 am, setting up two different treatments that would run through the night.  As soon as I put my head to pillow at 4:30 the pager went off again.  My call partner got it, but that meant I was up for the next one if it came.  Thank goodness it did not.

Ben let me sleep in until almost 11.  We had a nice lunch at Panera Bread (Yay for new restaurants at the Mills!).  Then he went to Lyons with the menfolk for pinball while I went to a baby shower in Aurora.  Novline and Neil are looking forward to their first baby on Valentine's day.  It was fun driving through my old neighborhood to find the party that Neil's mom and aunts hosted.  It was a sweet party too.  All the usual games (I won gift bingo- suckers don't know how to set up a board) and delicious quiches and chocolate dipped fruits.  I made sure to try the "Many Layers Cake" that Novline made.  She said it's an Indonesian dessert made with rice flour and coconut milk and then steamed.  She got plenty of things for the new baby girl.  I cooed like a dove over all the socks and booties.  So tiny! 

I slept 11 hours last night, still making up for the call-out.  Jack was developing a cold Saturday night, so Ben brought him into our bed when he woke too early from coughing.  When I got out of the shower I found Ben cleaning up throw-up. 

And that brings me to my quiet Sunday at home.  Jack had a fever (101.8) and terrible cough.  We stayed in pajamas all day and didn't leave the house.  We watched Finding Nemo and Kipper.  We both took long naps.  I read Lord of the Rings while Jack read Bizzy Bear.  He ate a little at lunch but refused dinner.  Even another popsicle.  When we were reading a Richard Scarry book at 7 pm and I took this picture:

I noticed his eyes rolling back; he could barely stay awake.  I declared it bed time.  I hope he feels better tomorrow!  I have another day off.  Whether we will spend it doing our normal Monday errands or watching Pixar's Cars under a quilt remains to be seen. Either way, I'm looking forward to three shifts this week with NO scheduled call.  Hallelujah.