Distracted…

Tags

Books, Boyfriend, Fail, Goals, Half-Marathon, Health, Motivation, Night Shift, Nursing, Running, Training

I think ‘distracted‘ is a little bit of an understatement, but for now we’ll go with it. Really… Obsessed would be more appropriate.

Have you read Fifty Shades of Grey yet?!

If you have, you’ll completely understand my, ahem… Distraction. If you haven’t, go read. NOW! I’m currently on the second book of the trilogy, Fifty Shades Darker, and it hasn’t slowed down. It haven’t read books this fast since I was caught up in another series, which for this moment will remain un-named… I wasn’t even done book 1, before I was out buying books 2 and 3! I have to force myself to put the books down so I can, oh I don’t know… SLEEP?! So I can maybe clean my house, and oh right, eat too. You get to the end of the chapter, and you just have to know more! A fair warning though, these book are not for the faint of heart. You are guaranteed to find yourself blushing even while you’re all alone!

 

If I can’t convince you, hopefully this did! “Well… I don’t think you should use a spatula for that…” Hahaha. Oh Ellen

So besides my apparent constant reading, what else has been distracting…

Work has been distracting, or at least, it was for a bit. I had a very frustrating weekend last weekend at work. It had more to do with stupid, selfish people rather than the actual nursing side of things, which in the end, drives me even more crazy. Apparently to some people, common sense and a sense of responsibility are no longer important and values life traits anymore… Ugh. I will say, that I don’t think there is any other profession that is more impacted than nursing, when you are dealing with working short staffed. Not only is it stressful and unsafe for the nurses, it’s unsafe for the patients. Quality of care goes down, stress goes up. The chance of error increases. Not a good situation. And this past weekend I ‘technically’ worked short for all of my 4 night shifts. That’s 4 nurses for 36 patients. Do the math… I start nights again tonight, and I’m praying for a better staffing situation.

I just finished attending a migraine seminar this morning! I’ve suffered from migraines since I was in my early teens. Though a lot of what was covered I already knew to some degree, it was nice to have it all put together by the neurologist. I mentioned that I was going on twitter, and Miss Laura suggested I do a blog post on it! Great idea! Within the next week I’ll have post about migraines and sum up some of the information I was presented today! If you have some migraine questions, leave a comment, and I’ll try my best to find some information for you, if not an actual answer!

What else… Oh yes! I have a blog post started about my lovely little ticker that I call my heart! I saw a cardiologist last week, and after wearing a holter monitor for that, I did a stress test. I can say that as of right now, my heart is doing pretty good. I’ll have a post about that popping up soon too.

My first half marathon of the year is in 16 sleeps… Eeeek! I will be the first to admit that I have NOT been keeping up with my training schedule, and I’m kind of behind I’m not worried that I won’t be able to finish the half, but I don’t think I will be able to meet my time goal for this race. Which is fine with me. I have 2 other planned half’s this year, and I WILL run a sub-2 hour half this year! I had an absolutely amazing and gorgeous 10km run yesterday along the river and through the ponds! Good runs are always so encouraging!

The boyfriend has been away working for a week now. He usually doesn’t have to leave for overly long extended periods of time, but they are currently in overhaul season and it’s busy busy! He’s a Millwright and works on natural gas compressors. During overhauls they pretty much fix and service the compressors from top to bottom. He’s hoping to be home maybe tomorrow, and I can’t wait! I hate not having him home

I obviously didn’t meet my ‘write 10 posts in April goal‘, but it’s a brand new month to start all over! Here’s post number 1!

I’m off to do some reading cleaning… Hope you have a great weekend!

What are you up to this weekend? Are you a book worm? Are you training for any races this year?!

♥Krista – Stethoscopes & Running Shoes

Completely defeated.

Tags

Fail, Night Shift, Nursing

Warning: This is not the most happiest of posts.

I feel completely defeated. They talked about this in nursing school… The fact that no matter how much you care, how hard you try, in the end, patients will always do what they want.

In my last post, I mentioned about how my Sunday night shift made me feel great. I felt confident, skilled, and most importantly, like a good nurse. It’s amazing how things can change. That same patient managed to leave me feeling useless, emotionally drained, and internally frustrated just two nights later.

I should have learned my lesson by now, nothing good ever seems to come from picking up an extra shift (even when you’re getting double time to be there). Sometimes, it’s not even worth it.

My patient had originally been admitted with ETOH (alcohol) ingestion and nose bleed/coughing up blood. She had a history of liver failure. My first night with her was calm. She had fluid running which included a banana bag (silly name for IV fluids that have multivitamins in it… given often to those who come in with ETOH ingestion. The fluid is yellow from the multivitamins, hence banana ), I did her assessments, and she mostly slept off whatever she ingested.

Sunday night was a bit more intense. She was vomitting blood, had unstable vital signs (blood pressure, heart rate, etc), and was having occasional bouts of chest pain. She received platelets (something your liver produces to help your blood clot), 2 unit of blood, and a couple other infusions. I ran all night between her and my 5 other patients. It was busy, but it was a good night. Again, I left feeling like I had done my job well.

Monday night she was much better. She looked like she had a bit more life in her, better colour. She was kind, appreciative, and cooperative. She slept most of the night, and I again felt good that I had been able to help her feel better.

Then… Tuesday came. It was reported she had had occasional visual and auditory hallucinations on both days and evenings. They ‘weren’t too bad’, I was told. Well… if they weren’t bad before, they got a whole lot worse for me. She was seeing cars parked outside her hospital window, and claiming men were knocking on the window asking who lived there. Our unit is on the third floor of the hospital. She would come running out of her room saying she could hear her husband and her friend talking; said she wanted to talk to them. It was 2:30am, no one was there. When I would try to tell her that no one was there, or that we were 3 floors up, and no one was knocking, she would get angry. ‘What do you think I am? Retarded? I know we’re on the third floor. You’re trying to make me look stupid.’ This went on and on… 

She was adamant about leaving… She was angry that her husband had left. She said he was suppose to be in detox, but she knew that he was out drinking. She wanted to go find him. She was fixated on having an ‘appointment’ at 8:15am. This was the first anyone had heard of it. She was starting to get dressed at 5:30am. It took everything I had to keep her in her room most of the night, and to keep her IV infusing. Man oh man…

She was rude all night. Telling me I was treating her like a child. That me and the other nurses were bitches for keeping her here. ‘I can leave if I want you know, you can’t keep me here’. She told me that this was ‘just a hospital’ and that if she wanted to, she could go to another one and get better care. ‘I’ve never been treated like this.’ I honestly hadn’t done a thing to her. She even went as far as to say that I was treating her ‘this way’ because of her race. I was offended and told her so. No matter what someone’s race is, I am a nurse, and I care for all my patients the same way. She told me ‘I can get aggressive you know’, and I replied that if that’s the case, I have no problem calling security. She refused to let me assess her. Refused to do just about anything I asked. It was a miracle that her IV stayed in overnight…

I had to call her doctor in the middle of the night to try to get some form of medication to help calm her down. It worked, for about an hour… I called the doctor again at about 6am, to let her know how agitated and adamant the patient was about leaving. Thankfully the doctor was on her way to the hospital and said she would come see this patient first.

The doctor assessed her, and in end, did give the patient a ‘pass’ order, but that she had to be back by noon. The doctor and I looked at each other, knowing very well that the patient would most likely not be back… But the patient is right – we can’t keep her. If she were sicker, the doctor could ‘form’ her, meaning that she legally has to stay in the hospital. But that was not the case here. The patient was basically free to go.

I don’t know everything. I can’t see the future. But I know people, and people don’t change. It made me frustrated, thinking of how hard I had worked with this lady, and thinking of how she most likely was going to leave now, not come back, and begin drinking again. It made me mad, remembering how when she was vomitting blood, she told me she was never going to drink again; asking herself why she did this to herself. It made me sad, thinking about how about 2 weeks earlier… she had been admitted to our unit (under very similar circumstances), got a bit better, was discharged, and admitted to drinking constantly until this admission.

No matter how hard we try. No matter how much we care. No matter how well you do your job. There are somethings, and some people, that just won’t change.

Completely defeated. 

Quick Update!

Tags

Canada, Fail, Motivation, Night Shift, Nursing, Running, Training

Quick Update!

So far, Monday is the only day that I’ve run/worked out so far. I’m a little disappointed in myself for that… But it’s a work in progress! I actually had plans of running outside today… It was 9°C! (that’s about 48°F for my American friends!) I couldn’t believe it!! It is never this beautiful outside in January here in Alberta, Canada!! (Think crazy blowing snow, frozen vehicles, and -25°C/-13°F!! That’s our usual!)

Brrr!

My plans got pushed around though due to some running around that took longer than I planned… Oh well. Tomorrow is a new day! I know that being too hard or critical of myself won’t be beneficial in the end.

On the plus side though, I have been journaling EVERYTHING I eat, which is a huge step for me! I’m really motivated to keep it up, and find patterns and areas of improvement!

Ugh… I start my stretch of 5 nights tomorrow, and I’m already dreading it. Not so much for the fact of having to go to work. I like my job, and I don’t mind the night shift in general. What I don’t like? How it completely takes over my life for 5-6 days… I have zero to almost no energy during the stretch when I’m at home. This should be another 2012 goal for myself… Find a routine/pattern of living during my night shifts that allows me to get up at a reasonable time, feel rested and energetic, and helps me to continue to eat healthy and workout!! I have little motivation during nights. *sigh*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is your occupation? Do you work Monday-Friday, or dangle in the shift work lifestyle?

♥Krista – Stethoscopes & Running Shoes

That time I had a head cold, and then someone broke into my house…

Tags

Angry!, Arrest, Boyfriend, Burglar, Christmas, Cold, Fail, OMG!, Police, Scared, Sick

WHAT IS WRONG WITH SOME PEOPLE?!

My planned post for last week was going to go something along the lines of ‘well I have officially been run over by the Head Cold Train’, and then proceed to say how I have not run or done anything that remotely resembles physical activity (unless you count work) for more than a week.

Then… Someone broke into my house. While I was in it. Say what?!

Here I was, minding my own business on the couch with an icky cold, trying to get my stupid Shaw remote to work with the digital cable box they sent us (ya, still isn’t working properly…), when I hear noises from downstairs. My cats ear perked up, and my initial thought (which is always my paranoid initial thought) ‘OMG somebody is in my house!’ I quickly talked myself out of that one, and decided it was probably the hot water tank or something along those lines, and began walking downstairs to investigate the noise.

When I got to the bottom of the stairs I turned and all of a sudden there was somebody walking towards me!! Somebody was in my house!! Eeeekk, you can bet I freaked out! I yelled at them to stay were they were and started rapid firing questions like nobody’s business.

‘STOP! DON’T YOU MOVE!’
‘WHO ARE YOU?!’ 
‘WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY HOUSE?!’ 

This guy (later I found out, was really a kid), listened to me, and began attempting to answer my questions. It was obvious that I scared him just as much as he scared me!

His story? He apparently came home early from school, and found my boyfriend’s truck parked behind his house (he told me he lived across the street from me), and the truck was running with the keys in it. He said that he recognized it as my boyfriend’s truck, and decided to bring it back over for us. Then… he thought it would be a good idea to crawl through the basement window to return the keys. Umm… Ya. Does that make sense to anyone else? When I asked why he didn’t just ring the doorbell, he said he thought no one was home. Red Flags everywhere.

Red Flags Everywhere!

Once I finally calmed down a bit, I analyzed the situation the best I could. This guy was a kid. A bit shorter than me, and kind of scrawny. I found that I was no longer scared of him, just completely shocked by everything that was happening. He was attempting to be cooperative, probably in hopes that I would believe his story. I made the choice to call my boyfriend, T., first, before calling the police. I was worried that if I said I was calling the cops, he would get angry, or try to run away. And I already knew where he lived, so I figured since T. only works 2 mins away from home, I would get him here ASAP.

I called T., and told him that someone was here at the house, and that they apparently had found his truck that was ‘stolen’, and that they brought it back. I said that he needed to come home right away. He was home in less than 5 minutes, and as soon as he walked in the door, and I told him who the kid was, that the kid apparently ‘found’ his truck, then crawled through the window. T.’s faced totally changed once I told him that. I said I was going downstairs to call the police, and T. guarded the door. The police showed up quickly and arrested the kid right away.

Gotcha!

I still can’t believe this happened. The police have charged him with a few things, one being theft as he entered our house with T.’s truck keys. He’s still saying that he found the truck. My thoughts? I think that this kid came in the house earlier that morning, through the window… (while I was sleeping!!) and took the truck keys. I think he had his little joy ride, then brought the truck back, still thinking that no one was home. He actually told my boyfriend that he thought no one was home, because he saw that T.’s work truck was gone, and thought he lived alone. He obviously has been watching the house. And what else? The kid knew exactly where to hang the truck keys. Unbelievable. So odd. Very odd.

When talking to our one neighbour later that day, he told us that he had ben watching that kid and was worried about him. Apparently this kid has been in trouble quite a bit. That neighbour came over later that evening and told us that his wife just told him that she saw the same window the kid went through, open with shoes outside it the day before, when both T. and I were at work. She didn’t think much of it, thought maybe we had locked our keys in the house…

So this kid has been in my house AT LEAST 3 TIMES!! I feel violated. I feel angry, and borderline paranoid now. How unnerving it is to know someone has been in your house, with your things. And once possibly when you were sleeping!! As far as we know, we don’t think he took anything from the house. I think his main focus was driving the truck… I guess soon we’ll find out more…

Wow. So that’s my exciting story! It happened just a couple days before Christmas, and obviously took up a bunch of our time. I didn’t have time to blog about it before leaving to go home for Christmas, and our time at home was busy running between my family’s house and T.’s family’s. Christmas was awesome though! It was enjoyable and actually quite calm overall. Just what I needed!

I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas and got spoiled with love (and presents! ). I’ll try to write a little Christmas recap tomorrow!

Merry Christmas!

I’m still battling a nasty cough and my voice is finally coming back. I might try to go to the gym tomorrow, but I really don’t want to rush it. Health comes first! I will get back at it soon enough!

Krista – Stethoscopes & Running Shoes

Sore legs, hockey gurus, and night shifts.

Tags

Fail, Hockey, Newbie, Night Shift, Nursing, Running, Training

I can’t believe it’s already Friday evening! Where has this week gone? Did you see my post on Wednesday? Ouch… Lesson learned for sure! I’m finally able to walk normally, and will be hitting up the gym for a run and weight session after writing this!

Yestersay I was going to try to get my run in that was actually scheduled for Tuesday… This didn’t work. I’m a bit sad and frustrated with myself I’ll most likely only get 2 of my 3 runs/gym sessions in this week now… I was so sore Monday-Wednesday, I definitely could not run (still slightly embarrassed about that! Haha). I went for a massage and a chiropractic adjustment Wednesday evening, and the massage definitely helped my legs. Sure didn’t feel good at the time though! Have you ever had a massage after leg day? I wanted to die cry.

I was planning on hitting up the gym earlier in the day yesterday. But those plans kind of got messed up… Ron MacLean was at our local Chapters, and was signing his new book.

Ron MacLean: Cornered

What I thought would be maybe an hour wait, quickly (or not…) turned into 3 hours. For quite awhile me and the people I was standing with didn’t even think we’d get to see him! We finally did, and I got two of his books signed, one for my brother and one for my boyfriend. They better be happy… 3 hours, and I’m the best sister/girlfriend ever! It was pretty sweet to meet him though! I’m a huge hockey fan, and like many Canadians grew up watching Ron MacLean and Don Cherry every Saturday evening on Hockey Night in Canada. Yay!

Hockey Night in Canada

So obviously that put a bit of a damper on my workout plans! Then all of a sudden it was Thursday evening, and I had to nap! I started my stretch of 5 nights last night, and I would not have been able to function without one! My night at work was CRAZY. One for the record books. I managed to consume a muffin and a ginger ale between 12am and 830am. Not exactly the ideal eating situation! We were non-stop busy, and I was in charge. I don’t mind being in charge of the unit (we usually have 36 patients), but it definitely is more work and more to think about! All the patients (and nurses…) survived.

Anyways! I was so happy to crawl into bed this morning! I’m ready for the gym now, and I’m going to destroy this run! Then it’s off to work again…

Goodnight!

Krista – Stethoscopes & Running Shoes

Umm… Ouch?

Tags

Fail, Newbie, Training

This was me on Sunday…

Lift! Lift!

This is me today… (Still!!)

Ouch...

Note to self… You can not lift weights like you use to magically after a long hiatus… Stairs are still not my friend.

Needless to say, it was a really good leg workout!

Krista – Stethoscopes & Running Shoes