Dental Woes

I hate going to the dentist and pretty much wait until there is an emergency before going. The emergency finally happened; a filling broke while flossing my teeth.

Not wanting to risk waiting until I had one of my rare days off, I made an appointment in the morning before work. That meant getting up early and losing precious sleep. Have I ever mentioned how much I love to sleep, how I'm so good at it and need it so badly to function? As much as I love sleep, losing a tooth scares me more.

I hoped that I could just get my tooth drilled and replaced with a new filling, but nothing is ever that easy. My appointment was with a triage dentist. He looked at my teeth and my new set of 18 x-rays and discussed his plans for me. The broken filling needed to be replaced with a crown, another tooth needed some work to correct a "food trap" problem and there were two other fillings that were showing their age and would eventually need replacing. I had to come back tomorrow to start the work. That meant even more lost sleep.

Fast forward to the next day and the marvels of modern pain-free dentistry. Yeah, right, people who say that also believe in the tooth fairy. I'm not sure if it's me or the dentist, but novocaine only works up to a point on me. Once a tooth is drilled past that point, I'm in pain, bad pain. Each time I go to the dentist just reinforces my fear of dentists. It was horrible, but now I have a temporary crown. In about a month, the permanent crown will be put in.

Once they're done with my teeth, I'm not going to return until another filling breaks. So, how do you feel about your dentist?

Not Even The Newspapers Mentioned It

It was just another typical night in LA. Some guy hijacked a car. Depending on who is telling the story, he next picked up a prostitute. The cops tried to pull him over and he took off. So began another car chase.

Racing through the Valley in the middle of the night in the rain, he lost control of his car and crashed into one of the concrete planters outside the hospital. Taking off on foot, he ran inside the hospital and disappeared.

For the next several hours, LAPD swarmed the hospital. An LAPD helicopter orbited the hospital shining its night-becomes-day spotlight into the windows. News helicopters hovered above. Patients curious about what was going on could just turn on their TV's to see the action outside on the news.

The ending was anti-climatic. The suspect was found,taken to the ER, treated for injuries and hauled off to jail.

This happened almost a week ago and I just heard about it last night. The night shift nurses apparently didn't find the incident worthy of discussion. If that happened during my shift, I would have had plenty to say, but perhaps for them, it was just another typical shift.

Two Christmas Stories

On Christmas day, the nurse got within range of the crazy patient. Seeing an opportunity, he attacked. Jerking his leg with enough force to break the restraint on his ankle, he then kicked the nurse in the sternum. The impact sent her flying backwards into the glass wall. Hitting her head, she then fell on the floor. Scared and crying, she was taken to ER where she spent the rest of her Christmas.

That was a declaration of war. We've put up with his nasty sexual comments. (No, we don't want to suck his dick or show him our titties.)We've done our best to keep him safely in bed despite his best and sometimes successful efforts to fall on the floor. We've hand fed him and changed his diapers, all the while being forced to listen to his dirty mouth. We've even ignored the swats, attempted swings and screaming. But this was the last straw.

He's now in four-point leather restraints which has created even more work for us. With these kind of restraints, we have to do his vital signs every 15 minutes, record it and have the doctor renew the order in person every four hours. It's such a pain and not surprisingly, it seems to be making him even more agitated.

I honestly don't know what we're going to do with him. No one will take him and we can't dump him on the sidewalk or put him on a bus somewhere. (Greyhound would probably not accept a person in shackles carried onto one of their buses.) We're starting to fantasize about medication errors. We could wait for him to die of old age, but he's young, otherwise healthy and will probably outlive me.

My other Christmas story involved a man who got on his motorcycle to visit the grave of his father who died on Christmas several years ago. He crashed, broke some bones and is now a patient in our hospital which is also where his dad died. The patient never got to visit his father's grave, but instead spent the anniversary of his dad's death as a patient in the same hospital that his dad died in.

So, that was my Christmas. At least I got eat enough chocolate to make me sick. Some traditions must continue no matter what.

Dogdeers

Merry Christmas from Kelsey and Tommy

Dismembered And On The Floor

One of the patients was unhappy with us and no longer wanted to be a member. I don't recall why, exactly, but this kind of thing isn't unusual. What was unusual was his phrasing. He demanded to talk to "dismembership services" because he wanted to be "dismembered." We weren't too happy with him either and his request was tempting. Too bad we didn't have a chain saw.

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Since September, we've had a crazy, homeless guy living with us. We would like to drop him off at a shelter (or under a bridge), but we got into too much trouble the last time we did that, (criminal charges are still pending). So, we are just stuck. At this rate, we may turn into a giant homeless shelter, but that's another story.

This crazy guy, who won't stop screaming or making lewd comments to the nurses, is tied down by his wrists, ankles and waist. He also has a sitter to watch him and is being chemically tamed by powerful psych drugs. We don't have much choice; he's young, strong, violent and completely out of his mind.

Up until this week, he was on another floor, but the nurses there needed a break from him, so we got him. Coming back from a break, I heard one of the nurses say, "I can't believe he's on the floor." I said that I couldn't believe it either, but what can you do?

It wasn't until another hour had gone by that it was brought to my attention that the patient was lying on the floor. If I had known that the nurse meant literally that the patient was on the floor, I would have made arrangements to get him back into bed. So, he spent over an hour lying on the cold, hard floor. Oh well.

Barking Flowers

Recovering

The last few days I've been staying at my parent's house and haven't felt like blogging. It's been a difficult week, having lost sweet Murphy. The boys and I came home today and are having to adjust to an empty-feeling house.

Kelsey misses his best friend. He keeps pacing and going from stain to stain, sniffing Murphy scents. It is all so sad. After I pulled Murph from the pond, Kelsey frantically licked Murph's face for three hours. When I put Murph in his grave, Kelsey jumped in the hole and kept kissing Murphy. Murphy's grave is now covered with Kelsey paw prints.

There is a big clean-up ahead of me. Murphy bled from his nose and mouth as a result of the cancer and the blood is all over the house. The couch has been dragged outside and needs to be hauled away. I'm hoping that it doesn't get labeled as a biohazard.

The Pergo floors were ruined long ago from constantly being wet with pond water. When I get around to it, they will be replaced. I don't know if I can get the blood out of the carpet.

In a way, it's good that I have this project to keep me busy. It will help me stay in the present and not dwell on what has happened. For the first time, I'm looking forward to going to work. Even the worst day at work beats this kind of pain. Any distraction, even a sometimes bad one is welcome.

This will be my last sad post for awhile. I will be returning to my regular programming and catch up on everyone's blogs.

I appreciate so much everyone's kind thoughts over my loss. It has helped to know that so many people care. I'm lucky to have such good blogging friends.

Sad News

This morning I found Murphy drowned in the pond. He's been very weak these past few days and must have decided to go in the pond in the middle of the night or early this morning. The water is shallow and he could have sat there and been fine until I found him to help him out of the pond, but he's been having fainting spells and must have passed out in the pond.

He didn't have much time left; he's been sick with cancer, but I wanted him to die in my arms, not like this. My heart feels like it's breaking.

Bambie And Thumper

Thanks, Sarah.

The Curtain Or The Door

The patient was in the clinic and needed to be admitted to the hospital, so the clinic nurse put the patient in a wheelchair and brought him up to our floor.

Not familiar with our layout, she asked where the patient's room was. I pointed to a small corridor with a single door. Could it be any simpler? Apparently not. She wheeled the patient to the linen cart and pulled the curtain aside to reveal, well, linens.

The patient just stared at her. If a nurse can't tell a linen cart from a room, what hope is there in leaving the hospital alive?

This is a photo of the hallway. Would you choose what's behind the door or the curtain?

Under Assault

They're heeerrrrreee! We've been waiting for months and they finally showed up. JCHACO has finally decided to grace us with their presence. They're the lovely people who accredit our hospital. Without their approval, we're out of business, so it is fair to say that we do kow tow to them and try out best to please them. What choice do we have? But what happens when the surveyor is an idiot? What then?

The idiot told us that whenever a patient is a DNR (do not resuscitate) the matter must first be referred to the bioethics committee. Excuse me? The patient in question was elderly, alert and oriented and wanted to be a DNR. Her family was in agreement. So why would we refer a situation like this to the bioethics committee? The committee is involved when there is a dispute with the patient, family members or staff about the proper course of treatment. There were no issues here.

We have six DNRs on the floor right now. That's nearly half of our patient census. It is a high number, but that is what the patients and their families want. None of them were referred to the bioethics committee because there is no dispute over what anyone one's wishes are.

I hope that administration doesn't cave on this and add to our protocol that all DNRs must first be approved by the bioethics committee. That requirement would just result in unnecessary suffering by requiring us to keep alive, by whatever means necessary, people who just want nature to take its course, that is until the committee could meet.

I'm wondering if the surveyor in question is truly an idiot who doesn't know what bioethic committees do or if he is of the belief that DNRs are murder. Some people believe that and if he feels that way, perhaps he's trying to impose his personal beliefs on us. Or, does he think that since there are so many DNRs, we must be forcing them on people to save us money? We are a big HMO, but even we wouldn't resort to that.

It would never be allowed, but I wish that I could question him to determine if he's

1) an idiot,

2) a misguided moral zealot, or

3) if he thinks that we are trying to talk people into refusing resuscitation to save money.

What do you think?

That Time Of Year, Again

As usual, I'm having trouble getting in the mood for Christmas. The climate doesn't help. It's sunny, sort of warm and the leaves on the few deciduous trees have just changed color. Christmas should be white, or at least dark and rainy. Sunny, green and golden just isn't natural.

This is the view across the street. It's just wrong. A tree with yellow, falling leaves should have pumpkins or Halloween decorations under it, not Mr. and Mrs. Claus and a snowman. I do appreciate their effort, though, and feel guilty that their view is of my dark home.

My sole goal this year is to get presents for people. Decorating and baking just isn't going to happen. With Murphy so sick, I don't have the time or energy to deal with anything else.

Shopping has been made easier by my gift corner. All year long, I buy presents and toss them in the gift corner. Today I went shopping in the gift corner and almost completed my Christmas shopping for friends and family. Tossing the gifts in gift bags took only a minute. A few cards with cash in them will complete the shopping. Cash is impersonal, but no one seems to mind it. Does it bother you to get money as a present?

It's A ...Baby

My neighbor recently had a big party and draped across her garage door a banner that read, "It's a boy." She wasn't pregnant, as far as I know, but she has a married daughter, so, I figured the daughter had a baby.

There is just one problem. Four weeks earlier there was another big party and that time there was an "It's a girl" banner on the garage. I didn't take a picture that time because, who cares? Now, it's a mystery.

So, what is going on? My neighbor has no other children. Were they twins born a month apart?
Did they get the sex wrong and realizing their mistake, decide to have another party to get boy stuff, instead of frilly, pink girl stuff?

The Mummy

I just hate it when I go for a break, come back and find this. No, the patient wasn't dead, but how was I supposed to know that? Wrapped up like a mummy, he sure looked dead. Serves him right that he got poked to see if he was still alive.

Can't Give It Away

The neighbors have had an ugly little table sitting on the sidewalk for several weeks. It has had a sign on it that says $50. I wasn't sure if that was the price for the table or how much they were willing to pay to have it carried away.

Last week the sign was changed to say "free."

Yesterday was trash day and the table was sitting by the curb with the trash cans. The trash had been taken and the table was left behind. Now they're going to have to pay someone to take it or cut it up into pieces that will fit in the trash can.

I guess they figured it was worth a try to get someone to pay for it, but I think that I would have saved myself the embarrassment and just gotten rid of it quietly.

Headless Wonder

It must be tough having just a foot for a brain, but look at all of the time she saves on make-up and hair styling.

Six Weird Things

I've been tagged by Madwag with a meme.

"According to the rules...Each player of this game starts with the "6 Weird Things about You". People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says 'you are tagged' in their comments and tell them to read your blog!"

1. I dance around the house like a ballerina. The house is my stage and the dogs, when they're not getting kicked, are my audience.

2. I speak with a slight English accent. I've been in America since I was three, but I can't entirely get rid of it.

3. I'm good at digging. I can swing a pick-axe with the best of them.

4. I'm afraid of dogs, not my own, but strange dogs.

5. I'm good at sleeping. If it was an Olympic event, I could win the gold.

6. I lick and suck my wounds.

7. When eating chocolates or candy bars, I eat off all of the chocolate on the outside before eating the middle. This doesn't apply if there is a liquid center. Then, I suck out the liquid and eat the chocolate shell last.

8. I like to hang upside down by my ankles.

9. I laugh at inappropriate times and think things are funny that no one else does.

10. It's not a coincindence that my dogs all have long blonde fur.

Oops, that's ten, isn't it. I'm so weird that I couldn't stop at six. Tag yourself if you want to play too.

Niacin Flash

Who knew that a vitamin pill could cause a nursing shortage? The day started out with okay staffing, but then one of my coworkers got a call from an ER 45 miles away that her cousin was there. The cousin had taken a high-dose niacin tablet for the first time causing a bad hot flash. It's happened to me and I know how unpleasant it is, but it quickly passes. The cousin panicked and called 911.

The ER treated her for anaphylactic shock and she recovered well. Had they done nothing, she would have recovered fine just as quickly. The burning, tingly skin is not an allergic reaction, but a normal side effect of a large dose of niacin.

My coworker panicked, dropped everything and left. That left us a nurse short. Then, despite being short, we were given several admissions. The care we gave was not great and by the end of the shift, most of us had either splitting headaches or diarrhea.

The bill for the paramedics and the ER will be a couple of thousand dollars. My employer, which is really just a big insurance company will pick up most of the bill which affects how much they can afford to pay its employees, like me. All of this because of a vitamin pill. I wonder why mega-doses of niacin don't come with a prominent warning label. It may have saved everyone some grief.

Please Don't Do It

Yesterday's searches that led to my blog appeared to be the usual. It was just vagiana this and vagiana that, in fourteen different searches. Ho hum, but then one search jumped out at me. It was "how much ativan do I need to die". There is someone contemplating suicide out there and I don't know what to do.

I can't trace the source of the inquiry, I don't know what I could do if that person could be located and it has me upset. I wish that I could tell the person to talk to the doctor prescribing the ativan. Asking the doctor how much ativan it would take to kill you would get his attention fast and he would get you some help.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Blame The Dog

My dad is doing better. What happened is that he caught a bug that turned into pneumonia. The stress of the illness caused his heart to go into A fib. He has reverted back to a normal rhythm and is responding well to the antibiotics.

He's bored silly, is going through nicotine withdrawal and feeling ornery. Hopefully, he'll be discharged soon, both for his sake as well as the nurses.

I stayed overnight with my mom. She's scared to be alone. In my father's chair, she put one of my dad's outfits, stuffed it with towels and topped it with a wig. That was so in case anyone looked in the window, it would look like he was sitting there. It looked like a pile of clothes and a wig to me, but if it made her feel better, that's fine.

There was an ugly incident in the middle of the night. Unfortunately, I tend to scream in my sleep. So, when I started up, I woke up to my mom yelling at the dog to be quiet. She thought that it was the dog howling. Feeling guilty, I said nothing.

The next morning my mom asked if the dog's howling woke me up. She was still upset about being woken up like that. I said yeah. I was too embarrassed to admit that it was me. I guess that is one of the problems with being a dog. People tend to blame things on you.

My Life Sucks

Sometimes life just sucks. This is one of those times.

The first thing that happened was my realization that I'm being strung along by the guy I went out with a couple of weeks ago. He said that he would call me during Thanksgiving week to say hi and that the following week he would call again to set up a day to get together again. He even volunteered that we could take it slow. Two weeks have gone by and he never called. Apparently what he meant to say was that he wasn't interested in me, but rather than be honest and get it over with, he preferred to leave me hanging for a couple of weeks until I figured it out on my own. Or, perhaps he found some low-hanging fruit in the meantime. It's annoying, but not worth shedding tears over.

Next, Murphy is not doing well. I'm not sure if his quality of life is good enough. He's bleeding heavily from his nose and is getting weaker. I'm keeping him heavily medicated to keep him comfortable, but I can't be sure if he's suffering. Trying to decide if he should be put down is breaking my heart. He still has a voracious appetite, likes to take a walk everyday and hump my leg, so his life isn't completely awful. I honestly don't know what to do.

Lastly, as I was leaving for work today, my mom called and said that my dad is in the hospital. He was having cardiac arrythmias, had pneumonia and was coughing up blood. She called too late for me to call in sick, so I had to drive to work while sobbing and hyperventilating. Once I was able to talk to my dad on the phone I was better, but of course I'm worried sick. Tomorrow I can visit him and hopefully find out exactly what happened and how serious it is. In the meantime, my life so sucks.