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hillarygayleThe last week has been pretty nuts.
For a while I've been looking forward to 2 things: the bachelorette party & wedding of my good friend J to her fiance Z. Z & I dated when we were like 15/16-ish. He's the only ex-boyfriend I still have regular contact with & we get along swimmingly. I've known for a couple of months I'd be doing J's makeup for her wedding. SO FUN.
I worked on Tues, Wed, Fri nights this week. I was worried about making it for the wedding while, y'know, AWAKE, but there was never any question whether I'd make it for the bachelorette party.
Until Wednesday night happened.
In nursing, a general rule is that on a nursing floor, 5 patients per 1 nurse is an acceptable, safe ratio. Except that there's a nursing shortage, so sometimes we get more than that. Depending on the acuity of your patients (how Serious their Business is, how much attention has to be paid to what's going on with them) that number could be lower, but it's the general rule.
On Wednesday night I had 7 patients. Not just ANY 7 patients either. Four were post-surgical patients with nausea & vomiting out the wazoo (one of whom was receiving a blood transfusion), so I was constantly medicating & monitoring there. One was post-surgical for repair of an arterial bleed. One was in for monitoring of a surgical complication, and the last was uncontrolled blood glucose in for some really intensive treatment to get it handled. If you're a nurse you will automatically fill in the blanks & understand what an astounding task this is. If you're not, you need to know that each of these patients has a reason I MUST see them every hour, and in each case if there was ANYTHING out of the ordinary, it might take me an hour to handle it. If that out of the ordinary thing did happen, and it did take me an hour to handle it, it was going to throw everything out of whack. And it did. Several things happened that left me entirely unable to catch up. Normally I consider a shift well done if I accomplish all the routine stuff & handle anything special a patient might need. Wednesday night? I considered my shift well done because I did not die and neither did any of my patients. I never got to eat during the shift, never got to sit down, never even got to chart assessments. I am NOT a crier, and I nearly burst into tears of frustration several times. Once, in the medication room, Scott said something that made me laugh. I must've sounded hysterical, because he pointed out "You sound like someone who's laughing to keep from crying."
"Currently? Yes," I admitted.
"Are you the type who's going to cry in the car on the way home?"
I laughed again. "No. I am the type who's going to yell the f-bomb all the way home and then sleep like I've been bricked in the forehead."
"Sweet," Scott replied.
I did not get to leave work until 9am, and then I did exactly as I said I would. When I hit the bed at 10am, I slept like I'd been knocked out. When I woke up to my alarm at 4pm to get ready for the party, I dangled my legs off the bed. Blood pressure instantly dropped, my vision blurred, and a headache bloomed from the back of my head forward. I called JF, another friend who was organizing the party. Sounding like I'd been hit by a truck, I told her there was no way I could make it. I have no way of emphasizing how DISAPPOINTING THIS WAS. I had been looking forward to this for weeks, and I needed a happy bright spot. NEEDED. But I couldn't do it. Physically, I wasn't going to be up for any kind of partying, much less driving to Little Rock safely. I would've caused a giant interstate pile up all by myself. So I had to bow out. They went to one of my favorite places in Little Rock and did karaoke. :( OMG HOW SO JEALOUS.
I then proceeded to sleep until 6pm. When Bryan & Ganon got home, Bryan took one look at me and told me he thought I should sleep that night regardless of the fact that I had work again on Friday. "I think you could sleep tonight and STILL manage a huge nap in the morning, frankly." I thought he was wrong, but at 11pm I really couldn't keep it together anymore, and I had to go to bed. I slept until 6am, got up & ate breakfast, went back to bed around 8am, and slept until 3pm. So, after the Shift of Ultimate Fail, I slept 22 hours. HARD. There are clearly limits to the abuse I can inflict upon myself.
I got up and with what can only be described as grim determination, went back to work on Friday night. Friday was not nearly so bad as Wednesday, but it was busy enough that I didn't get to chart until after 7. I left at 8am, flying home and getting into bed for a couple of hours. Q worked part of Friday night too, and it was determined that Bryan needed to go to the wedding with us because neither of us could be SURE we'd be safe to drive.
So we did, bringing Ganon as well. Makeup was done, and I might say that J looked pretty smashing, as did JF, as did Z's sisters (whom I did not fancify, but looked gorgeous as well). I desperately hoped the makeup stood up to photographing. That was the first time I'd done someone's makeup with the understanding they'd be in camera flash all night. I tried to go as matte as possible, and I did a lot of eye definition & not much else. I was going for elegant & timeless, since, well, no one wants geometric purple eyeshadow in their wedding pics. Well okay someone out there does, but I didn't think it was J. :D Anyway I'm seeing some preliminary pictures up on Facebook already, and I think the makeup did well in the photos.
So that is my insane, hectic week. It's been all day yesterday & part of today trying to write it down. I'm ready for an adventure of my own making. I'm cooking up thoughts of a Halloween 2.0 get-together and looking up Eureka Springs weekend packages. :)
For a while I've been looking forward to 2 things: the bachelorette party & wedding of my good friend J to her fiance Z. Z & I dated when we were like 15/16-ish. He's the only ex-boyfriend I still have regular contact with & we get along swimmingly. I've known for a couple of months I'd be doing J's makeup for her wedding. SO FUN.
I worked on Tues, Wed, Fri nights this week. I was worried about making it for the wedding while, y'know, AWAKE, but there was never any question whether I'd make it for the bachelorette party.
Until Wednesday night happened.
In nursing, a general rule is that on a nursing floor, 5 patients per 1 nurse is an acceptable, safe ratio. Except that there's a nursing shortage, so sometimes we get more than that. Depending on the acuity of your patients (how Serious their Business is, how much attention has to be paid to what's going on with them) that number could be lower, but it's the general rule.
On Wednesday night I had 7 patients. Not just ANY 7 patients either. Four were post-surgical patients with nausea & vomiting out the wazoo (one of whom was receiving a blood transfusion), so I was constantly medicating & monitoring there. One was post-surgical for repair of an arterial bleed. One was in for monitoring of a surgical complication, and the last was uncontrolled blood glucose in for some really intensive treatment to get it handled. If you're a nurse you will automatically fill in the blanks & understand what an astounding task this is. If you're not, you need to know that each of these patients has a reason I MUST see them every hour, and in each case if there was ANYTHING out of the ordinary, it might take me an hour to handle it. If that out of the ordinary thing did happen, and it did take me an hour to handle it, it was going to throw everything out of whack. And it did. Several things happened that left me entirely unable to catch up. Normally I consider a shift well done if I accomplish all the routine stuff & handle anything special a patient might need. Wednesday night? I considered my shift well done because I did not die and neither did any of my patients. I never got to eat during the shift, never got to sit down, never even got to chart assessments. I am NOT a crier, and I nearly burst into tears of frustration several times. Once, in the medication room, Scott said something that made me laugh. I must've sounded hysterical, because he pointed out "You sound like someone who's laughing to keep from crying."
"Currently? Yes," I admitted.
"Are you the type who's going to cry in the car on the way home?"
I laughed again. "No. I am the type who's going to yell the f-bomb all the way home and then sleep like I've been bricked in the forehead."
"Sweet," Scott replied.
I did not get to leave work until 9am, and then I did exactly as I said I would. When I hit the bed at 10am, I slept like I'd been knocked out. When I woke up to my alarm at 4pm to get ready for the party, I dangled my legs off the bed. Blood pressure instantly dropped, my vision blurred, and a headache bloomed from the back of my head forward. I called JF, another friend who was organizing the party. Sounding like I'd been hit by a truck, I told her there was no way I could make it. I have no way of emphasizing how DISAPPOINTING THIS WAS. I had been looking forward to this for weeks, and I needed a happy bright spot. NEEDED. But I couldn't do it. Physically, I wasn't going to be up for any kind of partying, much less driving to Little Rock safely. I would've caused a giant interstate pile up all by myself. So I had to bow out. They went to one of my favorite places in Little Rock and did karaoke. :( OMG HOW SO JEALOUS.
I then proceeded to sleep until 6pm. When Bryan & Ganon got home, Bryan took one look at me and told me he thought I should sleep that night regardless of the fact that I had work again on Friday. "I think you could sleep tonight and STILL manage a huge nap in the morning, frankly." I thought he was wrong, but at 11pm I really couldn't keep it together anymore, and I had to go to bed. I slept until 6am, got up & ate breakfast, went back to bed around 8am, and slept until 3pm. So, after the Shift of Ultimate Fail, I slept 22 hours. HARD. There are clearly limits to the abuse I can inflict upon myself.
I got up and with what can only be described as grim determination, went back to work on Friday night. Friday was not nearly so bad as Wednesday, but it was busy enough that I didn't get to chart until after 7. I left at 8am, flying home and getting into bed for a couple of hours. Q worked part of Friday night too, and it was determined that Bryan needed to go to the wedding with us because neither of us could be SURE we'd be safe to drive.
So we did, bringing Ganon as well. Makeup was done, and I might say that J looked pretty smashing, as did JF, as did Z's sisters (whom I did not fancify, but looked gorgeous as well). I desperately hoped the makeup stood up to photographing. That was the first time I'd done someone's makeup with the understanding they'd be in camera flash all night. I tried to go as matte as possible, and I did a lot of eye definition & not much else. I was going for elegant & timeless, since, well, no one wants geometric purple eyeshadow in their wedding pics. Well okay someone out there does, but I didn't think it was J. :D Anyway I'm seeing some preliminary pictures up on Facebook already, and I think the makeup did well in the photos.
So that is my insane, hectic week. It's been all day yesterday & part of today trying to write it down. I'm ready for an adventure of my own making. I'm cooking up thoughts of a Halloween 2.0 get-together and looking up Eureka Springs weekend packages. :)
