Ped fever

As I have stated before, I absolutely love working pediatrics.  Not so much working with their families though.  I am sure everyone has had the parent who is hysterical because their child has a fever.  I recently had a grandparent who was just on the edge of being ridiculous.  2 month old with fever as the only symptom so of course I had to do the fever workup which includes IV and blood work.  Grandma looks me in the eye and tells me that I got one chance to get the IV and that is it.  She was completely serious and I had the feeling she was gonna go all exorcist on me if I had not succeeded.  Of course I got the stuff done to her satisfaction but I gotta tell you that it is nerve racking to have someone stand over you and tell you how to do your job.  I don't remember her from school...

Clueless caller...

Clueless Caller:  Yeah, I was at home the other day and I noticed that my vision got a little blurry but then went away.  Yesterday I was reading a book and all of a sudden I could not make out any of the words, not from blurry vision, but I just couldn't put them together in my head right.  I take blah,blah,blah, and blah blah blah, metformin but I am not diabetic, and blah, blah blah...Today I woke up and I have been really shaky.  I have not been eating well for the past couple of days because I have IBS that was diagnosed a few days ago so I haven't really had an appetite. (yes, all of this was said before I could ask her what I could help her with.) 

Me:  Why are you on Metformin if your not diabetic?

Clueless Caller:  Oh, well, because I am close but not really a diabetic.

Me: OK, what have your blood sugars been running at home?  Do you check your blood sugar?

Clueless Caller:  Well, no because they are always good.  Should I come in and be seen?

Me:  Well if you are having blurry vision, shakiness and changes in your vision, you should probably have someone else drive you.

Clueless Caller:  Oh no I'll just go ahead and drive myself.


These are the people who are in traffic with you...

chief complaint of the day...

And the Winner Is....

Blood clots in the nose.

Discharge Instructions:  Quit picking your nose...

Killer

Went to a memorial today for a wrestling legend, Killer Karl Kox.  I knew him only a little even though we were family.  What I do remember about him though were his stories that he would tell us of when he was wrestling. I heard a lot of those today from people who used to work with him and from close friends and family.  It was a nice memorial.  He is going to be greatly missed. 

well child exams

I work primarily with pediatric patients and I enjoy it.  I can also work with adults but I prefer not to for many, many reasons that I am sure you will eventually come to understand.  I enjoy working with the pediatric population for a variety of reasons but the number one reason is that they don't bullshit you.  If a child is sick (with the exception of a few) they will show you by their assessment findings or parent history.  If they are not sick, it is determined by the same methods.  That being said...the emergency room doc cannot fix "congestion since birth" in a 6 month old child who is currently cooing and babbling with a fabulous assessment. Don't get me wrong, I work with fantastic emergency room doctors and they are good, just not miracle workers. 

Unanswered Questions

I have decided that I love giving report to other ER nurses and not so much to other nurses.  The biggest difference is that an ER nurse only wants to know a few things like, "Is the patient pink, breathing, oriented?", "What do I need to do for the patient now?"  I don't get the questions like "Which arm is the IV in?", "Why didn't the Dr order (insert completely inappropriate test here)?", and my personal favorite..."Did you fax the report up already because I can't take report until the actual paper is in front of me that tells me the exact same thing that you are going to relay to me word for word over the phone".  Sometimes I get really lucky and give report to a person who works on the med/surg or cardiac floor that is really an ER nurse at heart.  I love that.