Missing my Mac

Ben and I are both hurting from my computer being gone. We’re both too heavy on computer use to only have one.

Good day today. I added 2 more grafts and 2 more fistulas to my count. One of the grafts was on a sweet lady we haven’t seen before, and I was able to stick her way up into her armpit and got great flows. I see site rotation becoming one of my issues that I have strong opinions about 🙂

At the end of my shift we had one of our regulars come in not looking so hot. She had anasarca pretty bad and was unresponsive, barely arousing to her name. She also had a face mask on 10L of O2. Yikes. While we were trying to reposition her I noticed that her face mask had blood in it and there was blood on the sheets between her legs. We got a little panicky because there was nothing about any of this in report from her nurse. We checked vitals and blood sugar and everything came out normal. The blood in her mouth was all her rotten teeth bleeding at the gums. We couldn’t find a source for the bed blood – her diaper was clean and there were no skin breaks. With the renal fellow’s ok we started treatment – she didn’t even flinch when we put the needles in and she normally uses lidocaine. Finally we got an interpreter in the room and was able to talk to her husband (he accompanies her on every treatment since she is a 1:1 patient and we can’t staff it). He told the interpreter, who told us, that she has been very tired for a couple days but otherwise is fine. He noticed she was bleeding a bit from her mouth and in her stool and so he stopped giving her Coumadin, and was that the right thing to do (YES! MUY BUENO! we told him). Sure enough in a couple minutes she “woke up” and started talking to her husband. After some inquisition we found out that she was getting a nebulizer treatment shortly before coming up to us. RT left her on 10L after the treatment and she came up that way for no reason. Holy smokes were we confused though. I mean, sure this is acute care, but if someone needs 10 liters of oxygen, is way below baseline mental status, unresponsive to pain, and bleeding from every orifice, then we do dialysis in their room in the ICU.

Sorry my story had a boring ending. I don’t have many cool experiences yet.

My shoe situation makes me unhappy. I love my Danskos, but I still have achy legs and feet at the end of the day. Like, -I have to stand up slowly like an old lady-sore. I need to find a reliable second pair to switch it up now and then. I’m looking at MBTs ($$$ + ugly), Z coils ($$$ + ugly), New Balance (porous), and crocs (ugly). Does anyone have any other suggestions? Should I just get a second type of Danskos? In the mean time I scheduled a massage for Friday. I always tell myself that I should get them more often. It’s money well spent. I feel recharged and luxurious afterwards, and for not much money since I use a student clinic. Yet I go just once or twice a year. I should make it at least a quarterly treat. I spend more on my hair than my muscles.

Can’t wait for fall. There will be chilly weather and more time off with orientation finished. If I could sign up for dance class too my body will be oh so happy.