"When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold on to them. They are the life boats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely illusive. So the question becomes, or should have been all a long... What would you do if you knew you only had one day, or one week, or one month to live. What life boat would you grab on to? What secret would you tell? What band would you see? What person would you declare your love to? What wish would you fulfill? What exotic locale would you fly to for coffee? What book would you write?"


Friday, November 4, 2011

I'm Sorry Sir, Repeat That Please?

I'd like to start off this post with mentioning that my day started out today, before report, with:

"You're going to have an ICU transfer as a patient today. Patient is not here yet. You can practice accepting an ICU transfer. Also, a patient that will probably be a CAT call (rapid response team)."

my response: "Wait...those are two separate patients?"


I was frightened.


However, despite the day that you can only imagine that might have entailed, one funny/interesting moment did arise from it:


my patient (the ICU transfer, actually) was originally sent down to the ICU due to extreme lethargy and not being arousable. However, his status improved greatly and was able to be sent back up to us a couple days later. Meanwhile, the ICU nurse told me he didn't get much sleep last night (big surprise for the ICU) and that he would probably be tired. So I had to play the fine line game of: Do I let my patient sleep today, or do I continuously awaken him to see if he's lethargic? And if he IS lethargic, is it because he's just really, really tired, or is it because something is wrong?

It turned out that he had so much going on with his medical care today (IVs, lots of meds, assessments, etc. in addition to normal stuff -mealtimes, bathroom times, etc.-) that I ended up waking him up every hour practically anyway.


Well, waking him up for dinner was after a period where he was able to have slept the longest for me (about 90 minutes). So this is what went down:

Me: Mr. Patient? Mr. Patient?

pt: *wakes up*

Me: HI mr. Patient. Sorry to have woken you. Your dinner is here for you.

Pt: Oh okay. Good. * pt sits up in bed to get ready to eat tray*

*I start getting tray prepared and he starts mumbling nonsensical words strung together. I am instantly concerned.

Me: Mr.Patient? Can you repeat that? I can't hear you.

Pt: *pt continues to mumble*

* I am legit concerned now and instantly start going through a very simple mental assessment*....

Me: Mr. Patient- Can you tell me your name?

Pt: yes. Its Ima Patient

Me: Okay, good. Can you tell me where you are?

Pt: In Suchagood Hospital

Me: Okay good. Can you tell me what day it is?

Pt: Friday.

Me: How about the month?

Pt: November.

Me: Good.  (However, I'm still not convinced, because he just *looks* confused)

Me: Mr. Patient, can you tell me who the president is?

*patient nods*: Yes. Oswald.

Me: Excuse me?

Pt: Oswald.

Me: Mr. Patient, can you tell me what year it is?

Pt: 2011.

Me: Okay good. And who is the president right now, in 2011?

Pt: Oswald.

Me: Not quite....Can you describe him for me?

Pt: Um...He's african american...young fellow.


(at this point I at least knew we were on the same page. Sort of. So I quit.)

Eventually, after being awake for 5+ minutes, he started to go back to normal and was able to recall being confused but didnt know why. But, all turned out well. And Oswald is not the president.

For those of you that don't watch Nick Jr. while you babysit, let me demonstrate the first thing that shows up if you type in Oswald to Google images:



Its a blue octopus.


Need I say more?



~ WNB :)


.

2 comments:

Jessica said...

Hahahahaha I've heard Obama called lots of things, and Oswald is not one of them ;)

A Writer in a Nurse's Body said...

hahaha same!!!! It was definitely a first!