Crazy nights...

So far so good in my survival of 2 weeks of nights and John being out of the country. I definitely prefer working nights when John is gone so it really worked out this time!


There have been some hilarious highlights:


~The first night my patient had some sort of anaphalactic reaction and closed up his airway within a matter of minutes. The thing that struck me the most was his sudden "darth vader" voice. Quite a freaky experience. You learn all these reactions and treatments in nursing school but then it happens right in front of you and its like, whoa wait a second!! Luckily some IV benadryl and steroids did the trick. Gotta love that at the time anesthesia was already tied up emergently intubating someone else. bah! Silly night shift.

~The second night my patient decided to sundown and tried to escape the bed every 2 minutes with a central line in his neck. Not gonna happen buddy. I spent that night stuck sitting at his bedside. Thank God for the new computers on wheels. ("COWS") I was able to sit in the hall observing AND check facebook!

~I am currently on my third night and it started with my patient pooping blood all over the floor and my shoe right after I entered the room. We will see what my last night tomorrow has in store!


I finally heard from John today! I knew there would be little communication by phone from Germany but I at least expected a few emails. I finally freaked out at 4AM last night when I hadn't heard from him still since Saturday and got a little teary eyed (again, silly night shift messing with my emotions) so I decided to just take an ambien and force some sleep upon myself.
Well I awoke that afternoon with a simple email from his coworker:
"Hi Lauren,
John's laptop isn't allowing him to access the Internets but he wants you to know that he's thinking about you and isn't in jail.
Hope you're well.
Bryan"

I took that one as a joke but then I got a follow-up email:

"Schnap! John got pulled off the bus!

He got stuck behind a lady with a baby and couldn't stamp his card. 40 euro fine.... The undercover guy would not give him a break despite seeing me hand him a ticket and John holding it in his hand the whole time. We tried explaining to no avail. Great start to a Monday. We are at the UN now waiting to get in. Funny story at least."

hmmm. can't wait to hear the full story on that one. That is, assuming he makes it out of the country.

Thanks Bryan for the updates and thanks neighbors for joining me for dinner the other night! The house gets too quiet when its just me and the cats.

One more night shift to go....just keep swimming.