Work Highlights of the Week...

1. Black, gangrenous toe. Ahhhh, don't you just love the smell of rotting flesh in the wee hours of the morn. Kind of smelled like really, really bad onions.

2. Convinced the new grad that always avoids taking a new admission on nights to take an admit that I was going to originally take (and she had avoided). I did have a legitimate excuse to pass it off, of course. When the ER called up with report, I had just found that one of my patients had a funky irregular, irregular heart beat that wasn't there on admission and my spanish-speaking guy (with his newly amputated gangrenous toe (see above)) was having pain and nausea issues. (I'm usually the only one on nights who speaks more than a few words of Spanish. Instead of being pulled away from my work to help translate other nurses' patients, I just started assigning myself to those patients. This meant running the whole length of our large unit last night...good exercise)

3. History of panic attacks, anxiety, and depression all in one...mixed in with pain, pneumonia, and chronic respiratory problems. Ativan, supplemental oxygen, and respiratory therapists are my friends. In general, please don't smoke. But if on top of it, you have a history of all of those psychological issues...really, really, really don't smoke. The nicotine may seem to help calm you down in the short term (perhaps). However, once you develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, and/or other respiratory issues, the anxiety and panic attacks will come back ten-fold when you can't BREATHE anymore--then making it even harder to breathe. Okay, I'm done with that rant. (*sound of Rachel stepping down from her soap box*)

3. The most friendly, passive paranoid schizophrenic ever who constantly prays to Jehovah and tells Jehohvah how kind and wonderful every person is that comes in to help him. Everytime someone walked out of the room after talking to him, I'd hear from the nurses' station a loud: "I love you!"

5. Vanilla Extract alchoholic

6. And since I always leave the hospital thinking "gee, I sure didn't get to see enough excrement today", I was of course thrilled to come home to the enchanting aroma of fresh dog droppings today. Thanks, Oscar.