This is the life I was born to be living in....

My nursing gear

2008-07-16T01:32:38Z

Originally published at Road Nurse. Please leave any comments there.

Here’s all my nursing gear in my trunk:

All the boxes go in my trunk. Laid out on the floor is all of my wound care supplies–we do a lot of wound care, as you can see!

The boxes are arranged as follows: General supplies, wound care, IV/Lab, foleys, and ostomy care with some random supplies.

I think I could just about stock a hospital unit right now!

(photo taken with the new Iphone!)

Good Deeds

2008-06-20T01:16:12Z

Originally published at Road Nurse. Please leave any comments there.

I felt like I did good for a patient today.

10/10 neuropathic foot pain, and refusing all pain meds except neu.ron.tin. Says that he doesn’t want to feel stoned. I’ve been arguing with him over this for 3 visits…today, I finally thought of Lido.derm patches! Brought them up, and he agreed immediately upon hearing what they were. Hopefully by tomorrow, he’ll be out of pain.

Cancer patients can be so rewarding.

Accidents happen

2008-06-02T22:47:05Z

Originally published at Road Nurse. Please leave any comments there.

When I started this job, my friends and I took bets on how long it would take for me to get into a car accident.

Two months.

Edit: I guess I should probably remember to say I’m fine, it was just a fender bender. No worries.

Argh!

2008-05-24T21:19:54Z

Originally published at Road Nurse. Please leave any comments there.

My GPS is dead!

I’ve only had it for about a month, and now everytime we start it up, it says, “Updating GPS firmware,” counts up to 100%, says, “Firmware update complete”…and then does the whole thing again. And again. And again.

Garmin website doesn’t help. Circuit city doesn’t help. My IT husband doesn’t know how to help.

Anyone with ideas? I need a new GPS by Tuesday morning, because I can’t read a map at all!

Migraine people, help

2008-05-19T01:05:46Z

xposted to the migraines comm.
So, I'm pretty sure I'm in a rebound cycle. I was doing so well before I got my last set of botox shots 2 months ago--down to maybe 1 mild migraine over 2 or 3 days. Then I got a new kind of botox, the Myobloc, and ever since then I've been miserable. Here's the relevant points:
-migraines daily for almost 4 years now
-seeing a neurospecialist at the cleveland clinic
-trying to get pregnant, so off all my preventatives(was on 4, plus fentanyl patches)
-taking midrin and morphine every day for the pain

I talked to my neuro's NP last week, and they put me on a 10 day burst of Depakote. They want to pull me into clinic for a 3-5 day IV treatment, but I just started a new job and can't take the time off. I'm a nurse, and I asked if I could do the treatment at home(I have a mediport for IVs, so it would be fairly easy), but the NP said no. The NP also said(well, insinuated) that I'm probably in a rebound cycle and I'm sure this is probably true, since the migraines come on at the same time every day and I feel so much better after the morphine and midrin kick in. The depakote doesn't seem to have helped at all.
Ideas, anyone? I really don't want to go to cleveland for the IV treatment unless I absolutely have to. What do you and your treatment teams do for rebounds?

Thievery!

2008-05-14T00:16:27Z

Originally published at Road Nurse. Please leave any comments there.

When you find yourself stealing your wife’s fentanyl patches, you know there’s a problem…

Done with Orientation!

2008-05-10T16:40:09Z

Originally published at Road Nurse. Please leave any comments there.

So, after 5 weeks, I’m finally done with orientation/preceptorship. I had my first day alone yesterday(Friday), and I think it went pretty well. Saw three patients, spent about an hour on the phone, got all my paperwork done…overall it went well. Once I got started, I was fine, however, making that first phone call was a little nerve wracking. I know that will get better.

Monday I have another three patients on my schedule–including a wound vac that I’m covisiting on, a daily wound visit, and a pain management case. Should be interesting.

Maureen

2008-05-08T01:06:28Z

Originally published at Road Nurse. Please leave any comments there.

One year ago today, my coworker Maureen died at work, after a 2.5 hour megacode. I miss her terribly, and the horror of her code gave me PTSD that’s finally starting to ease up.

She wouldn’t want me feeling sad about her today, and yet…

Rest in peace, Maureen.

Update

2008-05-01T01:30:03Z

Originally published at Road Nurse. Please leave any comments there.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much going on this week. Classroom, classroom, and more classroom.

Busy day today: meetings at Suburb Location 1 from 8-10, class at Downtown Location from 10-1230, one visit in Suburb 2, then back for class and paperwork at Suburb Location 1 from 215-4. Lots of driving from place to place, which I guess is the way of the Road Nurse, yes?

Black Cloud, Part 2

2008-04-25T22:41:51Z

Originally published at Road Nurse. Please leave any comments there.

So, remember how my first patient died?

8 days in the field, and already I’ve had a second unexpected death.

Jeez. Even my preceptor says I have a black cloud now.

Message for patients

2008-04-23T19:16:08Z

Originally published at Road Nurse. Please leave any comments there.

A quick note to my patients:

If we’re going to fill a mediset(pill box) for you, you have to take them in order. Taking whatever day’s and time’s meds whenever you feel like it doesn’t work so well…

More Orientation

2008-04-21T23:29:31Z

Originally published at Road Nurse. Please leave any comments there.

Had a mixed day today, with half of the day spent doing visits and half in the classroom. We started off early this morning (7am, new preceptor) with 12 flights of steps to go up. Yikes-I was half dead by the 10th floor. Rock climbing is not so good for cardiac endurance. Next time should be easier. The second and third patient weren’t too remarkable–a hickman blood draw and a general nursing visit.

The afternoon started off a bit slower, with someone reading us slides on SBAR reporting, then a chat regarding the private pay aide service we run. After that we moved into the diabetes education, which I was thinking would be dull–3 hours on a topic I feel I know pretty well. However, once we got into it I found myself quite interested. The CDE was very knowledgable, and though I knew about half of what we talked about, the other half was new to me. Example: alcohol is a hypoglycemic agent, because when the body runs out of sugar, usually the liver will take over and push some glucose out. However, when you’re drinking, the liver is processing the alcohol, and apparently it can only do one thing at a time(single minded liver). So, hypoglycemia! Also learned how to use an insulin pen, which I’ve always wanted to do.

After the talk on diabetes, I went out with the CDE to a patient’s house where she had scheduled some diabetic teaching to do. There, we met with an older gentleman who, though fairly knowledgable about his diabetes, was still having some new troubles with high blood sugars and a skin infection that wasn’t clearing up. Chatted with him for about an hour, left the house with a new plan of care and some numbers–I now know who to call for education, that’s for sure.

10 hour day today–100 miles put on between two cars, and I only saw 4 patients! Hopefully a shorted day tomorrow. Classroom training all day.

Improvement and Drama

2008-04-17T00:35:14Z

Originally published at Road Nurse. Please leave any comments there.

Every day, the visits get easier and easier to do. See, I have a fair amount of social anxiety, to put it mildly, and sitting down and chatting with my patients can be really hard for me. The technical nursing stuff? No problem. Answering questions they ask me–piece of cake. Small talk about the weather: oh god, kill me now. As I posted previously, my first visit was incredibly ackward. However, things are getting smoother. Today I ran two visits, and both went quite well–I got everything covered with a minimum of long silences.

And then, after my two visits, the drama started. First, we saw a patient who had an absolutely warring family–his child said that the patient’s wife was abusive, hysterical, and controlling. The patient’s wife said their son was abusive, hysterical, and controlling. The wife says he has a month left to live. The son says the wife is cancelling appointments. And on, and on, and on. The planned 30-minute visit took us two hours to sort everything out.

Taking two hours at that house made us late to our next patient, a hospice patient with horrible pain on a CADD pump. This patient is a medical provider, and has thrice called in his own prescriptions–including one for Ativan. Trying to tell him, “No, X, you can’t do that,” has gotten us nowhere. All we can do is call his attending whenever he does it and update that doctor, but it’s starting to get a little frustrating.

Drama, drama, drama. Tomorrow I see three patients, including one whom I remember from the ICU. Should be interesting…

Black Cloud

2008-04-12T16:47:28Z

Originally published at Road Nurse. Please leave any comments there.

So, the first patient I saw yesterday, who I went out to see this morning? He died overnight.

I think I have a black cloud. 2 days and already someone’s died.

jensternal @ 2007-12-30T03:41:00

2007-12-30T08:42:55Z

god, the ambien isn't working. 2 hours of sleep last night, and now, awake by 330am after going to bed at 130. wide awake, too. bloody hell.

Happy Holidays!

2007-12-26T20:40:22Z

Happy holidays from Jen, Emma, Hannah, Karli, and Chris

jensternal @ 2007-12-22T04:07:00

2007-12-22T09:07:44Z

god, it's 4am, I've taken 15 mg of ambien(normal dose 5mg), and I still can't sleep. Fuck...

It's Over: College Version

2006-05-10T04:41:20Z

Five years of hard, hard work culminated Saturday: Graduation! I still don't know quite what to say about it, other than that it feels damn good. I'm officially a nurse now; I actually put "Nurse" as my title today for the first time (I tried to get Chris to take a picture, but he wouldn't.).

Right now, I'm settling into some restful days. Catching up on some sleep. Visiting S, my little peds patient with liver cancer, and waiting for her surgery. Looking through the pictures. Programming the PDA Chris got for me. Overall, it feels very strange, and I'm not sure what to make of it -- I'm a little ancy. I called my new boss today and asked when I could start work (June 6th, though I can go into the ICU as a tech. Haven't decided on that one yet.).

The picture is dark, and I'm small, but here's me getting my diploma...

More graduation ceremony pictures here...

It's Over: Nursing School Version

2006-05-10T04:40:24Z

See that -- that little pin on my chest -- that would be my nursing pin!
Nursing school is finally over, and I have threatened to wear that pin to the grocery store, to bed, out visiting people, and while on a walk. If I could figure out a way to wear it in the shower, well... I'm not much of a pin person, but this one has a coveted place in my life right now.

I am so elated that this program is done with: 2 years of blood, sweat, tears, and numerous other fluids less nice to describe have gone into this, and while part of me can't believe it's all over, part of me couldn't be happier.

Now, moving on with life. Graduation ceremony is next, and then onto work: into the hospital. Both excited and scared, but mostly I can't wait -- let's get moving!

Look at that smile....

The end of nursing school requires a party, of course. So, we went out with a bunch of friends to a little bar near the school.

Two of my (former!) professors met us there...

More pinning ceremony photos here

Into the hospital

2005-10-17T13:41:56Z

Heading into the hospital now...

Contact info:
Rochester General Hospital
1425 Portland Ave
Rochester, NY, 14621
I'm on the 7000 floor, it's a peds floor(not sure why they're putting me there, but, hey, whatever).

My cell: 585-747-6508, call me anytime, leave a message if I don't answer.

God, let this work. Please, please, please....

jensternal @ 2005-01-19T11:27:00

2005-01-19T16:27:39Z

This is the problem with LJ: we all think we are so close, but in actuality we know nothing about each other. I'm going to rectify it. I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me. Something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about. Ask away.

jensternal @ 2004-11-03T16:32:00

2004-11-03T21:33:13Z

how can this happen?

how can we let people who are so bigoted, so evil, so stupid run this country? didn't we learn our lesson?

from the lovely ceejayoz

meme-y

2004-10-10T21:18:33Z

yes....so the meme where we post something about 15 people, and don't tell them who it is? I'll put my things here, then click the cut below to see who it was.

1.Post more, damnit! I miss your posts.

2. why do you stay with your husband, if you hate him so much? Also, it seems like you're completely apathetic to/against the fetus...do you think that will change?

3. I miss seeing you and wish we could hang out, but I'm not really sure if you like me or not.

4. I love your new kiddo's name. there was a debate in my journal a while ago, and someone told you that the names you chose were silly, but I love them.

5. I feel for you and hope that you get to feeling better soon--you're one of the people I wish i had the balls to call on the phone.

6. as usual, you rock my world. I need to talk to you about stuff we talked about the other night.

7. I wish that you trusted me enough to put me on your list again.

8. God, I hope that you get pregnant soon. I ache for you sometimes, thinking about how difficult it's got to be to get pregnant without a male significant other.

9. Honestly, I almost always skip over your entries. I'm sorry.

10. I love your tatoos and the fact that you didn't cover them for your wedding. Also, I cannot understand why you moved to the US.

11. You should come to rochester so we can hang out again--but there isn't as much to do here.

12. I don't have you on my list because I couldn't handle the way you posted about every little thing. I do skim through your journal sometimes, though.

13. tell me why i should add you!(this one's kinda cheating, it's for the 4 people who have me on their lists who I don't know)

and, I ran out of ambition.

these aren't in order. guess which one you are?
mamaroxie
blood_girl
breezy01
freak_magnet
thegoddesschaos
jamiebug
lastaats
nonbiomum
respectabiggle
tattooedmama
turtleblues
being_homeless
and, for the last question, abbsterbean, heddyneddy, kingramon, lindsey7242003

jensternal @ 2004-10-10T16:46:00

2004-10-10T20:46:53Z

ya know what bothers me? those anon things. i mean, yeah, they're kinda fun, but I'm always desperate to know who it was that said them.

so, I'll modify them a bit. If you want to say something to me, say it now. No, I won't shut off IP logging--if you don't feel strongly enough about it to stick your name to it, it's not that important to me.

This is the life I was born to be living in....

My nursing gear

Good Deeds

Accidents happen

Argh!

Migraine people, help

Thievery!

Done with Orientation!

Maureen

Update

Black Cloud, Part 2

Message for patients

More Orientation

Improvement and Drama

Blogroll Updates

Black Cloud

jensternal @ 2007-12-30T03:41:00

Happy Holidays!

jensternal @ 2007-12-22T04:07:00

It's Over: College Version

It's Over: Nursing School Version

Into the hospital

jensternal @ 2005-01-19T11:27:00

jensternal @ 2004-11-03T16:32:00

meme-y

jensternal @ 2004-10-10T16:46:00