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I took this photo right over the top of my Mom because, well, it would be mean to take her photo while she is recovering from surgery. She still looks beautiful but you'll have to take my word for it.

The last few days I've sat around a lot and done a whole lot of nothing. It's exhausting, really! Why is that?

Anyway, Mom has once again shown that she comes from strong stock. I can tell you for certain that she in most definitely not a whiner. She is not demanding. She can find humor in trying circumstances and she can give words of kindness in situations when most people would only be thinking of themselves. It has been my honor to be here with her.

I think it is time to take her home now, time to let her rest in her own bed.

Wyoming, here we come!

Confessions of a Nurse

As I've said, I work at a surgical center. It is an outpatient facility, meaning patients usually go home after they recover a bit from their surgery. There are two phases of their recovery.

After patients have surgery they are taken immediately to the recovery room, now referred to as PACU (post anesthesia care unit). They remain there until they are awake, breathing safely on their own and stable enough to be moved to the post-recovery area. 

A lot of our patients are children who've had their tonsils out, ear tubes installed, hernias repaired, dental work requiring anesthesia and a variety of other surgeries. We also have many adult patients having their gallbladders removed, kidney stones resolved, plastic surgery, lap band placements, nasal surgeries, etc. 

I was assigned to the post recovery area yesterday and I did have a mixture of adults and children to recover. Usually patients are in a medical type of recliner while in post recovery. Most often when children are brought out from PACU we have one of the parents sit in the recliner and we place the child in their lap. Isn't that just the best place for a child to be when they are scared and/or hurting?

Anyway, that was rather a long build up to tell you about the dumb thing I did yesterday. 

I entered the room where a young boy was recovering in his mother's arms. I was preparing to take the boy's temperature and to go through the discharge paperwork. The boy's grandmother was in the room and I was talking with her while I was doing all this. Without even thinking, I used the temporal thermometer and swiped it across the forehead to take the temperature. The only problem was, I TOOK THE MOTHER'S TEMPERATURE! As I said to the mother, "That really gives you confidence in my highly professional assessment skills!" 

Then guess what happened!? Yep, I went over the edge. I laughed and laughed. It's not my fault, really. Remember, I suffer from the Genetic Laughter Seizure Syndrome. 

Eventually I pulled myself together, kind of. I still needed to go through the discharge instructions. I admit I had a couple more giggles slip out even then. Thank goodness both the mother and the grandmother were people who also enjoyed a good laugh.

Anyone else want to make any confessions of dumb mistakes they've made at work?

I 'm So Excited to Miss You!

We love this little girl so much!  Even when she was feeling her worst, she was still polite to the hospital staff.  She was brave and sweet.  We told her the doctors and nurses were trying to make her better so she thanked them, even when they were doing some pretty awful things to her. 

When she got home yesterday I went over to take their dog home.  Bumblebee had been hanging out at our house throughout Cordelia's hospitalization.  Cordy was so happy to see Bumblebee!  She made a funny little voice that sounded like she'd swallowed a big bubble and over and over she said, "I'm so excited to miss you!  I'm so excited to miss you!" as she hugged and hugged her "sister".

I am happy to report that Cordelia is recovering very well and we are all breathing a bit more easily.