Survived another Friday the 13th

Enough time has elapsed since the recent Friday the 13th that I can safely talk about it. I am not superstitious, well not much. But, there are certain things that nurses, in particular, pay very close attention to. Full moon is one. I can't even tell you the many crazy, bad, or otherwise weird things that have happened during a full moon. Ask any ER nurse. They will tell you.

So, how was my day last Friday? Hmmmm. Not being the superstitious type, I was caught off guard. I forgot what day it was. Big mistake. The night before I had set my alarm for the usual time. It went off at the usual time. Started out OK. I rolled out of bed, headed for the bathroom to do the usual stuff. Done. Tried to walk out of the bathroom, uh oh. Got waylayed doing more "usual stuff". So, that done (twice), I went downstairs to have some breakfast. Ack! Again! Back to the bathroom. That's better. Fixed myself a bowl of cereal and some coffee. Oh no! Bathroom number 4! By now, I was wishing I had set the alarm waaaay, earlier, cuz I was starting to get into a time problem. I'm thinking I'm ok now, so I inhale my breakfast, grab my coffee, and head upstairs to take a shower. It's dark, cuz I don't want to wake hubby up. Soooo, I walked right into the bathroom door, spilled my coffee and stubbed my toe. Hopping on one foot, I get something to clean up the coffee (carpet, ack!) and that goes ok. Whew. By now I am at least 15 minutes behind schedule, so I walk thru the shower, no time for anything else, and survived that without mishap. By now I'm starting to wonder if it's a full moon, or what.

I take the bus to work. It's OK. Saves gas. I have to drive a couple miles to a Park & Ride lot, and catch it there. Breaking all speed limits (thank you, god, for letting my car start this morning!), I got to the bus stop just in time to watch it drive away. Ack! Fortunately, I live near a college town, so busses come by fairly frequently. I caught the next one and sat with a couple of nurse friends. That's when I found out it was Friday the 13th! Man, I shoulda stood in bed! I got to work almost half an hour late and had 3 people already waiting for me to tend to. I had the "worst assignment", which is the one with the extra chair. That means I will have more patients than everyone else. Ha! That's what I get for being "efficient". The rest of the morning was the usual chaos. We had no volunteers (unusual) and were short-staffed (usual) so lunch was hard to come by. So, instead of lunch, we all had something else to do.......

Chemotherapy is poison. I think most people know that. But, giving this type of poison in nonlethal doses does tend to kill cancer cells. Still, there is a reaction that one can have to certain chemos called a "hypersensitivity reaction" and can take many forms. One can spike a fever and have shakey chills, which is easily resolved. It's just that the person experiencing it thinks he/she is dying. Yeh, it can be bad. We call it shakin' & bakin". Another form is anaphylaxis. This one can be deadly. It's not that the person thinks they are dying. They are! But, even that can be reversed if it is acted upon quickly. Well, guess what? Yep, you got it. Right around lunchtime (which on this day was not going to happen!), my patient was starting a particularly nasty chemo for the first time. I got her IV started with some difficulty. No veins..... Gave her the ordered premeds, which included Benadryl and Ativan, one an antihistamine the other a sedative, both making her very sleepy. So, she was sleeping, no big deal. We called the doctor, cuz this chemo can't be given for the first time unless a physician is present for at least 15 mins. The doctor managed to wake her up, so we started the infusion. I don't think she got any more than a few mls when her eyes rolled back in her head and she became unresponsive. Blood pressure virtually gone, little pulse, not breathing. So, what did I do on Friday the 13th? Called a code and went into action. Codes are very traumatic, especially in a clinic situation. Patients are in chairs that are only a few feet apart, so quite a few people had front row seats. The nurses react without much thought, but the after effect is yikes! It's a teaching hospital, so every intern in the world as well as the code team showed up. It's simply amazing how many people you can fit into such a small space! To make a long story short, she was revived and sent to the ICU. Whew! Could I eat lunch now?

Fortunately, the rest of the day was pretty much ok. But, when is that moon going to be full again??????