sweepthefloor
see jane nurse
- Joined
- May 25, 2010
- Posts
- 11,836
Thanks! We must protect our heads.Great question and as always, a phenomenal answer.
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Thanks! We must protect our heads.Great question and as always, a phenomenal answer.
I am not attached to this sadness. It mostly went away already.The Beatles are the best.
I don't like the thought of you being sad. If you are willing, I will debrief you and give you a hug. Might help buffer the sadness a bit. Unless you are attached to your sadness, that is.
I am not attached to this sadness. It mostly went away already.
Sometimes going back to work is the best cure for the work sad. It's how we know: we are not alone. There is a level of understanding in the eyes of those who stand together.I am not attached to this sadness. It mostly went away already.
The horrors! I feel so sad for you LDS. I will never work in pediatrics, ever. My limited pediatric rotation in school was enough for me to know I don't ever want to go home with that level of worry.
Do the home care givers show up?
Sometimes going back to work is the best cure for the work sad. It's how we know: we are not alone. There is a level of understanding in the eyes of those who stand together.
That is some bullshit.The adults in the house ARE the paid home care givers.
I'll second that.
Some days it's easy to lose faith in humanity.
New admission yesterday, supposed to be just a one-week eval visit. I have never seen a human being in such poor condition. Filthy, infested with fleas, malnourished, and ulcers (bedsores) over every bony prominence.
I have never, EVER in my career had to walk away from a check-in before. About 10 minutes into the skin check, I had to cover her with a blanket and leave the room to compose myself. I thought I was going to throw up; the coworker who saw me walk out of the room said I looked like I was going to cry.
The patient is what we (in-house) refer to as "low-functioning:" she does not walk, speak, eat (has a feeding tube), move on her own at all, acknowledge being spoken to, or even make eye contact. However, she can clearly feel pain - she grimaced and cried when we assessed her. We were FINALLY able to bathe her today (after she was assessed, re-assessed, photographed, legal statements made and signed, child protective services was called, etc.). It took close to two hours, with two staff people. She cried at the beginning of the bath as we scrubbed off years of dirt and other crap, but by the end was beaming ear to ear.
The county's CPS claims there is nothing they can do - they have nowhere to place her. Our usually worthless social worker finally grew a pair, and told the county we would not release her back to her home without some serious changes being made. We can't legally do this, but at this point none of us gives a crap - she will return to that home only over the pile of our collected dead bodies.
I think I deserve a fucking medal for showing enough restraint to not drive to their home and kill every one of the adults living there. At this point the threat of prison is the only thing preventing me from doing exactly that.
What if I just started doing cartwheels down the unit?
This is a child!?!?! I didn't get that part until I read CPS.
The abuse, neglect and damage to children was the absolute worst part of Law Enforcement for me. I'd go home and cry in the shower, didn't want my own kids to see me that way, didn't want or know how to explain why daddy was crying. I still have nightmares about them.
I've seen horrid self-neglect on homeless adults, one with what looked like lichen growing from his feet up to his knees. I could emotionally handle the adults. But not the kids.
Please do everything you can, in any way you can. Take pictures and leak them to the press, whatever.
If you can conceive of any way I can help from SoCal, please private message me.
I'm going to go play with my mental blocks for a while now...
I tend to think of all of my patients as "children," because mentally they never progress beyond that. In fact our average developmental equivalent "age" is about 12 months, while the average actual age is mid-40s. However, in this case, she is literally a child - an adolescent, whose developmental level is considered "prenatal" - i.e., she cannot even do the things that a normal newborn does.
She is so happy right now. She's clean, she's comfortable, we're managing the pain from the bedsores and treating her for infection. All smiles today, and she's much more relaxed. We're even seeing a bit of personality coming through - she has made eye contact a few times.
We've moved up the ladder on her now - a few political big shots are involved (sometimes it pays to work for the government), and she will not be going home. She'll be staying with us for a few months, then moving back to our long-term facility until a proper foster home can be found for her.
So today I'm feeling pretty good about myself. We cannot change the world, but we changed her world, and today that's enough.
For what little it may be worth, I am damn proud of you!
"Who saves a child saves the world". something like that.
You have done a good thing. A tremendously good thing.
Our patients are so messed up on sedatives and sickness they might think it was a dream that really happened.Awesome!
I just thought what it would be like to be in my hospital bed, and see a nurse doing cartwheels down the hallway. HUGE smile.
One world at a time. I am glad you feel better.So today I'm feeling pretty good about myself. We cannot change the world, but we changed her world, and today that's enough.
Thank you. I'll bet that law enforcement has the same extreme highs and lows as health care, and tomorrow is another day: maybe better, maybe worse. For now at least, I'll chalk this one up as a big win.
We stroke around the room together like some kind of freakish synchronized swim team. There is no time for me to stop and wonder: who are these people?
Hahahahahahahaha I think of this song when I walk onto the unitI have been trying to imagine what music you would be synchronized to, and can't come up with anything that works for me. I'm not even sure on the genre, although I eliminate rap out of habit.
Can you hum a few bars?