Anne & I are on nightshift...

Tuesday Tuesday...

Well, it has certainly been awhile since a middle of the night post....

nightshift post.

This is the hour I dread. 

0400h. 

It's the nauseating hour. 

Then comes 0500h. 

The punchy hour.

The one where everything seems funny.  But really, it isn't.

Then comes 0600h...
many things to do before my replacement comes in at 0715h

Then at 0900h the boys have swimming lessons.

And then at 1030h, I can go to sleep!

And then, at 1700h (if I'm lucky enuf to sleep that long)
I get up for work again.

Last night before days off...

HALLELUJAH!

Perhaps I will "encourage" my student to take on another patient tonight  :)

I owe, I owe

WHERE do days off go??? I have to go back already?

Is it wrong that I already can't wait for first coffee??

So confused!

WHERE do my days off go???? It seems I just finished my set...and I have to go back tomorrow already! BOOOO! HISSSSS!  Good thing I like my job...

And on that note, I better go polish my shoes...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Ya right...check out this awesome vintage advertisement! C'mon nursing buddies! Let's go polish!

Actually I think I did polish when I was a student nurse...those were the days!

Punchy

Urban Dictionary's definition of punchy; silly in a manic sort of way.

Yep, that just about describes me tonight. My poor co-workers. I plead the 5th. Do we do that here? Is it the 5th that I plead?

Mundi mundi to sushi pants, it's almost unbearable. I've about cried all my make-up off from laughing. No body is laughing with me though. They are about to send me to Baker 1. I guess that's what four 12 hour nights will do to you. I didn't think I could do it...

T minus 5 hours til days off! WOOOT!

This isn't a threat, it's a fact.

Ok, it's a lie. I have had TWO cups of coffee so far. There will be more, oh yes, there will be more as I mentally prepare myself to go in for my THIRD night shift in a row. Third of four (cue violins).

Having said that, my return to work has been easy peasy lemon squeezy. (knock wood)....just feelin a bit vampirish...is it PC for a nurse to say don't make me kill you? Poor taste? Just back away from the coffee pot & everything will be juuuuuuuust fine. Mine. My coffee.

Happy Saturday to you all!

Back to the Grind!

Well, it's been about 7, yes, countem', SEVEN weeks already since I injured my back. Tonight I go back to work full strength. I hope my patients ease me back in gently... in other words, I hope they SLEEP all night for me!  No bell ringing! (I can dream can't I????)  Wish me luck!

Night Owl!

Hoooooooo! Hoooooooooo! Whoooooooooo is going to prop me up tonight?

Going back for my first night shift since I was injured, so....6 or 7 weeks ago? I had a nice long nap this afternoon in preparation, and I'm gettin' all hopped up on the juice...er...coffee. I've been spoiled only having to do day shifts...so here goes nothing...

Here's to sleepy, quiet patients. It's all good, and besides, you know how I love to post crazy talk at 0300h...

Happy mid-week to you all!

I take 2 steps forward, I take 2 steps back...

No, don't worry, I won't break into song...even though it was totally pure early 90's hip-hop bliss!

I can't break into song. A) I don't sing that well, even though I THINK that I do. B) My back, has set me back, I kinda feel like I am back where I started with my back! C) Always ask for ranitidine or some pariet with toradol.

Owie. One more sleep, 6 hours of work and one hour of physio til days off.

BLAHHHHHHH

Just WHAT the heck am I going to do all day?????  I should have kept my babies home from school today.

I was supposed to go in for one of those lovely little GRTW 4 hour shifts, but the pain in my back today was unbelievable. I know, you're tired of hearing me whine...but but but! So I called my wonderful doc @ 0700 and he said c'mon in tout de suite. SO, I ended up with the day off work, a rest day from physio, a Toradol Rx and a req for an X-ray! Yikes! X-ray done...waiting for results.

So I sit here, drinking my beloved Verona blend from Starbucks, catching up on blogland, Y & R amongst other things....waiting for the Toradol to kick in.

I feel like crying I'm so bored. And so tearful from the frustration that comes from lifting a jar of peanut butter (albeit Costco size) ..alas, it is too heavy.

Perhaps I will just go lay in the sun. But wait, I was going to embrace my pale Irish fair skin this year. Bah.

Wonderful Wednesday!

Good Morning Blog Friends!

What are you up to today? I want to know ALL about it!

My day started off like it usually does...coffee, boys to school...I have the day off...but I had physio @ 0830. Oh the horror. My physiotherapist is actually quite lovely. She always says 'How are you feeling today' and when I tell her, 'blah blah blah pain here, pain there, blah blah blah' she gives me this knowing little smirk, I can't tell if that look in her eyes is one of sympathy or satisfaction...in any case, she went easy on me today. HALLELUJAH!

Along with my ironing obsession (Rosie), I have a small obsession with making sure my fingernails are painted on my days off, and a medium obsession with changing my toenail lacquer colour 1 - 2 times per week...well who doesn't really. I pulled out my box of colours and (back)painstakingly buffed & polished. Colour du jour: Go On Green by OPI for my fingers...kind of a pale minty green and Light My Tiki by China Glaze for my toes, a bright sparkly summery orangey-coral colour.

{Note to self...Do not paint toes and put feet on floor when dogs are running around like crazies.}

Today is International Nursing Day. I'm laying low & resting til the gathering @ Brokeshopaholic's house. Yay! Back to work for 4 tomorrow.

Waiting to hear what YOUR wonderful Wednesday entails...

NOT GONNA LIE!

I could get used to these four hour shifts. I could REALLY get used to them! Oy. Little update...Gradual return to work program, physio, wcb. Everything is going smoothly...still sore, uber tired...takes time I guess.

It's National Nursing Week, International Nursing Day on May 12, which is incidentally Florence Nightingale's birthday.

Good ole Flo. Our "mother" of nursing, the "Lady with the Lamp", a pioneer who laid the very foundation for what we do today. On a related note, National LPN Day is on the 13th. (WOOT) Not trying to toot our own horns but gigiddy, nurses do a hard job. But a rewarding job. I love what I do, I love what my workmates do. The people I work with make my job enjoyable to go to everyday. The rewards of making a patient better enough to go home, or assisting a patient & their family through difficult times are beyond measure. It was easily the best decision/career change I could have made. I learn so much everyday from every person I come into contact with at the hospital & I get to celebrate tomorrow with my workmates...can't wait!

So on that note, raise a glass to nurses this week, be thankful for your health, protect your health, & cherish your family & friends.

another weekend

T minus 5 hours to go. i can tell you though, that nothing at all in the world could have prepared me for this night shift. not even the 2 cheeseburgers my hubby brought to me ac nights. oh snap! they were gooood. but alas, it was the calm before the storm. and storm it did. never in my nursing career have i experienced a night like this. "but you get shift differential" um, ok, right.

it's 0225h, may 1, 2010. may. MAY. can you even believe it? i can't understand how the time just flies by. my eldest babe turns 12 this month, how insane. & i have all these plans, things i need & want to do...the days go by, the weeks, the months...i think this is my last weekend off for a month, so i hope i am productive with my days off.

i want to lounge, sleep, drink coffee, walk the dogs, cut Mason's hair!, cut Quinn's hair, lounge, sew, drink coffee, lounge, drink BLL, refinish some freakin furniture already, stay up late, FB, blog, lounge, exercise...HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA, drink coffee, lounge...are you pickin up what i'm puttin down???

my may resolutions are set, and i'm being firm on them. that's my story & i'm sticking to it. bring it on may!

Helloooooooooooooo

Is it me you're looking foooooooor?

Now I know what you're thinking...some of you....oh nice, she's singing Lionel Richie....aaaah Good Rockin Tonite!....ooooh I haven't heard that lovely song in a while... oh that Rocketgirl & her show-stopping tunes!

Well I'll tell you what I'M thinking.....I'm thinking that I am going crrrrazzzzzzzy! Makes sense, 0414h. Seriously, I cannot get the song out of my head! It interrupted my ability to take my break (nurses, you know what I am getting at here...my nightshift BREAK!) Now what I want to know is, where on EARTH, would I have gotten that from? So, I you-tubed, some people say if you have a song stuck in your head, the best thing to do is to hear it. WRONG. I think I am now more disturbed than ever. His hair, the young girl, the clay, I mean seriously....what kind of video is that????

I can see it in your eyyyyyyes, I can see it in your smiiiiiiile....

Go ahead. My gift to you...I hope it's in your head ALL NIGHT LONG. Um, I pinky swear that wasn't on purpose. I give up.

everything happens for a reason. love, ROCKETGIRL. xo

Harumph

I don't want to go back to work today. I want bacon. Not my spinach smoothy. I want to crawl back into bed like the cranky young lady I am. Please, powers that be...here's hoping my patients are nothing but lovely today...

everything happens for a reason. love, ROCKETGIRL. xo

a post about nothing.

well here we are again, the nightshift post. 4 hours til MY bedtime...please patients, stay sleeping!

i don't really have anything witty/non-witty, catty/non-catty, funny/you get the point to say...
i have been on day's on if you will...a night shift again tomorrow and then i am on days off! wheee! (thank goodness for stat holidays & extra dough!)

day's on means I don't do a heckuva lot in my spare time. my new sewing machine isn't even out of the box yet! I KNOW! (sorry rosie, i know you think i have been sewing like a mad woman...besides, i'm waiting for mrs c to show me how to wind my bobbin!) the day shifts were very long. i did get ambitious before my shift tonight and i made a few dozen big fat egg shaped sugar cookies. i hope i have the will to flood ice them all fancy martha stewart style on saturday after i wake.

today in the mail, i received my green bag from the green bag lady! thank you green bag lady for my handmade bag! http://greenbaglady.blogspot.com/ she recently held a draw for a lovely little composter & i won! so that came today too. i am determined to be a good composter, lord knows we have enuf compostable (yes it's a word) bitties from the kitchen. so that's my next task, research composting and how to do it well. anyhoo, pics for you and for the green bag lady to come of both...ps props to cupcakes & ruby slippers for tuning me into the green bag lady. and my! don't you have a lovely new button today!

that's it for now, fast approaching 0400h. nurses out there, you know what that means. for the rest of you, anything i say, do or type past this hour, i cannot be held accountable for.

happy good friday to you all.

everything happens for a reason. love, ROCKETGIRL. xo

0220 & all's well

silencia. is that spanish for silence do you think? or be quiet. silencia!
well in rocketgirl-land it means...quiet. not be quiet...just...quiet.

everyone is sleeping. the overhand fans are whirring. the lights are low. the tapping of my computer keys are thankfully not waking anybody up. everytime my email notification goes off tho, it makes me jump. it's Mrs Cupcake. she's down the hall, around the corner and up the other side. you may call us...the night shifters. (now re-read this whole paragraph in your low down scary announcer voice...kwim?)

sounds like some bad movie trailer. could easily be made better if like, oh taylor lautner was just standing there, loitering. you know, without his shirt. before you say anything, i don't care how old he is.

delirium is setting in. when is break time....T minus 45 mins. i can do it. aaack. there goes the email again.

do you know that quinn called mason a shifty bastard today???? and then they ROARED! wtf.

i'm trying not to be bitter today. i am so bitter. and sad. i can't help it.

everything happens for a reason. love, ROCKETGIRL. xo

i need ONE MORE DAY OFF!!!!Puhleeeeeeeaseeee??????

love, ROCKETGIRL xo

angst. if that's how you spell it...

so far so good. this set, dare i say, has been really good. two nights to go. don't groan, don't feel sorry for me. i cannot wait to do two nights back to back. been a while....i miss day sleeping, it's true.

weekend update; the spaghetti lobster was a total & utter hit! he said he was shocked i actually made it, as in took his request seriously. he said i needed to cook it for his father, which is the ultimate compliment, as my dear FIL is the best seafood cook i know. i made a peach cobbler type dessert from bakerella's website for dessert. there was a brief moment of panic when steve inadvertently came into the kitchen and saw the amount of butter i was using...he got over it, and ate it, and loved it.

i learned some new nursing terms this week and have thusly woven them cleverly into my charting. obtund & natal cleft. feel free to use them in your charting. go ahead. on a side note, i bumped into my old manager today who said, "i really miss you" ha!

i have utter fear & panic growing in me tonight. i heard some very distressing news on the weekend about a classmate of q's & more disturbing news today about one of his friends. i feel like i will never be able to protect him & safeguard him. i am so afraid and fearful for him in these formative years. i feel like it's august again....all those panic attacks about middle school.

my best friend, it's his birthday today. i love him with all my heart & soul. he gives me far more than i could ever give him. he does more for the boys & i then i could ever hope to repay him for. does that make sense? sure it does. i love you my steven.

love, ROCKETGIRL xo

YAWN

sooooo,

• completed shopping - negative
• tired? affirmative
• going to work - affirmative
• should i have told staffing yes? negative, ok affirmative

to all of you who get to go to bed soon, nighty night
to all of you night shifters, wake me if you catch me sleeping at the nurses station!
d.xo