wiped.

A week of new beginnings.

I ended my position at HDC last Friday and that was also the kids last day with Nora. And I can honestly say it was harder to leave Nora's then it was my job. But we of course have plans to visit and spend time with Nora, Sarah, and the kids and intend to do so quite frequently.

They've adjusted well moving over to Sarah's now(yes there are two Sarah's). I think Max is enjoying having a buddy his age to play with and Lila, well, she just goes with the flow. She too has adjusted well and refers to Sarah as "Honey"and follows her around everywhere.

Now onto my new position at St. Lukes. I began orientation on Monday, it's now Thursday and I'm 100% EXHAUSTED! Every square inch of me.

There's five in my group. One RN and four CNA's. And by today we were spent. We've arrived at 7am each day and have pretty much remained in the same room until 3:30pm each day. Between learning all the different procedures, what our roles are, policies, tours, tests(I think I had 27), etc.....it's a complete overload of information. At this point I feel nothing but overwhelmed. Most of what we've been learning has been interesting and enjoyable but then came "fit testing." We all had to be fit tested for respirators. Before it began one girl tried to get out of it because she had been fit tested at another hospital. I thought hmm.....what's the big deal, it's just a mask right?! Ah, no. First we were given a head shield to put on, think astronaut. Right about the level of your nose and mouth is a small hole and within minutes came the horrible Bitrix spray. We were each sprayed minimum three times and were told to make it known when we "tasted" it. Oh we made it known alright. It's horrible. I don't even know how to describe it other then it's the most awful bitter taste ever. We were told not to worry because it wouldn't hurt us but then informed to gargle and rinse making sure it was ALL out of our mouth. We were then given our respirators and hoped that there were no leaks because we then placed the shield back over our head and face and endured about 30 more sprays, given different breathing exercises after each round of sprays. I'm hoping this isn't something we will have to do on a regular basis.

I was looking forward to being done at 3:30 today but was informed that I would be staying and starting on the Cardiac Unit, remaining there until 7:00.  I thought it would be a pretty basic orientation to where things are here's the layout of the unit but no. Instead it was complete CHAOS when I arrived and I was literally thrown right into everything. In a matter of 20 minutes I was doing vitals on numerous people, glucose checks, documentation(which we had very little training on), transfers from ICU, etc. I was just waiting to hear "Code Blue" because that would of just really topped off the night.

The second room I walked into I was told by a very agitated man "I'm leaving......I was suppose to be gone hours ago, where's my doctor?! I've walked out before so don't think I won't do it again!" I looked at him and wanted to say "Hey, I've been here for almost TWELVE hours. You want to leave go right ahead, I sure as hell won't stop ya!" But instead I stood there, nodding my head and said "I understand, I've been there, let me see what I can do."


Even though this week has been completely draining I really am enjoying it. I love the responsibility and the fast pace of the Cardiac Unit. I've heard nothing but good things about the unit and I've met some fun new people. I'm not use to the 12 hour shifts yet but I'm sure that will come with time. I'm happy to have the next week off because I return next Thursday to work four 12 hour shifts in a row. So I'll apologize now because it's unlikely that I will be returning phone calls or emails during that time. Honestly all I want to do is crash when I get home. In fact I'm pretty sure the children will be fending for themselves the Monday after my four twelve's. I see a "movie day" in their near future.