Last Friday, just before Ryan's family arrived, Ryan splashed crazy glue right into his eye! We quickly got him to the eye doc who then had to pluck pieces of glue off his cornea with an instrument that resembled an x-acto knife. He ended up with 6 corneal abrasions and two foreign bodies (crazy glue chunks). Ryan's eye was very painful for three days and the dilating drops that the eye doc used kept his left eye dilated for about three days.
Ryan received several pairs of safety goggles for his birthday from well meaning/ hard-assing family and friends
We celebrated Papa Mark and Ryan's birthday in true Olson/Knoll fashion. Eating and Drinking. a lot. It was a great time.
Then on New Years Day, I went to work. It was the craziest day ever. I fully expected to see some post new years eve-type injuries, but no. The paramedics brought us two or three codes that they had resuscitated in the field, that we had to stabilize. We had 4 intubations yesterday, two people sent to the cath lab, and one person nearly intubated, a pregnant woman nearly ready to deliver, holding 22 admits, eight or nine level 2 patients waiting for any available bed, and an uncountable number of level 3 patients also waiting to be seen.
One of the intubations I was assisting with was going smoothly until I realized that the IV that I was using became infiltrated. So then there I was trying to calculate what and how much paralyzing/ muscle relaxer medication had gone in while my charge nurse and another mat nurse scrambling to get another working IV established. It was a nightmare. Two respiratory therapists scowling at me and Dr Mac frowning over his splash guard mask. Ugh. Finally Charge RN got an IV in the patients' foot, and pushed the drugs again. So my patient probably received the full dose the second time thru his IV, and the other dose into his body to be absorbed more slowly. Th intubation continued without any further interruptions. About 10-15 minutes later, the pt's blood pressure tanked, so I took him off the sedative drip and got a bolus of fluid going. About 2 minutes later the consulting pulmonologist arrived into the pt's room just as the pt is beginning to wake up with the tube in his throat. The lung doc looks at me, says, "This patient is awake! You need to get him under sedation NOW!" I thought to myself, "Well no shit." But said instead, "I need to get his BP up first" He give me some orders for a vasopressor for his BP, and a sedative for the ventilator. Eventually we got the patient stabilized, and all I can say is Thank god I had some other nurses for support. I am sure everybody was saying that yesterday.
1 comments:
I tried calling my pirate brother on his b-day, but got no answer. I did talk to dad, and told him to wish Ryan a happy birthday. Let him know that they are easier ways to pretend to be a pirate, than trying to take his eyeball out with crazy glue.
And ((hugs)) on your day yesterday. It sounds like one of those days that you really need a beer when you get home.
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