We could all use an honest friend. Finding friendship is rare, developing friendship an art, to collect friends a skill. Shakespeare's proud, Divine Right-claiming Richard II admits to needing friends in his time of humility, after he sensed defeat and learned about his advisors' beheadings. Or Richard was merely being dramatic with another of his … Continue reading When Allies Become Enemies
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Smoking Rights and Things Gone Wrong
Since I'm a nurse, I'm sitting here at the nurse's station but feeling like an idiot in this multi-use community resource center on the psychiatric floor, trying to finish my charting after my regular quitting time. I feel like an idiot anyway for not leaving, not so much because it's after my quitting time and … Continue reading Smoking Rights and Things Gone Wrong
Some Heroes and Our Heroism
"Heroes Work Here" we read on signs in front of most nursing homes and some of the hospitals. I'm seeing a bright display staked outside in the dirt, in varied colors with balloons attached. Is it an advertisement to passing onlookers that herein labor our society's Essential Workers? To prompt the bowing of heads and … Continue reading Some Heroes and Our Heroism
Dying Is Irritating
Why are the dying in such foul moods sometimes? Why the moodiness when you say you're not in pain, Mr. Hospice? Is it a pain you don't know how to talk about? Well, I can say this: For those not fully invested in their consciousness being transferred to some sweet hereafter, it's irritating when we're … Continue reading Dying Is Irritating
Doing No (More) Harm: Clinicians As Family Members
The physician daughter wants to be kept in the loop but hasn't yet return my calls. Then I realize she's his PCP after he gets delirious and she orders, through me, a urinalysis and then a culture in case the piss is dirty (UA/reflux C&S). What happened to giving him some low dose cipro or … Continue reading Doing No (More) Harm: Clinicians As Family Members
Terminal Agitation: It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Dying)
It's typically called a Change of Condition in the medical world, a coded phrase said up front during the *SBAR call to the doctor, meaning "Situation here is...well, changed". Residential care custodians use the term, vague as it is, despite having nothing much more accurate to describe than that the patient looks "not right". Sometimes … Continue reading Terminal Agitation: It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Dying)
That Ain’t Nursing (That’s the Way You Do It)
This crap we're forced to do all throughout the day, more and more of it every year, ordering supplies, arranging for deliveries of medications and diapers, scheduling visits for the CNA. What days are the CNAs visiting? Mondays and Fridays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays -- I can't keep the half-dozen different hospice aides' schedules straight, which … Continue reading That Ain’t Nursing (That’s the Way You Do It)
Hit Me: Betting On Your Oxygen
Today I checked Betty's SpO2, or oxygen saturation level, and found that my pulse-oximeter read 100% oxygen. All the hemoglobin in her red blood cells were supposedly saturated with oxygen molecules. Lungs were Loaded for Bear. "How'd you like to give that oxygen some rest for a while? It looks as if you don't need … Continue reading Hit Me: Betting On Your Oxygen
The Readiness Is All: What We Make of What’s Left of Our Life
Horatio: If your mind dislike anything, obey it. I will forestall their repair hither and say you are not fit. Hamlet: Not a whit, we defy augury; there's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it [death] be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be … Continue reading The Readiness Is All: What We Make of What’s Left of Our Life
Condition Changes: Dying or Merely Dumpster Diving
An exotic behavior change occurred one day to someone my wife knew when still in college at UC-Santa Barbara. A friend had what was then known as Pick's Disease, but no one knew it yet. Now called frontotemporal dementia, one of the brain deterioration's early signs are personality changes. Her friend was a nurse so … Continue reading Condition Changes: Dying or Merely Dumpster Diving
Hospice Nursing 1 Day at a Time 