Like freakin' Gulliver in Lilliput

So I am having this affair with my heating pad. I do have one often actually, due to a torn and will-never-heal tendon tear at my neck-shoulder connection. Lifting 400+ lb people day in and day out will do that to you. My father once asked me "don't you have orderlies?" Yes, and I wear a white dress every day and I am addressed as Nurse Heidi. Hello! This is not Marcus Wellby, pops. There is me and my fellow nurses. And people need to be turned, pulled up, picked up off the floor, walked, wrestled and tied down. These are facts. My floor happens to be luckier than most , we have several men that work with us. Big strong men, who are almost as strong as some of us girls.

But todays heating pad love fest is not because of work, like you would think. Nope, mine has to be more strange. Last night, it was late and I shut down the house. While waking to my bedroom I tripped and fell over a pirate ship and in the fall I reached out to brace myself and got a castle in the gut. Thankfully "Old West Town" playset was in the basement, than I would have hit my head on and been in a coma staring Clint Eastwood and John Wayne. Hardly glamorous. I am a klutz, this much is true, but I should be safe from the attack of the little people in my own living room. Damn kids. Damn me for not picking up their crap, I guess.

So I am broken and took enough Mortin to numb me. If I start to puke blood, you will know why. Lovely thought that. I have to heal myself up for work tomorrow. There is sure to be at least one trip to radiology in my near future. I spend quite a lot of my time in CAT scan. Our patients in the ICU need to be taken in their bed with a nurse or two, a cardiac monitor and quite often with one of us manually breathing for then with an ambu bag until we can get then back to the ventilator. It takes more time to make the strenuous journey than it does to do the CAT scan.

I am glad to be getting back to nights for a bit. There is just too....much during the day. Too many people touching my charts, too many people in and out of my rooms. I am a ICU nurse, we have power issues. Some of us keep it in better than others. Some of us are just insane. Some of us are medicated. We like to be in control of the patients and anything involving them. It is after all my license. Scary to think that with one wrong programing of an IV pump or one little sign of danger missed, and it can be fatal for my patient. It has happened to many good nurses. That little bit of fear is a good thing though, it makes you think a bit harder and not be cavalier about the care we give.

And I am glad to get back with the co-workers I am so fond of. One of my friends Sue said she tells her family " I am going to work to be with my REAL friends" True enough. I feel the same way. Everybody now...

Where everybody knows your name,
and they're always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see,
our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows
Your name.

Imagine this chick saving your life. Scary! All 5 feet of her! She might even sing in your room, if you are lucky!