Just thought I'd update things into the new year, happy 2006 or whatever. I somehow ended up working every holiday this year, so in response to the usual "How were your holidays?" question I guess all I can really say is that the potlucks weren't too bad and no one died on a holiday. And I also seem to have been working way too much lately, and it looks like I'll continue this. Not really sure what went wrong with the scheduling. I haven't been in the ICU for a couple of weeks, had "floor care" patients. I had pt L, a 59-year-old fellow who is still in the hospital nearly two months after his stem cell transplant, seems to be losing his graft (transplant is failing, he is losing his bone marrow), and has multiple infections...he became so frustrated with his condition last night after being incontinent for the second time that he just broke down and cried, cried that he wasn't getting better, that he was going backwards... He's right, but what do you say to that? My other patient, A, is 31, had a transplant a month ago but then her kidneys shut down because of one the medications she got, and is now struggling with congestive heart failure. She cries each day because she just wants to go home, more than anything. She wakes up in the middle of the night and she can't breath because her lungs will suddenly fill with fluid. On the other side of things, a patient we had for over six months last year, who was intubated four times, had parts of her lungs, her gallbladder, and appendix removed, and got a stem cell transplant, sent Christmas greetings saying that she's happily tooling around her home town in her new mini Cooper. So people do get better.
Nothing is funnier than Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson singing "99 Red Balloons." And nothing is better than brand new flannel sheets :)
Date tomorrow! Usual time, usual place. My dear S has helped me decide what to wear, I will have a full report afterwards...
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