Nursing Under the Influence

One of the nurses I’ve been working with suddenly stopped showing up for her shift at work. I found out today that she has been stealing Morphine from patients and was shooting-up in the bathroom. Reminds me of an episode of the Mentalist I watched a few months ago. Wow! I was totally shocked. And saddened. It’s scary to think that there are nurses out there taking care of patients while they are “high.”

This incident reminded me of a time when I was working in a Progressive Care Unit on twelve hour days shifts a number of years ago. One morning when I arrived I sat down to receive report from the night shift nurse. She started out talking about her patients, but after a few minutes she was mumbling something about living in a tent, smoking marijuana, and bizarre dreams she had been having. She nearly fell asleep right there during report!

I had no choice but to report the incident to our head nurse. She was soon thereafter fired. Of all people, nurses should be the healthiest. If these nurses remind you of yourself, get help now before you seriously harm yourself, or worse, someone else.

Avoiding the Gall of Bitterness

Fifteen years ago, when I was about a week from expecting my first child, I began having excruciating pain underneath my right rib cage.  My OB doctor sent me for an ultrasound to check on my gallbladder.  The ultrasound didn’t find any problems with my gallbladder.  They attributed the pain to the kicking of  two very large feet jammed tightly up against my gallbladder.  A week later, my son was born weighing a whopping 10 lbs 2 oz!  After the delivery, the pain was gone.  What a relief!  I didn’t really think about it again until I got prego with baby #2.  I ended up having the same exact same scenario with all four pregnancies.

Everytime I would lay on my right side, sure enough, about three minutes later there would be that familiar, sharp stabbing pain just under my right rib cage.   I am not sure what it is about pregnancy and gall bladders.  All I know is that the two do not get along well at all!

Each time I would tell the doctor.  Each time he dismissed it as usual pregnancy pain.

I remember learning in nursing school about the four F’s regarding gallbladder patients…Fat, Fair, Forty and Female.  Although I may have pushed maximum density a few times while I was prego, I didn’t really consider myself to be “fat.”   I will be turning “the big 40″ at the end of this year, so I definitely fit the mold for the other three now.  With all this in mind, I finally decided to refer myself to a GI doctor last week.  After a HIDA scan my doctor determined that my gallbladder is only functioning at 23%.  I’ve been really healthy all my life.  I am actually thankful this is the first real health issue I’ve ever had.

I have always felt bad for my patients suffering from gallbladder issues.  It can get really ugly.  One lady I took care of sat up on the side of the bed, doubled over in pain and just vomited bile the entire shift.  She felt so horrible that she actually welcomed the NG tube I had to put down.  I don’t know if you’ve ever thrown-up bile before, but apparently it is extremely bitter tasting.  I think that’s where the term “the gall of bitterness” comes from in Acts 8:23.

I am so thankful that other than a few “twinges” of pain after eating a fatty meal, and some reflux, I don’t feel too bad (when not prego).  But to avoid “the gall of bitterness!” I am going to schedule the surgery really soon.