I've shown up to work the past 2 mornings with unrealistic demands. Basically have regressed to where I was when I arrived, and find myself getting all bent out of shape that things don't get done as ordered. No neb treatments all night long. No oxygen sat readings. Wrong volume feeds being given to my 8 week old kid with new heart failure. Getting frustrated and all bent out of shape doesn't change anything, except to make me grumpy.
We had a great day. We only had 11 admissions yesterday to our ward (4 to other wards), and a pretty light work load...
One of the things that has been bothering me since I got here is how un-inspiring the ward can be at times. Little stimulation for the children. Like I mentioned before, one coloring book.
And then today, a bag of donated toys appeared. It was like Christmas (or like all the kids had a birthday on the say day, don't want to force Christian holidays on anybody). Of course, "S" got first dibs! Today really felt like what a children's ward should be. (I may have a pic from today, but it's not going up now). At one point, in Cubicle 9, KM, a 3 y/o was on the floor, playing with 2 other kids, and they were eating oranges all at the same time! Smiling. Laughing. Pretending to shoot each other with toy guns (ok, not that the toy gun thing makes me happy, but what the hell)...
Today was joyous for other reasons..
Step 1:
We have a 9 year old girl on the ward who has cerebellitis (infection of the cerebellum, portion of the brain which controls fine motor) after having had Hep A. Rare, but has been reported before. And she's had really poor coordination (cerebellum-portion of the brain which takes a hit with alcohol, so you can guess how she walks, and in fact, I completely plan on walking that way in 24 hours from now). Today she was actually outside with the PT/OT group (nice sunny day) and was making small progress and taking some steps.
Step 2:
We have a 10 y/o boy who was admitted with pneumococcal meningitis and septicemia. I remember when we did a spinal tap on this kid last week, he didn't even flinch. At one point I looked at home to make sure he was actually still breathing. He was basically comatose for a few days. But he has slowly woken up. Here's a plug for crunchy parents, if you don't want to vaccinate your kid, and they get pneumococcal meningitis, they are in for a bad, bad time. (Where's that damn soap box...) Oh, so anyway, he's actually made a bit of progress. (I thought it was a bit cruel that for the past 2 days it's just been him and the 2 y/o with TB meningitis-who is basically left in a vegetative state. Anyway, the 10 y/o sat up in bed yesterday, and with the help of holding on to 2 PT assistants, took some steps.
Step 3:
I know I go on and on about S. But seriously, this kid wakes up happy, smiles, laughs, giggles, and is such a ball of joy to have in the ward. He is SPOILED, Rotten. But, after a week or two of neglect in the ward, when we realized that he is never going to get placed (we joke that in 12 years he'll get transferred to the adult ward), we've set some goals. Basically, get him walking and talking. I don't think he is really developmentally delayed, but rather hasn't had enough stimulation and will catch up nicely. And today, with much coaxing, the other Reg and I got him to take 2 steps!! Woo-Hoo.
The most amazing thing about today is that we were post-call and didn't have the normal crazed post-intake madness that usually keeps us from goofing around and having fun. It was really a joyous day.
