Final Fragments

Unless something changes in the near future, this will be my last Friday Fragments post at this location!
I've set up a blog on Wordpress; leave a comment if you'd like to come visit there.  I'm not trying to keep it private, I just don't want to link it here.  It's quite easy to find.

I am SO tired of miserable people trying to make everyone else as miserable as they are.  The saying "Misery loves company" is so true.  I wish they would just live their miserable lives and leave me alone!

I had a really great week at work, and the grand finale was an excellent evaluation.  It was my first eval at this job and it could not have been better!  It makes all my hard work worthwhile.

On Thursday night my son came over, along with two friends, to visit with us and Wiz the Chinchilla.  We had such a good time.  Tim took some really funny pics of the chinchilla, but he hasn't sent them to met yet, so I'll have to share them over at the new bloggy home.

My mother-in-law bought Elayna her very own flute!  Elayna was THRILLED.  She started playing in her middle school band last year and really enjoys it. 

 

My niece is due with Baby #2 on August 13th, but her doctor is expecting her to deliver literally any day.  We're beyond excited!!!  We all have plans to get together this Saturday for a chicken & dumpling dinner; maybe Baby Alexis will get so excited for the dumplings that she'll decide to make an appearance.  

Today is Dusty's 18th Birthday!  Feel free to order something from our Zazzle store - all proceeds go to Dusty!

I'll leave you with the funniest thing I saw on Facebook this week - enjoy!  

And have a wonderful weekend!

It's Medical Monday ~ CNA's Brighten Days

Today is the first Monday of July, which means it is Medical Monday around these parts!

I am happy to be co-hosting this month's Medical Mondays Blog Hop.

For those of you who are new here, I am a CNA, and for anyone who doesn't know what that is, I thought I would explain.

CNA stands for Certified Nursing Assistant.  Our duties vary depending on what job we take.  I used to do home health care, which I love.  Many CNA's work in nursing homes.  I currently work in a hospital on the neuro med/surg floor.  If you've ever spent time in a hospital, you've encountered a CNA, although different facilities use different job titles.

At my hospital, we are called Nurse Techs.  We take vitals, assist patients with various needs, answer your call light, bring you food and drinks (other than your actual meals).  I often feel like a waitress, counselor, and medical professional all rolled into one.  I could never list every one of my duties because there are so many and they vary greatly from day to day, week to week.  I run my butt off, I will say that!  I work hard for 12 hours, 3 days a week and it wears me out.  But I love it - most days!

We appreciate all our Medical Monday participants! You all have helped us develop a fantastic community of friendship and support! Next month we will be celebrating MM one year anniversary! Be sure to mark it on your calendar. Along with our regular link up party, we will have a giveaway which is sure to please! 

On to this month's party!!!.....

Are you confused if you qualify for the party?

If you have a pager interrupting your life... you DEFINITELY qualify!
Do you work in healthcare?

Doctor? Nurse? EMT? Chiropractor? Vet? Dentist? Therapist?

MA? NA? PA? DA?

Are you the spouse or SO of a healthcare worker/student?

Are you a nursing student? Medical student?

Intern? Resident? Fellow?

You get the picture, right? Come on, now... don't be shy! Let's keep growing and meeting new bloggers, so we can build a community of support and friendship, learn from one another, and share our stories.

LINK UP YOUR POST!

Here are the rules:

1. Follow your co-hosts via Bloglovin (since GFC will soon be defunct), FB, email or Twitter.
2. Link up you medical/med life blog. If your blog name does not clearly state how you fit in to the med/med life world, please write a little intro or link up a specific post which clearly demonstrates your connection.
3. Visit at least 3 other link ups, comment, introduce yourself, and tell the your stopping by or following from MM!
4. Help spread the word by using our button on your post or sidebar, tweet about Medical Monday, or spread the word on Facebook! The more the merrier for all of us.

Complete step one by following your co-hosts:

• Emma at Your Doctor's Wife
• Jane at From A Doctor's Wife
• Heather at Army Wife, Army Life
• Cyndy at Putting the Fun in Dysfunctional

Want to be awesome?
Post our button on you post or sidebar and help spread the word:

<a href="http://www.yourdoctorswife.com/p/medical-mondays.html" target="blank"> <img src="http://i1168.photobucket.com/albums/r494/fromadoctorswife/MedicalMonday-001edit125x125.jpg"/> </a>

Want to co-host next month? Shoot Emma an email at yourdoctorswife@gmail.com and be sure to write "Medical Monday Co-host Request" in the subject field.

Now, link up below and have fun! The link up is open through Friday, so be sure to come back during the week to check some great reads!

Uniformed Scrubs - Scrub Top Review and Discount Code!

I was contacted not long ago by a company called Uniformed Scrubs and asked if I would like to try out one of their medical scrub tops.
I was happy to do so!

see? that's my happy face.

I received a black scrub top.  I told them I wear a size medium, and that is what they sent.  I've worn a medium for a long time.  I did notice this Size Medium seemed to be a little bigger than usual.
Too big is better than too small, of course, but if you're ordering, you may want to order a size smaller than normal.

Other than that, it's pretty perfect!  I love the big deep pockets located in the front, with the opening on TOP.  After nearly seven years in health care, I have developed a strong preference for those types of pockets on my nurse scrubs.  Side-opening pockets = lost stuff.  And pockets = vitally important.



For my readers, Uniformed Scrubs is offering a discount code!  Just use the code "trueblue" and you will get a 15% discount until July 31st, 2013!

And you can connect with Uniformed Scrubs via social media for more info :

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uniformedscrubs
Blog: http://uniformedscrubs.wordpress.com/
Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/102649430487593258176/about

Twitter: @UniformedScrubs
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/uniformedscrubs/

Medical Mondays - What I Do.

My first husband's current wife (my children's stepmother) likes to refer to my occupation as "ass-wiper".
Charming, isn't she?  She's also going to school to be a NURSE.  Shudder.

Anyway.  I am a Nurse Tech, or Nursing Assistant, on the Med/Surg floor of a hospital.
When my husband told his nurse friend what I do for a living, his friend immediately said "She works HARD for her money." And I certainly do.

I have so many different duties and responsibilities in my job that neither of you nor I have time for me to list them all.  And no two nights are ever the same.  But I have never made a secret of the fact that one of my job duties is to help clean incontinent patients.  (I refuse to call it "wiping ass", that is SO disrespectful to my patients.)

I also take vital signs, making me the first line of defense to detect if a patient is having any issues.  I am an important link in a chain of health care professionals.
I perform blood glucose tests.  I hook up telemetry monitors.  I connect oxygen tubing.   I attach sequential compression devices.  I do portable bladder ultrasounds.
Last week I assisted a nurse with an enema and impaction removal.  Yep - that's a NURSE JOB.

Some nights I feel like a waitress.  Some nights I feel like a therapist.
Some nights I have zero incontinent patients.
Some nights I have three.
But when I think of the comments from ignorant, disrespectful people, it makes me angry.  Not for myself - certainly I couldn't care less what someone like that thinks of me.

But I picture my incontinent patients.  Usually frail, elderly people.  They are helpless and unable to clean themselves.  They are embarrassed and uncomfortable in every way.  They never asked to be in that position.  They deserve someone who respects them, and cares enough to clean them up immediately, quickly yet thoroughly, and in a professional manner, while allowing them to maintain their dignity.

A few weeks ago I had a sweet elderly lady as one of my patients.  She tried to make it to the bathroom to void her bladder, but she didn't make it in time.  She was so humiliated.  She said that was the first time in her life it had ever happened.  I helped her clean up, changed her sheets, all the while smiling and chatting with her.  She still kept apologizing and was so ashamed, she was literally in tears.  I finally took her by the hand and said, "Please, stop apologizing.  It happens.  If you were feeling well, you wouldn't be in the hospital.  I have cleaned up FAR worse than this.  It's part of my job.  I don't mind at all." And she said to me, "You are a wonderful person.  There is a special place in heaven for you."

And I hear that all the time.  "Thank you.  You are so sweet.  Thank you for taking such good care of me."   It makes it all worthwhile.

And anyone who refers to that as "ass-wiping" deserves NOT to have a compassionate person to take care of them when they find themselves in the unfortunate position of being helpless and incontinent.  They deserve to sit in it for a while.

Not everyone can handle my job - I get that.  But I can and I do, and I do it quite well.
Oh and one last thing - if you are a nurse and you have NEVER cleaned up an incontinent patient, PLEASE leave me a comment.  I would love to know how you managed to escape a job that every single nurse on the planet does.

Go visit Your Doctor's Wife for more Medical Monday posts.
P.S.  It's Nurse's Week!  Hug your favorite Nursing Professional!

Medical Monday - Rough Days

That sums it up pretty well.

Being a night shifter, I also get to wake people up in the wee hours of the morning, often when they've 'just fallen asleep' (or at least, it feels that way) to take their blood pressure or check their blood sugar.
In case you're new here - I'm a Nurse Tech at a hospital (a.k.a. Nursing Assistant).
I work on a Med/Surg floor; we get a lot of stroke and back/neck surgery patients.

I get to help people into the bathroom when I've been trying to get to the bathroom myself for the past hour but haven't had time.  (cross your legs and pray you don't sneeze.....)

For the most part, my patients are nice and understanding.  Especially considering that almost NOBODY is at their best when they are a patient in a hospital.

But you do get the others....patients who think that "H" on the sign stands for HILTON instead of HOSPITAL.  They expect you to do anything they ask, immediately after they ask for it.  There's no consideration for the fact that you have other patients (sometimes the nurses forget this part too....).  They want you to cater to them.
And we try - we really do. And if you're lucky you can win them over or at the very least, appease them and get them to sleep.
There are many benefits to night shift. 

There are drawbacks too though - and already I've realized that even though I last worked night shifts only two years ago, I'm not as young as I used to be and they're harder on me than they were.  I work three nights in a row and then I'm off for four, but my sleep schedule never really goes back to 'normal' on my off days.  It did before, but not any more!  I either stay up way late, or wake up at the crack of dawn.

There's very little that 'grosses me out', I've become pretty accustomed to things that some people find stomach-turning.  The other night I was emptying a device called a Hemovac which drains blood & other fluids from a wound.  I noticed the patient's teenage daughter out of the corner of my eye and looked up.  She looked positively GREEN.  She said "OH EM GEE that is SO nasty!"  Her mom said she used to want to be a nurse but after seeing her dad go through surgery, she wasn't so sure any more.

I love working in health care - but that doesn't mean that it's easy.  And just like any job, there are good days and bad days.  That's one thing I love about working three 12 hour shifts in a row then being off for four - on rough nights, I can always tell myself "just 2 more nights" and then "just one more night" and then "tonight is my Friday".....

*Sorry this post is a little scattered; I'm exhausted and have to get up early tomorrow morning for the funeral. Forgive me!*

Right Where I Need to Be

I fed a sweet old man lunch and dinner today.

He's not able to feed himself. So I fed him.
When I left my home care job, I was so afraid that I was leaving my calling.
The work that I feel led to do.  The work for which I feel passion.
As I rushed around from room to room today, taking care of the needs of a dozen patients, I didn't feel that way.
I scurried back and forth, trying to make sure each patient was being taken care of, answering call lights, taking vitals, among what seemed like a million other things, and hoping I was doing well on my second day at this job.
When we finally had a moment to breathe, the senior tech who is training me said, "I want to tell you something.  We have had a TOUGH group [of patients] today.  This has been a very busy and hard day.  And you have done an excellent job.  These patients have received far better care than they would have if you were not with me today.  And if you can handle this group on this day - you can handle anything."

I fed a sweet old man lunch and dinner today.

Medical Monday Blog Hop

I'm not usually much of a hopper, but I just couldn't resist this one.
I recently started reading Your Doctor's Wife.  It's a great blog and her header is one of the coolest I have EVER seen.  For real.

Anyway, I couldn't resist this blog hop because it's a Medical Monday hop.  Not only I am in the health care profession, but today makes one year that I've been caring for my main client.
I absolutely love what I do.  If you're new here, I do home health care. I'm a CNA - Certified Nursing Assistant.  I work for an agency but since I started, have had one main client.

The type of work I do is very hands on.  Very personal.  I help my clients with any aspect of their daily lives that they need help with.  Some of the things I help with are dressing, taking medications, and going to appointments.  I cook their meals.  I see them at their worst and their best.
My main client gets 24 hour care.  She can do very little for herself.  I help her with any and everything.  I have met all of her children and most of her grandchildren.  I have bonded with my client and her family.  I spend so much time at her home, it's like a second home to me.

Sidenote: All of my clients thus far have been continent (meaning they need little to no help using the restroom).  This has been a blessing.  I can and will do whatever I need to do, but I won't lie and say I'm not glad that I don't have to deal with a lot of....ummmm....waste products!

My philosophy is that I treat my clients the way I would want my parents to be treated.  I am respectful and caring and warm.  I do my best to help them maintain their dignity in a time where that can be a challenge.  I speak to them with kindness, never talking down to them.  I don't give orders, I make requests.  I ask their opinion instead of making choices for them regarding things like meals and clothing.  I wouldn't work in an environment where other caregivers did not treat their clients respectfully; I simply couldn't tolerate it.

I have loved senior citizens for as long as I can remember.  I first felt called to do this type of work several years ago.  Two years ago I finally took the plunge and did it.  And I love it.  I've never had a job that I loved this much, that was this rewarding and fulfilling.  I feel appreciated and valued.  I don't dread going to work.  I think I've only missed work once this entire year and it was totally inevitable (and with the insanity I've been through this year, that's saying a LOT).  This agency has been good to me and I appreciate them.  When I first started, along with my main client I also cared for the company owner's grandmother until she passed away.  I adored her and every time I left, she told me she loved me and gave me a hug.  I miss her dearly.

It's a unique job.  It has its challenges but the rewards are great.
I've worked in health care for over six years now and I can't imagine doing anything else, although I do plan to advance in this field.  (I worked as a tech in a hospital for four years and did home health care independently for a year after that.)
I am not certain what the future holds; I have goals, hopes and dreams. But I know the health care field is where my heart is, and where I'll always be!