a break from the ICU...worked ER instead!

 

lazy days between shifts, but i have gotten out walking. explored more in Ruth Arcand Park.  it's horse trails but also cool for humans. just have never explored it.  always fun finding little gems that have been there all the time. will have to get to know the many trails out there and next fall...i will no doubt have some super fun mushroom finds! i know you are all thrilled, more mushrooms!!

i did finally get a break from the ICU.  seems i've been there weeks and weeks.  they have more staff coming on. travelers and FEMA. not that it's not still crazy with covid and death though. 

i was in the ER for the last two nights. ICU on the first night, though i had a pretty sweet assignment compared to what i have had for weeks so that was nice.  i could sense insanity all around me and headed around the bend to catch some alarms from the pumps in the lastest section to turn active covid. 

in the covid icu we keep the pumps outside the room, then add extension tubing and all these tubings dangle over your head before falling down again into the various Iv's in the patients. care must be taken to assess compatibilities of all these drips in the sometimes limited iv sites available to you.  since you are wearing hoods and all that gear it is easy to find yourself caught on the dangling tubings. patients in the icu, these covid patients of course, are on multiple drips to keep them alive/sedated....we are talking 5-15 different medications can be getting infused at any given time

if those drips stop because the pump changes to a slower rate because it believes there is very low volume in the bag, and it's often right...people can have nearly immediate reactions to that. their blood pressures especially can be very dependent on the multiple infusions they may be on to keep their blood pressures up.  so when you hear an alarm on these pumps you do not want to ignore it.  blood pressures can literally drop that fast. it is all a dance. the drips are outside the room because all sorts of bad things could happen if you had to get all gowned up to go in.  it takes time. so we all try to help each other catch those drips from being stopped for any extended period. plus when you are inside the room and all gowned up taking care of the patients directly...you can't get to the iv pumps.  

there are many times we are trapped in the rooms needing this or that so we bang on the glass doors until there is someone outside to help...so just walking around in the area you can be helpful. we try to have covid resource nurses who help manage the bags on the outside of the rooms, help catch nurses needing help on the inside and generally try to keep things stocked and wiped down to protect us all as much as possible.

these are a mixture of pictures from when my sweet niece and her family came to visit. it was so fun getting to know them all again.  it's always too long between visits. not sure i ever met her husband.  they are welcome back any time. :-)  

we headed to Homer.  everyone says i love Homer and i do.  i think for me, the drive to and from with the many stops to explore old and new places is what i really love.  there is always more to see and explore.  it's been a great place through covid.  like my second home.  a place i feel safe.  so i was not disappointed that they wanted to head that way.  

i had called out the night before, my poor leg was pretty sore after two nights.  it's still not totally healed and that is from August!  the bump on the bone does seem to finally be shrinking so there is hope.  a pretty good sized scar that i don't think will ever go away. 

that meant i got to make them ramble on the way.  they did seem game for anything. i'm sure they would have just booked to Homer but there is just so much to see. this is Virgin Creek Falls in Girdwood. 

rain forest and mushrooms for sure there.  they got to see a lot of mushrooms.  not sure they realized how mushroom obsessed i am but i think they are now a bit mushroom obsessed as well.  so is my other friend that came up here after they did.  

my great niece found the biggest treasure trove of these tiny blue mushrooms that i think i have ever seen! kids are great at looking places adults never do. 

i think i've kept a bit of that part of being a kid.  hours of beach combing taught me to look at the little things in nature. i'm forever finding shells, flowers, rocks, mushrooms...it's amazing what you find in the tiny world at our feet. not that i don't enjoy a grand view as well but it's the little things that have always been my greatest escape.

i may eat a late dinner and then paint some rocks. have been having fun hunting for the rocks others are painting and trading out my own or others i have found.  some i keep and probably won't give up.  today i finally found a cute gnome.  there are some really creative artists out there. 

i think you get better at finding the rocks as you hide them.  you just start to look where you would hide them. Ruth Arcand has become a big rock hiding place, which has also made it fun. 

the rocks and walking are great distractions from the covid stress in life. 

i can tell just getting that booster helped me to feel more safe as well. 

working the ER, there is covid all over. i do hear there is a new pill that may help to lessen symptoms and keep folks out of the hospital. i'm all for anything that can do that.  it's really the big goal, keep folks out of the hospital.  

helped with one of the newly vented patients in the acute section of the Er.  i tend to avoid the acute section...i like to take the easier patients in the ER as it gives me a break from working ICU.  it doesn't always work like that.  i had a great crew though...so many amazing co-workers over the years. nurses/medical folks are just awesome.  the next night i saw a patient being brought in by the paramedics...i could tell, covid, soon to be intubated.  i could tell just with the guy being pushed past me. it is many younger folks though and that is sad.  

there is also these post covid strokes. had another young one of those that i cared for. in the end i also got pulled from the ER to go to PACU for like 3 hours. they were freaking out there as they had a few ICU level patients and several more patients to recover were on the way out of the OR. so i got sent there. that is my job...i go where i am most needed. 

so it turned out good as it was the same post covid stroke patient i had helped with in the ER.  i think the patient was happy to see my mug.  there had been eyes watching me in both places.  strokes are scary.  you can't move part of your body and you can't speak, as was this patients case. we just did the intervention here and then sent the patient to another hospital....

then i went back to the ER again. 

that night was busy in the ER.  the next night was as well, but less so for me.  i ended up just being a hold nurse and most of my holds got rooms.  so i had only one patient and i helped out the main ER by picking up a few easier patients. like i was the urgent/basic care unit. 

these are really mixed up photos.  all from their visit i think though.  Homer, Girdwood, Independence Mine, mushroom walks. 

we had a super low tide, so they got to see quite a bit out there, which was super fun. the kids were super excited by all the cool finds. 

off the plane and into the woods.  can't waste any time when you come north.

the family at virgin falls

my friend Speedy ran the Boston Marathon again today.  crazy girl!  we are all proud of her!  i barely got out of bed today and she is always the one with the crazy energy

it is time to start the Monday walks.  perhaps next Monday.  hard to do any group stuff i know....mentally, i think we all need it. 

also...what to do about the pumpkin massacre.  we need it...we need to have some human time.  we all do

i'm a natural loner and it's super easy for me to just go into alone mode.  i know it's good for me to mix with the other humans though.  

the critters do keep me from becoming even more of a hermit.  they get me on the trails and i run into other humans and i chat with them. i can actually be pretty chatty with strangers when given the opportunity.  when you work as a nurse you learn to have conversations with anyone, from any walk of life pretty much. i did convince my suicidal/homicidal patient to take a psych med and allow me to covid swab him....

i always joke that a large part of nursing is acting.  we really should be required to take acting classes. you have to be able to improvise and quite frankly lie a bit.  your patient is about to code, the last thing you want is to show you are scared...oh your heart is just doing something a bit funny we are going to put these patches on your chest so we can shock you.  no biggie. 

we got lucky and spotted beluga whales right after we hit the Turnigan on the way to Homer...we had to stop and whale watch. 

tiny jelly

a family of swans.  actually saw these as i headed back to Anchorage, they were headed to Seldovia and then to Seward. i haven't gotten to Seward as much this summer.  will have to play there more next year.

cup fungi.

i started painting some rocks when i was in Homer this last trek.  they upgraded me to the larger dog room. great to have room without the added cost.  darker now so made sure i had some indoor activities.

the tides were not nearly as low this trek and the darkness cut into the low tide times, still fun. 

stopped at Clam Gultch headed down there and the light was just beautiful. wandered around the spit mid day.  got in over 20,000 steps of course each day. 

Tusker got a bit of a tummy ache i guess...i suspect too much salt water got in his system.  he puked the second night, waking me several times to clean up the mess.  he puked once in the car on the way home and then was just a bit off his feed the next day.  he's all back to himself again now. hate when they don't feel good

Ivy leaps into the cr-v on her own often now.  freaks me out a bit.  it's good to see her getting back to normal.  once she did lift up that back right leg and hop...i held my breath but then she put it back down and went on playing.  it's a matter of time, but i'm good with letting her enjoy life.  cross that bridge later if we need to. 

there was a bit of storm brewing on the return trip home.  i was a bit nervous about the roads in the new car.  don't have snow tires on yet...wasn't too keen on testing out the car over the pass.  all was fine though.  the rain got a bit thick up there but not bad. 

we stopped at Ninilchik on the way back to enjoy more low tide.  

loads of sea stars in Homer with the low tide days. this trip the beaches were full of jellies.  crazy full.  

i need to try and get the photos from the big camera for the past several months loaded so i can make this years calendars.  also should figure out what sort of local gifts to make for friends. 

thankful for: A. escapes and the beauty of this place and all it does to keep me mentally together B. the humans that tolerate me and even enjoy me despite myself  C. the little joys i find out there in this big world