Zany_in_CO
Saponifier
I also don’t listen to the news,
I also don’t listen to the news,
Hugs to you my friend. LTC RN here. Lost 37 last year and I understand.I think that most of us are suffering from Covid Fatigue or even Covid PSTD...I know that I am struggling. I absolutely love my job. I have a fantastic boss, great co-workers, have most of my clients well-trained, I make a good living, have good benefits. Yeah, the 108 mile round-trip commute sucks some time, but if I need a break I can work from home. I also have a fantastic husband (probably should have put him first). He never complains about how much money I spend on yarn or my yearly knitting retreat (he bought me a new suitcase last year so I would have more room for yarn). He's been very supportive of my soap making and hasn't complained about the bottles of FO and jars of Mica on the desk, or the kitchen counter, or the new mold sitting in front of the microwave...next to a slab mold filled with a bunch more stuff.
About a month or so ago, I started hitting the 'snooze' button. Instead of being the first one in the office, I'm usually the last. Instead of occasionally working from home a couple of days a month, it's a couple of day a week. My work is suffering and we're getting ready to enter our busiest season of the year. I want to make soap, but then I walk into the kitchen and my soap cart is constantly covered with all the crap everyone puts on it. By the time I get all cleaned up, I know longer want to make soap. Lather, rinse, repeat. I haven't touch my knitting in over a month, even a simple dishcloth seems too overwhelming. I'm sick to death of "social distancing", "we're all in this together", "Covid-19", "fully vaccinated" and not being able to pick up a breakfast sandwich at Subway because they are out of eggs all the time do to 'supply issues'.
The last I cried all the way home from work. I feel helpless and hopeless. No, not suicidal...just really, really sad. I'm going to call my doctor tomorrow and see about getting a little pharmaceutical assistance.
Aside from the current staffing shortages, Covid has recently been ripping through staff causing even more shortages. The current policy is that staff return to work after a 5 day quarantine. I tested positive week before last and while I might not have been contagious after 5 days, I still felt like crap. But I came back to work on day six because we don't have enough people to go around. Heck, I even pulled extra hours because of the shortage even though I felt horrible. But as you well know, that's just what we do. It's incredibly frustrating to have the ER packed with people with minor complaints clogging up the system and keeping the real emergencies waiting. I swear it was all I could do to keep my patience last week with all of the patients I had to go get from the ER waiting room for whom the ER docs ordered CTA chests because "I tested positive for Covid last week and I still don't feel good." but they're satting 100% on room air.I can completely relate. I am not even making soap much anymore, even though it really is my release. Been doing some gardening a little. I just get home and I am tired. Not even physically. Mentally tired.
The hospital is miserable. Its not even the covid really. It is the staffing. There are not enough nurses...or any ancillary staff to function.
I went to get a patient from the ER the other day. We have so many new nurses and they are all straight out of school because everybody is leaving. Anyway....this nurse tells me that I must take the pt on a monitor. I know they are short staffed, so I tell her that i will because he was stable, but don't get mad if another tech doesn't do the same. If a patient needs to be on a monitor, then they need a nurse to travel with them...
I get back to the ER and she comes rushing in asking if his sats are ok because he had a lot of drugs before I took him...When I got him to CT scan, the portable monitor was there, the wires were there....nothing was hooked up to the pt. I HOOKED HIM UP when I got to ct. Then she laughed about it.
I got a call from a nurse manager today who was complaining about our travel tech that didn't take something seriously. All I could say was "we need him, its only until Feb 12 and then we are short staffed again, I can't do anything about it. Let it go." She got all high-pitched freak out mode about him taking a patient that was on a cardiac med that he needed a nurse to travel with him. So I told her the story about the nurse that insisted that I take a patient on a monitor. Yeah, we are all in the same boat...
We have had now three patients die in the waiting room because there is no way to monitor them or know that they are out there for something serious. Our entire trauma dept is about to shut down because every single nurse in trauma has already signed contacts for travel jobs.
Guy came in for left sided neck pain and he was triaged as a 4 on the ESI level for a sore throat...he sat there for 6 hours. Later died from cardiac arrest because left neck pain was probably his symptom for a heart attack.
Girl came in yesterday...3 months pregnant. Abdominal pain...we get a lot of this so it was apparently dismissed. Ultrasound said everything was good with the fetus. Smart doctor decided to order a ct scan...complete blockage of the vena cava and portal veins. Such a weird thing. She died i heard. Out in the waiting room too long...but there are just so many people out there.
Everybody keeps saying that they are done, even new nurses, techs, respiratory, etc. I been doing this for 26 years almost but I keep trying to remember why I got into my career. And I keep reminding everybody the same.
Then you have regular stuff to deal with. Our midnight tech was out all week because his mom died. Everybody was pissed that he was out...two years ago the same people would have been like "take all the time you need".
I keep telling people that this is not going to last forever. It is starting to feel like forever...and its depressing
My daughter recently got over covid and i was concerned I might also get it since I was with her all day on her sickest day. I assumed she was feeling off due to being pregnant and under a lot of stress and I didn't even consider it could be covid. Fortunately it has been 2 weeks now and i feel totally fine. Her boyfriend died 3 weeks ago and with all of the people that came to pay their respects, social distancing went out the window and covid was inevitable. We were concerned due to hearing covid can be worse for pregnant women, but she recovered fast and it was relatively mild. Her symptoms were headache and bad body/bone aches and a fever of 101 for one day, then she improved quickly but got an ear infection a couple of days later. She has no lingering symptoms.
@TheGecko Enjoy your craft day & try to resist the temptation to glue your sister to her seat. JK of course
It has been one wave after another with stressful events in our family (including parents and siblings) for the last half year, that the world is starting to feel quite ominous. I keep wondering what is next. I really hope that the tide starts turning in our favor now because we are due some happy times. The good thing is, Britt is doing fine health wise now. She had an ultrasound a few days ago and baby is progressing normally so far, so she is excited. She brought Matt's best friend to the ultrasound, which I think is as close as she could feel to Matt being there with her. The first week for her was extremely hard, but she is finding her feet again and adjusting to life without him as best as she can. I think it helps that she does have the baby coming as she feels as she hasn't lost Matt completely. They have a very strong community of friends, plus ours and his family, so I think she will be fine but it won't be the same experience for her as she was expecting. I am sure she will have some very hard days during this pregnancy when he isn't there for all the little things. She has never been really sure about her feelings of what comes after someone passes, but she had some really strong "signs" that gave her hope he is out there somewhere and trying to let her know he was alright. That has brought her some comfort, so I am glad for that.@DKing, there's so much in your post! I've been wondering how things were going with you; you've been on my mind off and on for the past couple of weeks. First, congratulations on the upcoming addition to your family. When is the baby due? I hope all continues to go well with the pregnancy and that the little one will be surrounded with all the love and joy it needs (I know it will!). Second, I'm glad your daughter is recovering. A couple of the girls I work with have just gone through it and both were sick for a good two weeks (they work in our production shop, not in the sales center where I work, thankfully); one of them started with an ear infection and it progressed from there.
I'm so sorry to hear about your daughter's boyfriend. How hard that must be for your daughter! Seeing that baby will bring it home day after day and I'm sure it will be bittersweet for her and for you. I will keep you and your family in my thoughts and prayers and if you ever want to meet for coffee again, let me know.
It is because of you & people like you that we are still in a better off place than we could have been due to the Pandemic.Aside from the current staffing shortages, Covid has recently been ripping through staff causing even more shortages. The current policy is that staff return to work after a 5 day quarantine. I tested positive week before last and while I might not have been contagious after 5 days, I still felt like crap. But I came back to work on day six because we don't have enough people to go around. Heck, I even pulled extra hours because of the shortage even though I felt horrible. But as you well know, that's just what we do. It's incredibly frustrating to have the ER packed with people with minor complaints clogging up the system and keeping the real emergencies waiting. I swear it was all I could do to keep my patience last week with all of the patients I had to go get from the ER waiting room for whom the ER docs ordered CTA chests because "I tested positive for Covid last week and I still don't feel good." but they're satting 100% on room air.
And last Friday I worked an 11 hour shift with a 7 hour turnaround so 5 hours sleep between shifts. After 4pm there were only 2 CT techs in the hospital - me upstairs and another tech in the ER (who was supposed to leave at 6pm). I was about to get an inpatient for a post tPa Head when they called a Code Stroke upstairs. The neurologist wanted the full deal: CTA head/neck, perfusion study so by the time I was done with that, I was running downstairs to take over for the tech that was leaving since the ER had blown up. When the night shift tech came in at 7pm (when I was leaving) I told her about the post-tPa scan, saying it needed to be done as soon as possible she just rolled her eyes (as is her usual practice).
So I come in to work today and immediately I'm questioned about why I didn't do this post-tPa exam. As it turns out they were just looking for verification to deal with the night shift tech. At first she said she didn't have time to do the scan and then when they looked at the numbers and saw she had over 4 hours of downtime she said that it was ordered on my shift and if I couldn't be bothered to do it then neither could she. REALLY??? But you still question me??
I don't have your 26 years yet - it's 18 for me - but I'm almost done. I'm exhausted physically, mentally, and emotionally. It's hard to keep on keeping on when we have to deal with all of this AND the anger and nastiness from patients for not being able to be everywhere at once. We're doing our best.
Love it!!! Thanks for sharing!I work in a field with a lot of acronyms, and I heard a new one yesterday: PARD
Unfortunately, my husband has a lot of health issues, including Parkinson's Disease, lupus, and several other autoimmune conditions. He's still ambulatory around the house, but traveling even on a vacation is very, very hard on him. Once we'd get there, he'd not be in any physical shape to help them. I'd love to go so I could cook and clean for them, but I am just back from two weeks of vacation. My office would be hammered if I left again right now, even for a few days.Personally if I was able, I would go there to help them out for a couple of weeks.
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