Erika Bonham dot com

March 9, 2003

Boy, did I have three crazy nights...

Night one, confused little man in restraints, calling out every few minutes, trying to be an escape artist, leaving his restraints behind and booking it out of bed so he could go down the street and pick up some Canadian Mist. Early in the morning, I have a patient "go bad." She ends up in the ICU, intubated with a brain hemorrhage. Very stressful and sad.

Night two, I have the demon patient. Let me tell you, she was a demon. Pure evil and she was out to make my life a living hell. She was just a little bitter, sick old woman who wanted to die and anything we did was a problem. It was a serious test of my patience.

Night three, I am the only nurse on the floor. The only one! Never seen that happen there. It was really weird. I had a nurse's assistant, and four patients to myself. Luckily, little miss troublemaker from the night before was on her way home when I came on. The family had asked how the night had been and the nurse told them that she had been a little feisty with me, so they bought me a little monkey beanie baby with a balloon. His name is Zig Zag. (And yes, I think it is because he rolls his own cigarettes.) It had a note attached that said, "Erika, from room 216-3. Sorry!" I felt kind of bad, but it was very sweet of them and they obviously were very aware of her tendencies toward evil. I was very happy to see her go. At about 4 in the morning, I had an admission, which made the last few hours go by fast. When I got his info, I thought, "Oh, this will be easy...he's a 43 year old guy with pneumonia," but he was a little bit confused and had to constantly be reminded to get back in bed and to keep his oxygen on. He kept wanting to take the sheets of the bed and stuff. A little strange. The night went okay and I have a few days off to recuperate.

♥