May 3, 2003
Well, I experienced my first seizure about an hour ago. I didn't actually experience it myself. One of my patients, (the quiet one who was an angel and slept all night) had a seizure while sitting on the commode. I walked in and she asked me to help her back to bed. The next thing I knew, she was seizing. So I am holding her on the commode, watching her, yelling for help (and of course it seems like hours, even though it is just seconds until someone comes). She came out of it and made the last half hour of my night fly by. It was a little freaky. I wasn't really freaked out during it, though, it was afterwords, worrying about it happening again and trying to relay all the details to the doctor. I am precepting a student nurse that is just about to graduate this May and she has been with me the last few nights. Unfortunately, she missed the whole thing, but it's all her fault. She asked for an exciting night and she got two in a row. The next night we work together better be a quiet one or I am not letting her come back. Actually, work has been okay lately. Largely due to our prayers, I am sure. I am very thankful for it. I only work three days next week, so that's very cool.
So, I am off this weekend. I think I will sleep a bit, then Shane will take me out to eat and then possibly to the movies to see X-Men Part 2. We'll see.
Comments
greg:
Erika, I can relate to this. I have so many “nursing stories”! I was a nurse for 20 years until I got into web design. This incident about the seizure made me recall my “first seizure”. I was a new nurse….fresh out of school…..pretty green in fact…..had this patient who was a “street person” who had horrible teeth with jagged tips! I was taking his (oral) temp when he started to seize. Big time! Sure enough, he bit down on his tongue…blood everywhere! I basically kept him in bed and timed this…I remember my nurses note ( I trun red with embarrasment as I recall this ) “patient had grnad mal type seizure for 13 minutes 23 seconds.” I look back and recall how BIG I felt at the time. After that…who cares! :) I also has a patient whose last name was ( I swear this is true ) “Outhouse”…who ( also true ) I had to have drink “Go-Lightly” in prep for a colonoscopy. Thet very day I had purchased new leather nursing shoes that I was proud of. Pretty soon, he room bell rang…I knew what was happening and I wanted to NOT have a mess on my hands….I helped her to the bedside commode and ….would you believe…Mrs Outhouse exploded onto my new shoes as I was transferring her!!! Oh God! It’s funny now but, I was ripping mad at the time. I remember saying to the staff “Who on earth named this stuff “GO-LIGHTLY”!!??? Talk about a bad named product!
May 3, 2003 7:29 AM