The Intensive Art

It has been a challenging weekend in many ways: good, bad, emotionally, physically, and mentally.

I spent the weekend working: twelve hours Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. My patient was several days post-op, recovering well, and waiting for a floor bed to become available for him.

I was finding myself rushing around to get all my work done–and accomplishing that feat by 09:00. The remainder of my shifts were spent staring at my patient while he stared back.

On rounds, when presenting my patient, I was sure everyone was ready to fall asleep. Vital signs normal, breathing normal, peeing normal…zzzzzzz.

New goals and orders: none

The big excitement was when physiotherapy would come around and we would attempt to mobilize my patient. This was always a challenge as he would scream, shout, fight, yell for help, and beg passers by to call 911 because we were hurting him and he would have to go to the hospital.

Ugh! I’ve had three extremely confused and/or agitated patients in a row. I am so incredibly sick of being verbally and physically attacked. I’m tired of spending all day preventing patients from crawling out of bed.

I came to the ICU for ventilated and sedated patients darnit!!!

Unfortunately, the acuity has been ridiculously low throughout the entire unit lately. I’m sure when I come back after the long weekend (of partying, drinking, and car-smashing) that will be fixed.

******

Monday was the most challenging day, in many ways, that I have experienced in my entire life.

I received news first thing in the morning that a very good friend of mine had died in his sleep. He was only in his early forties, healthy, and having a beautiful, fun weekend.

He went to sleep laughing, and never woke up again. His best friends found him cold and long-gone in the morning.

Not many things kill people in their sleep with no warning at all. We won’t know for sure until the autopsy is done, but I’m sure you’re all guessing the same thing that I am. I think it’s a fairly good guess.

I really haven’t processed my thoughts and feelings surrounding his sudden death, so I truly don’t have much more to say right now. But, I do no that I’m devastated.

******

I received the tragic news about my friend while packing up for a long hike. This was a spontaneous challenge that we decided on only a week ago, but we were excited and overflowing with joy at the prospect of pushing our physical boundaries (keep in mind we’re both quite overweight and never exercise).

We contemplated staying home amidst my sadness, but I decided that experiencing the beauty of the mountains was the perfect way to combat the tears.

The path up the mountain (OK, it’s actually a ridge) was HARD! Six-hundred meters of elevation hard! It wound back and forth through the trees getting steeper and steeper until it opened up to a beautiful view. A little bit farther and we reached the summit.

Breathtaking!!!

Here’s some pictures:

My legs were like jello, and struggled to hold my weight on the long walk back down. My lungs were screaming, and I was mentally getting tired.

But we made it! We passed our challenge and are SO proud of ourselves. We just wish it wasn’t then end of the season. We really won’t be able to go hiking again, which is horrible now that we are addicted.

I can barely walk today, and have spent most of the day laying on the couch and taking tylenol for muscle aches.

It was ALL worth it though…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 at 16:56 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.