The year so far.

[midnightsjane]

Four days into the New Year, and it's as busy as the last four days of the last year. I've worked 2 out of 4 days in ICU, could have worked today too..my alarm went off at the same time the phone rang at 7 a.m. So I guess I shouldn't worry about not getting enough shifts! Had a crazy busy shift on Wednesday,and a better day yesterday. I was very glad I didn't have the patient on the other side of the room, because the poor guy was just totally out of his mind delerious..or as we said at about hour 8 of watching him flailing about, totally batshit crazy. It happens more often than you'd think, that patients in ICU have a big issue with delerium; it's not their fault, they really don't know that their agitation is driving their nurse up the wall, but man, it's hard to deal with. The man's nurse was exceptionally patient with him, but when he finally fell asleep (the drugs finally caught up with him) she just about wept with relief.

I was up early to get out to the farm; it was Kelly's day off, so stalls had to be cleaned. When I got there it was so icy we couldn't put the horses out; the ground was like a skating rink. We got out our special TRAKS to put on our boots (great invention, wire coils attached to a rubber frame that pull on over the soles to give traction on ice) so we could walk without falling down. No way could we take the horses on that..they don't have TRAKS!

I hadn't been out there for a couple of days, and it's amazing how much progress the builders have made on the barn. It's almost all framed in, and we can really get a sense of what it's going to be like. Progress.

I have new neighbours upstairs, it seems. Haven't met them, but I've heard them. Seem to be doing a lot of banging and crashing around, hopefully it's just them moving stuff.

I have a new greatnephew; my niece and her husband had a baby boy just after Christmas. I haven't seen any pictures yet..but they've picked a rather unusual name for him, so I hope the kid doesn't grow up to hate his name. He has a regular kind of middle name, so I guess that's always an option. I remember my hippy days, when kids had the weirdest names..I knew a Bear, a Freedom, a Tree, and oh, yes, a Yippee. I met Yippee later on, and he told me his name was now John. Heh.

That's it so far for 2013. More to come.

Comments

[mamculuna]

I know a couple of kids who were named Blue Sky, but don't remember the other weird names. Poor kids. Even in 1972 I knew enough to pick classic names, although I did stick my older with the German nickname instead of American so he always has to explain.

Delirious patients sound exhausting. Hope your neighbors give you some rest.

[midnightsjane]

My friends in the '70's really saddled their kids with some serious name baggage, looking back on it.
My new grandnephew's name is Cedar. Luckily, my niece took her husband's last name, so the wee boy doesn't have a double tree name! LOL

[mamculuna]

Maybe she just regretted giving up Pine and went for Cedar as the next best thing!

[midnightsjane]

Heee. Could be!

[ranunculus]

I knew a lot of "odd" named children - so much so that it wasn't unusual. I changed my first name away from "Cathy" to my middle name, which, while traditional was very old-fashioned at the time, and almost completely unused. For years I only knew one person in SF with that same first name (there must have been more).

The other day we were talking about "bath salts" as a drug, and I wondered how on earth hospitals dealt with people who come in high on such a mind-warping drug. Much sympathy for nurses who have to deal with the psychotic side of our human race.

Yay for the barn progress. That must be SO exciting.

The only time I really had to walk on much ice, on a glacier in Alaska, I had crampons. Your wire coils sound great!!

[midnightsjane]

When I lived my hippy life way back in the '70's, it was really common to give your kid a really out there name, but we never thought about how they'd feel about it when they grew up!

I would much rather deal with physical crisis than mental, really. It's a lot less stressful.

We're all very excited about the changes on the farm, indeed.