Busy night in ICU

[midnightsjane]

OMG, that was hectic. Busiest shift I've had in ages. Lately I've had a series of relatively stable patients who haven't made me work flat out, and I haven't had the whole adrenalin rush of going flat out all shift, so last night was a bit of a challenge. I had a pretty sick patient, who had had surgery for an abdomenal infection, and developed kidney failure as a result of the sepsis and low blood pressure, so she was on CRRT (continuous dialysis). Haven't had that for ages. She was also having issues with her heart; sometimes her heart rate would drop for no apparent reason, to life threatening regions..a pretty scary thing. At around 1 a.m. she went off to the OR, and was back a couple of hours later. Just after that, her heart rate went down so low she was essentially in cardiac arrest, so I had to jump up on the bed and do CPR. She came back in under a minute, thank heavens. They're going to have to figure out why she's doing that; it may be due to the sepsis, or some other problem. From 4 o'clock to 7:30 I was rushing around, getting her dialysis restarted, adjusting meds, trying to chart, taking blood work, etc. etc. I was exhausted by shift change..partly because I hadn't had time to eat my snack or get a cup of coffee since evening coffee break.

Came home, fell into bed and slept for 7 hours. Sat on the patio in the sunshine, read the paper, drank coffee and relaxed. Now I have to get ready to go back to work. Two more shifts, but these are in CCU, so even if it's busy, it will be different.

Off I go, hi-ho, hi-ho!