‘ello there.
Day 2 at Children’s has left me overly stimulated to say the least. I started out on the sixth floor shadowing Sam the RN. Ms. Linda sent me straight up, do not pass the cafeteria for coffee, do not collect $200. So I spent the next 3 hours of my life in a decaffeinated stupor, daydreaming of coffee and naps. We started rounds at 7:40. Sam only had four patients, so we just snuck into each of their rooms to check up on them and give them their meds. It didn’t take us too long. After rounds it was time for paperwork. Sam felt terrible that she didn’t have more for me to see and do, and I kept assuring her “no, no I’m really not bored.” Unfortunately all the yawning I was doing put a damper on how convincing I was. I ended up leaving at 10:30 to head back down to PT. Chadios 6th floor.
I came down and found Mikey in the back room playing with the Wii, so I went and joined him and his grandma. I’m obsessed with his grandma. Her name is Gigi and her grandson calls her geeg for short—exactly like my all time favorite grandmother in the entire world, Gigi Debow. So I have decided that I’m going to call myself Gigi—Geeg for short—when I have my own grandchildren.
After Mikey left I went with Ms Linda and Cayli to hang out with Trinity. We did more scooting exercises and more pushing her down so she could pull herself back up. Then we threw a ball with her and she was cracking us up. She’d go “Ready. Ready. Ready…” Then as soon as you tossed the ball to her she’d yell “NOT READY!” and cover her head with her hands and duck into Ms Linda’s lap. She’s so cute.
For lunch Ms Linda and I hit up the garden burgers in the cafeteria. We had a staff meeting during our lunch hour, so I sat there and listened to Anna extensively discuss the attendance policy for patients. Riveting.
After lunch we went up to the third floor so Ms Linda could say goodbye to this precious little girl who had been her patient for a while and was going home today. Then we headed back downstairs to play with Mikey again. He had already been fart machine walking with Rachel by the time we got down there, and Mikey was ready to play. He wanted to play catch first, so I threw the ball with him while Ms Linda spotted him because he lost his balance every time he threw the ball without focusing. Then Mikey wanted to play on the mat, and Mikey gets what Mikey wants. He ran over to the mat and flipped onto it as Ms Linda was telling him “Um…no there’s not enough room for us on the mat…” So then Ms Linda, Cayli, and I piled onto the mat with Mikey and let him tackle us and come at us with that weak hand of his. Afterwards he told me to lean over because he wanted his stuffed animal to give me a kiss. Precious.
After Mikey left with Geeg, we had burn victims to tend to. Ms Linda, Ms Anna, Cayli, and I all piled into the back room with the family of the first patient. It was a sweet little girl who had stepped onto a two-day old fire pit that was still smoldering and burnt her whole left foot. Ms Linda was going nuts picking off all of the dead skin on that little girl’s foot before we put new dressing on it. The dad had long nails and a vile around his neck. Fail. Nothing compared to the next dad who strolled in…the next man was a GIANT ape-looking man with nappy grey dreds down to his shoulders. Wowza. He strolled in with the baby momma who was easily 20 years younger than ape man. They were the parents of a sweet little girl who had stepped on the momma’s curling iron and burnt the bottom of her little foot. The foot was all healed, so the girl just needed a couple band aids and we sent her on her way. There was also a sister in the room who was at least 14..which puts the mother’s age into perspective. They were quite the crew. Quite the crew indeed.
We headed up to NICU to check on the EB babies, and change the dressings on one of them. It was this sweet little boy with a crazy ass right foot. They kept calling it a “circus foot” because his dang toes touch his shin in a resting position. WTF. So we checked for new blisters, and popped the single new one we found on his right hand, then changed all his dressings out. His poor little right leg is completely raw, so he was freaking out when we were messing with that leg. His heart rate got up to 217 poor baby. After we finished up in the NICU we headed back down to the third floor to clean up some bed sores on this poor girl down there. They were nasty looking, but we did work.
MVP moment of the day: On the elevator, when Ms Linda and I were heading back down to the first floor, the ghost of New Orleans past hopped on the elevator with us. This woman was trash through and through, strutting through the hospital barefoot with a pack of cigs in hand and wrinkles a mile deep. Her raspy smoker voice instructed us to hit the third floor button for her, and her shirt actually said, “FOR SALE. MAKE AN OFFER!” Ms Linda and I could not even look at each other as we bit our tongues waiting for the third floor to come around. As soon as she was out of earshot, we burst into hysterical laughter. So New Orleans.
After work we headed home and stuffed our faces with bbq pork, cole slaw, and salad. It was freaking delicious. Ever since I have been gorging myself on trashy MTV shows. It has been wonderful thank you very much. But now I’m freaking exhausted.
peace out girl scouts.
peace love and make an offer.
