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Day Eight Work/Blinky Blink


 Day Eight Work/Blinky Blink 

Today I woke up to a call from work I had a no call no show. This girl that had put in her notice of course why would she have the decency to finish her notice. Even though she was treated with respect and bent over backwards for her she didn’t feel like she owed me anything. So I call my sister to see if moma is stable for me to go to work. Otherwise I was going to shut it down. Ivy said they had done the bronch that night. Unfortunately he hadn't really found anything. He had done a lung wash and sent a specimen off for cultures. We were hoping this would have been the “smoking gun” and he would be able to clean it all out and she would be healed. So this meant it was a mix of COVID and aspiration pneumonia cause the ARDS. She tolerated the procedure well and was doing ok this morning so Ivy said she thought I would be ok to head to work. Off to work I go on the floor as a clinical assistant. Hoping for a smooth day it started out good and people were appreciative and nice and kind. Then there was a man fussing because he wanted to be seen yesterday. I popped off at him and told him he didn’t know the whole circumstance and should be thankful we were there today. It was kind of down hill from there. The next pt the mother brought in a kid to be seen for allergies “I don’t want a COVID test on her we know its not that”. She said it and talked like COVID wasn’t real. I be damned if its not real. Here I am trying to be compassionate, and she acts like this. That pt was hard to take good care of without putting feelings in it. I'm in the middle of doing an Xray on a poor little feller that shut his hand in a trunk and Ivy text me saying Moma had been moving her eyes to her talking. Once again I was tore up, if she woke up and thought Ivy had been there the whole time and I hadn't I was going to be mad as hell. I finished the xray and made Ivy face time me so I could see it. Who would have known a little flicker in the eye lid would warm your heart. This was so encouraging. At this point I am ready to go to the hospital, screw all these patients. That made a hard afternoon, but I was dedicated to finish the shift. Finally it comes 4, I decide to go to Krispy Kreme to get doughnuts to celebrate the small victory. Off to the Hospital like a bat out of hell in hopes to have her respond to me a little bit in person. I drop off doughnuts in the employee breakroom for the ICU so they wouldn’t get dirty and dropped some off for Ricardo and his team. This nurse on the way to the room was like I will take one, if looks could kill. I was like nah. So finally get buzzed in to see Moma. Of course no blink when I get there but it was ok. Her vitals had been holding strong. Her vent settings were good. They had came down on her FIO2 and off her presser. I was like alright ol girl get up lets go home. I decided to take some sticky notes from work and put notes on her window thanking the nurses and RTs that stood out to us. I also made a little heart on her window with some pink sticky's. I was proud of my little toddler art. Ricardo had went to get some wrist splints since her fingers were so stiff. Here I am throwing her arm around pretending like she's throwing punches. This afternoon the topic of discussion how abnormal but amazing my childhood was. We talked about how we ran the streets as kids in the southside of Statesville and were never in harms way because we were “Ms. Norma’s Babies”. We also talked about how I worked in a soup kitchen during the summer. Hilarious to think about as I type this all the shit we use to do and how growing up at a homeless shelter and free clinic and just was the normal thing. We talked about how my babysitters were taxi drivers and retired hookers. Gah was I well rounded. Ricardo was like wow. Ivy and I were like yea just a normal day for us. I wouldn’t change that experience for the world. I believe it has made me who I am today. Moma continued to do well. Momma had a "bat in the cave" Ivy was freaking out, I was looking for tweezers, Ricardo goes in for the kill and picks it out. This man really does love his wife and his family. They planned on flipping her soon. The nurse that I had originally hated Friday, I still hated, but Ivy adored him because he bonded with her. I could care less he done burnt that little bridge with me. He was kind toward the end of the shift and was appreciative of the doughnuts. We all said good night. I told her to stay there till I got back.  

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