You see, as you get more comfortable with nursing....and it becomes routine...and you stay in the same hospital, the same ward, the same shifts.....the less comfortable you feel when taken out of that comfort zone. That's only normal. I have always been the restless type (I guess that is why I have moved 10 or more times in 10 years! Since married four years ago...this is the longest I have stayed in one place!) so I suppose that is why I have always felt the need to move around. I am actually almost envious of those nurses that have been able to stay in one place. But that is just who I am. A restless soul.
Or - at least I was.
Now, I am quite content to do the same job, the same house, the same thing......OK - well - not always. Sometimes I must admit that familiar feeling of restlessness creeps up on me and I tell my husband - "Let's move....I don't want to live here anymore".....but he has learned to ignore me and just let me rant and rave.....because I will always settle down again. Back to the routine.
Old habits die hard.
AND - I am much too close to retirement at this point to start jeopardizing my pension. Meanwhile, here is my old post from May 12 :
Tattoos and Float Nursing
I gotta rush through this. It's a nice day outside - my outside thermometer says 90F - and I want to take advantage while it lasts.
When I started working casual (part time hospital, part time department store nurse) I was floated around the hospital wherever I was needed.
The up side was, you usually got off on time because there was no report to give and no patient assignment that you had to keep an eye out on while the oncoming staff was taking report. I really quite enjoyed the freedom to float around. There was always something to do everywhere you went and the nurses were usually really glad to see you.....and having worked in that same hospital for 12 years, there was pretty well no place I hadn't been and no one that I hadn't gotten to know. It was a social type job, in other words. For me, anyway.
When I was a student, because I knew the RNs that were preceptoring me from my working-as-an-LPN stint, I got tons of opportunities to start IVs - even difficult ones, and I became quite proficient as a result.....so one of the things I would do as a new nurse and a float was to run around starting IVs that other RNs couldn't get. This skill would later come in handy for when I dabbled in Prison Nursing (ya that too - I will tell you about that later)
Occasionally you got to replace a staff member that called in sick and work the entire day on one unit. Telemetry was one of them. I took a course on reading strips and was starting to get pretty good at the monitors before I escaped town for California. Like I said before, I loved to learn new things. It was interesting to say the least. However, the patient that I most remembered wasn't the usual step-down-unit-type. Here is the story:
Three kids decided they were going to get tattoos. I am not adverse to tattoos. Quite the opposite. I can appreciate a well placed tattoo and having worked OB - I've had the privilege of seeing LOTS of those-not-seen-by-others. On the other hand, my girlfriend Jan is appalled with the appearance of that type of artwork, but I am suspecting it has a lot to do with the "connotations" in her mind (prison). Much to my girlfriend's chagrin, her son is covered with Lovely Tattoos (yes, and even the name of his mother on his back-she should at least appreciate that! I think it's sweet...) and for a while, he owned a tattoo parlour that I would later tease her to come visit with me for matching BFF tattoos.
Esthetically, tattoos can be quite pretty. Or interesting. Or "fun". I once had a patient on the Surgical Unit that had a tattoo of a naked woman on his arm. Interestingly enough, the only vein available that I could get at easily was right between the legs. He thought that was amusing. I was just doing my job.
Personally, the functional tattoo is my preference. I admit at this point that I have tattoos - albeit not the traditional type - eyeliner and lip color. Sounds funny for someone that has a needle phobia to wish a tattoo on themselves - but I was desperate.
I am a hazel eyed blonde. I naturally lack skin color where it should be. Without makeup, I look sick. I have absolutely NO natural color in my lips. None. Zip. It was a chore getting up early to put on makeup pre-shift just to keep concerned colleagues from constantly asking me - are you OK??You LOOK SICK!!! - so when I found out you could have makeup applied permanently - I jumped on it.
In my excitement to have permanent lips and liner - I was in denial as to how one gets a tattoo. For some reason, right up until I sat in the esthetician's chair, I shut out that little piece of info - to have a tattoo done, they have to use a needle. Eighteen years ago I got my lips tattooed - and not just once, but Twice - because the first time didn't fully take and I had no base color to start with.
YOUTUBE TATTOO PLAYLAND AD:
I happened to have a little tube of Emla, a handy little topical anesthesia, to numb my lips. Unfortunately, my memory isn't so good for non-nursing things or self medication, and it overrode my needle phobia. Five minutes outside of Sausilito, I realized I had forgotten to apply the Emla. Coming out of the esthetician's office, I ran into another gal who *loaned* me a vicodin which I promptly washed down with a glass of white wine supplied by the esthetician. I might have well popped an M&M and washed it down with a glass of water. At this point I was questioning the irrational decision to decline the offer for an anesthesiologist's services. A second glass of wine later, I braved the worst.
I have to say, I have never felt anything so painful. Of course, I have never experienced childbirth so my experience of the pain spectrum probably isn't at it's most upper limit. But, at the time, it seemed that every single nerve ending was located in my lips. The gal used 10% lidocaine as she went along but nothing really touched that "discomfort" -a nurse's synonym for outright excruciating pain.
The stupid thing about this is...knowing how much pain is inflicted, you would think I would do anything to avoid a repeat. I guess I developed selective amnesia over the years, and 12 months ago, decided it would be great to have permanent eyeliner applied. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Ok, so now I understand some of my clients who do dumb things more than once.....
I tell you this story because, getting back to the three kids getting tattoos.....they did them themselves. Unfortunately, they decided to share the tattoo needle. Not very bright. In my time working in a prison, you see what happens when tattoo needles are shared - half the population end up with Hep C and if you are really unlucky - you get Hep B - which IMO is almost as bad as HIV.
I guess the kids thought they were safe since they were only sharing the tattoo needle between themselves. What these kids didn't realize was - it was more than the needle they shared. One kid was a diabetic. The other was healthy. The third had Hepatitis B. Not smart. We only got two of the kids because the third one, the "healthy" one - died within a week. The diabetic gal was very very sick and spent a long time recovering. I got her right near the end of her hospital stay.
I am not sure what happened with the one that was the carrier, but I believe he was one of her many "visitors". It was interesting to see their non-reaction to the death of their friend, the constant partying and tomfoolery that went on in that room. Maybe it was denial, and I can understand that. But - It didn't seem to click that what they did was downright dangerous and why. I think it has to do with how invincible you feel when you are young. That feeling dissipates with age. The "it will never happen to me" starts to turn into "when is it going to happen to me".
As much as you hate it.....it will protect them from themselves. There are always people ( like me) that - no matter how much evidence is present - they're gonna do it anyway. Which - reminds me.
I have to phone my esthetician and get my permanent eyeliner touched up. I have been putting it off for a year now.
Time to pay the piper.
Posted by A NURSE at 6:52 AM
Once again, lucky for me, this time the comments were saved:
2 comments:
newnurseinthehood said...
Amen. My husband has a sleeve and half of beautiful work, and people always seem to want to talk to him about it, but the majority seem to freak when he answers about what he paid for it and then throw out the name of some nasty shop or mention that they know a guy who does it in his living room. Seriously? It's worth it to pay for good, custom work. Not only do you not want hep C, but that is going to be on you forever. Why not pay the money for an artist who is actually good?
Also- eyes- zoinks. I thought getting my ribs and side done was bad.
May 12, 2010 12:22 PM
A NURSE said...
I paid $400 for my lips. And that was almost 20 years ago. I think it was $300 for my eyeliner. What we do for "beauty" and convenience. But definitely - It pays to do it the "right" way....:)
May 12, 2010 1:23 PM