taboo

So playing Taboo with some friends and going through an ENTIRE box of the taboo cards was therapeutic. And hilarious. So many words you CAN'T say to describe Hillary Clinton. But oh so many you CAN that aren't listed that are now much more relevant than when that 1990s card deck was created.

We also played Cranium again which is a very northwest espresso-drinking type peoples game. No really, if someone from rural Florida was playing it they would be like what are you talking about. No, really, I don't know about that, I just wanted an example to pick on people from rural towns in Florida. Florida, hehhh. Florida... I can pick on you since you are so far away.

Anyway, everything on my list "to do" today was not accomplished, sometimes not even a quarter of the way accomplished, which I half-expected to happen since I have had NO brain power left to complete even the simplest task. It would be great if on Monday there magically appears enough staff. Granted, there was no way to foresee the wave, no, TYPHOON (we have typhoons on the west coast ahem ahem) of patients, sick patients, crazy patients, sick crazy drug seeking patients, billions of them. Usually I can admit a patient to the hospital, and just, you know, ADMIT them, put them in a bed, set them up to telemetry, assign a nurse, and they can go to the cath lab and get fixed up and it is all good.

Instead, I can't even send them for work-up in the ER. Yah, unless they want to be in the hallway being worked up with the other patients who don't have rooms in the hallway - higher acuity? In the hallway so we can keep a closer eye on you! For like hours and hours. So we have been doing work-ups and telemetry and IVs and diuresis and diagnostic caths and scans and such in our office. On an acute work-in basis. Sometimes it feels like a M*A*S*H unit, except no comic relief. And this one patient, they really needed a bed, and there wasn't one anywhere, in this huge hospital and other hospital, and it was craziness. And there is all these rules, these magical mysterious rules, about insurance and acuity and diagnoses, and if you just say the wrong thing, it sends a patient to the bottom of "the list" - all somehow related to money.

I wish I could relate the details of the case because the patients condition is very interesting, but of course I cannot in no way tell you what hospital or what case or what office or anything, so suffice to say, patient was sick, money/CEO/evil conspiracy HMO thing gets in the way, nurse(me) gets mad and yells at multiple admissions people (mostly innocents) for an hour or so, finally gets a bed. But I don't know, I guess there is crazy amounts of patients and everyone is over-worked and under-staffed. But yah, I now understand what they were talking about in school about "manager of care" for nursing - that is so, so true.

I'm ranting again. Into the wee hours of the morning I see now that I look at the clock... that's the other thing that has been off - since Josh has had classes all week, and church meetings, and working on the sermon, I've been staying up later since he has and to just get some more time with him. So, my sleep pattern is all messed up.

Next week Josh only has class on Wednesday, and I've been promised 45 hours MAX at work. Yayyy.

This too shall pass.