hospital etiquette

Every day I am at work I watch fathers pushing carts of stuff down the hall on the way to their cars. They probably came to the hospital for the birth of their child with one bag, a carseat...and maybe a pillow...and were there for four days at the most. When they leave their things have multiplied at least twofold.

So, although you might think that you are being kind and generous by bringing your friend or family member who has just given birth to a baby a gift or some flowers...remember that you are probably not the only one who had that thought AND they are the ones who have to take all of those things home. More specifically, dad is the one that has to push or carry all of those things out of the hospital because mom is not allowed to lift things that weigh more than her baby.

I do however, have a solution. When you speak to your friends or family (which I also urge you to do before showing up at the hospital...don't show up unannounced...it's possible that mom and dad have been up for days, or that mom has just had major surgery...and they have a new baby to get to know...and they might be exhausted since babies are not born with a sense of day and night), tell them that you have a gift for them but offer to drop it off at their house when they get home from the hospital. And if you do show up at the hospital and they have bunches of flowers and gifts in their room...offer to take a load home for them.

It might not seem like much, but it will save some wear and tear on a new dads back!

work and such

I realize that an update on how my job is going post-orientation is long overdue. The first couple of days were really hard. I suffered from massive information overload after 12 hours of everything being new. Next week will be my fifth week and I'm finally starting to feel comfortable with the daily routine. I've had a lot of really great patients and even a few patients that other people found difficult but I didn't have any problems with.

The most exciting thing that happened (and I don't use exciting in the positive sense of the word, it was actually a little scary) was I had a baby (the boy in a set of twins, who was also a whole pound bigger than his sister at birth) who dropped his temperature and had to go under the warmer. As he was warming up, we thought it would be a good idea to check his oxygen sats because he was breathing kind of funny. So we put him on the monitor and he was fine, then the nurse that I was working with left me in the nursery with him...and his sats started to drop...yikes! Luckily there was another nurse there, but she was dealing with another baby who wasn't doing very well. However, she was able to answer my questions while I was standing there not really knowing what to do. Anyway, the baby was fine, turns out his blood sugar was a little low because he was too sleepy to eat. It was very scary to be in a situation and not really know what to do or when to really start worrying.

In another couple of weeks I'm moving from the post-partum unit to nights on the prenatal unit for eight weeks. It's kind of like school...just when you start getting comfortable with something, they change things on you!

the great scrub debacle

Whew! Who knew that buying scrubs would be so hard. There's only one store in town that sells scrubs, and they have a pretty limited selection, which left me ordering them online. The problem...I don't know what I want/need! The possibilities are pretty much endless. Solids, prints, brands, number and layout of pockets. I don't put that much thought into my every day attire (is it comfy? and is it not ugly?) so why should I have to put so much effort into my work attire...they're just scrubs...which resemble pajamas...which are supposed to be comfy and not require such extensive decision making skills (which if you know me at all...you know that is NOT something I'm good at)!!

After two hours and $50 I managed to order one set. Then after a walk and some sustenance (and $50 more), I managed to order another set. The second set proved more difficult than the first. I ordered them from a different website and they wanted to charge me SIXTY DOLLARS for USPS Priority shipping. I think not! Then I had to find another website that had what I wanted and that wasn't going to charge me more for shipping than product. I mean, I guess living in Alaska I can understand that if I was spending $5-$10 on something, the shipping might work out to be more than whatever I purchased. But when spending $50 on scrubs (which are not heavy or bulky), I expect the shipping to be significantly less, especially when you tell me it's USPS Priority shipping. Do you know how many books I could ship for $50? A medium flat rate box is only $14.95 (how do I know this you ask...because I've been making a living selling textbooks online the cheaper the shipping the more $$ go into my bank account) and a pair of scrubs would definitely fit into one of those with room to spare!

Anyway, I found a place with much more reasonable shipping rates (thank god for the internet!) and in 7-10 days I will be the proud owner of two shiny new pairs of scrubs :o)

the wall

I have officially hit "the wall." It's time for me to go to work. The only problem with that is I have to wait two more weeks. Don't get me wrong, I've thoroughly enjoyed my summer. I've been fishing and berry picking and reading and cooking and relaxing...all things I haven't done (or enjoyed doing) for awhile. I still have going to the fair and going out to the Copper Princess Lodge to look forward to. And yes, when I start working I'll probably wish for my unemployed life back (minus the part about not having any money)...but for the time being I wish to be a valued and contributing member of society. I want to pay back the people to whom I owe money. Let the countdown begin...two weeks...