I worked both days this weekend. I should have called in sick – at least one of the days – but I’m trying to save my sick days. It’s harder to staff weekend shifts so it always looks a little shady when you call in sick on Sat or Sun. It makes you appear unreliable and unprofessional. Like you’d rather be frolicking on the beach with your friends than doing your fair share of weekend time. Despite the fact that this weekend’s weather wasn’t remotely nice…and my throat felt like it was stuffed with razor blades…and I had a headache that throbbed when I did so much as walk quickly…I still didn’t call in. I didn’t have a stroke either. But I am now spending my day off trying to nurse my throat back to normal. I woke up twice last night in agony. I can hardly swallow and there’s a tickle that sends me into a fit of lung hacking every 10 minutes. My intercostals ache from the muscular convulsions my coughing causes. Yuck.
Oh and the worst part of all is that I had the same patients for both weekend shifts and on Sunday afternoon the MD called to tell me one of my patients’ tests [MTB QuantiFERON-TB Gold (QTG)] came back positive for TB so I should start him on airborne precautions right away. START the precautions!!! Ummm, what about the other 395 times I interacted with him and had no mask on? How about when I adjusted his high flow nasal canula while he was unable to breathe and coughing his mycobacteria out on me? Fantastic! I don’t know how much good gloves and hand hygiene can do in that scenario. Not good. Not good.
I work again on Wednesday so I hope I can pull myself together by then.
I was really hoping to see Katniss and Peeta today, but maybe I should wait til the TB clears coughing subsides before I see the movie. I don’t wanna be THAT girl in the theatre.
The perk about working on the weekend is that Kyle is off. He’s usually totally busy with schoolwork and business stuff, but on Sunday we arranged a mid-day rendezvous. In the morning I told him which lunch hour I’d be getting covered by the break relief RN (1300) so he could time it all out. He picked me up at the emergency room turnaround and (since it was pouring rain) we drove to WF for a treat. As you know, I always make my own lunches. Each and every day. Without fail. Eating out on a work day is a foreign concept…and such a novelty…I may as well have won the lottery!
Since I was sick, I went with throat soothing options: hot soup and vegan pizza.
The soup was butternut squash based and pretty good. Nothing I’d write home about. It took my full break time just for it to cool down enough to eat though. The pizza was a thin crust with daiya cheese. It was heavenly. I finished all three slices. The person serving me thought I was a pig as I told her how big to slice it. She kept trying to give me smaller pieces and I was like “no ma’am, I need to get my pizza face on right now”.
After warming my throat and belly Kyle drove me back to work. Seeing him in the middle of the day was so nice and gave me such a boost…and it helped break up the shift too.
Plus when I got home, dinner was already done since I hadn’t eaten my work lunch at work! Win win.
TB is no good! did you get to wear a sexy PAPR?
i was sick all week – on my week off! i got a call tonight and got the night off so i was very thankful for an extra night to rest up, but at the same time, i know i’ve gotta work the next 6 nights 🙁
feel better soon – sounds like a lotta crud is out there right now.
Well that’s craptastic on a lot of fronts, but also kind of awesome that you got to have a little afternoon delight (you know what I mean–the pizza/soup rendezvous.) I always eat at work too, but it’s nice to break things up once in awhile.
Hope you feel better and aren’t infected with TB! (Do they make a Hallmark card for that?)
Funny thing about the Whole Foods here in Sherman Oaks… both the fishmonger & butcher know that I’m vegan & buying proteins for my husband. They give me the best pieces for him! I am truly THE WORST VEGAN EVER!! LOL!!
Hope you’re feeling better… sucks to be sick, and sucks even worse to find out you’ve been exposed to something so serious. I know for a fact that chocolate brownies are part of the cure, though.
Hope your throat clears up. I always give my daughter a tablespoon of honey and mix in 1 tsp black pepper. The honey soothes the throat while the heat from the pepper opens everything up and calms the cough.
Feel better! and don’t get TB!
I hope you feel better! and that pizza sounds good, I haven’t had pizza in ages!
Bahahahaha! I hope you used those very words with the pizza cutter lady! And, I hope your throat feels better soon!
I had the throat thing a few weeks ago. Not. Fun. 🙁 That vegan pizza sounds amazing though, I think I may need to try to make that… Unfortunately my Whole Foods has virtually no pre-made (as in hot) vegan options other than a few veggie stir-fries…
ok, i totally just wrote the wrong response to your comment – ha. but anyway, i agree that brownies are definitely the cure for everything. maybe TB too.
what!?! thats insane. tell the WF manager to get on top of it already.
Gahh! Oh no! I hope your cough goes away quickly…that scurrs me. I could never ever ever ever be a nurse. Just the image of someone coughing on you made me gag. God bless you!
I hope you feel better soon!!
Ha ha! I saw that!
I need to bake… and I have been threatening to make hummus & pita, but just haven’t gotten around to digging out my food processor.
Oh no! I hope you feel better really soon. Being sick is no fun- especially when you have to work.
Whole Foods does have a magical way of making anyone feel better though. Their vegan pizza is unbelievable!
they are so sexy. and really great for my hairdo too…
same here with peanut butter…fortunately i finally did the damn thing yesterday. if only food processors werent such a pain to clean…
Rest up + feel better 🙂
Ah, feel better. How scary about the TB, hopefully you will be all clear! I wish there was a whole foods where I lived. How have I gone on in existance 😉 And does that almond package say stevia covered almonds?!?! I want.
its super dark chocolate thats (supposedly) stevia sweetened. to me it tasted like mega dark chocolate and not much sweetener. pretty bitter, but if you like dark chocolate, youd like it. the company is coco polo. they are new – you can get the stuff on amazon – http://www.amazon.com/Coco-Polo-Cadenza-Sweetened-Chocolate/dp/B005QSIFUS
yikes! sounds like a stressful working weekend. It’s upsetting when nurses have to come in to work when they need time off because they are so in need! Don’t forget to take care of yourself 🙂
Feel better soon!
Hope you get to feeling better soon! 🙂
Oh no! Hope you’re feeling a million times better now. I hate calling sick and once struggled in only to almost faint in a patient’s room! Ugh.
Lots of well wishes xxx
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