I think I’m psychic. Every time I float, I get a “feeling” that it’s gonna happen as I head into work. I swear, I’m not making it up. Yesterday I even said out loud (in my head) “I bet I’m floating today”. And I did! I was on 7 East yesterday, an acute medicine floor (as they call themselves). The last time I floated was probably in the winter, so I’m definitely due, but it’s still odd to me that I sensed it coming. I’ve also been having crazy weird ass dreams lately (which I remember!).
So yeah. I packed my lunch, as per usual, and I took pictures of it too (which is actually atypical as of late – sorry readers).
I had a green smoothie before I left the casa. I didn’t take a photo of it at 6 am, but it’s this guy.
Naked Green Machine. In my opinion, it tastes like an apple jolly rancher, but healthier. It’s so good. The kiwi and the apple are the most dominant flavors to me. I have been taking my AM vitamins with naked juice for the past few weeks because I can’t seem to choke them down with just water. They are so gross and I must have a really strong gag reflex because I am horrible at taking pills. And these new ones I got from WF are especially painful, despite being “mini” pills. I recently ran out of my favorite gummy multis (from TJs) seen below (which was on my lunch time to-do list).
They’re for adults, I swear! So after half the green juice, I hit the road.
I ate one of these banana muffins in the car before I headed in to the hospital.
I never wrote down the recipe when I made them, but they were basically a version of this banana bread (in muffin form).
When I found out I was floating a mix of emotions took over. On one hand, I was excited (because floating means something different and new). I was also sad and nervous though (because I like the comfort and stability of my own unit and our patient population as well as the support of my coworkers). But off I went.
To 7 East. They were friendly enough, even though nobody seemed to want to talk at all throughout the shift. I found the work day to be incredibly boring as a result, but I just spent more time with my patients in compensation. I need human interaction in the work day!
The weird part (to me) was how they chose break times. I was one of the first there, and I was instructed to draw a piece of paper out of a cup. The one I got said “1030, 1500” which meant my breakfast was at 10:30 and my lunch was at 3:00. Uh. Those are pretty late! The charge nurse asked if I was okay with that (and since I didn’t want to be a problem I just said fine). Next thing I see is the regular staff one by one draw pieces of paper and put them back and redraw until they get the one they want. WTF!?! What’s the point of random drawing? It may as well be first come first serve (which is how we sign up on our floor). Actually we only assign lunch times on my unit because we don’t have a relief nurse to cover us while we eat breakfast. But for lunch it’s perfect because there are people who love 4 pm lunch times and prefer it, and there are people (like me) who need to eat way earlier than that. So it works. Ah well. I ended up semi-ignoring my assigned times in terms of eating.
I went down to the cafeteria at 9:00 because I wanted the French Toast. I figured I was even more deserving of my usual weekend treat since I was floating. 🙂 Any excuse will do. I got three fatty slices of fluffy, crispy, eggy bread. Dunked in syrup. Mmmm. They did really well in holding me over until my super late lunch.
I used my 15 minutes of relief at 10:30 to call Kyle. And bring my packed food over to 7 East. I had an apple at 1 pm. And when 3 pm came, I headed outside and enjoyed my salad and pretzels.
Spinach, sweet potato, corn, egg salad.
After I ate I went to TJs to restock my gummy vitamins. And then it was back to work.
I started with four patients, discharged two people, and got a transfer from another floor. My admission was a trach patient (which is supposed to be 2:1 ratio), but the person didn’t come until 6:55 (of course), so I really only took care of him for 5 minutes before giving report to the night RN.
I had my second banana muffin around 5 pm, so by the time I left the hospital I was starrrrving.
Kyle had grilled corn waiting for me when I got home. I showered at light speed and threw together a dinner plate in 5 seconds.
Corn, sweet potato with BBQ sauce and hummus. I had another quarter of sweet potato and lots more hummus, too.
And for dessert I had pretzels with the rest of the hummus. These are unsalted by the way, which I’m not sure if I like or not. I have been having sodium issues lately (where everything tastes WAY too salty for me), which is why I went with the unsalted. But it makes them kinda blah on their own. Hummus is definitely a must for dipping.
I fell asleep with Best in Show on in the background. I love that movie. Favorite character? Hard to say, but probably Cookie and Gerry Fleck. I don’t like the guy with the bloodhound at all.
I ignore lunchtimes always or I can’t do my job. Sorry when the room is spinning I can’t be asked to work! I am also a grazer but I think they just got used to it at school 😉 ASsumed I’d always be eating! Yum grilled corn! I’m hoping to have some today in fact. Farmers Market corn is sitting on my counter. Have you tried Scott Jurek’s recipe for hummus? Dare I say it is bette then Sabra? I have eaten a whole jar of it since Friday :/ I should be ashamed, but hummus is SO good!
I love these kind of posts where you talk about your job at the hospital! Call me crazy but, I just love hearing about what you do while you are at the hospital and what you eat there to make sure you stay full while working.
P.S. I’m so glad to see a little hummus back in your life!!!!
but the guy w the blood hound is the director!
I looked up “float” in the online urban dictionary…could not figure out what that meant!!! Here’s the link–I’ll let you decide which definition I figured you probably meant! http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=float
I used to get floated moreso when I worked on NICU. Some of the other nurses got floated to the adult floors, which is highly undesirable from the NICU perspective. I was only floated to PICU, which I enjoyed. I like working with kids!
Gummy vitamins are the only ones I can tolerate also! IDK who vitacompanies think can swallow those ridiculous horse pills!
It also took me a minute to figure out the “float” part of things, as I thought maybe you were having sodium/water retention issues or something. At any rate, I’m an idiot.
But I also have a job where I pretty much plan everything around my meals. They’re flexible–I don’t have an important and stressful position like you do–and it suits my OCD perfectly 😉 Also? Best In Show is the best movie ever. The end.
oh my, sounds like a crazy day — such a strange lunch system on that floor! At least you had your hummus:)
oh myna, sounds like a crazy day — such a strange lunch system on that floor! At least you had your hummus:)
I love gummy vitamins too! Best invention ever 🙂
Holy heck. 10:30 and 3:00!? I would be out of my head starving. Glad you had that french toast to keep you on track. 🙂
thats christopher guest!?!
whoa! better than sabra?! clearly ill have to try it!
hahaha – no poker or money problems over here. i guess i forget hospital lingo can be foreign to the average person. anyway, it means our unit was overstaffed so i was sent to another unit. 🙂
ha, oops. i guess i forgot to explain that for non hospital readers. it means our unit was overstaffed so i was sent to another unit, although i guess you already figured that out…
your lunch looks so good! And yea, the drawing thing makes no sense, I guess whoever draws first gets what they want? I feel bad for whoever draws last, imagine ending up with an 11:30 breakfast and a 12:30 lunch!
I totally didn’t understand the floating aspect of nursing you were talking about at first haha. Might of had to google it. Wow that is a late breakfast and lunch! I would be dying of hunger haha. I basically eat lunch at 10:30, I guess that can be part of the job though!
I LOVE “Best in Show”! It makes me laugh out loud every single time I see it. I like “A Mighty Wind” and “Waiting for Guffman” too, but I think “Best in Show” is by far the best.
Courtney
Does 1300 not represent military time?
ha. duh. yes, i wrote it wrong, just edited to say 1500.
Oh, phoo, I was seriously worrying about my math skills haha.
I swear, your job at the hospital sounds like a television show in the making! Craziness. The schedule you have when you’re ‘floating’ is so strange and it’s a shame the people weren’t more friendly- that always makes work more enjoyable.
But hey, at least you had delicious corn waiting for you when you got home. That’s one hell of a silver lining, in my opinion. (:
i love that you share what you do @ work, and your eats. you may have one of the craziest work schedules that i read about, and i often wonder how you can schedule your workouts/food/and life all together! You are awesome 🙂
Ha, I LOVE Cookie 😉
Weird that you are finding things TOO salty… I thought you were a salt freak like me!?
I recently bought those gummies in Vegas and am ADDICTED. Sooo for adults.
perhaps great minds DO think alike. Mama and I have been buying green machine from Costco the last few weeks and we each have a 6oz glass in the AMs with our mass amounts of vitamins. jealous that you have “mini” ones because some of the pills I have are seriously horse pill sizes. yuck. no dice. and i totally choked on one the other day because it was the last of the collection of pills to take and I was almost done with my green machine drink. note to self, do not skimp on green machine even though you’ve had your fill for the morning because it will cause major problemas when trying to swallow the last bit of your horse pills. I ended up adding another half glass of the green bevvie before trying to ingest that pill for a second time. ugh. no bueno.
must try the gummies.
the gummies are good but i feel like they are cheating, so i try and stick to the regular ones most days and just do the gummies when i reallllly cant take swallowing those nasty guys. i ran out of green machine today, so now im gonna have to get creative.
it was only temporary..im back to my salt-a-philic self now 🙂
thanks so much jessie! such a nice comment to read 🙂
i know right? too bad all the tv shows based on hospitals are so off…i look like a haggard train wreck 90% of the time, so i dont think thats what viewers want to see, haha.
Oh Best in Show! Good times indeed, indeed. I remember negotiating lunch breaks when I worked at a bookstore – I was one of the people who liked a late lunch (it meant that the time between lunch and home was shorter, which felt better mentally) so I usually didn’t have a problem getting the time I wanted 😛
Trader joes has the most amaazziing green juices too! Save some serious ca$$$sh and check them out- there is a shelf stable one called “green machine” that tastes a lot like the naked one and its like $5 for the 64oz bottle, and there is one in the refrigerated section too, forgot the name but there is only One that has a similar sweet thick thing like naked’s, only significantly cheaper…. I swear i am not a tj’s employee (!)
No,Its called “green plant”, whoops.
thanks for the tip!!! im gonna be all over that!
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