I have survived night shift, thus far.
Tomorrow night will be my first night “on my own.” I put it in quotes because I’ve learned that I am never really alone in the ICU. The other nurses work as a wonderful team and everyone is out to help each other because it is all about the patient. I love that.
But, I am scared and nervous. It is time to cut the cord, though. Sigh.
The other night, my 3rd day post-op ventral hernia repair/liver bx/choley/abdominal rectus advancement with flaps decided suddenly that he wanted to start putting out massive amounts of frank blood from his bilateral JP drains.
Seriously, like >400ml from each in an hour. The oddest part? As soon as the blood hit the little “grenades” it seemed to clot. And not tiny clots either, massive chunks of clots!! And his pressure that had been running in the 140’s, dropped to low 100’s with his HR sky-rocketing into the 140’s!~ fun times. The coolest part was his entire abdomen was quite…lumpy. We all thought for sure that he must be bleeding. I mean, c’mon. As soon as we emptied the drains, they would immediately fill up! And when they filled up, he began oozing significantly from the incision site.
However, the surgeons on the phone did not seem to think it was a big deal at all. In fact, they said…oh, he’s just shifting. hmm, shifting?
Eventually, his drains stopped putting out so much and his vitals stabilized. But, he did end up dropping his HgB from 10 to 7…still, no idea what that was about. I had him for 3 nights and that was the first. I really think he might have been bleeding…perhaps retroperitoneal? But what do I know? I’m no surgeon. I wonder where he is now, though.
—
One thing that kind of surprises me on night shift is how people eat. They eat like it isn’t 2 in the morning, which is understandable, but doesn’t seem, um…healthy? I refuse to eat chicken quesadillas and cheeseburgers in the middle of the night/early morning hours. How am I surviving? Lots of H2O, fruit, lara bars, etc. I snack on these things throughout the night and it seems to hold me over pretty well until I go home.
I haven’t noticed any real issues yet with my sleep and I seem to be able to switch over on my days off pretty well, except I did 3 nights in a row and I’m not going to lie, it was difficult. In fact, it may or may not be related, but the last almost 48 hours, I’ve been suffering with a headache. On just the left side of my head. ugh. I eventually gave into the magical powers of Excedrin and it is gone.
Wish me luck for my first night as an ICU nurse by myself.
