Tricks

 

April being April, with intermittent snow, rain, mild and bitter together. So Eleanor stays on the heating pad, and sometimes Zeppo hangs out next to her. He doesn't seem interested in the warm, just her. 

The garden continues to bloom, fade, bloom, not looking impressive for photos yet.  Everything coming up amid the mud, though. 

Spent a long time yesterday removing sutures from the fingers of a guy who got caught up in Table Saw Season. He had no pain tolerance, so I pulled out every old nurse trick, lots of talking, listening, checking.  They were not easy to remove, being all encrusted, over 20 in the end. His wife distracted and talked to him throughout - not always sweetly - but effectively. He was an old-style misogynist, not cruel or extreme, just offhand and stereotypical for a guy his age. I kept working, telling him what I was doing, gentle but unflinching. At the end - he checked, which I invited, and I had missed one. Once that was out, he checked again - very thoroughly - which I again encouraged. That time it was good. 

They left with thanks for the time I took, and the care.  Apparently he'd gotten stitches out last week for a different surgery from the total joint resident, and were -- a bit difficult. So I stepped in on Friday to mollify. And because the clinic nurse was running the clinic, and the MDs can write their own damn orders in a pinch, I was the least essential person there. And the LPN was not paid enough, and being my grey-haired-obviously-senior self, I had the gravitas to make them think I was the best qualified. 

I like being able to come in as the Experienced One, even if I'm not actually, but I damn well look the part. They feel reassured, and that's half the battle so often.  They do pay me enough to deal with this sort of thing. 

You know how I was taught to take out stitches? I was in OJT for the Army, they showed me the tray of instruments, and said "Go take out those stitches."  So, I did.