Sleepless days

UGH. Work last nite was fine. I pretty much didn’t speak for 5 hours. eheh. I was working with a new RN. She is….well. She’s rather large. Which…whatever. I don’t care what size you are, so long as you can do what needs to be done. But. Dude. She wheezes after doing room checks down just one hall! That isn’t what bothers me tho. The thing that bothers me is that she is large and has NO concept of personal space. And me? I require my personal bubble. I mean. Like with J it’s ok, cuz she’s safe. And with friends it’s generally ok, depending on who and where. Like, I tend to get uncomfortable when 5 of us are in a booth at EnP and I scrunch myself as far into the corner as I can. And I guess, ya know, it goes along with the fact that I’m slightly claustrophobic, so like even with friends, if we’re all shoved into an elevator I stare at the ceiling and try not to freak out. Oh wait. I do that in all elevators…. ;op

But. My point is that this RN is *not* a friend or even an acquaintance. She has no respect for personal space *and* she is one of those kinds of people who is like….Oh, I already know how to do all of this…. Which would be fine, if she did already know how to do it the way we are supposed to do it. But she doesn’t. And it probably irks me because she’s condescending to me. As are several of the new night RN’s, actually. I’ll be sitting on the unit with them and they will call over to Mary to ask her questions about the adult unit! Mary NEVER works the adult unit. EVER. And she’s always like “I don’t know!!! Ask [Echo], she knows how things go over there….” And then I tell them and they don’t believe me and when day shift comes in, they ask THOSE nurses how to do something. And THOSE nurses say “I don’t know! I never work nights. Ask [Echo].” Like. WTF. Ok, so my badge says MHT and not RN. However, I’ve been working there nearly 3 years. I’ve learned a thing or two in my time there. *sigh* Whatever.

So. No respect for personal space. (Which, btw, I’m not the only one who has issues with this, several co-workers have mentioned the same thing) Know-it-all attitude (Again, I’m not the only one who has noticed this either, else I wouldn’t bring it up.) And. Yeah, there’s more. AND. She has some issues with hygeine. I mean. It’s rude to say that she smells bad. But. She…does. And I dunno if it’s her breath or just her clothes or what. It’s not like an overpowering stench or anything. But. It’s hard not to notice when she’s standing near on top of you. :op

I’ve tried to deal with the space issue. I step back when she gets too close. When she happens to have me backed in to a corner, I say “excuse me” and squeeze out around her and then continue our conversation or whatever, kind of making it obvious, I’d think, that I’m uncomfortable. But. I realize she probably doesn’t realize she does it or whatever. But if it continues I’ll prolly have to say something cuz it just….it’s just like the straw on the camel’s back…I need my bubble.

So. I’m not the chattiest person in the world, tho I’ve gotten much better at work at doing the whole “small talk” thing. Cuz with Kathy (the tech I like. The new RN is also Kathy. There are also 2 Kathy’s (a Kathy and a Kathryn) that work day shift. As well as a Katie (catherine) and a Cathy (catherine). Eheh.) Anyways. With MHT Kathy, I used to take care of her kid when I worked at the day care, and her kids are similar ages to RB and DB, so we can always chatter about that. And with Jeff, we can talk about his grand daughter and my kiddos and other random things. Mary and I talk about animals. Donna and I talk about nursing school. So. Ya know. I can do the small-talk with them. But generally I’m still pretty quiet. So it was a very, very quiet nite. The census was only 9 and they slept all nite long. Thank furk the little devil who had been there for a week left on evening shift. (Not before of course, he threw a marble thru the screen of the television, busting it. As well as busting the EXIT sign hanging from the ceiling. Ripping the “star chart” off of the wall. Dumping all of the puzzles into one big pile. Breaking the “Trouble” game that some kids were in the middle of playing. Throwing food all over the caf….lah. He was totally disruptive and apparently 2 of the parents who were having their kids admitted yesterday afternoon were going to pull them back out cuz they were afraid for their safety (as well they should’ve been. The kid also punched a few kids, slapped kids on the butt, attacked staff….)

Serves Dr B right tho. The kid was on the “Do Not Admit” ‘list’ because he was just as disruptive and violent the last time he was here. He completely messes up the milieu, cuz they all feed off of him. He needs…I don’t know what he needs. But whatever it is, we’re not equipped to provide him with it, obviously.

Anyways. So. I got a nice pace going in my work and managed to drag it out til about 3am, then I busied myself with random things for a few hours, and then I sat and read a short story by Neil Gaiman and started another by Terry Brooks. Then Gracie came in and we chatted for a few minutes and then the Dr came…the dr’s have switched units again, so the kids side has Dr F back. Unlike Dr M, he comes in at 7am and wants to see his patients. But unlike Dr B, he’s capable of getting their charts himself, of being nice to staff, of waiting patiently while I finish a set of vitals before he calls the kid to his office. A much welcome change from Dr B who barges in, demands all of his charts and all of the patients lined up so he doesn’t have to wait for them. (Keep in mind, we don’t wake people until 645 and if census is low, we wait til closer to 7 or 715…) Not to mention, 7am is the busiest part of the morning because generally the nurse is either drawing labs or off unit in the lab spinning the blood, leaving one person on the unit to wake people, get vitals, and keep the people where they need to be (which is not difficult on the adult unit unless you have a bunch of sex-fiends like we have now. But it IS slightly difficult on the kids side, when you have to keep an eye on the Littles to make sure they’re not getting into things they shouldn’t be and keep an eye on the bigs to make sure they keeping their hands to themselves and such. It’s hectic. Dr F is actually good to have there in the mornings, cuz he pays attention to the world outSIDE of his office, unlike Dr B is is focused only on….himself. :p

Anyways. I got home and was able to lay down for an hour or two, then my sister msg’d me asking if I could stay a few days, cuz her husband wants to go back to NC. *rolls eyes* I ignored it and tried to go back to bed, with only mild success cuz by then it was no longer nice and cool, but hot and muggy. So I eventually got up and called my sister and talked to her for a while. Apparently now I’m going over tomorrow and staying till Tuesday/Wednesday-ish. Which. *sigh* I was kind of looking forward to have a few days to get my apartment/bills/etc in order, since it’s a hurricane right now and my bills are overdue again I think. But. It’s not like I don’t *want* to go help her. Actually it will be kind of nice cuz H doesn’t work on Saturday or Sunday and she only works a few hours on Tuesday. So we’ll actually get to hang out together. She was like I’ll pay you or something, it’s a long time. I’ll shower you with gifts….. Eheh. I was just like “Take me shopping and buy me a pair of jeans. That’ll be good.” She laughed and was like What, the 2 pair I bought you last year have fallen apart already??? You’re horrible to jeans shop with, you never know what you want!! To which I responded “No, they’ve not fallen apart, but I only have about 3 pairs that I wear anymore. And besides. I know what I want. I just can’t ever FIND it!” So. And her pool is open now. So. Wee.

Talked to her. Then I went to campus and turned in my timesheet/got my paycheck and chattered with Diana for a bit. Then Em called and invited me to dinner with her and cakeface. 🙂 Homemade. So, yummy. Not sure when that will be tho. I came home and tried to move furniture to figure out where to put this tank, but was not successful. So. Now I’m going to lay down and hope that Em doesn’t call for a few hours….*sigh*