Had a great night in the E.D. last night.  It wasn’t crazy busy – but that’s not why.  I had a bunch of great patients – normal, pleasant, appreciative (ok – not all, but more than not) … how cool is that? 

But wait – there’s more … I had a stroke patient who came in with one side of her body paralyzed, her family did everything right and called 911 promptly (less than 3 hours onset of symptoms), everything went like a well oiled machine on our end (ok, there were some technical glitches – damn computers anyway – but our staff rolled with it, improvised and overcame – so no effect to patient care), she received ‘clot busting’ medication and before the helicopter flew her away, she was gaining function/control over the affected side of her body!  That’s just so cool – you just can’t do stuff like that in other jobs.  This patient was scared and tearful on arrival, and while she was nervous about flying in a chopper, she was smiling as she left.  She may still run in to trouble (as clot busting medication isn’t without some risky side effects), but I was involved with the team that got her through this major hurdle … THIS is why I became an ER nurse!

With that said, I’m going to drag my tired body to bed, thinking about all the great PMC projects I have floating around in my head.  This coming week I’ll be busting out the silver to see what beautiful successes or dismal failures I can create. 

And, before I go back to work tonight, I’ll light some candles, ‘rub Buddha’s belly’ (which is Maggie, my oldest Yorkie) and hope that this shift can go as well …