Relaxing Sunday

With girls camp upon me this weekend, I got permission from my boss to work Sunday through Thursday this week. This way I can go up to camp on Thursday afternoon and not worry about being short any hours on my check.

Sunday isn't a day that I normally work but I figured the exception could be made and that I might even enjoy the quiet office and low-key atmosphere. With no workshops to get to no one would be rushed and chaos would be at a minimum.

Words can't even begin to describe how wrong I was to assume that. I was wrong. So wrong.

By 8:30 I was clocked in and happily crunch data sheets. The office was quiet. No one knew I was here. It was lovely. Alas, I reached a point where I needed some data books from the supervisor's office so I left my safe haven and trekked down the hall. I should have listened to the little voices that were telling me to stay in the safety of the office!! (Doesn't everyone have those little voices? Don't tell me I'm the only one!)

I never made it to the data books. Before I could locate the supervisor a staff member found one of our ladies, I'll call her "V", laying on her bedroom floor in a pool of blood. She had taken a little tumble while trying to get up to change her television channel. Oops! I was the lucky one who agreed to take her in to the Emergency Room. Before I could get her out the door they decided that I since I was headed that way already, I should just take another resident too!!

A short while later, my car full of sick people, I arrived at the E.R. It was tricky getting them both inside simultaneously but I managed. I even got them settled into their respective beds okay. V relaxed on her bed and dozed off but the gentleman, "K", was not as comfortable. Can't say I blamed him, really. He would have nothing to do with the gown he was supposed to wear. Surprisingly, he did allowed them to attach the heart monitor and get a reading. When the wheelchair came to take him to get X-Rays he excitedly slid off the bed and got right into the chair. Weeeee! Free ride!! He did well in the X-Ray room. It was hard to get him in the correct positions since he didn't understand what was going on but we managed okay. Unfortunately he wet himself while they were taking the films. Pee everywhere. UGH! I didn't have a change of clothes for him. I called the care center and spoke with the nurse about having someone come over with a change of clothes for K. He said someone would be right over... and they were. But the message of "bring clean clothes with you" wasn't passed on so they arrived expecting to help me out and didn't have anything dry for me to put K into. I almost went in to panic mode at that point. It had been a battle royal to get K into the large diaper and scrub pants he was wearing and now I had nothing to put him in for the trip home! The staff person said they'd run get something for him and left again.

V was still in her bed at this point. A nurse had come and numbed up her cut but the doctor hadn't yet stitched her up. I continued to sit with K until an orderly came and said that they needed our spot! K wasn't even discharged yet and they needed his spot! WTF??!! We moved K over to V's area and just as I got him settled, the doctor came to give V her stitches. With no aide in the area, he asked ME to hold her head while he sewed it up!

!!@#$@!#!

Have I ever mentioned the horrible phobia I have when it comes to needles?

AHHHHHHHHH!!!

But I did it. I took a deep breathe, kept my cool, and did it without the doctor ever suspecting that I was dieing on the inside. I was one cool girl!! (Thank goodness I didn't faint!)

Another staff person showed up shortly after the doctor was done with some clothes for K. No shirt. But at least she had pants and underwear. Since he was already discharge she was able to take him back the care center while I waited with V. A short while later I was able to bring V back as well. Hooray!!

With an adventure under my belt, I settled in to my desk to actually do the work I had planned to do at the start of the day. Or so I thought. Apparently one of the men who lives here decided, yesterday, that he was going to walk to his parents house. He has traumatic brain injury and has no clue where they live, but he took off for their place never-the-less. Two hours later (about the time I arrived home from the E.R.) the staff were finally sending out people to search for him and beginning to think they should call the police. The family was contacted and since I was in the building, the nurse counting telling me as "contacting administrative staff". I asked what I could do to help and the nurse asked me to notify the administrator and wait by the phones. The missing resident called his family shortly after and his mother called me and gave his location. That little turkey was 47 blocks away at a local hospital. He had walked there in the few hours he'd been gone. I was sent to pick him up and as we drove away from the parking lot together I tripped my car's odometer. It was six miles back to the care center. It took 15 minutes to drive there. How he walked that far in that little amount of time I'll never know. (I secretly suspect that he left a little earlier than estimated.)

I finally clocked out and went home at shortly after 7:00 p.m. I slept really well that night!!

I'm never working on Sunday again.


Ms.B