Happy Birthday Nippit

Happy Birthday, Miss Nippit.  She is two years old today.  I posted three on FB, but I sat and thought about it, she's two.  We got her in May 2009 before we moved down here in October.  My mind is in a fog, I swear.  She's upset that I don't have time to bake her a carrot cake for her birthday and that her Pop hasn't been here for weeks.  I did finally open the package Suzy sent and found some fruitcake in there.  So tonight, we will celebrate with a little bite of fruit cake.  Just a little bite each.  I will save the rest for when D gets home.

My neighbor Miss Di came over and helped me clean up a really bad case of gunky butt that Nippit had. (Probably TMI) It's a chronic problem, no matter how much I try to regulate her diet.  Then Miss Di snuggled her for a long time and groomed her fluffs she's been trying to shed.  It was good sized pile and I saved it to mix with some merino for spinning.  I forgot last night that today was her birthday.  She probably would have gotten an even longer snuggle time.

Last night went fairly smoothly.  The day nurse turned his sedation way down to get his bp back up and we had a bit of a frustration issue.  Fairly calm other than that.  Dialysis came just before I left and they were able to take another 4 liters off.  He's still fairly bloated.  They are coming tonight because they won't/don't come on Sundays.

New attending showed up today.  He didn't seem to want me around during rounds, but you know I don't care.  He'll be gone soon and another will take his place.  They were discussing that the trach might be hard to do because of the type of ventilation he is on, bi-level.

The resident said, "He's becoming ventilator dependent....."

So I asked for clarification, "Are you saying this is a permanent condition?"

The attending said to me, "What we are saying is, if he wasn't on a ventilator in his current condition he would need to be.  It's medical jargon. That's what happens when you listen in on rounds, you will hear medical jargon you don't understand."  Harumph.

He had a yet another new nurse that he hasn't had before.  He looked better when I came in the room.  Though his glasses were off and his eyes were open.  I'm thinking about taping a note on his monitor that he needs his glasses to see!!!

She was ok.  One of the perky, cool kids.  It's just because I'm a cranky, old school broad that I would have a complaint.  The other nurses kept coming over to her station to gossip and they were what D and I would consider kinda loud.  One would laugh out loud and wake him up.

Things are so different on ICU's now.  One patient, has a ton of family.  They bring this small child, about 3 or 4 right into their room.  When they walk by with the small child she is pretty loud talking or a scream.  They have cowgirl boots on her and she sounds like a horse clomping down the hall.  What ever happened to the days when they kept ICU's really quiet?

I thought the way the morning was going today would be really uneventful and I could post about Nippit, a short update, my knitting progress.  D had other plans. Seriously.

As I was leaving for lunch, I told him I going to home to eat and check on the pets and that I would be back in a few hours.  He nodded yes.  Everything fine.  When I walked around the bed to get my purse, he suddenly began shaking his head back and forth, the motion pulled his vent tube off of his et tube.  His nurse was at lunch.  I re-connected the tubes and put on the call light. When nobody showed up right away, I went out in the hall and shouted for help.

I didn't want to just leave him, he was still quite agitated and I didn't want it to pop off again.  The nurse who came in, reminded me of a younger version of me.  When I told her what happened she asked if I had put the tube back on. Yes.  She said, that was the right thing to do.  Um yes, I used to be a nurse and did at home ventilator care.  I just don't want to leave and the thing pop off again.

Just then he blew out really hard and popped the suction tube off.  We got that reconnected.  She turned up both his meds to settle him down so we could figure out the problem.  It was what I thought it was and we repositioned him more comfortably.  The anal nurse was working charge and she came to the door.  Told me next time to just sneak out and not say anything to him.  Yeah, whatever (fill in the blank) that wasn't the problem.  The first nurse said she would stay with him til his regular nurse came back in five minutes.  I asked him if was alright for me to leave and he nodded yes.

Whew, give me a heart attack and a stroke and I'll just be in the bed next door.

I really think his condition yesterday was mostly the day nurse, reason being she had been for two hours at that point.  She had been in to increase his sedation to lower his bp, that was why the sedation rate was so high. Also, when she repositioned him later, she had his head hanging back over the top of the mattress. I had to say, "Hey, his head is hanging backward over top of the mattress.  Doesn't that look awfully uncomfortable?"

I've asked him if he wanted me to read these past couple days and he shakes his head no.  So I'm getting a lot of progress made on the sweater.  Will post a picture tomorrow.  At this rate, I might have an fo on Friday.

I'm going to go clean cages and do some dishes.  Pray for an uneventful 24 hrs for me.