Run, Run, Runnin'

 This whole week was just a busy one... to start off I had 4 12s this week. All because selfish me three months ago only took off 2 12s and one 8 the week before which left current me angry and having to work 4 12s the week after vacation. I need to learn to just take a good chunk of vacation time instead of taking the bare minimum and having to work more when I come back. Anyways - besides the fact it was 4 12s, it was also a busy really crappy 4 12s actually. The first two nights we were running all night. I had 4 patients, one being an LVAD (a great LVAD, but all VADs are just busy). We had a lot of heavy patients on the floor this week and really no CNA's to help out those first two nights. My third night was a little better - I only had two patients, but one of them became suupper confused and was a pill all night. He ended up falling in the bathroom around 5am which led to a busy end of shift with a head CT and lots of paperwork. He's fine, but still a pain in my butt. My last shift... I had the same two patients - my LVAD and the confused guy. I decided to take one for the team and volunteer to pick up a patient at 11pm when that nurse left. He was a sweet 84 year old man who had fallen. His face all bruised and cut up and ended up having a subdural bleed which he had had a craniotomy for. The bleed left him with very pronounced left sided deficits. Anyways - I knew I was picking him up at 11pm so around 10pm I started looking through his chart to prepare plus I had the time. I realized the nurse who currently had him (he had come from the ICU earlier that day) never put him on telemetry monitoring which was still an active order. I immediately called over to my health tech (we had two this night which was a game changer) and asked her to go pick up a tele box from downstairs and put room 6 on it. So around 2230 he was placed on tele. I went in with the health tech around this time and also did a quick neuro assessment (they are ordered every 4 hours and its just easier to get it done when the patient is awake for vitals at this time anyway). SO before I had even gotten report I had assessed and put this patient on tele. Im not going to say I do this for everyone, but I do like being prepared and working nights teaches you to do things early if possible while the patient is awake. SO I got report around 2300 and at 2339 a call from tele came to the floor. I immediately looked at the monitor (which I sit by) and realized my patient was in SVT. I didn't even answer the phone, I just went into my patients room. My charge and I woke up my patient and took vitals. I honestly didn't know what to do, because with his recent brain surgery I wasnt sure if he was even supposed to bear down (which usually is first line for trying to stop SVT). His vitals were trash so instead I just immediately called a rapid. The medicine team did have him try "blowing through a straw" maneuvers but with his left sided deficits he couldn't. We placed ice on his head to try and reverse the rhythm as well, but that didn't do anything. So after all the things - labs, fluids, ekgs and unsuccessful vagal maneuvers, the doc decided to push adenosine. Ive never seen adenosine be pushed, but it was pretty cool to watch his heart convert back to his normal rhythm. My patient never complained of chest pain or feeling different, but the big group of people in his room at midnight was definitely not fun haha. We kept the crash cart close most of the night, but in the end he was fine and was soon back to sleep and snoring. I think we wore him out because I had labs the next couple of hours on him which he didn't even wake up for. So this week was a little too exciting for my liking, but Im glad I was able to be prepared that night and obtain a baseline assessment before that rapid happened. Plus the fact that without tele, we wouldn't have even known about the SVT at all until it was maybe too late. I had another nurse after the rapid give me kudos and said that I had saved myself from a possible investigation if I hadn't done what I did. It's a good reminder to stay on top of things and always be thorough. It's easy to become lax, but man, this week was anything but that. SO that was my week. I go back to work tonight and Im hoping and praying I can return back to some boring nights. Im glad my patients are all good, but man I don't like saving lives - that aint me. All right - that was all the running I did at work. After that crazy shift I drove straight to provo and barely made it in time to watch Addie's 3200! The state meet is something that still brings me much joy. Maybe I peaked in high school because the memories of things like state track are some of my favorite. I spent most of the day cheering on the twins and desert hills. Carlie made it to finals in both the 100 and 300 hurdles while Addie placed a solid 6th in the 32. A great first day - but man was I tired. Around 2pm I finally left the track and headed to Karee's to take a nap. I slept for a couple hours then we had some pupusa's for dinner. Ended up playing pickleball with some dudes and then at my request we got some froyo that evening before heading back to bed. 

After a really crappy nights sleep I got up at 0520 and hit my Saturday morning 10 miles. Karee would've loved to join me on foot, but with her hip injury she chose to ride alongside me. I felt super good this morning. My body is really happy still and my toes are feeling just fine (toenails are discolored, but they feel fine). First five miles were chill - 8:40, 8:25, 8:20, 8:14 and I forget exactly what my fifth mile was but it was still in line with the progression. My last five miles the original goal was just all sub 8. Well that was a no brainer after I hit a 7:20 sixth mile. So after that I said I just wanted to keep up a progression. I then hit a 7:26, 7:08, 6:56, 6:39. It was fun. It was nice having Karee there. Someone to talk to for most of the run until that last mile where I told her I was just gonna lock in and finish strong. At one point in the last couple of miles she says wow this is impressive. My response was this is the froyo from last night. I take my fueling on Friday nights very seriously ahah. these last few months of trying the eat less/ better has really proved to me how much easier running is when calorie intake is adequate. Anyways it was a good morning. Once again I couldnt be more grateful for my body at the moment. I chugged some water and ran a short little cool down. stretched really quick and probably not good enough, but then headed back to the track to catch Addie's 1600m. She placed 9th, barely missing the podium, but still squeezing a couple points out for her team. 

That morning I also went over and said hi to my old coaches. It was good to catch up with coach and get the low down on his athletes. We talked about jack and what Im doing with my life these days. I really do think back to my high school running days often and I'm grateful all the lessons it taught me. I think it shaped my life more than I know. 

That afternoon Carlie finished off her finals with a 6th place finish in the 100 hurdles and a 3rd place finish in the 300s! The emery girls weren't supposed to win overall due to their number one distance girl being out... a potential for 30 points. Well they did it anyways! pulled out the state championship win their senior year! Kinda sad this is probably the last state track I'll go to. It's been fun supporting the hurst girls and watching them crush it this season. I know Erin is proud of them. Well thats my week. I went home and made me a steak dinner then slept for 11 hours. haha.