It's a Sad State of Affairs When....

*You work an exhausting 13 hours shift and can barely get your head on the pillow, only to dream about work. ALL. NIGHT. LONG.

*those dreams seem SO real you cannot fathom that the alarm clock buzzing at you is REALLY your wake up call….to go back to work! Hello, haven’t you been there a good 20 some hours now!?!?

*When something so awesome happens in said work dream, that you dream of blogging about it!

*When the actual job is not quite as good as the job in dreams

OK, so the last one wasn’t exactly true, but ALL the others were! Dreaming about work...and then dreaming about blogging about it!? Come on!!!

So what made the last statement not exactly true!? Well, part of it is I can't exactly remember the details of the dream anymore, other than I was in my typical corner at work...and working all night long. But, the other part goes like this:

I was down the hall from my patient today (same guy from all the recent posts) when I hear his “shaker” rattling. Since he can’t talk, we put a coins and caps into a plastic container with a lid which makes a good, loud noise when shaken…hence, what we call his “shaker” : )

I come running down the hall thinking he’s popped off his vent but instead he points to his fingers and does a wiping motion. I ask if he needs his hands washed and he smiles and shakes his head.

Now, in my defense the room was dark.

However, not in my defense…the odor could be smelled 10 doors down the hallway!!

I walk in to what can only be described as a murder scene….murder by POO that is!! There was poo EVERYWHERE!!! (I vaguely remember setting this scene before..and while it may have been in a previous post b/c certainly it's not the first time it's happened, it may also have been another one of my dreaming about blogging while dreaming about work times!).

Apparently he was playing his Xbox and accidentally dropped the remote control in his lap. He then realized he had poop on his fingers, so he reached for the call light/tv remote control to turn down the volume so I could hear his shaker (of course!). Once the tv was quiet, he reached for his shaker and shook...a lot...

So now he is laying in a pile of liquid brown stuff….and has (in typical toddler fashion!) smeared it on his bedside table, remote control, Xbox controller, shaker, and varying body parts! And the vigorous shaking has caused little poo droplets to fly around to the floor and one of the (close, but still!) walls. But, I remind you, he is NOT a toddler….he is 15!

*THANK goodness he decided that this was NOT the opportunity to scratch his head b/c those EVDs are just asking to become infected!

Through the entire wipe down process and bed change (which yes, dad, I did by myself!) he was laughing at me! Nice! And then for about 2 hours after it was all said and done, whenever any doc or nurse walked into the room, he wanted me to tell them the story. I say GROSS...he just laughs! Such a teenage boy!!

At least he was making me laugh today…last week he wasn’t doing so hot and we rushed to Stat CT twice…in one day! So I’ll take this teenager, laughing, and pooping all over the place over that one! At least he’s (bowel) moving in the right direction- PUN INTENDED!! Haa!!