Crazy Crazy PICU

This is a post I have been meaning to put up for about a week but just have not had the opportunity. Since I have been home from Atlanta, I have had two and a half days off - seriously! I worked Thursday/Friday/Saturday night, got home Sunday morning by about 9:00 AM then back to work Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday for day shift (so that was approximately 21 hours at home before returning to work). Then I had Friday off, worked half a shift yesterday, and a full shift today. It's really been crazy on the unit. Just to put it in to perspective a little, I hope, we have had 9 patients almost all week and our unit is considered "full" at 8 patients. Also, for most of the week, at least 8 were patients on respirators... by I digress.

Apparently the craziness started while I was on vacation. I kept getting calls asking me to work extra until they realized I was out of town for two weeks. The night I got back to work, it was a fairly full unit with 6 patients but we admitted 2 patients over night. The next night, we started with 7 and admitted 2 more (after having an awful night the previous shift - that's another post altogether). Saturday night finally slowed down in that we didn't get any admits but it was still quite busy (again with 9 patients if I remember correctly). So anyway, I won't bore anyone with the details but after being out of town for 2 weeks and at work for the past week and a half, my husband is beginning to wonder if I really exist. This week, however, I'm taking some time for myself... after possibly taking one more extra shift tomorrow, we'll see.