Thurs, I went to an end-of-life simulation where we had a fake patient die from a motorcycle accident. The patient was a plastic mannequin, but they hired actors to play the parts of the grieving family. We went through a scenario where you had to talk a family through the decision about whether to withdraw life support or not. The actors were crying and emotional, the whole scene lasted about an hour and then we spent a bunch of time critiquing how the whole thing was handled. Even though you know it’s all “make-believe”, it’s still emotional and draining. Another student nurse who is working at the University of MD medical center neuro ICU says he sits through these conversations every day with a doctor and families.
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Arg, I’m a little too busy. I like protecting my time. I like doing a lot of things but not feeling overwhelmed. Now I’m in a season of a lot of things to do so I’ve cut the following things: going over Vince’s schoolwork everyday (Vince is picking up the slack, monitoring himself), laundry (big piles everywhere), 1xweek bills (now it’s once every three weeks and the taxes!), blogging everyday, studying/writing papers for the A (this is hard for me), backing off on time working out, cooking “fancy” dinners – lots of fish sticks on my nights to cook, and a million little paperwork things, followup with travel visas, Edda’s surgery, various nursing job applications and certifications. I feel good though – learning a lot, meeting lots of different people, seeing lots of stuff. I wish I could do more politically, I wish I had the time to tell you all the things my pals are doing to protect Medicaid – it’s impressive and I’m so proud of them. Maybe I’ll find the video and embed here.
I set up all of Edda’s pre-op appointments: neurology, hematology, cardiology and pulmonology and her primary care physician. It’ll be a new cardiologist and a new pulmonologist – we’ll see how it goes. I let work know about the ramp up in sick time before and after the surgery.
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We forgot to bring Maxi’s bed downstairs. She’s suppose to sit on it during dinner, but she only found this folded towel. She’s one the towel because she’s hoping for a meatball.
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Here’s our snow for the moment.
