Trying to stay awake

I'll be digging for information to post on here tonight, since it's mostly me just trying to extend my hours of wakefulness a bit in order to avoid waking up early (since I have nothing to do tomorrow).

I've been growing a conscience about work. What I mean is, lately I've found myself waking up at my usual time, 6:15 am, looking at the clock, resetting it for 20 minutes later, and then not being able to fall back to sleep for those dear extra minutes of sleep; all because I actually care whether or not I'm late to work. My shift starts at 7am, but they require us to clock in at 6:45, which sucks. Even though those extra minutes of sleep would still allow me to get to work by 7am, they'd definitely make me arrive past 6:45, and I actually care now. Don't ask me why, they still drive me to the ground like a slave and don't appreciate anything I do, but for some reason, my conscience won't allow me to fall back to sleep. Damn.

Work was alright today... I thought I was going to be miserable since I've been feeling a little under the weather the last couple of days, but it wasn't bad at all (with the exception of the itchy nose that never went away. sinusitis sucks, hehehe).

I guess the most interesting case we got was a lawnmower accident which resulted in the amputation of 2 fingers. Ick. I have a pretty strong stomach, and actually enjoy cases like this...But even the strongest get a little queasy from time to time. This kid did some serious damage. I wonder how much use of his hand he'll have later (though I have known people missing fingers and they do just fine... so I'm not too concerned).

The patient that stuck with me the most out of the day was a girl who was previously anorexic, and suffered from mild depression. Maybe it's because she reminded me of what I'd gone through around her age, or maybe it's because of the way she relied on me for support throughout the entire day...who knows. Patients like her remind you that you actually make a difference from time to time. She'd been there since yesterday night, and you could tell that she, as well as the parents, were exhausted. She'd come in for a headache which wouldn't even go away when she took medicine. The doc in the morning decided to perform a spinal tap on her...Poor girl. Though it's quite a common procedure, it's definitely not a walk in the park. I've never had it done, but I know that it hurts...ALOT. I was in the room assisting the doctor with the procedure, and the poor girl was squeezing my hand so hard I thought it might break. But I didn't care. At that point my focus was on providing any kind of comfort I could to her. I don't know if the doctor was just having an off day, but she ended up sticking the girl's back like 4 times trying to get some spinal fluid...to no avail. I felt so bad for the girl, especially since she was being so cooperative. Later on in the day, the intensivist came in and successfully repeated the spinal tap. When the girl found out she had to go through it again she said to me, "you're gonna be here again with me, right?" Those moments are golden. When a patient has established a relationship with his/her nurse/tech in which we can provide comfort for them, it's priceless. At least for me. Those are the most rewarding moments of my job.

Completely unrelated to work, but I finished off my day watching (most, or part) of "Napoleon Dynamite" with my boyfriend. We'd both heard alot of good things about it, so I decided to rent it. Well, we fell asleep. The movie had a FEW funny moments, but all in all, I don't understand what all the hype was about. I felt kinda bad we sorta wasted our time with that movie, but it was lovely night anyway. Yummy lasagna, carvel, and an awesome nap. I love falling asleep together.

OH....one more thing about work. I'm working more weekends than everyone else. Despite the fact that I agree to help out with extra shifts when I'm out of school, despite the fact that I work my butt off... they still give me the raw end of the deal. Completely unfair. I should speak out... but I'm afraid they'll just come up with some BS excuse like they do for everything else. Management in our department SUCKS.