Thanksgiving Eve part 2

Very strange day. I wish I could say it was also the end of a very strange week, but I still have to work tomorrow.

The week started with a very odd attempt by a patient to do great self-harm. It involved hanging himself, throwing himself off of a fourth floor railing, the rope breaking (thank God), and the patient landing on the third floor rather than plummeting all of the way down (thank God). He was hurt, but not killed. But it still shook all of the hospital staff up terribly.

Monday and Tuesday we got pounded by high numbers of ER patients. This is not uncommon before a major holiday, so we handled it.

But we have also either run out or come very close to running out of some rather important drugs which are on national back order, and that is extremely frustrating. One is a very commonly used chemo drug. Patients often get it in once weekly doses for a few weeks in a row as a part of their treatment. We aren't sure what is going to happen to our patients who will be getting their treatment cycle interrupted. Infuriating!!!

Today started with that phone call that woke me up out a very sweet and sound sleep. For whatever reason, when I get woken up like that, my brain never seems to wake up for hours afterward.  But I got going and decided to run to the nearest store to get my assigned boxes of granola bars. Right as I was about to walk out of the door I got a very strange phone call from someone who identified themselves as working as the bus garage, and very excitedly asked if I had any children on the bus. I told them that my children were at wrestling practice and should not be on a bus. They asked if my children were in elementary school, and I said no - they are in middle school and high school. They then said OK and hung up. That phone call was very strange, and the only thing I could think of was that one of the busses must have spun out in the snow and ended up in a ditch someplace. That's a phone call to shake up a parent!

Went to the warehouse club, which is the closest grocery store, and the parking lot was completely mobbed. I went in anyway, and the store was mobbed. I grabbed my few items (the assigned granola bars, some blank CD's, and some cookies and a cheesecake to take into work with me to share with my coworkers) and got into line. I was very pleased when I realized that everyone was only getting small items in small numbers. Things like a couple of gallons of milk or a bag of bakery rolls. So that turned out to be a pleasant surprise.

The drive wasn't bad. It was snowing, but the surface roads were fine (the freeways were awful with lots of jack-knifed semis). And the snow was very pretty.

That had changed by the time the midnight shift came in. It was after dark and the snow was nearing a white out. One of the girls took more than two hours to get in from the neighboring town. She took the freeway and there were accidents, spin outs, and jack-knifed trucks everywhere.

So I am glad I got to drive in when I did. And on the way home, the snow had stopped and the surface roads were fine again.

The weird day/night/week was capped off by one of the nurses on duty being taken to the ER for a suspected heart attack tonight.

Only one more night to go for the work week. And tomorrow should be quite pleasant, a holiday at home (for the day anyway) with my children.  Friday I am off from work, and we hope to go see the latest Harry Potter movie!  Saturday our high school is hosting a huge wrestling tournament. Both the kids will be wrestling, and Dan and I will be volunteering all day. Bill has promised to do his UM admission essays this weekend. Maybe we can start getting up the Christmas tree on Sunday? Heaven knows when we might find time otherwise, now that wrestling season has begun...