To code or not to code??

Something that is surprising and interesting about nurses is how we react to our patients not being a DNR.  This was came up one day that I worked last week.  I was getting morning report on a 90 something year old patient who had been sent down to ICU three different times in the past two weeks or so because she isn’t getting enough oxygen to her body.  Her O2 stats keep steadily dropping no matter how much oxygen we pump into her lungs.  Surprisingly she was not a DNR.  I was flabbergasted.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I think everyone has the right to decide if they want to be resuscitated or not.  But, coding someone is rough.  Bones break, lungs can collapse.  Very few patients ever leave the hospital after needing CPR, at least at her age and state of health.  She was VERY sick and was going down hill.  At the time she was so out of breath she couldn’t even speak.  I would guess she weighed around 80 pounds, if that.  I’m not sure if it was her wishes to be coded, her families, or if her doctor refused to write the order.

The ironic thing was every other patient I had that day was a DNR, and all of them were in much better shape than her.  The only saving grace was that her family was always with her, and hopefully they would have told us to stop if we had started working on her.

I was very upset about her code status and was dreading getting out on the floor to start working.  It would have broken my heart if I would have had to code her and feel her ribs break under my hands while I did compressions.  Thankfully she made it through the shift with no incident.  The last I heard of her she was back down in ICU.

Food Find

Have you tried these? They are La Tortilla Factory’s Smart & Delicious tortillas. For a while I couldn’t find them at the store, but that’s because they have changed their package and the store moved them to a different aisle. I use to find them up by the deli, but now they are back in the Mexican aisle. These tortillas are so good. They are big burrito size tortillas. Here are their stats. Are you ready?!? For one big tortilla 90 calories, 3 grams of fat, and THIRTEEN grams of Fiber. Now, if you follow the new Weight Watchers system that is 1 point. But, if you follow the old school Weight Watchers were there is no limit to how much fiber you count, they are ZERO!!!

They come in different flavors, so you can get plane for your tacos, Spinach for your wraps, bake some up for some healthy tortilla chips, and so on. I’ve served them to friends with tacos and one of the guys commented that they were really good after being suspicious that they’re “healthy” food. Your family will never know the difference!

Click the picture to link to their website. They have some yummy looking recipes there too.

Happy Hump Day!

Well, Brian is at his job interview right now.  I don’t really know what to pray for except for that he does well.  It seems that every time I feel that God is leading us somewhere or I’m sure Brian has interviewed for the perfect job it ends up not working out.

Oh, and that camera I ordered??  Remember it??  Yeah, I don’t expect to ever get it.  I was stupid and didn’t read reviews on the website that I ordered it from.  I thought it was weird that I never got a confirmation e-mail or anything from them, so I started reading about their company last night and found out they have hundreds of complaints against them at the Better Business Bureau.  So far I have been lucky and they haven’t charged me for the camera either.  I’ll be watching to make sure they don’t charge me and if they do I will dispute it with our bank.  So, I’m camera shopping again.  My lens that I ordered is on its way, I just won’t have a camera to use it with yet. HA!

Soooo, now I’m of course debating back and forth about what camera I want again.  I diffidently want a Nikon.  Maybe Brian will get this job and I’ll have unlimited resources to buy whatever camera I want.  Ha! Ha!

Work just called me to see if I would pick up a four hour shift from 3-7 today.  Since I got called off on Sunday I’m going to pick it up.  So, I’m just going to do a cardio video here at home.  I had planned to make baked mac n cheese for dinner, but I guess I will just take a frozen dinner with me.

Here’s my menu for today:

B-blueberry oatmeal (2)

L-Taco salad or Tacos w/ light tortillas

D-Frozen dinner (6) , broccoli(0), pretzels (2), chocolate pudding cup(2)

Well, I better go EAT my oatmeal since it’s almost lunch time already!