29 days and counting...

until the Chicago Half-marathon I have been training for all summer. I haven't been very good about running the miles I should every week, but yesterday I ran 10 miles, which is only 3.1 miles less than the half-marathon distance. It wasn't easy, but I did it, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I like running in my neighborhood because there are several roads that all connect back to the street I live on so I can make lots of loops and change things up a bit to get however many miles I need for the day. Also when the going gets tough and I just don't want to run anymore, I usually pass by a field of workers in the hot sun picking tomatoes and think to myself that as much as I don't want to be running, it beats doing what they're doing. Ha, they probably say the same thing when they see me running.

Yesterday I was running with my friend Amber from work and my sister Rachael who are both running the race as well. We were just running along, chatting as we ran when all of a sudden Rachael yelled out "snake!" Sure enough there was a big black snake curled up on the road just a few feet in front of our path. Good thing someone was paying attention because Amber was headed straight for it with the stroller.

Since I knew we would be running for so long, estimated 1 hour 40 minutes, I decided to go during Tony's nap time so that he could sleep in the stroller. He had other plans, he wanted to look around and take in the scenery, surprisingly he stayed awake the whole time and didn't make a peep, other than the occasional happy squeals here and there. He is such a good running partner, he never complains, and all 99 miles I've logged so far he's been right there with me in the stroller. Since he had stayed awake the whole time, shortly after we got home he was ready for a nap, and so was I, so he went to bed, I took a shower and went to bed too and 2 1/2 hours later I woke up very stiff and sore. I am happy to report that today I am feeling much better. Next time I will remember to stretch a bit after a long run.

So now if I can just keep up my training for the next few weeks, it will all be over soon and I can go back to being a slacker. Seriously I don't know what I was thinking when I agreed to do this.

I worked night shift last night at the small ER I work at as agency once in a while, a full moon of all things and guess how many patients I saw in the whole shift? Just one. Yep, that's it. The rest of the night I caught up on all my blogs and surfed the web trying to stay awake. I swear, I don't know which is harder, staying up all night and working, or staying up all night and working but not really working because there aren't any patients. I tell you it makes for a very long night when you just sit and watch the clock and yawn. This is the second weekend in a row I worked a shift like that, with little or no patients, they are starting to call me a good luck charm there. Unfortunately that good luck doesn't follow me to my regular ER job.

I survived...

and so did Todd and Anthony [my first night back to work]. Before I left for work I gave Todd all the instructions I could think of to make his night go as good as possible. I also instructed him to call me every time he got up with Anthony. (I needed reassurance that he wouldn't sleep through Anthony's crying.) I was pleased that the night was quiet for me at work, only 3 or 4 patients for the night, and easy ones at that. It was sort of nice to be back to work, I got to read my book and surf the web at my leisure, but as the night progressed I got more and more tired, and I started missing my baby more and more. By the time it was 7am I couldn't wait to get home to him. As I was driving home from working I was thinking Todd got an easy night too since he had only called me at 12:30 and 3:30. But then he called me on the drive home, apparently Anthony was up from 2:30 until 4:30 and then awake again at 5:30 and didn't go back to sleep until 7. I guess Todd only got a few hours of sleep. (now he really knows what my nights have been like). When I got home at 8, Todd was standing in the kitchen with Anthony (awake again) in his arms and ready to hand him off to me. As tired as I was, I happily took him to give him hugs and kisses, feed him and then we all three (four if you count Brewster) went back to bed until about noon.
All in all it wasn't so bad, but as I'm learning quickly, whatever difficult baby situation were currently dealing with always seems much worse in the moment, and later, once some time has passed and some sleep has been had, it doesn't seem so bad after all.

Seen at work!

WARNING: WORK TALK: NOT FOR THOSE WITH A WEAK STOMACH
The other day Kathy, who is also a nurse posted about something she overheard at work. Which leads me to my post today of something I saw at work.
Bilateral leg sores from knees to ankles, swollen and fluid filled macerated skin that was flaking away in layers with raw flesh exposed. The gauze bandages on these wounds were soaked with drainage from the sores and the drainage had dripped down into the slipper like shoes that were now soaked like a wet sponge that could be wrung out with wound broth. The feet were water logged from being in wet shoes for so long.
Another nurse had removed the bandages to examine the wounds, but it was shift change so the cleaning and redressing part was all mine. When she removed the old bandages she found maggots crawling in the sores. Yes I said maggots.
My first plan of action was to put some Vicks up my nose (great for avoiding bad smells), put on a mask and gown and tackle the job of cleaning up these legs. As I was scrubbing them with betadine and saline I removed several more maggots from the wounds and between the toes. It was so disgusting!
I know some nurses have seen this many of times, but it was a first for me and I just thought I'd share. Aren't you glad you read my blog today??