Transplant floor clerks and Oprah's germs...

One of the habits I've found myself in is watching Oprah when I probably should be doing something else, like starting dinner, for example....LOL

But, today was one of those shows that alternately made me laugh, cringe, and come close to retching.

It was another one of those shows dealing with the "cleanliness should be higher than godliness". Yep, a show where the experts come in to homes and test for bacteria, germs, and to quote Ghostbusters "spores, mold and fungus".

Some young women shanghai'd their mother and her house. The woman had bathtowels and washclothes that were so threadbare you could see light through them, a sponge over a year old which she washed dishes with, and bed pillows - well...I'm not going there.

For the record, I am NOT a fan of antibacterial everything. I think there's a reasonable chance that the American obsession with germicidals will actually be the next thing that will decimate a good share of the population, for no one will have an immune system that can handle any kind of stress placed upon it.

But, you have to take notice when a microbiologist tells someone that they'd be better off to wash their carrots off in the toilet instead of the kitchen sink, because the sink was so laden with bacteria it was beyond dangerous. And, that a pillow which can be folded in half and it stays in that position is no longer viable for the support it is supposed to provide.

I'm guilty of the pillow thing. I'd never thought of it as being anything other than finally just the way I wanted it. Nice and squishable and stayed where I put it once I punched it into shape. Now I can't wait to get it re-feathered and re-ticked.

Then, there was the guy who had had the same pair of Nike's through seven treadmills and 28K miles. He didn't want to part with them. When they were tested, they found staph. As the experts told him, he put himself at risk if he ever had a cut or blister on his foot. Believe me, I'm around staph enough working in a hospital to be very cautious of that stuff. There's no way I'd take the chance with anything that had been diagnosed with staph. It would be GONE. It's one of the reasons I wear Crocs to work. I can throw 'em in the washer and make sure they're clean!

I understand people liking things clean. But I don't understand this almost manic OCD idea that seems to have invaded home improvement channels and talk shows. It cracks me up how some people will obsess over the toilet, but will blithely follow the "three second rule" if they drop a cookie on the floor.

(For those of you who might not know what the three second rule is, it simply means that if you drop a cookie on the floor, if you pick it up in three seconds, it's safe to go ahead and consume it.) Silly me...I thought that was why I have dogs....!

Well...enough of this blithering for now. I really do have to go repair the orb shaped holes that are boring through me; never teach your animals to tell time, for you'll get regular doses of orb-borers if you don't comply with the clock. The only cure is to fill the critter food dishes. Thankfully, the holes regenerate quickly. Good thing, for it seems as though they recycle about every 12 hours or so.

I'll follow up with my work day later this evening, so more will be added later!

* * *

I was on the transplant floor today. It's not one of my favorite places. Most times I find it a very difficult place to be assigned. Part of the reason is due to the necessities of the patient load require us to jump around rather than work in a continuous pattern. The unit clerk on the floor also can make the day jumbled. Such was the case today.

To begin with, not only is this floor the transplant floor, it also contains the Intensive Pulmonary Care Unit, or IPCU. When we are assigned to this floor, we break things into three sections: (Waiting) transplant patients - these are the people who are scheduled to receive their transplant surgeries that day or are on the 'on call' surgical list - their labs must be done first for both the surgical schedule, or in case an organ becomes available for transplant; Next is IPCU, which are the folks who are suffering from major heart, lung or neurological disorders; and last are the post-surgical transplant patients.

Without fail, a normally smooth pattern will get mucked up somehow. Today was no exception.

A surprise of surprises was in store for me when I got to the nurses station. My draw log had absolutely no transplant patients on it. First time that has ever happened! So, on to the next level. I headed over to IPCU where I had five patients to draw. IPCU is time consuming because the patients are generally hooked up to every bell or whistle medical science has found. You have to watch each step you take, you have to duck, dodge and weave around equipment and cords, and somewhere in there, you have to find a vein on a person who seems to have very little free skin to work with. So, even with five patients, I figured I'd be there for at least an hour. I began my work.

How does this figure in with the blog title? I've already blogged about Oprah, though I've got another comment about that a bit later.

The title concerns the unit clerk on the transplant floor, who will be referred to as UCC. Most of our department considers UCC to be a pain in the arse. Why? Because she takes her job seriously and has come to the conclusion that we'll work harder and faster if she checks up on us constantly.

To her credit, she cares deeply about the patients on the floor, many of whom are semi-permanent residents for a time. The other side of that is that she hasn't figured out that we are part of the team effort for these folks, instead, she looks at us as intruders who must be carefully watched.

Today as I was drawing my last IPCU patient, who appears in the isolation room ungarbed, but UCC. "Did you forget to draw (patient)?"

"No, she wasn't on my list as a transplant patient."

"Well, she IS"

"Okay, I didn't know, I'll draw her first when I get done here." Mollified for a moment, UCC left the room and went back to her area.

When I returned to the other side, we had to have a discussion about the lack of notification regarding the patient. Sorry, UCC, I can't draw a patient who I haven't been notified of, now, can I?

Drew the patient, gave UCC the labs to run to SpeCon. Got started on my day, grabbing a cup of crushed ice to put a lactate draw in.

"You have more than one lactate, don't you?"

"Yes, but they are in different pods."

"Well, it would sure be easier if I could take them both at the same time."

I roll my eyes mentally, but decided it would be far easier to just do it and let her have the consequences. See, a lactate not only has to be on ice, but it also must be delivered to the lab within ten minutes or the sample will need to be redrawn. Though it's not in the best interest of the patient, I didn't fuss, knowing that if I delivered the sample to be run, it was not my fault if she didn't take it. She could then deal with whatever nurse got the assignment for the redraw, because not only will I not do the redraw, but my supervisors will back me up.

First lactate done, off to the second. Seven minutes have elapsed. Second lactate is drawn and delivered to UCC. And suddenly it seemed she was too busy to run the samples, instead looking for a nurse or an aide to deliver the samples for her. ARGH.

My system is to work a "pod" of rooms at a time. Any isolation rooms are last because one has to garb up to go into them. I followed a doc and nurse into an iso room in my first pod. It appeared to be the morning quick check - 'hi, how's your pain, can we do anything for you, be back with the rest of the team later' sort of call. So I gathered my gear, garbed up and spent the next 20 minutes waiting for them to change dressings and investigate other problems. They knew I was coming into the room as we were all garbing up at the same time. Didn't occur to them to ask me to wait about 15 minutes. Ah well, caught up on some tv while I waited. I'll be darned if I'm going to get out of iso gear once I get into it!

Next room, guess who pops in? Yep, the UCC. The patient wanted to make sure all her labs were being drawn at once, and I buzzed for her nurse. But, UCC made her appearance and based on her years of experience (sarcasm) told me to draw a couple of extra tubes of blood just in case. Doncha know I can't do that??????

Anyway, it seemed as though every time I turned around, UCC would be peering into the room once again. The person on transplant yesterday said UCC was the same way for her.

It must be the full moon.

* * *

Back to Oprah for a minute. She cracked me up today during the show. Apparently, Oprah cannot stand to have sheets on her bed that are past crisp, so her sheets are fresh every third day.

Heck, if I had enough sets of sheets and hired help, I'd probably change my sheets that often too.

But, what made me chuckle even more was to hear Oprah talk about saving her ziploc bags, because she thinks it is not only wasteful, but also a small way to be environmentally conscious. For some odd reason, I think she needs to consider a few things a little more.

Or, maybe I'm the one whose thought process needs fixing.