DePhoMo - 12/16 in DePhoMo

I realized it had been a bit since an update and I'm trying to write more so I scoured my recent iPhone photos for inspiration and....could only find this.

I'm taking care of a super sick patient at work, perhaps the sickest I've cared for in months, and I picked up extra at work so I could stay with her and be the constant on a medical team that goes on and off duty so often no one really knows the whole story other than through verbal report and she gets lapses in care. I admitted her and I've been with her 12 hours a day since. Thus I picked up an extra 12 hours today in the middle of a 6 day stretch of five 12s and made it a six day stretch of 12s. But when you love what you do, really passionately love it, I would rather be at work - with her, knowing her story, being her advocate, filling in the holes when the doctor on shift is new and hopefully helping her survive. This past weekend was incredible because it was challenging and my palms got sweaty sometimes and my heart raced trying to do so many new and crazy things at once and while I am always feeling for those who are hurt or injured or in the ICU needing our care, I've come to accept that I can't change why they're here but I can use my training and my knowledge to help make it better.

So the only photos on my phone are of my scrubs because that one up there was so feverishly festive it made my head spin a little but it also made a very sick patient's family smile a little during the roughest time in their lives and, my friends, is why I do what I do.

I also have a week long vacation (including over the holiday without needing to take any vacation time) after this six day stretch is done so please don't feel like I need any sympathy for this. Nursing schedules are crazy and hard and mess up our personal lives but they also afford us weeks off without taking vacation so we can spend Christmas morning with our families after spending the past week with everyone else's. I love this job and there's nothing else I'd rather be doing today than being there, doing what I was meant to do. Maybe, also, wearing another epically festive top because hey - 'tis the season, right? :)

For those that expressed concern, my patient ended up passing away this morning shortly after I arrived and after caring for her body and arranging transportation to the morgue, I went home. Thus, no worries about me working too much or not getting any 'me' time. I wandered Target for two hours, did all my Christmas shopping and am now heading out on a walk with the dog in the snow. No worries, friends. :)