I wish you 2 would share

Last night was a lot of fun.  No, I didn't get to sit around and play games at work, and no, I didn't even get a "lunch" break.  I was running my tail off from the time I walked in until the time I walked out.  It was fun because I felt completely in control and confident that I was making good decisions.  Finally, a sign of growth!  Haha!  Just kidding...kinda.

Anyway, one patient was rolled to me from the OR at shift change and started displaying signs of septic shock throughout the night.  Systolic blood pressures in the 80s are not good.  It was exciting to be able to give her family answers and to teach them about what was going on in her body.  It was also fun to see how the medications we used and the fluid boluses really helped her.  It's neat to see how the body can correct itself given the right help.  Furthermore, it is neat to have a patient who is so closely monitored.  I had an arterial line to closely monitor blood pressures, a CVP line to measure venous pressures on the right side of the heart, she was on a ventilator, and she was not on sedatives so she could still answer my questions.  And she was sweet, which makes everything go much more smoothly.

My other lady came in with a hypertensive crisis that lead to a hemorrhagic stroke.  She had been doing fine, but I noticed what I thought could be a neuro change, so I rushed her down to CT only to find out the problems she had probably weren't neuro related.  So I spent the night trying to get her pressure out of the 200s and down to a normal level.  It didn't happen, but I tried my best.  If only she could give some of her pressure to my lady who barely had any, we'd be all set.  Oh well, can't always get what we want, can we?