Saturday 02.21.2009

What a day! I hardly slept during the night and was dozing off when the alarm came on. Up and at 'em. I got ready for work and headed out.

Snowstorms were predicted today, and finally started about 9 o'clock, I think. It got yucky outdoors pretty quickly. And the hospital's overhead paging system announced a Code Triage Stand By. Huh? That same code was announced every 20-30 minutes. We got the policy and procedure manual out and looked it up. (I've been there since 1983 and have never heard this code called before.) Oh, there it is. Disaster. Hm, wonder if it's a drill, and if not, what happened??

It seems there was a multi-car (like 30-50, depending on what you hear) pile-up on the expressway due to the weather. Oh, yeah, several multi-vehicle crashes, and the injured victims would be being brought to the hospital. We had to call everyone to see if they were available. Somewhere around one-ish it was announced Code Triage Active. Well. We got a phone call saying we needed to call in 2 of the nurses who said they could come in.

On top of the Code Triage being announced every so often, we had a pregnant patient seize. The flurry of activity seemed to be the normal for the day. Doctors, nurses, orders, and patient/family questions. We had another pregnant girl come to our area from one of the crash sites. (who was ok, just checking the baby to make sure) The night shift made it in, and just as report got under way, the seizure girl did it again. Another round of nurses, doctors, orders, etc. She ended up being set up for transfer to another facility. The doctor was talking with her when I went in to say good bye an hour after my shift was scheduled to end. Whew.

Ok. I had started the car before gathering my belongings and leaving, and the snow was beginning to melt on the windshield. It was pretty windy as I brushed about 3 inches from my car. I headed out.

The roads in Jackson were ok, but there were areas where there was a layer of ice under the snow, which was a bit slippery. But as I got further north, the roads were better, and I got home without incident. Thank you, God.

Needless to say, I'm tired and on my way to bed to do it again tomorrow. It's snowing again now. We'll see what morning brings.

Thank you for reading. Snowballs.