I am sure I have written about Cookie Thursday is a Thing but I was terrible about noting down when I wrote, or keeping to a schedule, or lots of things.

The Covid Pandemic has NOT made me pay attention to those things.

I have decided to be more intentional about blog posts.

I am now writing down blog post titles in my calendar and keeping track that way.

I am also writing down all the blog post titles down from my entire blogging life that has been a bit half assed.

I promise to do better.

However…

Cookie Thursday is a Thing began out of my desire to use and show off our brand new kitchen.

The new kitchen was put in, through a nine month process where they ignored our request for a kitchen, figured it after we inquired about it in week 4, lost a cabinet, couldn’t install until they remade that cabinet, the granite was backordered, and then templated and installed.

That is a LONG time to be without a truly functional kitchen.

I was definitely going to be showing it off.

And experimenting with baking.

Thus, Cookie Thursday is a Thing was born.

Created/started/bragged about.

Cookie Thursday is a Thing (yes I am married to the title) began six years ago in January of 2015.

At first there were a couple of other bakers who would take shifts and bake weekly.

And then they all petered off.

Until I was the last circulator standing. (this took about 4 months)

Six years of weekly cookies.

On Thursdays.

The tag line is Cookie Thursday is a Thing because it is not yet Friday and we are sad.

I only bake with quality ingredients: butter, real vanilla, good chocolate, King Arthur flour.

6 years is a lot of ingredients.

Relatively quickly I decided that the months had to be themed.

Not only does theming the months aid in finding recipes, it also gives a bit of structure to the entire enterprise.

Over the years I have settled some months onto months of the year and kept the theme consistent.

6 years of cookies is 312 weeks. That’s a lot of cookie types. That is why they are themed.

This month, March 2021,the theme was Greatest Hits. Over the years there have been cookies that were consistently asked for.

I baked jalapeno chocolate chip cookies, I want them to be called the hot chocolate chocolate chip cookies but no one is playing along.

I baked fudgy cocoa no bakes, the peanut butter oatmeal one.

I baked cookies with Lucky Charms marshmallows in them for St. Patrick’s Day.

This past week I baked triple pepper jelly thumbprint cookies. Sometimes I do savory and they are always a hit.

Except for the BBQ chip cookie. That was awful.

I experiment on my coworkers using Cookie Thursday is a Thing. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

April will be a citrus cookie month. Very springy. All 5 Thursdays.

Just now I decided to post my weekly Cookie Thursday is a Thing on here.

Just for another thing to keep consistent.

So check back on Thursday to see what citrus I decided on for this week.

Well.

That was a lovely case.

Not a lovely surgeon.

I was awakened at 0230 and the nursing supervisor asked me to please call a surgeon, because he had a case.

Let us call him Dr. W.

I called him immediately.

He told me that there was a patient who had a certain medical condition and needed to go to the OR first thing in the morning.

Me: There are no first time starts available as the OR is booked. The earliest time will be 1000.

Dr. W: His condition is such that he can not go later. He will have to go emergently.

Me, looking at the clock on the computer, which was 0240: Okay, we will try for 0345.

Dr. W: Okay.

Me, not ever having worked with this surgeon: Are you familiar with our hospital? Will you need help getting scrubs.

Dr. W: No, I’ve been there on call.

Me: Okay. We will see you then.

I then call the nursing supervisor and give her the details, and ask her to call the rest of the team. She asks if x-ray is needed. I said yes.

I get dressed and drive to the hospital and clock in.

Immediately after changing I turn on the bed so it can be warmed up, go to the front desk and schedule the case and arrange for transport.

I confer with the scrub tech and go to the PACU to await the patient’s arrival.

I pull consents and log into the computer.

I am at the computer, beginning the charting, when the double doors to the PACU open.

I turn my head, believing that it is the patient.

It is the surgeon.

Me: Oh, I thought you were the patient. He is on his way.

Dr. W: What?

Me: I thought you were the patient. He is on his way.

Dr. W: I do not care for your tone. You have been nothing but belligerent on the phone. I am sorry that this patient is need of surgery at this hour. This is my seventh case today, in three different hospitals.

Me, taken aback by this aggressive turn in the conversation: Okay. The patient is on his way.

Dr. W.: I know that you would rather be at home in bed.

At no time have I said this, or conveyed this.

He turns to go.

Me, thinking that he could fill out and sign the consent before he began the H&P: Will you sign the consent?

Dr. W.: I know you don’t want to be here, the patient needs surgery.

He stalks off.

Me, sitting at the computer desk, my mouth surely open under my mask, unsure of what just transpired. I say nothing further.

Transport still has not come.

I get up and go to the ED to pick up the patient.

I prep the patient.

We are in the room at 0350, 5 minutes late.

The entire case was surreal.

Dr. W. is a completely different person in the room. Friendly, open.

I get that he was projecting. He didn’t want to do this case, even if it was emergent. He wanted to be home in bed.

I was just caught off guard with the personal attacks when they were not warranted.

I didn’t even give him my spiel that I give to all the new doctors about the operating room hours and the phone numbers of the desk and the charge pager.

To date I have volunteered twice at a vaccine site.

I have done different things at the site.

Yesterday I screened patients. Which means I went through their paperwork for completeness and checked their health history for specific things. Such as history of blood thinners, current chemo regimen, and history of anaphylaxis to vaccines. All of which may not play as well with the vaccines.

For four hours I went through car after car after car.

Paperwork after paperwork after paperwork.

I was told that the expected vaccine appointments for the entire day was 490+.

I did not keep track of how many cars I cleared through my line.

Some of the cars had up to 4 people for vaccine appointments in them.

Today I was part of the after vaccine team.

We went along the cars, peering at the times on the windshield that indicated when they could leave.

We asked how each shot recipient was.

We counseled that they may experience flu like symptoms after 10-14 hours and that symptoms were NORMAL.

Heavy on the word MAY.

And advil, ibuprofen (yes, I know they are the same) and tylenol would be okay.

We encouraged fluids.

And rest.

Toward the end of the day, depending on the mood of the vehicle, I began to be a little more loose with them.

If there were more than one person to a car, I asked which one had been shot up.

I encouraged fluids, over the counter medication as need.

I had many conversations about how the symptoms they may experience would be normal.

That the symptoms are their body learning how to react to Covid.

I began prescribing naps, careful to tell them I was not a doctor, but that, as adults, we all had to be given permission to rest.

I said that if they had any push back from their families to tell the families that the Nurse Said So.

Only one person asked about the differences between the vaccine and how people react. I told him that I thought that going into the vaccination with a mindset of it would be okay could be helpful.

There were selfies, and a general atmosphere of joy, with some tears of relief.

Everyone I approached put their masks on in the privacy of their car.

As I told them they were free to go, I reminded them one more time to be kind to themselves.

And congratulations on getting both vaccine shots.

I have decided.

After working way to many late nights in the last two weeks.

Including bad bellies, and OB emergencies.

And an 0530 clock out last night.

I have decided that I am in the middle of a bad call patch.

This is when I work WAY too much overtime.

And my pager gets a workout.

I have angered the call gods.

Nah.

This happens sometimes.

If you pull at much call as I do there will be times when the calls seem to be never-ending.

And the cases are dragging on.

And on.

And on.

And on.

I hope this ends soon.

I would like some sleep.

Finally, I connected with a nearby shot clinic for volunteering.

They have four hour shifts; morning from 0800-1230 and afternoon 1230-1600.

Due to my regularly scheduled work hours I will be working this Friday from 0800-1230.

These hours are perfect.

I can do my volunteer thing AND make it to work on time.

They have Saturday shifts too.

I just have to give up my laser call from 0700-1300.

Who can I ask to take it?

Yesterday, when I was explaining sometimes you don’t get a lot of sleep on call.

And sometimes you have early morning meetings and the calls still come.

Last night.

I went to bed early.

I was in bed at 2345.

I wasn’t asleep, let’s not be hasty.

I was reading.

I drifted off to sleep probably at 0030.

Only to be rudely awakened at 0210 by the phone.

There was a bleeding patient and the doctor wanted to go now.

Okay.

I was at the hospital from 0228-0428.

I was home and back in bed at 0445.

At 0817 the phone rang and it was an inspector, coming to survey the new water heater.

And he would be at the house at 0835.

For those following along it was the exact scenario I wrote about last night before bed.

Lovely.

Apparently I’m psychic now.

Sometimes you are at the hospital all night.

Sometimes you are at the hospital some of the night.

Sometimes you don’t get to bed before say 0300.

Sometimes you have to be up at 0800 for a meeting.

Sometimes you nap after the 0800 meeting for an hour or so.

And you wake up feeling like death.

Because that nap?

Is a double edged sword.

Yes, it may feel amazing to stretch out and snooze before your shift at 1400.

When you wake up you may be more tired than when you laid down to nap.

And you are staring down the barrel of an 8 hour shift.

On minimal sleep.

And the schedule for the day?

Is packed.

You get dressed.

Grab some caffeine on the way in.

And hope there aren’t any add ons.

The OR has a new nurse.

This is exciting news.

They are nearly done with orientation, which means they need to be trained on call.

This is crucial information for a new to our OR nurse.

They will need to be able to work independently.

I train all the new nurses.

What to do when they get the call.

What to do when they get to the hospital.

How to put the case in if the surgeon hasn’t.

Why it is important to mark cases as add on when they are.

When to use transport and when to get the patient themselves.

Hint, depends if there is a hospital bed involved or a gurney.

How to call a needed rep for the case.

How to pick the case.

How to pick the instruments.

How to prep the patient.

How to trust the scrub tech to open the room.

How to balance setting the room up and prepping the patient.

The ins and outs of obtaining consent.

How to call in the PACU nurses.

WHEN to call in the PACU nurses.

What to do if the case finishes too early and you are with the CRNA before the PACU nurses arrive.

To that end, I created a binder.

I used to call it the Now What book.

It details processes that nurses need to do while charting or on call.

And how to do them.

I have rebranded the Now What book.

It is now titled the Call Preserver.

Kind of like a life preserver, for call.

I am irrationally enraged at the moment.

But maybe rationally enraged.

My husband suggested I write about it and was surprised I wrote about the 1 year Covid anniversary instead in my last post.

I have the misfortune to live in an HOA. This means a home owner’s association neighborhood.

I do not have children.

I do not use the tennis court.

I do not use the playground.

I have NEVER been in the pool.

I have mowed lawns on empty foreclosed houses.

I have talked to neighbors about their children.

I have listened to those children’s lung sounds and reassured the neighbors.

I try my best with upkeep.

I do mow my own lawn.

I try to keep up with the planting beds in front.

But this last year?

This pandemic year?

This year where I was at the hospital nearly every damned day?

And I could count the numbers of actual days off where I was not at the hospital on two hands?

Excuse me if I still need to mow the lawn from before Christmas and there are leaves.

Excuse me when I don’t get my trash containers inside on a timely basis.

Excuse me when I don’t have the mental bandwidth to worry about what all my other neighbors are doing, San Diego!

I received a cheery little passive aggressive email from the HOA this last week.

Informing me of the yearly inspection that will be done on April 15th, so please finish all the chores to the outside of the house and pressure wash the house and drive way. And plant flowers if we wanted to (heavy on the if we wanted to).

Basically pretty up the yard and house.

I’ve lived here 15 years. This is the FIRST time I have received such an email.

One the reps for the OR lives two streets away. I can literally see his house from mine. And he was shocked by the email. He also thought that it was directed at him.

And I saw RED!

I have had some not very fun times with the HOA in the past.

But this!

I am daring them to say something to me.

I will inform them that I am a working nurse.

I have been at the hospital pretty much non-stop since the pandemic began.

I have held people’s hands as they go under anesthesia.

I have comforted family.

I have ensured that the OR evening shift is run smoothly and if they needed help it would be available.

What I have not been doing is staying at home during lockdown.

Someone has to care for the patients.

Someone has to buy groceries.

I am looking at lawn signs to put up on the day of the “inspection.”

“Hero Nurse Lives Here!”

“I’m a Nurse What’s Your Superpower?”

Subtle don’t you think?

Beats taking the day off (snort of laughter here) and waiting for them to come by and accosting them. And informing them, probably at the top of my lungs, that I have had a hell of a year and I do not need their condescension, or cute little emails, or neighborhood spies (I’m looking at you, San Diego.)

And get off my lawn!

I will be buying a door mat that says “Keep Calm, I’m a Nurse”.

Hello.

And welcome to the one year anniversary of the Covid-19 pandemic.

A year.

Can you believe it has been a year?

Last year at this time I was in my last semester of graduate school.

Last year at this time I was looking forward to graduation. I chose a local college specifically for the graduation experience and having the professors be local.

Last year at this time I was working my normal shifts in the hospital.

Last year at this time my husband was still going in to the office.

Last year at this time I was…

Since last year at this time I graduated from graduate school with an MSN-E.

I have not had the time to study for my certification regarding education.

Graduation was cancelled, with promises of an in-person graduation in the fall, if we wanted to wait.

Fall graduation was cancelled, with promises of an in-person graduation in the spring.

So far, the spring in-person graduation is going on as scheduled, with less allowed guests and I have turned in my list of two.

Since last year at this time I have worked ALL of my shifts.

Yes, we had a slowdown due to the cancelling of all elective cases.

Yes, some of staff got lent to other departments as required.

Not me.

No one wants to cover my shifts.

And none of our ER patients are tested due to the constraints of the testing.

Since last year my husband, who has a pre-existing condition, has not gone in to the office.

He has been working from home.

This has increased our electrical bill and our heating bill.

The office is above the garage and is susceptible to wild swings in weather, being poorly insulated.

In the summer the office is unbearably hot. To make the temperature of the office comfortable the air conditioner in the house has to be run at a very low temperature. The entire house has to be cold, so that the office can’t be 85 degrees. My answer was a stand-along AC unit that only cools the office. But the HOA rules state we can’t have a window unit. Sigh. We now have a free standing 2×3 unit that vents out the window. Because that is allowed. The vent, not the unit. The next issue is going to be the 4 mini doors that lead to the under the eaves cubbies which are not well insulated. This is a theme for the house. I will be working on insulating and sealing these doors when on vacation in April. Wish me luck.

Since last year I feel that all I do is work and sleep and work some more.

I know this is a depressive behavior. That I do the minimum of house up keep on my off hours. That I sit and read for hours at a time.

I am trying to cope.

But I am fully vaccinated at this time. And my husband’s vaccine group will be opening up next week.

And next week I am going to start volunteering at a vaccine site during the mornings before work. They have a 0830-1230 shift which means I will be available for my shift at 1430.