Sorry I've been MIA lately. Wedding planning and working out has consumed my life. On the plus side, my knee is getting better every day! I even ran down the hall this week!!! Anyway...
So, you may be expecting a philosophical post, given the title of this entry, but, unfortunately, that is not the case.
Last Monday, I was unexpectedly scheduled to see a patient first thing in the morning. This was unexpected because I was supposed to be in physical therapy. But, that's a whole other story.
Anyway, I went to see my patient, who was new to me. The patient was sitting in the dining room finishing her breakfast. I asked her if she knew her therapy schedule and she just gave me a blank stare. Ok, I thought, this is going to be interesting. The patient had a gait belt on and had her rolling walker, so we got up and walked to the schedule board. My patient had quite a hard time reading the board and I had to give her lots of directions in order for her to figure out her schedule. Again, I thought, this is going to be an interesting (and long) session.
So, I'm holding on to my patient's gait belt and we walking back to her room. She isn't paying attention very well and completely walks past her room. I cue her to look up and she turns around. We enter the door way, and out of the blue, she starts sitting backwards....ON ME!
I start yelling for her to stand up, but all she does is "OOOoooowww" and keeps going down. I don't know how I did it, but I used my How to Help a Patient Fall training and braced her against the wall as she kept sinking down. Mind you....THE PATIENT WEIGHTS 300 LBS!! So, I end up on one knee (the good one, thankfully) with the patient resting against me when the patient falls asleep! And not just dozing....snoring!!!
So, here I am, with my sleeping patient resting against me on the floor, thinking "Great! This is going to be a mountain of paperwork!", when I realize that I have to get her off of me. So, I starting yelling down the hall and the nurse and doctor come running. I ensure them that my patient has not hit her head (mind you, she is still asleep on me) and that I am ok. The doctor and nurse go back and forth about why my patient is so out of it and finally decide that she received too many sedatives. Geeze, you think 4 Xanax and 2 sleeping pills in 10 hours is too much?!?! It is decided that the patient doesn't have to do therapy and that she should go back to bed and sleep it off. Definitely a good decision, considering she's still asleep ON ME!
The doctor and nurse disperse and I am left still sitting under the patient. Thankfully, a physical therapist showed up and got the patient off of me. After I filled out all the redundant paperwork, the director of nursing asked me to demonstrate the technique I used to lower the patient to the floor without injuring myself or the patient. I compliantly demonstrated to which the DON responded "Wow, I guess that junk we teach you really works!" Thanks...just the reaction I was looking for!
