Nurse vs. Nursing Student

Yesterday afternoon I was loading our dishwasher.  Nothing out of the ordinary until I picked up one of our Noritake stoneware plates. It broke in half.  Scaring me half to death and slicing my right thumb.  I was stunned at first. Then when it suddenly hit me the F-bombs flew. Which I feel bad about because my daughter had a friend over.  Oops. I quickly grabbed a clean wash cloth and applied pressure to my bleeding thumb.  It was crazy looking.  I could literally look inside my thumb.  It was pretty deep.  I called my husband and told him to get his ass home and take me to the ER.  Thank God he works only 2 minutes from our house.  Then I called my mother in law who was also close by.  She came over to keep an eye on the kids while I went to the hospital.

Once we got to the hospital we were to taken to a room right away.  My hubby stayed out to register me and fill out papers.  I was asked the normal questions.  How did you do it?  Any street drugs?  Do you drink?  Last tetanus?  Have you been threatened or harmed recently?  My vital signs were taken.  Here is where I start annoying my husband..."Did you see how she took my blood pressure?  Right over my thick sweatshirt.  I would have failed out of nursing by now if I took a BP that way.  There is no way she got an accurate reading!"  This continues until the nurse comes back in to clean my wound. 

The doc then comes in to check it out and decides we are going to glue it. This was when the doc made a comment that he has to remind himself to put gloves on. He's old school I guess.  Ick!  I told him that I would have reminded him.  Then he asked, "Why?  What do you have?"  Really?  You are going to ask me that.  I said, "Its not what I have that I am worried about but what you might give me."  Take that almighty doctor.

Once my thumb is glued back together the nurse takes my BP again.  It was really high when we came in.  No shit!  I had a sliced up thumb and we hauled ass to get to the ER.  So she took it again.  It was still high but was going down.  I told them it was too high.  The doc talked to me about it.  I told him that it wasn't my normal BP which is usually 118/62 or near that.  Last night it was 148/90 (the first one). So he started to talk to me about hypertension.  I told him that the nurse needed to retake my BP properly and not over my thick sweatshirt.  He agreed.  So she did but still took it on my forearm and used the machine. I hate the automatic machines.  It looked like the manual BP cuff hadn't been used in years.  So I assured the doc that I would keep an eye on my BP.  It was going down by the time I had gotten home.  My MIL checked it for me (she used to be a nurse) 130/76.  Not bad considering I just got back from the ER. 

I got out of dishes for the rest of the evening.  And my hubby cooked dinner.  Now I am just waiting for this to heal.  I hope the glue holds.  I think stitches would have been a better way to go but oh well.  I'm keeping it covered so I don't risk infection.  What a way to spend a Friday!!!