Part of my shift, regardless of which one it is, takes place in the dinning room - I help out with serving and cleaning up the meals in addition to my health care duties. A few days back, I was working over dinner time and was feeling a bit out of it. Dizzy, lethargic, sorta slow. I kept going, blaming hunger and lack of sleep. Although eating dinner didn't help - it actually made it worse - I didn't think anything of it. But later on, just as I was beginning my rounds, the dizziness turned into nausea and I started to feel worse. The evening shift usually goes quickly, so I kept going, especially since it was my last shift before a long weekend in Calgary.
But, the bouts of nausea are multiplied when matched with the smell of stale body fluids, sweat, old perogies, and half-eaten garlic sausage. As awful as it sounds, when I was in a resident's room, everything came up. I only got 2 steps away from him, but fortunately found the kitchen sink. Unfortunately, the sink drain was the size of a penny - so, I had to transfer its 'contents' to the toilet. And of course, the only 'scoopable' utensils in the entire freakin room were 3 styrofoam cups. Yes, really. (On the plus, the resident is deaf as stink and had no clue what was going on - I was out of his line of sight!!) Anyways, I somehow managed to get things cleaned and orderly, and another employee was called in to save my butt. I was out of commission for a solid two days. Through the grape-vine, I've heard I am not the only one - I'm sure a flu bug is hanging around work. Many people have been off since my incident.
Who would have thought that playing 'nurse' sometimes means you have to be the patient too?
D.
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