I think I am finally getting over my illness, although I am still dragging a bit. Since going most of the winter without being sick, this one has hit me hard. I think I may in fact have been knocked down by one bug and then been dinged by another on top of it.
Here’s what I have given myself at various points in the last two weeks to keep myself up right and walking:
Tylenol
Vicks Day Quill
Afrin
Benadryl
Motrin
Musinex
Peptobismal
Immodium
Gatorade
Pedilyte
I’ve managed, with well-timed days off (spent laying in bed), to not miss a scheduled day of work.
Of course, the only patients I have had during this time, for the most part, have been patients with the flu and or stomach bugs themselves.
Here’s what I have given them:
Oxygen for their labored breathing
some neb treatments for those wheezing
Lots of bags of normal saline for vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration
Lots of vials of Zofran for nausea, upset stomachs
Some I have even carried down from the third floor. Almost all of them, I have fluffed their pillows and handed them Kleenex and/or emesis basins.
Some days I wish I could carry myself down three floors.
A 20 gauge in my arm wouldn’t be bad either — a liter or two of saline would beat the Pedilyte. And then of course after napping for a few hours on a bed in the hospital hallway, I could carry myself on back home.
This is becoming an annual topic: