I find when Jen gets most fatigued, I worry. Today, Jen’s cough is persistent.  And because of this, she is miserable.  Her eyes look tired, with dark circles and,  sunken.  And all I can do is sit here wishing I could make it go away.

I woke up with a plan. I was going to run to Target, get a few things, and come back with renewed energy and get Jen outside on the patio on the 14th floor to enjoy some of this beautiful sunshine . I thought something other than this nasty dry hospital air may help her cough. And if we repeated it a couple days in a row, the cough would finally subside. 

But a couple things stopped that plan. First, I opened my eyes this morning at shift change to see, Tina, the one nuse I really don’t like caring for Jen. Nurse Tina is a busy body, jolting about the room like a nervous mouse. Half the time, she has to retrace her steps because she forgot what it was she was doing. But this is only half my problem with Nurse Tina. Not only does she seem a bit ADHD, she also comes in the room, maybe even in the hospital each day with her own agenda. She knows what needs done, makes a list of those things and refuses to stray away from that list no matter what.

Well this doesn’t work when you haven’t even talked to your patient yet. She is so dead set on doing things as she has planned, she pays very ltitle attention to Jen’s needs. Even something as simple as getting a glass of water, can throw Nurse Tina off,  so she chooses to ignore the request.

So Nurse Tina was the first obstacle in having a great day. But I decided to move forward and off to target I went. I then get a text from Jen  that her coughing had caused her to vomit.  I didn’t get much more than that from her until I came back.

Nurse Tina had been insisting Jen take her pills. Yesterday,  we found taking pills during a coughing fit, will result in the pills coming back up. And that is exactly what happened. Every last one ended up not making it to her stomach. 

So you would  think some level of inspection would be done to find Jen needed her meds again. But the vomit episode had already thrown off Nurse Tina’s day, she surely doesn’t have time to reorder her meds. 

Well in those meds were things that helped quiet Jen’s cough. Given 12 hours apart, Nurse Tina insist she may have gotten some in her (although Jen sees the entire pill intact in her vomit). This leads to an entire day of coughing,  exhaustion, and no trip outdoors. 

I will be requesting Nurse Tina to not return.