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While there were certainly lowlights, there were also some funny highlights of this three day work run. Just like the days themselves, the experiences this weekend were all over the map.


My boss struck first. During my review she had asked if there was any criticism or anything I wanted to bring up about her or her management style. We all know how I feel about the woman, so the only thing I could think of to complain about was the fact that her bottomless candy jar had no Reese's Peanut Butter Cups - my personal favorite. She said, "You know, I've always wondered if Administration even reads these things" and typed it into my official review. And when I came in Saturday, my cubby was full of Peanut Butter Cups. It was an auspicious - and caloric - beginning.


The final score was 2 to 1. We got spanked 2 days and had 1 nice one. Luckily, the middle day was the slow one, so we could regroup a little bit, but by Monday afternoon I was threatening to shoot out the tires on all the ambulances so they'd have to stop doing runs. People were laughing until they realized just how serious I was. I spent 12 hours in triage on Saturday. It never slowed down enough to pull me out. On Sunday I was walking toward triage to go out to the waiting room and one of the docs yelled out to ask me where I was going. I said the waiting room and he said, "Good. If you were heading out to triage I'd have had to break both of your legs. Anything to keep you out of there." Nice. That's Nurse Shit Magnet to you, Doctor.


Then on Sunday I had yet another in a string of cute young thang paramedic students following me around all day. They're with us mostly to work on their IV skills, so that's what we primarily focus on. On his first attempt with me he missed, because this woman had lousy veins. He looked at me with that deer in the headlights look that I remember so well - needle still hanging out of this gals arm - and asked me to take over. So I did. I pulled the needle most of the way out and went at it from a different angle - and a little deeper. I guess it was a little more aggressive than he'd seen before because he just blurted out "Oh, my god!", and then had to scramble big time when the patient looked at him with a WTF? expression on her face. Luckily, my hitting her vein at roughly the same time distracted her. Next guy we had also had rotten veins, but I let my student try anyway. No go. I tried. No go. Used to be this would freak me out. Now it just makes me mad. In the end I managed to get a line going in a teeny tiny little vein on this guy's thumb, a feat that ensured I walked around with my head too big for my britches all day long. My favorite doctor was working all weekend too, and when he saw that IV he told me that I had bigger balls than he did. Awww. My co-workers say the sweetest things, don't they?


All in all it was okay. Long, but okay. Peanut butter cups make anything bearable.