Comments | tudorpot: Snow day

tudorpot

Snow day

Feb 08, 2013 19:38

Lots of white stuff here. Planned nursing visits moved. One was supposed to be an admit for IV antibiotics -tooth abscess . Delivery of supplies/pump/IV stuff was due at 3 pm. I was ready to go, but by 5:30 it still hadn't arrived. I advised client to go to ER/call 911, because I wasn't going to get stuck in a snow drift in the dark ( Read more... )

nursing, home, rl, weather

Comments 13

persevero February 9 2013, 07:51:28 UTC

Hope you are okay - BBC is forecasting an epic storm for your side of the pond and showing photos of people taking skis to work in the expectation of needing them to get home.

tudorpot February 10 2013, 00:22:01 UTC

Not epic here, we certainly had a heavy snow fall, but not as bad as the US east coast. What made me cautious was the wind with the snow. For some reason, there are no longer snow fences along open fields by the roads. Thus blowing snow causes quite dangerous drifts and visibility becomes nil.

persevero February 10 2013, 10:44:08 UTC

Love your icon btw - my friend who is from Ontario is a great sayer of 'eh?'.

tudorpot February 10 2013, 19:02:54 UTC

Eh! G,d,runs

beffeysue February 9 2013, 20:38:03 UTC

I was thinking about you and others who are due for so much snow. Stay warm and rest up a little, and be careful while doing worky-work this weekend.

tudorpot February 10 2013, 00:24:04 UTC

Driving was a little dodgy with snow plows needing to cover main roads before hitting the roads I travel on to see people. Brief moment of terror when a big snow plow came flying out of a driveway and almost hit my car. I managed to stop but it was a near thing.

firefly124 February 10 2013, 20:18:05 UTC

I'm glad you were able to move most of your visits. Wise call on the admit. I'm kind of surprised their doctor/dentist even had them still slated to start home iv therapy during a major storm. Were they going to be able to maintain the line themselves once the bag you started (or dose you gave ... do you typically stay for the duration of intermittent iv therapy?) was done and nobody could get there for the next bit?

tudorpot February 11 2013, 00:03:54 UTC

She had her first dose on Thursday and was given some oral meds. Delivery should have been by 3pm. Obviously, it wasn't the cleverest decision by MD, but her situation wasn't severe. Her rx was for q6h, for which we set up a computerised pump which gives the doses, we go back daily to change the bag and assess. There is a 24/7 RN on call - in storms we do telephone triage. I'm not paid or supported as a EMS worker, so I don't provide EMS level care. If pt needs care in dire weather- they are advised to call 911.
For one dose/day care, we stay for the infusion. Usually under 45 minutes.

firefly124 February 11 2013, 00:54:23 UTC

Interesting. Does it run piggyback with saline to keep the vein open then? I'm so used to having to hep-lock the site in between intermittent infusions that I was trying to visualize someone doing that at home and failing.

I wouldn't expect you to be out there in storm conditions. I hope it didn't sound like I did.

tudorpot February 11 2013, 01:51:38 UTC

Heplock hasn't been used for years for periph IV's. We use a saline lock. The extension tube is clamped between doses for q24hour doses. When on the IV pump, the flow is set at 0.5 ml per hour between doses.
We don't use heparin with PICC's anymore either. Pressure valves - CLC or clave are used, flushed weekly. Only Ports get heparin flush, and there are some now that don't need heparin.

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