Nurse Talk

Greetings from Emory Midtown room 7139!  Everything is going well thus far with cycle 4, though they did have to extend my stay until Tuesday as opposed to the normal Monday discharge because they want to spread admission of one of my drips over an extra day to avoid any complications.

I have always been very complimentary of the nursing staff here in Oncology, they are really nice and very friendly.  I imagine a lot of that is because we can't help to be here; we didn't have a drug overdose or we didn't drink and drive and slam into a tree.  After 3 cycles and a fever visit, I have gotten to know these ladies quite well, which has led to some pretty interesting conversations, which for some reason have ended in me giving some sort of advice to these sweet nurses.  Even more puzzling, the topics of such advise I often know nothing about.  Much like in politics or business though, sounding like you know what you are talking about is 90% or so of the game.  So here are some of the conversations I've had, some of which were at 5am during room call:

1.  My nurse tech has a 9 year old son who is apparently pretty gifted.  He does all his homework in his had and watches the news (including getting upset at election results).  We discussed how to balance staying challenged and also being a kid.  I of course recommended she watch "Little Man Tate" staring Jodie Foster, who wouldn't?

2.  My night nurse's son is a football prospect with offers to SEC schools as well as Duke and Stanford.  I gave her my thoughts on all the schools and programs (not going to present those here with some alumni of these schools are readers, ha) and what I thought their priority should be.  No big deal, just helping to determine the launching of her son's adult life.  Coming from a single 28 year old who has 3 degrees and had 3 different jobs.

3.  These ladies go crazy over The Home Depot when I tell them I work there.  I literally thought one time I would have to check my nurse's vitals after she showered HD with glowing praise.  Yesterday I consulted with my nurse regarding buying a new dishwasher and what sort of deals we are currently offering (thank you Same Page for you HD'ers reading).  Of course I know so much about dishwashers, mainly how to load and unload, either way, it looks like she is planning on heading over to check them out, so maybe I got one of these little talks right.


So as you can see, you get into some pretty random conversations at the hospital when you are here for so many days in a row.  Here is to the next few days going by quickly!