Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Writing The New Rules In Nursing

I was thinking of writing a new manual on nursing.

When drunken or drugged up patient comes into ER, stabilize patient with one willing nurse who will allow the patient to rest his head on her (or his) stomach.

Witness the dramatic effects of the cure.

Okay, joking but now serious--I was very shocked myself how it was an instant cure, but maybe there's something to it. I got the idea because of the PTSD and jerky movements, and he would awake and then fall asleep (and this wasn't very bad when he was sober, or non-existant) and the apnea was terrible. No breathing, and then a long gasp after what seemed like minutes, and a jerk reflex when the breath was caught again.

Touching didn't really do so much. The idea came to me he needed to hear a constant heartbeat, I don't know why, maybe thinking about how babies respond to that and how it's calming. Why not for adults? especially on a subconscious level?

As long as his ear was to my heartbeat, every single symptom disappeared. Even the apnea. Which is CRAZY, but maybe some medical people should experiment with this. Maybe I just got insight on what to do for one person I cared about, in particular, because I know I prayed for him, but maybe it's a universal thing that sounds odd for adults but actually works, in general. I don't think it's just the sound though, unfortunately, and there are a lot of CDs out there with just a heartbeat sound (though someone could try that)...I think it's the combination of heartbeat and feeling that heartbeat and touch. I think it's the touch and sound combo.

Well, I just thought I'd write about it, because I was walking back home tonight, and started laughing to myself, thinking about nurses being commanded to get on their backs and let their patients sleep on them, to alleviate their suffering. But truly, maybe it's something paramedics or ambulance people should do, for those who are in distress. I don't know, just an idea.

Unfortunately, so I'm not misunderstood to be a real martyr or anything, I could only do it for so long. A couple times all night and I didn't sleep at all. Then, I got tired and tried to move away, but whenever I did, all the symptoms came back and I think it felt like rejection, on a subconscious level, because then I was pushing him away.

I guess it might work, propped up right.

Hmmm. I just read something about apnea and it's recommended that someone with it sleeps upright at about a 30% angle, and this helps with the airflow. So maybe if he was lying beside me, and his head was on my chest or stomach, that was partly what helped, with elevation.

But also, there were other things besides apnea, and it was like PTSD stuff, almost like he was afraid and would jerk back, and all of those things completely went away and I don't think it was because of elevation.

I guess maybe it's a combo of elevation, hearing a heartbeat, and touch?

I still didn't sleep even if he didn't have his head on me because I was too worried he might quit breathing. So I kept awake when it was really bad, and I was always checking. There were times he didn't seem to have it at all though, and I slept.

He said it was just a LOT of alcohol. If that's true, he really could die from it, I think and I hope he's still going to AA or something that is supportive for getting off of liquor. Still, I have no idea what was really going on. I don't think he was telling me everything. I told him after one night that was really bad, I had seen his face in the moonlight and it was like I saw a skull, he seemed like he was going to die his body was suffering so badly, and it scared me. He didn't even remember or know it was happening at the time.

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