Well, it's Christmas Eve

And we're all sick, except for the dog. I think we must have the most virulent head cold ever seen...it's now over a week and my head still feels 2 sizes to big. Tomorrow I have to work, which is making me feel very Grinch-like. We are all making tons of food, so hopefully it'll be a slow day, no one will die and I'll get to pig out. I've given my teenager the option of waiting til I get home to open presents, or getting up with me at 5am to open them. She just huffed.

Just like in Hooville, Christmas come whether there's presents and a tree or not, so I'm diligently buying presents at the last minute. We were going to have Christmas morning THIS morning, but last night we made the discovery that we didn't have wrapping paper. We do have a tree and it's up but still a little bare. There's lights and garland, but so far no ornaments and the dog keeps eating the candy canes off the tree. Pooter has added to her reportoir with some Christmas words: Woo-woof(Rudolph), Santa Claus, candy cane and sssssssssnowman (the S-N combo is still a trial for her). We have watched the original Burl Ives "Rudolph" a record 823 times over the last week. Every time I watch it I can't help thinking that in real life, Rudolph, the dental elf and Cornelius would all run away to the East Village, where the elf and Cornelius would finally proclaim their love for one another (he is a total BEAR, after all) and Rudy would be panhandling on St. Mark's Place.

In other news, this happy article was posted in a local paper. I've had the pleasure of working with Dr. Laskow and it's true, he is a class act.

Last week I was the primary nurse for an organ donor. My good friend "Hector" got to come out an be the TC and boss me around with 8 gazillion orders and, as usual, the OR was delayed until almost midnight. But this time I got to go home at 7:30pm. His poor orientee was like, "I have to stay HOW long?" I assured her that in no time, she'll be able to stay awake 30 hours straight on 5 hours sleep and then drive home. It's funny that my first job was 8 hour overnights and I could barely stay awake through it. The down side is that if I get woken up in the middle of the night, say by someone snoring(ahem), I'm awake for the duration. I might as well just get up and get a cup of coffee cause they'll be no more sleep for me.

Having a 17 year old donor was sad. I didn't know her at all, having been off the first few days of her admission. When I saw the OPO staff on the unit, at first I was afraid it was for a girl I've been taking care of, on and off, since Thanksgiving. I'm now on a first name basis with mom, dad, younger sister, best friend and several teachers from school. She's been touch and go for weeks and if she doesn't make it I'll be really upset, but I haven't given up hope yet. That's the thing about critical care, some patients are there for so long, you really get attached. We did have one Christmas miracle-a little bugger who's been in the ICU or in subacute care since he was born 10 months ago finally went home. Mom carried him around the unit so we could all say good bye to him.

Well, as you can see, I still have stuff to talk about, so I guess I'll still be blogging for now.

Merry Christmas.