you're toxic, I'm slipping under

Out of the 5 hospitals that I've oriented with and worked in these past few years, St Anthony's is my favorite facility.  The hospital itself is brand new and the rooms are tailored to the patient's, and most helpful for me, the nurse's needs. It's pretty, it's cutting edge, and I've enjoyed working here.

Today started as any day of work usually does. After receiving report I made my plan for the day, and headed into one of my patient's room to do a morning assessment, pass meds, and get him out of bed to the chair.  There was a foul odor in the room, but this is not uncommon with ill patients, so I continued without alarm. However, inconsistent with the report I had heard this morning, my patient's thought process was slow, and he complained of having difficulty finding the right words to say.  I dismissed these symptoms as signs of fatigue and made a mental note to keep a close eye on him and his mental status throughout the day.  After spending nearly 30 minutes in the room I was experiencing dizziness so bad I felt that I might fall over.  I left the room and spoke with a co-worker about my symptoms. While I was talking to her I could tell she was concerned about me, and later she admitted that I turned a grayish/green color. They performed a quick check of my vitals, blood sugar, but everything was okay, except that my blood pressure was high.  The dizziness was unrelenting and then I started mumbling in run on sentences. It was decided I should go get checked out in the ER..

The RNs in both my unit and the ED were wonderful. They took such good care of me.  When the MD in the ER was interviewing me to figure out what was going on, I was falling out of the stretcher. They placed me on 6L of oxygen and put the side rails up.  Apparently my equilibrium was so off I didn't realize that my body was propelling itself to the ground. They continued to monitor my BP closely, as it was running high, but after I rested for about an hour and a half on the O2, my BP came down and the dizziness started to lessen.

While I was being treated in the ER, my patients symptoms resolved and the maintenance man was able to discover the problem.  Apparently this morning they were cleaning a vent on the 5^th floor and put it back together wrong.  The error then shuttled exhaust into my patient’s room on the 3^rd floor.  His saving grace was that he was already on O2, and he was not exposed for long.  We calculated that my total time of exposure to the fumes was roughly 35 minutes, so after I had supplemental oxygen for three times as long as my exposure, the MD felt it was safe to send me home.  Apart from mild dizziness, I came home experiencing a lot of fatigue.

apparently he was glad I came home to rest..

To be honest, I was a little afraid of falling asleep. It was kind of a ridiculous and scary situation. It could have been worse, but I’m glad that the problem was found and corrected.  Even if that means I had an “acute carbon monoxide poisoning episode”.  At least that’s what the ER doc called it.

Luckily I have the next couple days off, so I’m going to take it easy.  Originally I was planning to climb another 14er on Tuesday and if I feel well through tomorrow I will probably try it. Here’s hoping my bout with poor oxygen quality won’t impede me from enjoying an environment of low oxygen quality..