Adrenalin

i've been in code situations before.

the announcement goes out on the PA system. if you're doing something, outta half of your ear you hear the news, it takes a moment to register, then boom, you act. or, if it's on your own floor, you realize that the somebody that is yelling is a co-worker and they ain't yelling cuz they need more ice chips. they need a crash cart and some muscle for compressions.

that's when the adrenalin kicks in. in a controlled fashion, or course. if you're meant for this kind of work, it helps you think clearly and concisely. you know what needs to be done, and how. it takes a certain amount of practice of course, and if you work long enough with a good enough team, you can walk into the middle of the beginning of a code and know where the needs are and what you can do to fill in. specially on night shift, when it's just the night shift nurses, and if you're lucky, a sleepy snarling doctor. day shift means pharmacists, social workers, physical therapists doing the compressions-dayshift; it's s whole different world.

some people aren't built for this, and some people take a little longer to get used to it than others. one of my clinical educator friends told me that when she first had a code, she ran around screaming, "What do i do, what do i DO?!?!?" now of course she is an awesome ICU nurse and can run a code in her sleep.

so there is a learning curve involved. some people of course, aren't meant for code situations and nothing will ever change that. that's why the code teams in most hospitals involve the ER staff or teams of charge nurses or ICU nurses.

so......anyways, the other day i got rear-ended.

i was on my way to work, and like always, i checked the traffic websites to see what the situation was. since the frizzleway looked like poop on a stick, i decided to take a back road. it runs parallel, has a coupla a stops, and is usually a pretty good alternate choice. the only problem is, of course, that it is a small road, only one lane going in each direction, and there ARE stoplights at random places.

so i'm going along, and there were more than a few other people who decided the back way was the best way as well. one of those tricksey little stop lights caught a bunch of us by surprise. since the road is thin, and there were so many of us, the stop was a little abrupt. even i had to slam my brakes a little. after i came to a complete stop, just short of the truck in front of me, looked up in my rearview to make sure the dood behind me was also gonna stop.

no joy.

a little snazzy four-door Lexus coupe smacked my backside. luckily for me the damage was minor. when i stopped, i ended up on some train tracks, so when Distracted Driver (as i looked up in time to see him hit me, i saw that he was on his cell phone) ran into me, he was low and i was high. my trunk was fine and we were't going that fast anyway, maybe 30-40 mph. only my bumper got hit.

end result, i was in a rental car for a week (it was nicer than my current ride, not because the insurance company paid for it, but because i upgraded), and my car got fixed just fine.

but the interesting thing to me was, right after the impact, the adrenalin kicked in and i got fuzzy. like, i couldn't think. the light changed and i was all, like, uh, what do i do? um........i guess i move offa the road? i pulled forward on to the side of the road and collected myself for a moment, then looked up to see if the dood that hit me pulled off, too.

so, like i've said, i've been in codes before. and i've never been the chicken-with-my-head cut off routine person. so why did i lose it when the crap hit my fan?

i guess it's different when its you.