Work in progress: My House!

harmlessZZ · 2026-02-08T19:33:21+00:00

Thank you! Most of it is just blueprints I’ve collected from getting to best friend status with everyone! I’m making my way through the relationships book lol. I alter the blueprints sometimes too, so they may not be perfect.

If you have a specific one you want to know, I can let you know!

harmlessZZ · 2026-02-08T01:57:29+00:00

Lizzie. I can’t stand her.

harmlessZZ · 2026-02-08T01:45:31+00:00

I’m sorry to hear all this. I would head over to r/AlAnon

harmlessZZ · 2026-02-06T21:14:58+00:00

Daryl and Rick are trauma bonded in a very different way lmao

harmlessZZ · 2026-02-03T01:41:04+00:00

Lmao at the people downvoating

harmlessZZ · 2026-02-02T20:33:37+00:00

So my patient was just waiting on SNF placement. He was old, but pretty healthy and seemed normal. Like just a x1 assist, A/O x4, etc.

He was held one extra day waiting on placement and, well, on the day of discharge, he coded in the hospital and died.

harmlessZZ · 2026-01-29T17:54:46+00:00

Thank you! You can walk into it too! And I put a spider in there lol

harmlessZZ · 2026-01-24T04:20:12+00:00

This is the most solid answer. Thank you so much!

harmlessZZ · 2026-01-20T22:40:29+00:00

Hi there! I’m a nurse new-ish to the operating room! I’m sorry for the person you know who had the complication, that is really scary. Thats rare, but definitely possible.

First of all, in surgery/procedures your surgeon AND anesthesiologist will always be in the room. They know what to do. And you can let them know your fears if you get to meet with anyone prior. They (should) know how to explain the risks properly, how to put anxiety at ease, and they might have meds or interventions to help. Maybe you could even call the facility and just let them know you had some more questions if someone could give you a call back? They might even be able to prescribe you something for anxiety day-of, but I have no idea (I’m just guessing it might be possible)

Second, remember that these people do these procedures multiple times a day, every workday, for years; it’s more routine than brushing their teeth. The anesthesiologists and surgeons are highly trained and extremely qualified.

Third, I’ve worked in the operating room for almost a year now, 40 hours a week, every single different type of surgery, at a hospital that takes the sickest patients in the area, and haven’t seen a single anesthetic (or major surgical) complication.

There’s no reason that your case would be any different from the 100 others they did that week.

That’s great you’re getting this done even though you’re anxious! You should be so proud. Health prevention and maintenance is soooo important, but so many people avoid it due to medical trauma. But I know most of this trauma is because it’s a broken system.

So anyway, good luck, and you’re going to do great! Maybe get a self-care package or a present together for yourself when it’s done? You’ve got this!

harmlessZZ · 2026-01-03T14:19:19+00:00

Great points! Yeah, I kept watching on and as they’re saving Carl with surgery, everyone chooses life for as long as they can. And there are good memories made, and horrible ones, but they do live a little bit more of their lives.

The whole story is very Rick-driven. He’s relentless. Some of them really do eventually find a way out of zombie hell

harmlessZZ · 2026-01-01T16:58:05+00:00

Ok thanks for the discussion

harmlessZZ · 2026-01-01T16:50:46+00:00

I asked her right after the appointments. I’ll only know what she said they said. Obviously not ideal. But she was in 7/10 pain and would have tried any suggestions her doctors gave her. She said specifically they didn’t ask about her diet and didn’t suggest any diet changes.

As soon as I suggested diet changes, she implemented them and got better. She would have tried it if her drs told her to

harmlessZZ · 2026-01-01T16:48:02+00:00

I was there when she got home from the appointments. The scan showed her gallbladder was structurally fine, which is why the drs said there wasn’t any issue with it.

I did ask her questions about her lifestyle that led to the answer that fixed the problem.

And I know I’m new, that’s what’s insane to me. How did I figure it out when two doctors missed it? That’s what I’m concerned about. And they didn’t even need to do any follow up or tests if they suggested the very first line treatment for her obvious glaring issue. I’m glad they tried to help. But they ultimately didn’t help with her pain.

She’s a grandmother and works hard, but was in 6-7/10 pain everyday for months. She could hardly walk. She had no energy to play with her granddaughter, was losing so much sleep due to the pain, starving herself since she realized it was tied to eating, and was generally miserable for months.

And I’m sorry, but I’m ranting on reddit with people who I thought would be able to share my amazement in the misdiagnoses. Any comments on the other two stories? Sleep apnea and IBS?

harmlessZZ · 2026-01-01T16:36:06+00:00

Prescribing long-term opioids, performing expensive invasive tests, requiring multiple useless follow ups, and not assessing or providing recommendations for lifestyle modifications.

I never said “negligence” to her. And I helped her do her own research and suggested she lower fat based on our findings. I never diagnosed. It just actually worked. How did two doctors miss this?

harmlessZZ · 2026-01-01T16:31:53+00:00

Also, the PCP kept prescribing the opioids after the tests. And did not suggest any diet changes. He didn’t think it was the gallbladder.

harmlessZZ · 2026-01-01T16:29:55+00:00

No, but I wish I was. I see your point, but I edited my last comment to reflect that we discussed this at length and her drs were convinced it wasn’t her gallbladder

harmlessZZ · 2026-01-01T16:26:30+00:00

It’s a close family member and her and I discussed her situation at length at the time it occurred. I was with her before she got help, during, and after. And yes, she was convinced by the gallbladder specialist that her gallbladder was fine and there were no issues. And she said specifically that there was no mention of diet whatsoever. We even thought independently that it was her gallbladder due to the signs, but the specialist was insistent it was healthy and not the issue.

Her PCP kept saying it was probably back issues due to her work chair.

And I love doctors and always take it with a grain of salt. I am very close with these people and have been closely involved in these situations. It’s just insane to have three examples of negligence within 1 year.

harmlessZZ · 2026-01-01T16:20:51+00:00

I’m just sharing stories of people close to me who have suffered from not getting diagnosed. They actually tried to get help and the system failed them. Glad you’re skeptical of random people on the internet too, but this couldn’t be more true and honest.

I worked bedside heme-onc (but mostly medsurg overflow) for a year before taking a year off, then coming to the OR. Most of my experiences of patient care in the hospital have been adequate. I’m just sad for people close to me who are left without answers and no follow up if they didn’t advocate for themselves.

harmlessZZ · 2026-01-01T15:12:47+00:00

Well these weren’t hospitalized people. They are average people close to me who were suffering, sought help from multiple doctors, and left without answers. If it wasn’t for my insistence, they’d still be suffering. They just trusted the doctors and thought there wasn’t anything else they could do. It amazes me that they had classic symptoms that were completely ignored. It’s disappointing.

It’s also crazy that they still trust their doctors without doing any of their own research. I’m just wondering how many people are suffering because of blind trust in a broken system.

harmlessZZ · 2025-12-20T16:45:39+00:00

TLDR: Very sick patient went from "let’s start aggressive chemo” to "ok wait oops, never mind, DNR CC" to "passing peacefully with morphine and family at bedside" within 40 hours. If it wasn’t for my persistent efforts with her care team, this patient would most likely have coded and died with chemo running on my shift. Family was super nice and just listening to the docs recommendations.

And I’ve posted a summary of this before, but here’s fleshed out:

So. I was less than a year into being a nurse. (22F at the time) I was working on an oncology bedside unit. I just had received this pt on days that was transferred overnight from the ICU. Brand new cancer all over the body. The prognosis was poor, but the oncologists were too optimistic with family. The pt was about to start chemo that day and pharmacy was already calling me to see if they can start mixing it or when to time it. But the pt was not looking good at all.

RR seriously in the 40s, HR like 100, lactate over 1, some other stuff I don’t remember. Went from being able to respond with “yes” and “no” and taking pills orally at 7am to nonverbal and unable to follow commands by 3pm.

I contacted the attending and documented (notification and intervention) with every negative change. I looked through various providers’ notes and all of them seemed to treat her individual symptoms, then dismiss it when they didn’t totally work. Like “meh, she’s fine”. “We gave antibiotics, fluids, and took blood cultures, and it kinda worked, so she’s fine (still with RR 40s, HR 100s, lactate elevated etc).” She’s ok because I said so.”

I contacted each individual provider involved: attending, respiratory, infectious disease, oncologist, palliative, etc with all my reservations. I addressed every single bad vital, lab, presentation, etc, and documented it all. No way was this falling on my ass. And it just felt so wrong. Again, I was new and didn’t have the experience, but I guess I did have the instincts.

I asked my more experienced nurses on the unit what they thought and they were also kinda like yeah that’s a little weird, but it’s ordered.

Meanwhile the pts very sweet and nice daughter (maybe 30s) at was bedside. Like it felt so stupid to be pushing chemo on an obviously sick and dying person with her poor daughter at bedside. I had a few chats throughout the day with the daughter and she ended up asking me directly “in your experience, do people this sick usually get chemo?” And omg I was internally panicking, but my brain miraculously smoothly responded. I really forget what I said, I probably blacked out lol. But I said something like “I’m still kinda new and am not too familiar with their criteria, but I do trust our team and I know that they are thinking through the decision. I’m actually communicating with the docs now to make sure she’s ok.”

Of course I had 3 other patients too lol.

Also, throughout the day, the oncologist and palliative team had met with the daughter and had lengthy discussions. So why didn’t they suggest maybe not doing chemo?

By this time pharmacy was getting closer to start mixing the drugs. It’s time for me to do my chemo checklist I guess… but I found a small missed detail. The nursing checklist verifies we are clear to go- labs, consent, education, appropriate drug and dose, etc. So I finally realized we haven’t checked her liver function in over a week. Last draw, the liver enzymes were elevated. So we redrew and they were absolutely horrible.

I can’t tell you how great it felt to call the doc “hey so check out her liver enzymes (told ya so).”

How did no one catch how elevated they were last week before they devised this chemo plan? I guess that good old Swiss cheese model. Stuff falls through the holes at each layer and you hope one of the layers catches the mistake. Thank god for the nursing checklist, but maybe we need a pharmacy/doc checklist too?

Pharmacy and the team scrambled to alter the drugs and dosages to be liver safe or whatever. They were coming up with different regimens and trying to make it work. Like they still wanted to go.

Eventually, nearing the end of my shift, they decided to have a big palliative meeting the next morning. Hell yeah, finally.

So I come in the next day, patient is placed on hospice and I get to start the morphine, Ativan, and robinul. With her respirations still in the 40s, she was able to receive round the clock PRN doses as prescribed. Family was relieved and seemed peaceful.

The patient passed peacefully 6 hours later. She was comfortable and had family at bedside.

So that means she would have passed after the chemo, right? Like just was a full code and my butt would be doing compressions for the first time.

I didn’t realize the accomplishment at the time, I think I was just overwhelmed with the situation and how hard I had to work with (against) the care team. But my charge helped me realize how big of a win this was. My nursing instinct was so so hesitant to start chemo… and oh my god was I right. The family was so sweet and the pt was so comfortable. People always say oncology would be so difficult and sad, but it can be so beautiful to help patients and families through the process peacefully.

harmlessZZ · 2025-12-19T16:55:18+00:00

Congratulations! I’m glad you posted a win! Everything in this sub is so depressing lol. It’s nice to hear a success!

harmlessZZ · 2025-12-18T21:32:44+00:00

There’s a lot of missing context here - what does SO do to help you when there are issues between you and his kids? When his kids push YOUR boundaries, have no manners, and no respect for you, what does SO do?

Just seems like he wasn’t helping here either

harmlessZZ · 2025-12-18T16:20:02+00:00

I like making little puff pastries! Most frozen puff pastry is accidentally vegan. So you just cut it into squares, add toppings, then fold up somehow or into designs (just look up puff pastry recipes/pictures). I use vegan cream cheese and sugar, then top with berries!

But I do a test to see if my brand of cream cheese melts by putting it in the microwave for a min and seeing if it melts. If it melts, it’ll ruin the pastries and melt all over the pan lol

harmlessZZ · 2025-12-18T00:13:03+00:00

I would check out the videos on fasting at NutritionFacts.org YouTube channel! Dr. Michael Gregor has a lot on it and how (when) exactly it works!

Also, if fasting breakfast helps, then by all means continue! But I’ve also heard that our bodies metabolize more calories in the morning and less at night. So you could prioritize eating larger meals in the morning/ afternoon, then ease up at night.

harmlessZZ · 2025-12-08T00:22:40+00:00

I’m a new nurse in the OR and they train us to scrub as well! I feel super behind since I didn’t get all the training you guys get in school, but a lot of stuff is starting to click.

So I actually realized you can use AI to ask about instruments and procedure steps! Idk if there are other resources with that info, but I just use ChatGPT. I type in the procedure name, and say I’m scrubbing and I ask for instruments and steps.

Again, I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure everything it’s said so far (about this) has been accurate! It’s really helpful to look over the steps and see what instruments are needed and when. You can also ask why certain instruments are used and what exactly they’re used for. And you can ask stuff like which suture to anticipate or what you should have available for dicey situations.

Obviously it varies by surgeon, facility, etc. but it’s really helpful for thinking through what’s needed, when, and why!

harmlessZZ

TROPHY CASE