always listen to your inner voice

So I was sitting at home yesterday, about 5:15, and the phone rang. It was a nursing supervisor at Podunk Memorial. "Wanna stay home on call?" she sez. Thinking about it, and considering my upcoming trip to NY and DC, I sigh regretfully, tamping down the wee voice in my head thats yelling "YES! YES! Just say YES!. I have to work sometime, and I do enjoy my job. So, off to work I go. Only to see, when I get there, that the census of the unit is so low, that its me, and Amaretto Nurse. No one else. No buffer to keep her away from me. No Lap Dog to do all her work. Just me. And Her. Oh shite.
Quickly, I run to my car, and get some knitting, and my CD's. I can zone her out with the lovely red yarn, and play some music (quietly). Maybe she'll get the hint.
She didn't even show up to work on time. When she came in, she offers this lame excuse about meandering through the grocery store, and losing track of time. If I was a day shift nurse, I would have been pissed. They don't get to go home until they give report, and nothing is worse than a nurse showing up late after you've worked your twelve hours. So, day shift abandon's me to my fate,and I am not keen. I duck into my patients room, and spend as much time with the hallucintating, dying old man that I can. When I come out, she is shoving chocolate/raspberry almonds down her pie hole and telling me that she and her boyfriend broke up and that she thinks she needs therapy. The little voice is taunting me, now, in my head, SEE! You could be at home, you twit!. Shite.
Less than an hour later, a Code Blue was called. This means that someone is actively trying to die in Podunk Memorial, and as an ICU nurse, it is my job to go and try to prevent it with the many drugs and shocky things in my arsenal. So up a flight of stairs I go, into a room with a blue, seizing patient, thinking "Well at least this gets me away from Amaretto Nurse. Flash forward at least three hours. Another nurse that was on call has been called in,(so I would have been called in, anyhow) and is dealing with other things whilst I take care of the very sick patient. I have been to the CT scanner, through her intubation, and, am in the middle of assisting one of the grumpier doc's with a lumbar puncture. And I couldn't be happier. Big grin on my face. Grumpy Doc, who I get along with well has been quietly bashing Amaretto nurse here and there. "Send her back to where she came from" was Grumpy Doc's advice. I couldn't agree more.
This morning, my patient is still alive, and doing better. Amaretto Nurse was so carefully watching her patients (not) that one of them climbed out of bed and fell. The sun is shining, and I am finally home, my work done. But I have to go back tonight. And so does Amaretto Nurse.
Shite.