Nurse's superstitions

I grew up with a very superstitious grandmother. Leaving my shoes upside down would kill my mother, breaking a mirror would give me 7 years of bad luck, same thing if I opened an umbrella indoors, etc, etc. It was a very big list of forbidden things and curses. Well, if any of them were true, my poor mom would have passed a long time ago, and since she is alive and well, I can say that I do not believe in these things.

On the other hand, there are some nurse's superstitions that I cannot explain, because they really do have consequences. The most notorious one is saying the "Q" word in emergency (quiet). It is pretty much the same as swearing for ER nurses. You just don't say it. Don't even think about it. But I personally find that even more effective than saying the "Q" word is to bring a good book to read when it is quiet. That is just guaranteed to supply my shift with an endless stream of business to the point that I won't even get a break, never mind read a book.

Another interesting fact is that things come in bundles. You won't put a chest tube in for months and then, all at sudden, in a week you have done 5. One time we had to put 3 in a day! Similarly, deaths will usually happen in 3s.
We also receive bundles of patients. One day it will be like an ortho clinic, everybody broke something. Then the next day it will be peds clinic and we will be drowning with sick children. Then we can have the next day of the abdominal pains, followed by a day of chest pain patients, and so on.

I remember when I first started working in Smithers (after nursing for 4 years), and I was checking out their anaphylatic reaction tray and protocol, and I thought to myself (I didn't even say it aloud): "um.. I have never had to actually give anybody an epi shot for allergies, I should review what is the dosage". By the end of the week I had given so many shots, I new the dose by memory and was now treating somebody with such a severe reaction that we had to put him on an epi drip while waiting to transfer him out! Similar situation when I was showing my student our TNK box (a super clot buster used in certain heart attacks) and I commented that I hadn't had to use it in a long time. Well, that week I used it twice.
I don't know what it is... the power of positive thinking? Or I should say negative thinking? I don't know how to explain these things.

Anyways, here is a recent interesting thing. I had been thinking the last cpl of weeks that I should buy a lottery ticket before I leave Canada. Just because, you know, no specific reason. I usually don't buy lottery tickets, but I don't know why I was actually thinking about that. I never got around to buying it, and I never said it to anybody that I wanted one. Then yesterday at work I was surprised by one of our housekeepers saying that she was organizing this group to buy lottery tickets for the 50 million jackpot and that she needed one more person. Well, isn't that interesting? So, just 5 days before leaving canada, and 5 bucks later, I actually got the ticket that I wanted. I find that intriguing... Now I just need to figure out how to win. My friend seems to have it figured out, and said that the tickets are resting below a special rock and a four-leaf cloverleaf. So, who knows, I might just be a millionaire by monday! :)