To make a long story short...

I knew last night was going to be bad. Terrible. What I couldn't expect, though, were:

• Patients in the waiting room for 16 hours.
  
• Stroke patient in the waiting room.
  
• 9 ICU holds. 3 per nurse on my team.
  
• CPRs going to regular rooms.
• Chest tubes being inserted in regular rooms.
  
• Running out of IV pumps and putting Dopamine on a dial-a-flow.
• Housekeeping staff getting in screaming matches with family members.

It's by nothing but the grace of God that no one died last night that wasn't a CPR in progress. I'm off for 2 days- I'm just going to say a little prayer that they won't be doing CPR in the hallway when I come back, because that's about the only way it could get much worse.