Giggles and Fury(!!!)

8th - 9th October (Wednesday to Thursday) - Noon to morning. I'm sure most of you probably realized by now, but during noon to morning shifts, I tend to update them together. First, cause I was exhausted, second, noon to morning - sometimes there's not much difference, y'know. Unless there's a sudden late night admission, but that's rare too, since majority will be in bed, and admission office runs at office hours.
Let's see, the same thing happened like the previous day.The same prof approached me...again, since I was at the counter at that time. I silently winced because of the previous day's incident. But today he looks okay -sneaks a peek- he doesn't look like he's going to eat me. We went back to the patient and she's being discharged. Well, thank God for that. Her mother is doubtful about my ability to remove branulla but this part, I am able to re-assure her that removing a branulla from a child and adult is not much difference, and I was able to her by removing the branulla smoothly from her child's leg, even though I got a nice kick in the jaw in the process. Argh, this is why I never really liked caring for kids. My one month of posting in the Paediatric Ward is a nightmare.
Then because there wasn't enough attendants, I ended up sending uncle back and forth from the ward to the gym and back again. After several false runs, I managed to find my way to the gym. Why do they have to lock the shortest way and make us run a long way? Uncle was even laughing as I tried to navigate my way. I managed to come up with a simple solution, keep to the left, find the right sign and voila, I found my way. Total joke. At least I didn't call the ward and ask them for directions, I would've been a laughing stock.
While waiting for uncle to come back, we had to take care of another uncle. This uncle is pretty much in a critical case, with severe anaemia. He comes in only for blood transfusion, about two pints per day if possible, otherwise on alternate days. He kept having jerking of the right side, nearly like a seizure. When I first saw it when he first came back from ICU, I was in a panic cause I didn't know whether to grab him or leave him. A slightest mistake may be deadly, so I went to get a senior nurse after making sure his face is slightly to the side so that he wouldn't choke on his saliva, and she assured me it's not a seizure. Even so, it scares me. And he was placed at one of the farthest room because his family insisted on a bigger room, like a VIP suite. Nothing I can do about it but to make sure he stays safe and give him constant care.
When I brought uncle back from the gym, I noticed this man dressed all in black with a Le Meridien T-shirt and a bag. He kept hovering near our sink and my first thought was whether he's a visitor who is looking for the right room. When we got uncle back onto the bed, he came in, and it turns out he's a priest. That's a surprise. I thought priests often wear those clerical collar and robes, and he sure doesn't look like one, with his down to earth casual look. He was joking with us and uncle and he came to say a prayer for him. So once we settled uncle back onto his bed, the priest locked the door and started the prayer. Okaaay, I thought he was joking, but on the other hand, it makes total sense. You wouldn't want anyone disturbing your prayers, wouldn't you? At 6.20pm -The priest said 6.15, but I'll give him some extra time in case he needs it- and when we walked in, he was pampering uncle. So funny. As he was about to go, he said to uncle jokingly that he was surrounded by angels who treat him like a king, whereas he have to go back home and bathe on his own. It had us all in stitches. Then he finally said goodbye and left us to do our job.
My poor colleague, she came in late due to being involved in an accident. Her whole hands were trembling the whole time we were sponging and turning uncle. I won't go into much details, but she said she'll have to get the front of her car fixed since it was all dented. Then, when we were sponging uncle, he mentioned Segambut. I was thinking why does uncle keep saying Segambut, then it turns out he's asking my colleague to take her car to Segambut because he has a friend who fixes car over there, whom he and his wife had been going to for more than 20 years. My colleague thanked him for his concern but she can't afford to go all the way to Segambut. My colleague mentioned she failed Geography and tried her best, saying Segambut is at... Pahang? Uncle replied Ipoh, Perak. ^^ I mentioned to uncle I don't even know most parts of Malaysia seeing as how I rarely travel. My book about the US, it involves tons of research and reading about Manhattan to get some settings right and how typical American people talk, like culture and populations and such, with images to get the structures right. He also offered to try to help me out with my book once he's fit enough to return back to work. Uncle is such a nice man, although he got a stroke and has been with us for more than 2 months, all of us are rooting for him to a route to recovery. He even brought us his latest book about Endau Rompin, the name sounds familiar, but I can't quite place it. My colleague tried again, Negeri Sembilan. Bzzt, Endau Rompin is a jungle area in Johor. Good try though. ^^
After settling uncle, I went for dinner after settling everything for him. I noticed on our new bulletin board there's a really pretty thank you card decorated with daisies, so I went over to take a look. It's from the family of our late patient whom passed on the 29th September. (refer back to my 29th September entry). When I read the message, I was touched. The family wrote a long thank you to us for taking care of him til his passing. He didn't suffer like some patients I've seen in the past, so I'm sure he's in peace.
Some nurses had been giving me funny looks and when I asked why, they said, "You hair is sticking out." This is something that often happens back in my 3 years of training. I tie my hair up neatly, and sometimes it comes sticking out. Then I answered that when I get stressed out, it often sticks out. And they went, "Oh, we get it now. If the ward is stressful, then your hair will comes sticking out, if it's relaxed, it'll stay neat. Okay, so if we need to know the ward condition, we'll just look at your hair." Oh dear, I seemed to have become a weather forecast for ward conditions. ^.^
The following day, we had even less people working than before. Oh no. 5 nurses taking care of 15 patients, and most of them are heavy cases. Fortunately, the big boss try not to give us tons of admissions by diverting them to other wards instead of others. Well, seeing we only have two admissions coming in, I say she's keeping her word.
I did sponging for the uncle with anaemia whom is at the farthest room. No, he's not a difficult patient actually, but he just refuses to help you out. When I try to turn him, he often stiffens himself, and he often fight backs with you  by refusing to turn where you want him to but you can still turn him, it's just that he's stiff. The whole time when we were sponging him, I'm really scared that he'll go into a seizure, so I was praying hard that he stayed relaxed. My prayer was heard and it was all smooth, but he seems to love turning to the left and curl up like a foetus. Funny uncle. I set a lot of pillows, including a small pig cushion that he has to protect the right side of his face. One thing I understand, his right side is just jerky movements. If it's a seizure, his eyeballs will roll upwards, becomes dazed, he'll be drooling, be even more tense and stiff. So, yeah, the jerky movements are not seizures, but even so, we have to be careful.
Then I followed a few doctors around, sticking to them like glue, but one of the nicer one was telling, "Relaaax, girl. Relaaaax. I don't bite." Ahm, okay. He told me not to worry that he won't torture me with illegible handwritings. Thank you, prof. I still can't get used to doctor's handwritings. Then I had the chance to put up chemo drugs, like last time, like getting the protective dark bag and slipping the drug into it to protect it from sunlight, then run it slow. But even so, I have to run to get an infusion pump from downstairs to make sure it doesn't go past midnight, because as we all know, cytotoxic drugs like chemo are highly toxic. Oh, and try to find the patient's company insurance GL form. Where did it go??? Fortunately, I put out a look out sign for everyone to please put it in a folder if they managed to find it.
The thing that pisses me off is near noon time, this Indonesian-Chinese lady came with a pre-admission form for her niece, whom is scheduled for operation tomorrow. The problem is... she booked a flight on the 11th October, while the surgery is on the 10th. Ohhhh. And the first thing that she asks is whether we can slot her in for surgery today. Now, look here, madam, you can't just slot in and out as you please. We have certain systems and guidelines to follow, and we can't just slot in and and slot out other patients, it's not fair for them. Then, the second thing that made all us mad, she asks for our handphones to make a call to her family in Indonesia. !!! Who wouldn't get pissed?! If she makes a call to Indonesia with our phone, who is going to pay for the outstanding bill? I know these type of people . They use your phone, make an oversea call, then wipe their hands clean when the outstanding bill come and when you demand them to pay, they just say not my problem. Honestly, does she think we are that dumb to hand over our phone? The manager also gave her a funny look and said, "Who's handphone are you going to use? We nurses keep our handphone only for emergency." Nevertheless, we took pity on her and the manager tries to settle her problem, but she sure made all of us fuming. Such thoughtless questions. ><
Overall, today is not such a bad day. I top up my drips, update my I/O charts and attended some patient, and that concludes today. Thank God I'm having a day off. I'm going to need it.