3rd October (Friday) - And good morning to all. What a whirlwind ride it has been yesterday. Supposingly I was supposed to be back at my good ol' ward, but because there wasn't enough staff on the other side, I was sent back there as a runner. Maze Runner.... Ha ha, well, technically that's what I am, a runner, running back and forth attending the patients. Not in the Maze, I hope, I get tired easily due to having low blood.
Today I did tons of shower and sponging compared to linen changing, because most of the elderly ladies requested me to give them a nice shower. Who doesn't want a nice shower? I encouraged some of the patients to wash their hair because when I asked some of them, they answered, " It's already been 3, 4 days since I last admitted. I never washed my hair at all, nurse." Well, we can't have that... So, with some gentle pushing, I got the ladies to wash their hair, which makes them look so much fresher. When the patient looks good, you too will feel good :) Some of the ladies even advised me to stand far away so that my uniform doesn't get wet... ^^
Then, I followed one of the senior to assist her in a bed sore dressing. Compared to some of the cases I've seen back in my student days, necrotic or infected to the bone with pus dripping out (ugh), this is pretty much a basic bed sore, but with a sort of slough-like plastic on top. The senior staff said she didn't dare to take it off, so she used her forceps to give it tiny pokes in order to get some of the slough out. The madam, who's a 99-year-old lady, gave a few twitches here and there as she felt the thing poking her. Now, I've been trying to talk to her since I first took care of her, which is on a Sunday, and she had never gave me a response. As I was going out today after finish assisting, she suddenly opened her eyes and said, "What???" in Cantonese and all of us were cheering. Yes! Finally a response from the madam. I pray hard that she will be able to live to 100. Wouldn't that be so wonderful?
Then I had to follow a prof for a round. The patient whom I helped shaved yesterday had finally went for her angiogram and he needs top remove the angiogram dressing. So off we go. He did it quick and efficiently and the lady was allowed to be discharged. Her angiogram shows nothing abnormal so she's also happy. All we encouraged her to do is rest til she's well again. Take care, madam.
After that, there's another patient coming in as an outpatient. The prof is someone that I've been following for quite a while, so I was able to go with him alone and carry a tray of blood taking equipments like a syringe and some vacu-containers. It was simple enough and he's hand-writing is okay so I was able to carry out his orders with ease.This lady ended up going to the ward below for an op and I was able to quickly send her blood samples to the lab, because if it's prolonged, then her op will be delayed. May she be able to proceed the operation and hope all goes well.
The third prof I followed is a cardiologist who done a sleep test for an obese patient. Who knew sleep test is such a wonderful invention, but the results with its graphs is a little scary. I used to watch it in TV shows, but in real life is so much detailed and clearer. Like how they monitor your breathing, your saturation, the sleeping stages you are in, how many times you dreamed. To cut the long story short, this patient saturation takes a dip when he's dreaming so the prof advised him to lose some weight through exercise and diet and to come back again after 6 months to repeat another sleep test after seeing him in an appointment. Your orders are my command, prof. ^^
The there's yet another prof coming in to check on his patient. This patient is a lovely gentleman who had been in the ward since Sunday for a neurosurgery. He's so funny because he never presses the bell. When he needs to nurses, he just walks out and ask us for something. Anyway, he insisted that he's fine and wants to go back home, except prof says he needs to stay one more day he is all fit. The patient was crestfallen so the prof told him, "Don't stay in your room all the time. Why not go out for some cake and tea at Secret Recipe?" But the patient went, "I want to go home..." And the prof was like, okay, if you are good, I will discharge you tomorrow. No worries. That's that.
My last doctor round of the day is the anaesthesist. It's actually my second time following an anaesthesist and so I got some of the points. Take the anaesthesist record, maybe order some drugs like antibiotics anti-pyretics (fever), painkillers and anti-inflammatory for post-op, explain to the patient and finally, the consent. He also wished to set a line but unfortunately the patient did not bathe, so he said, it's alright, he'll set the line in the OT. Then he requested me to call the other 3 LA cases so that he can start early, but since everyone was busy, he said it's alright and he'll call them himself by getting their contacts. I called him a prof and he was laughing and said, "I'm not a prof, I'm just ___." Oh, Dr. ___. My bad.
And there you have it. Right round, right round.
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