17th - 18th October (Friday - Saturday) - Helloooo, no, it's not a good Friday. Um, no. Anyway, the day started off with a patient of mine who needs to remove his nasal pack which is already the due date. Roughly I knew what to prepare: a pair of latex gloves, tons of gauze, two kidney dishes, one nice zip bag of ice and a nice big yellow bag. Okay, off we go. Now see, I saw the patient's nasal pack, it looks small and it's held with two strings. So I thought, oh okay, it should be no biggie. Just take out the packs and we get on with our merry way. Bzzzt, wrong. The prof took hold one of the string and pulled.
AHHHHHHHH! That's my patient's screaming.
Me? I felt my stomach drop as I saw the nasal pack. Our nostrils is so small, and the nasal pack is as huge as a Paddle Pop popsicle. Dear Lord. And the attendant who helped me get my ice came in just at that moment and she nearly flipped. Well, the first pack came off and the patient is coughing and vomiting blood-mixed phlegm, plus blood were dripping from his nostrils like a flowing crimson river. Within minutes, the kidney dish that I gave him is already one quarter soaked. And when the second one is pulled out, another bloody popsicle came out. Then I handed prof the ice-filled zip bag and he showed the patient how to put it on and off on the septum of his nose. Oh, and I handed him most of my gauze to stop the blood flow. And two more kidney dishes at last count.
Then I ran into an old cancer patient whom I once took care of on a Sunday. He has a bad cancer diagnosis but he was still alright at that time. When he came in here, well, it's bad. Really bad. The government side said he was already in a really bad state. If you have to stage the cancer, then I say it's about stage three. critical to terminal. But we'll just wait for the prof. It was nothing but a mad rush, topping up drips, updating reports, attending to patient's needs, following prof to get their consent for op on the following day. The TL refused to let me go for break because no one went at all, even though I explained that I'm having gastric. Her reason was, "Nobody went for break, so don't be selfish." The moment I went back, I ate two plain crossiants, but even so...
The next day, the day started off okay at first. But then I had major diarrhoea. And if yesterday's gastric was bad, today's worse. It felt as thought my whole stomach is being twisted. And I nearly passed out few times. But I stayed strong for my patients' sake. I have to send a patient down to the OT and I did okay, medicines, blood reports and stuff alright. Except for one tiny thing which no one told me. TED stocking. After I sent the patient down, everyone was like, TED stocking. Oh, uh-oh, OMG. This prof is super particular, one mistake and your name goes to the matron. Everyone told me to start preparing my apology speech and these words kept running though my mind. I'M SORRY, PROF... We managed to send the stocking down so I hoped I won't have to give my apology speech to the prof.
After that, I helped to prepare feeding for uncle before he go for his home leave, but my gastric tortured me. The pain was so bad til uncle actually saw how much it hurts. His family too, and the strangest thing was, they gave me a small cup of Peptamen to drink. I refused, but they insisted because my gastric was getting worse. After a small sip, I felt a little better. A very kind gesture indeed. They questioned why I didn't eat much and I just shrugged and answered, most people said when you join nursing, migraine, back pain and gastric are part of the job description. They shook their head and told me to take care of my health. Thank you, auntie and uncle :D
Remember the other uncle I mentioned, his cancer is now really bad... Let's just say all we are doing now is improving his quality of life, but I don't want to wrap up another body, or hear another case like, "Oh, hey, your old patient has passed away." Please, uncle, stay strong.
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