Eruption

4th November (Tuesday) - I came back from my one day off to find... mayhem. 6 OT cases. And all of them are close timings. So you can imagine the ward, all the files lay open and scattered, sheets of paper spilled carelessly on top, and everyone crowding at the counter, rushing to do the report and the patient who are going to OT, due to having a talk that lasted til past 3. Knowing the OT starts at 5, we scrambled all over to get the job done. Not easy. Preparing a patient to OT requires a lot of patience and initiative. Last time when I first started, it took me a long time to prepare one patient. But thanks to to the practice, I was able to do it smoothly. The only thing I kept forgetting is writing the time in my report. Ohhhh, so dangerous. I remember the time, but never the report. Darn it.
It's back to my old ward for me so the first person who called me is that old lady. I used to like her at first, but as time goes by, I started to dislike her. Because she take things too lightly, with a I-don't-really-care attitude. When I tried to get a 24 hour urine collection from her, she started making all of sort of excuses how she can't pass urine without passing motion. I spend an hour persuading her and even wrote down instructions for her and lo and behold, we got a nice 24 hour urine sample. There was a time too when I asked her something and she went talking a long story til she finally gave me her answer. Urgh. But this time this takes the cake. Good thing I asked her what time she fasted when I was changing her pampers because she looked at me all funny and went, "What op?" "What procedure?" It's rather strange for her to say that because this prof, although he's in a hurry, he always gets the job done efficiently and smoothly. What makes me so mad is from the morning shift time they told her to start fasting at 11, do you know what she did? She drank a little bit of water (!!!!!!) Oh my God, I let loose my anger. I couldn't help myself. I am the type of person who rarely shout or scold patients, no matter how bad, how fussy, how annoying my patients are, I never shouted, scolded or lose my temper on them, I always treat them with respect, no matter how crappy my life is. But this lady... I really can't take it anymore. I scolded her that if she takes even a little bit of water, how will she proceed the op? Which part of NIL BY MOUTH, NO FOOD AND NO DRINK does she not understand? She then told me it's just a little water. Well, let me share something from my real life experience. I encountered patients who sneakily drank "herbal-infused drinks" or "just plain water" or "it's just fruit juice/ Milo drink" and do you know what happened to them? We get yelled and the whole operation is delayed or postponed. Grrr. Her son even came out and asked whether she's allowed to drink and I told him, one more time, "She's going for an operation. No matter it is a big or small operation, she CANNOT DRINK OR EAT." Man, what can we say to make her understand?! She can't understand BM or English, when I used Mandarin, she listens in one year and go out in another. Should I speak Japanese?! The op is to improve her treatment and she's taking it too lightly. My colleagues were surprised because it's the first time I ever lose my temper on patients and they kept telling me to chill out.
The whole day was a rush til I nearly flipped. 6 OT cases, one goes up, and one goes down. A never ending cycle. I sent a patient down, I quickly started my observation. Once settled, I settle my reports and then have a quick dinner. Once done, we get to relax a bit from the whole mayhem. On and off there are the occasional call bells. Nothing big except we had some VIPs, real stuck up ones. Sigh. At least I'm not handling them. They demanded a lot of impossible things.
I sent another patient down, then it's off I go once again to fetch my patient. He's such a funny cheeky man. He kept teasing me to be his private nurse and I lightly teased him back, saying although that's nice, but I rather work in the hospital.
Overall, I learnt that even though I lost my temper, it turned out to be not wrong. There are times where you need to be firm with the patients when it's for their own good. Never allow them to step on you, otherwise they will treat you like servants or dirts. Not all, but some. It's like being with the profs and doctors, there are times when you can joke, but there are also time where you must be professional, not goofing around. Otherwise there will be T-R-O-U-B-L-E.