Tension High

9th January (Friday) - I knew today we're going to get incoming admissions, because yesterday was too silent. Unless you count me having a soft whispery voice and unable to shout or yell, with the occasional phlegm and my ears pressure seems uncoordinated due to a lot of popping when I'm blowing my nose, oh, and the part where OT caused me a lot of stress. Yes, I know it's already past eight, the time where we all will be begging, please don't send patient up before nine... But what can you do if you are still on? I got a call to take down a patient, no, not complaining. I grabbed what I needed (Kidney dish. spatulas, gauze, gloves, alcohol swabs, hypafix) and dashed down. Ah, okay, there's my patient. slightly KO-ed, as all who underwent GA.
I took over from the OT staff. Ooookay. Some weird lettering, but I can see bronchoscopy, excision of mass and tumour clearly. Alright, but wait. She skipped the HPE part. I quickly asked her about the specimen and she went, "Oh, yeah. HPE sent." Close call. She passed over the rest. I'm surprised that Dr A never wrote his cardex. He doesn't seem like the kind of person who would leave things hanging. So the girl told me to give Panadol if the patient moans in pain. If Panadol doesn't work, to call Dr A. Oh, okay.
When I got back, I checked through my medication cardex first. Oh for goodness sake. The girl got it wrong. Dr A already wrote all of the painkillers in black and white. The one who did not wrote was Prof B, who ordered 3 doses of antibiotics with the anti-vomiting drug. ==  I quickly stuck stickers onto my nursing notes, and got another shock. No, not kidding. My patient's labels were swapped with another patient's, both are under the same Prof. Oh COME ON, I know they are probably busy but please, please, please,  a Malay young lady label with a middle aged Chinese man label, there's a BIG difference. Thank God I checked the whole folder beforehand. Yes, it's my patient's folder, but the labels are wrong. I have to toss it aside and print out a new fresh set of labels. Sigh. What a waste. As I was closing my folder, I noticed something funny in the front. What's this? A vial with an unused medication, seal unbroken. HELLO??? It's a very good thing I did not thrash the folder around. What if the vial breaks? And then who's going to answer to Prof B tomorrow???
The next day we definitely have sponging. Only one. The elderly lady whom my friend sent down with the young lady I sent. It's kinda obvious. She's the only one with a major surgery, my young lady just had an excision of the neck, not very major. I did sponging for her with another girl, and I knew it, she kept talking to me non-stop in Cantonese/ Hokkien, even though I repeatedly told her in broken Cantonese, I don't speak the language, nor do I understand fully, only basic simple words.But she still insisted on talking to me. Sigh, I tried to answer her as little as possible, hoping for her to understand that I can't entertain her much. She didn't get it, but I toned down a lot.
It's my second time taking a patient back from angio, but this time, I'm well prepared. Grab the kidney dish (and others) and off we go. So after making sure I'm going to the right place (Don't want to end up running around the South Tower like last time), I went to find my patient. There's only three patients there. Two men and one lady. I know my patient is a man, but which one? I haven't seen his face before, so I went over to the girl at the counter and asked for my patient. She smiled at me and said he's the one on the farthest left. To make sure I'm not taking the wrong patient, I went over to the patient and asked for his ID band----
Oh, no band. O.O A-Ara...
I asked the patient his name and he said, yes, he's the patient. I was basically going around, "Where's the ID band?" Then the girl laughed and said, "We had to cut it off because it was on his right." Ohhh, Okay, at least thank God it was the right patient. So I grabbed the folder, brought back my patient and did the routine post-angio observation. Whew.
Besides running up and down in doctor's rounds, admissions, assisting in dressings and observations, I did one final task before the end of my shift. Assisting a prof in removing the TR band. God knows why he wants to remove it so fast, I was basically ripping off packets after packets of sterile gauzes and handing them to prof due to the amount of blood pouring out from the radial site. Not to mention the surgical swabs I was tearing open after another. Then he asked me to get adrenaline from the pharmacy. I told him timidly we need a prescription, since adrenaline is not something that we keep in the ward. He basically waved me away and said, "Just get me one ampoule, I'll write the prescription later!" What could I do but ran like crazy and asked the pharmacy for the adrenaline. Lucky they were understanding and handed me one, and I ran back with the precious ampoule in hand. I dropped it in the tray, tossed out a 3cc syringe and prof stopped me. "Wait, don't open it unless I tell you to." Alright. So I stand by with the plasters and bandages then when the bleeding finally stopped thanks to prof applying a lot of pressure, I got my plaster ready and we taped it hard. Then I did the bandaging while prof went to settle the charges. After settling the branulla, I chuck all the blood stained gauze, gloves, torn packets into the clinical waste bin, wrote my report at top speed, grabbed a charging list, jotted down all the equipments, grabbed prof's charges, and on my way out, I dropped by the billing and ended my shift officially. Wow, what a day.