Entering February

1st February (Sunday) - Entering the month of February, how fast January had gone by this year. It's totally crazy, now with everybody rushing for Chinese New Year. I came back from my long break to find the ward decorated with red cloths and tiny lanterns. Not exactly what I expected, but it gave the ward a Chinese New Year feel. All of my old patients were gone, fully recovered and discharged. Now there are new ones. Most of them were pretty shocked to see me, "I never seen you before." And I merely replied, "I just came back from a long break." Most of the profs said the same thing, "Long time no see."
After a long break, it took some getting back feeling but being back in the ward sure made me happy that there's something to do, besides meeting my patients and earning salary to get decent things. During the week break, I've been watching a lot of Anna Olson (Love her shows very much), and I feel like taking up baking, especially ganache to make chocolate truffles. But in between writing my story, I don't think I had the time to take up baking. I'm not exactly a keen cook if that's what you're wondering. I'm able to cook Hokkaido Miso ramen because it takes up to exactly ten minutes to cook. Toss the seaweed to brew, after five minutes, toss the noodles in, two minutes after that, toss any garnishing you want, I love naruto fishcakes, but it's impossible to find in here, so I settled for crab sticks. Let it boil for three minutes and you're done. Ten minutes on the dot. Add in the miso and itadakimasu :D
Okay, back to the matter on hand, I haven't forgotten any of my skills. First thing I came back I had to handle a lot of blood, blood for culture and sensitivity to be exact. Of all things. I had a patient who had a month of fever of unknown origin. They said it's definitely not dengue, if it was dengue, she most likely wouldn't suffer this long. The funny thing was her temperature is really scary. One minute she's fine, next minute her temperature spiked up to 38 or more. Insane. The antibiotic helped maintained her temperature, but she still end up shivering and then being fine at the next. That;'s why the blood culture and sensitivity, and to rule out malaria parasites.  Oh, I hope she gets well soon.
Some patients were rather cheeky, I mean it in a good way. Since new year is now approaching near, some of the patients asked for ang pows. Ahem, I'm not married. I can't give ang pows as per tradition.
Removing chemoport needles seems to becoming my thing, especially on Sundays. Many ladies, especially Chinese speaking, will usually come around noon, where I'll usually be at the counter and they'll speak in Mandarin how they want the chemoport to be removed. Usually, I get the outpatient charges bill ready, bring the patient to the treatment room, then prepare my equipments. 10cc heparin saline flushing, gauze, alcohol swab on stand by, post op sites and gloves. Some patients said day care had already charged them, so then I don't charge them. If not, I have to, since it's considered a service.
I did met some old patients, and they do remember me. Especially one patient whom they labelled fussy. She's not. I wish people would stop calling her fussy. She's nice, and she's a teacher. She was being discharged today, because my poor friend was busy, I offered to help her since she's really busy and she had to settle all the paperworks since she got her hands full with two discharges.So I did everything form top to bottom. From removing the chemoport, to changing her dressing, and finally to removing her CBD. She was so happy that she gave me a hug and wished me a happy Chinese New Year and all the best in my career. Awww. I wished her well and advised her not to stress herself, since she only just recovered. Plus some of the kindly elderly gentlemen were discharged too and thanked me for helping them (even though I only met them for a day).
Welcome to February month, and I'm praying hard that everything will turn out well.