13th February (Friday) - No wonder the day's terrible. It's Friday the 13th. Urgh, how could I forget? Friday is never a good day for me, never. :( And we're busy running up and down again. No wonder why everyone is anxious for the new year to come. We're basically in hot waters, and to make matter worse, a new protocol is going to be in place. Oh, dear God save us all.
Pleural tapping... One procedure that was needed urgently for a patient. No one was willing to do it, and it so happened I was following the prof, so I got the luck of the draw. Darn, this prof they say he's a nice guy, but when it comes to procedure, he expects you to get what he's saying after one round of explaination. Oh, not good, not good. I can't cope with those kinds of people. I'm absolutely terrible at these kind of things. But in a way. it's to train myself to be focused.
Being a complete amateur, I thought you needed one of those special sterile sets, like suture set, stuff like that, but nope, they say all I needed are these things:
Dressing set x1
Sterile gloves x1 pair (Depending on prof's hands)
Several needles of various sizes x 5 (Each)
20cc syringes x2 (Minimum, but you can bring up to 3 to be on a safer side)
10cc syringes x3 (Minimum, but I bring up to 5 for standby)
Lignocaine 1% x5 bottles (Seriously, bring this much, you'll need it)
Incopads (There's no limit to this, because depending on how things are, it may be messy, but this prof is tip top in this procedure, so you can being a packet to be safe. One packet = 5 sheets)
Urine bag x1 (I really loathe the twisty knob one, but if you could, bring the one that pushes left to right. That one is really safe.)
3 way stopper x1 (Usually you'll need one, but bring up to 2 - 3 just in case)
Branulla (orange) x 3
Gauze x 5 packets (One packet = 3 pieces, be on the safe side, depending how messy things are)
IV tubing x1 (Usually you'll need just one)
Tape (No limit, just bring as much as you can)
Latex gloves x 3 pairs (For yourself)
* Solution (This one is entirely up to prof on what solution he uses. For my case, he want iodine and alcohol spirit, so I got those on standby, one bottle each)
* Specimen bottles (Again, it's entirely up to prof. For my case, he wants an FEME bottle, one sterile bottle, one purple and one red. So I had those on hand.)
Now comes the part where you assist. Prof will usually prepare his patients while I prepare the trolley. So once you're ready, just prepare everything. Get a pillow, make the patient sit on the edge of the bed, and the rest, just stay sharp. He will explain things to me one round and expect me to remember. Okay, so each time he ask for something, I have to get it ready. The tough part comes when the fluid is being taken out. Prof wants me to prepare the bottles so I got it all ready, then he filled up each bottle and I seal them tight. Then when he pass me the tubing, I have to quickly connect it it to the urine bag and let it flow while keeping an eye on the fluid flow. Anything suspicious I have to report to him.
It only lasted a while because once my patient start coughing like mad, he stopped the whole thing and I tidy up the whole thing. Only mistake I made, taping the tubing too high/low. In overall, I scored a 9/10. At least I quickly measured the fluid and report back to him.
Yeah, although it's pretty exhausting, it was alright. A least now I'm able to assist him with confidence.
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