Clean, Flush, Cut and Poke

17th July (Friday) - When you're at the ground floor like me, you'll be given almost the same routine again and again. Most of the patients came in with heavy wounds and it's up to us to clean it. But wait, it's not simple dressing. Yes, the foundation for a simple dressing is definitely there, but the wound is not. It's always the same thing, y'know. Patients come in, you greet them, then you ask where their wounds are. For the first few times I do just that, but after seeing the same regular faces again and again, you know where the wound is, but the cleaning depends on how well the wound is after several weeks of healing.
Flushing comes when you use your forcep and then you see what we call a hole or a pocket. Something hollow. And flushing isn't fun, let me tell you. Of course, last time when we do it in our students' time, it was fun, but in real life, it ain't easy. I got my first hand experience and I had to position my syringe tip properly otherwise I'll end up with an out of control water gun and things will get really messy.
The cutting part is one of the job that is difficult. Difficult meaning that you have to be really, really patient. With only a forcep and your scissors in hand,  you're going to have to cut and cut and cut at dead skin, dry skin, slough, fats and other stuff that you can never imagine in a normal wound. Seriously, you have to be really patient and cut all the unnecessary parts to make sure the wound can grow healthily and back into new beautiful tissues. And it doesn't matter if it takes you an hour or more, it's our job to do it, unless for emergency cases, we really have no choice but to postpone on other days. Because cutting wrong and too fast can result in major bleeding, and we do not want that to happen after all of our hard work.
Poking is a nightmare. Poking is one of the toughest part where you really have to poke gently at the wound to get all the slough out. And yes, it's as frustrating as cutting, because slough are so thin that you can't see them properly. Poking wrong will results in your patients screaming in agony. Imagine someone taking something and poking your raw wound. Super painful, and you're doing dressing, which means no painkillers, not even local anaesthesia, so you have to do it at a snail's pace.
Okay, back to writing.

Out of the Box

12th July (Sunday) - Sorry I haven't been up for so long. My internet connection was down and I recently only fixed it. So many things had happened in between my last post, and I don't know where to start. Let me start with my recent re-assignment. Apparently, I knew all along I couldn't stay in aesthetic, mainly because two people are considered a lot, even though my colleagues had tried to get me to stay by saying in case two doctors or three cases comes in, all three of us can use all three rooms and handle each cases. But no one is budging, and they finally deployed me to the second floor clinic, handling kids and pregnant mommies. After a week of being there, they moved me to the ground floor clinic. At first I was a little worried. because one week, how can I even catch up with the clinic flows? I feel like I'm a soccer ball, being kicked around, but til now I'm at the ground floor clinic, and I love it, more than the second floor.
Kids and pregnant mommies are not really my thing. I used to love it, I even wanted to be a midwife once, cause of all the dramas, and I love seeing births, new life coming into the world, and the funny fathers-to-be crying tears of joy and waving their Ipads and smart phones to take photos of their wee ones. Unfortunately, many hospitals that I apply to refused to give me Labour Rooms, saying that I need to be a qualified midwife first. But at some hospitals you can be a normal staff nurse at the Labour Room for a minimum of two years, but then you are expected to take your midwifery course because Labour Room needs midwives, not nurses. Being a normal staff nurse is the equivalent of a clerk and they don't want that.
One thing that I truly loved when I was working in my previous hospital was dressings. I don't know why, but I used to be squeamish when I see blood, but after being exposed to seeing tons of bloody stuff (plus doing tons of research for writing) , I actually loved it. When I moved to my new work environment, I loved doing dressings, but I can't touch them, only doctors are allowed to do the dressings. I assist, and in a way, it's frustrating. I want to hands on, not stay on the sidelines. Well, ground floor clinic is where I can do things my way and at my own pace. And the surgeons here are okay, and so are the patients, because they often come back for daily dressing. And so you'll often see them again and again til their wound are fully healed. Best part of all. the dressings are done by us. See why I like the place.
It has already been nearly two week I'm there and I still have a lot of things to catch up on. I'll update whenever I can in between writing and work. That's all for now. ^^