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.
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