Just an old-fashioned hospital day

"This is a great room!" That's a quote from one of my two patients at AV Hospital Monday. There were three women in my patient room that morning, all ambulatory and all friendly.

My first patient, the social director of the group and a cancer patient, ordered a pizza delivered for all of them to share, and would go sit on her roommates' beds and chat with them so they wouldn't feel lonely.

My second patient was a charming older lady who was my meds guinea pig for the day. I only dropped ONE of her 6 pills on the floor -- thanks for getting me a replacement, Mrs Harmon -- and when I checked her blood sugar I managed to stab her finger just a tad close to the joint. She mildly informed me that that "stung a bit." Aaaack! So I learned something about Accu-checking: aim for the fleshy part of the finger.

Patient #3 wasn't assigned to me, but when she asked for my help with walking to the bathroom, I found out that it's okay to temporarily unplug an IV pump from the wall socket -- the pumps run on rechargeable batteries, like our blood-pressure/thermometer machines. Useful to know.

Maybe Monday was what it was like in the good old days in hospitals, when people weren't ALL quite so sick, and the pace was slower. I even had a chance to sit down and chat for a little while myself.

What the hell's the HESI?

We're taking the HESI test today. I don't know what it is, but Mrs Harmon said not to stress over it, so I'm not. She also said we can't study for it. Yay! A test I don't have to study for is a good test indeed.

Just went and looked online and HESI stands for Health Education Systems, Inc. Hmmm.... Anything educational with an Inc. on the end sounds bogus to me.

A good day at the hospital

This past Tuesday was the first day at the hospital I didn't feel crazy. Truly a RED-LETTER DAY.

Here's what happened: my Monday patient, another really sick patient with crazy edema, left. He was a sweet guy who never complained unless you asked him and I think he was in a lot of pain. He got a PICC line and then his wife decided he needed to go to Loma Linda for his liver failure. I hope he is doing well.

So Tuesday I got a new patient, a mystery man: the docs hadn't figured out what was wrong with him yet, and his main symptoms were lab levels that were off. But he wasn't on any meds and he was mobile and did his own shower and everything, so he was such an easy patient. My first one! I took his vital signs and did my assessment and that was about it.

I got to go out and about and see if any of my classmates needed help, like they have always done for me. "Need any help?" This time it was me asking, but no takers. It must've been a quiet day for everyone, because most of us were wandering the halls looking for things to do.

Everybody else was bored, but I was just grateful not to be feeling so frazzled for once. :)

Yet another first

I would really like to do something for the second or third or fiftieth time at the hospital, but I guess that will just have to wait.

Today I saw a PICC line put in for the first time. PICC stands for Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter. It's threaded all the way into a big vein near the heart, unlike the usual IV-in-the-forearm, so it's good for folks who need to get a lot of thick or irritating stuff intravenous.

It was pretty cool to see the procedure, complete with sterile field set up over the patient; a lot like in an operating room. It took the nurse specialist a while to get the line placed, but my patient took it all with equanimity. The more I'm around patients, the more I think they are well named.

A pic of a PICC:

Shot put II

Rested up, and working on another Major Care Plan.

Also, Red Letter Day last Tuesday: I gave my first shots to an actual patient. This was a Big Deal for me! She was a diabetic who needed a daily shot of insulin, an Accu-chek (blood glucose test), and a chaser shot if her blood was too high later in the day (it was).

Of course Mrs Harmon was watching me like a hawk for both injections (she left me to do the Accu-chek all alone -- whoo hoo!), and I forgot to put the cover on the needle IMMEDIATELY afterwards both times. Hopefully that'll never happen again.

And I actually didn't drop anything ... while she was watching.

Exhausted; pressing on

I am beyond tired. You know that fatigue where your brain feels ... well, anything like a brain. Today at the hospital I really wondered if I would get through. It took me an hour and a half to bathe and settle my patient. A phone cord tangled around her bed rails, IV and oxygen tubing and IV pole just about did me in.

But I did give out meds today for the first time; a small victory. And now it's on to finishing my ten-page research paper. And thanks to my new Macbook, I'm doing that in bed! Whew.

Shot put

I can now officially Give Injections to Patients. Scary, huh? I've given a grand total of two (2) shots, one IM, one subcutaneous, and both to my fellow student, Koi. Thanks Koi! And you're welcome (I returned the favor, letting her jab me twice too).

This was actually a major hurdle for me because for some weird reason I've had the unshakable notion that The Needle Wouldn't Go Into the Patient. Crazy, I know, but I kept imagining I'd go to stick it in and it'd bounce off, like skin is made of titanium or something.

But in fact, as my friend Nicole has patiently explained to me: People are SOFT. Needles are SHARP. Of course she's right, and now I know for sure. The needles do just ... go in. Whew.

Hey Koi, my arm doesn't hurt any more. How's the hip?