Half Way Through
Here it is the end of February, and I'm still trying to catch my breath from diving into the semester. It's almost midnight and I'm about half way through the material I need to have assimilated into my brain by tomorrow. Blogging is such a good procrastination tool. As of this week, I'm in the second half which is quite astounding considering I just started this semester the other day.
I was really dreading my current rotation because I always dread things that intimidate me. And why am I intimidated? Because my current clinical professor makes it her business to intimidate us at the very beginning and because of the acuity level of my patients. I'm in my ICU rotation. Like usual, things aren't ever as bad when you're actually doing them as my level of trepidation would indicate. I actually like this professor quite a bit and I've taken to the ICU like a duck to water. So now I have yet another direction to focus on. Then I think of having to be ACLS qualified which involves intubating patients, running codes....oh help!
I'm totally awestruck at how things can go awry with the body. Septic shock has always just been a textbook scenario to me. Now I have real live images to live forever in my brain to associate with it. It's amazing the downward spiral of the health with the invasion of a pheochromocytoma. I can now do trach care with only minor inner tremors, and I no longer panic when I accidently knock the vent off the trach--I just calmly hook it back up. I'm beginning to develop nerves of steel. At least, until I face the next crisis.
Speaking of tremors, this intimidating professor who seems totally unflappable was speaking to us of the delicate task of performing a patient's first trach care and how she always faces that task with trepidation because of what can go wrong. A new trach is not changed out until 24 hours after it's initial insertion. So my first day in the ICU, my nurse offered that I could do trach care on one of her other patients. Of course, I was all enthused about learning a new procedure. It never dawned on me until I was almost through that I was doing his FIRST trach care. The telltale stitches and the little gush of blood when I pulled out the trach never gave me the slightest qualm. Then one of her comments sunk in and I realized this was a brand new trach. Of course, by that time I had the new one inserted and was cleaning up. I felt a bit weak-kneed at the thought, but fairly proud of myself at the same time. I'm just glad I didn't know.
So that's what's been happening in my life recently. Oh yes, President Bush was at Erlanger last week which is where I'm doing my clinicals. The nurses were all abuzz about the bomb-sniffing dogs, etc.
I was really dreading my current rotation because I always dread things that intimidate me. And why am I intimidated? Because my current clinical professor makes it her business to intimidate us at the very beginning and because of the acuity level of my patients. I'm in my ICU rotation. Like usual, things aren't ever as bad when you're actually doing them as my level of trepidation would indicate. I actually like this professor quite a bit and I've taken to the ICU like a duck to water. So now I have yet another direction to focus on. Then I think of having to be ACLS qualified which involves intubating patients, running codes....oh help!
I'm totally awestruck at how things can go awry with the body. Septic shock has always just been a textbook scenario to me. Now I have real live images to live forever in my brain to associate with it. It's amazing the downward spiral of the health with the invasion of a pheochromocytoma. I can now do trach care with only minor inner tremors, and I no longer panic when I accidently knock the vent off the trach--I just calmly hook it back up. I'm beginning to develop nerves of steel. At least, until I face the next crisis.
Speaking of tremors, this intimidating professor who seems totally unflappable was speaking to us of the delicate task of performing a patient's first trach care and how she always faces that task with trepidation because of what can go wrong. A new trach is not changed out until 24 hours after it's initial insertion. So my first day in the ICU, my nurse offered that I could do trach care on one of her other patients. Of course, I was all enthused about learning a new procedure. It never dawned on me until I was almost through that I was doing his FIRST trach care. The telltale stitches and the little gush of blood when I pulled out the trach never gave me the slightest qualm. Then one of her comments sunk in and I realized this was a brand new trach. Of course, by that time I had the new one inserted and was cleaning up. I felt a bit weak-kneed at the thought, but fairly proud of myself at the same time. I'm just glad I didn't know.
So that's what's been happening in my life recently. Oh yes, President Bush was at Erlanger last week which is where I'm doing my clinicals. The nurses were all abuzz about the bomb-sniffing dogs, etc.
posted by Sara | 12:09 AM
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