It is HARD to STUDY HARD

I secured a special duty from the Senior Coordinator in a delivery room to complete my cases. Since there are three free shifts this weekend, she gave me the freedom to choose what time I would like to come. I took the 10PM to 6AM shift since I hate traveling at 4 in the morning or at 12 midnight. Since I can’t miss my Saturday class that runs from 8AM-5PM, I decided to attend until lunch yesterday and half of it today, Sunday.

Hanzel, Neil, Loren and Rose came with me to complete their respective cases (The rest of my groupmates have already completed their assisted and Handled Deliveries).

It was a breath of fresh air that the CI who supposed to handle us was not there and another one had to supervise us. The first was extremely annoying and yells at everyone when we had her as our CI when there was a Medical Mission this hospital. She snapped at us and ridiculed us in front of everyone… the very opposite of our CI last night. She’s nice and I felt her deep concern on our cases. Maybe it’s because her daughter is a nursing student too.

I handled the first case, Lorenza assisted me. The nurses in this hospital do not practice Episiotomy- the manual surgical incision of the perineum to facilitate the baby’s exit from the womb. The nurse instructed me to support the little muscle that separates the reproductive organ and the anus. I stretched the skin but very careful not to make any tear on it. I put my thumb outside and pressed the skin between the perineum and the anus while the rest of my fingers pulled the widening mouth further. Still, no matter what kind of support I made to prevent the laceration, the skin cut in half as the baby passed through the vagina. The expulsion of the baby was incredibly fast but notoriously bloody. I spilled blood all over the floor when I finally delivered the baby, and still more after the placenta. I have to insert my hands inside the cervix and into the uterus to make sure that no debris was left. Unfortunately, the uterus lies farther deep within that I have to dive even deeper until the hem of my gloves has finally touched the lips of the organ and I couldn’t continue anymore since I was afraid to touch the blood directly with and to contaminate the sterile environment inside with my bare skin. However, no matter how I avoid the blood, they still poured down to my bare arms to my elbows. I have to wash really hard later on since the blood hardened and dried up afterward.

The second case would have been handled by Rose, assisted by Neil. But Neil told me that he felt peculiarly nauseated when he watched me handled my case. He couldn’t stand the sight of blood gushing down so he told me to assist Rose instead. I agreed, a second case is not bad afterall. I find this a bit stupid, I mean, after all this months of witnessing countless deliveries and surgeries, ngayon pa ba sya matatakot sa dugo?

The woman giving birth is a Muslim, so I stayed beside her, near her shoulder, careful not to look at her private- respect for her tradition, but her husband and mother-in-law didn’t seem to care. Actually, I didn’t do anything, the woman gave birth with ease and at a pace of a 100th time mother, which is really surprising considering that it is her first born. The mother-in-law later on asked for the placenta. I asked Neil about this since he grew up in Mindanao, he told me that they’ll bury it.

Hanzel handled the third delivery. It was already 6:30 when he finished his case. I got home at 9:30. I ate my breakfast then took a nap for an hour and ate my lunch. I went back to school today to continue my class yesterday.

I have been awake for more than 36 hour now, and amazingly, I don’t feel sleepy at all.

How I Wish

This morning at about 10:00, the whole group left Rose Anne giving a CPR to her 1-month old pediatric patient to have our 15-minute break. The case was Septicemia. We all know that any time soon the baby will snuff it. I was really keen to stay with Rose.

According to an age-old superstition, if you whisper a wish to a dying person it will come true. I wanted to say my own wish. Foul as it may sound, this kind of superstition still persists. Actually, an instructor told us once about her deathbed wish. For seven years she and her husband were childless and no matter how many tests they had undergone, not a single figment of success was seen. Her father died in a Saint Something Medical Center in Quezon City where she works as the head nurse. During that time, as a nurse, she very well know that her father would not make it. She decided to whisper her wish on his father’s ear and asked for a child just befoire he died. A year after, she gave birth, and then the following year she got pregnant again.

Though sharp as I am to stay, I haven’t had a breakfast yet. My tummy rumbled and I let my feet swept me with the rest of the white-clad student nurses-my groupmates.

After cleaning my instant cup noodle, Rose Ann  entered the canteen. She was unsuccessful to revive the baby. So we all asked, “Nakapagwish ka ba?” (Did you make a wish?). She paused for a moment, thinking what we mean. I repeated the question and when she finally discerned what I mean, she snapped her finger and yelped, “Ay oo nga ano. Sayang nalimutan ko.” (Oh yeah. What a waste I forgot.)

I Just Fell Asleep.[PERIOD]

For our upcoming Graduation, our block held the traditional recollection. The facilitator is a nun so it was held in a Nunnery.

For the last activity, the nun asked us to lie on the floor and close our eyes as she narrates a story with us imagining that we were the lead character. She meant this to help us reflect on our life from birth to our deathbed. The activity somewhat resembles my Psyche professor’s Hypnosis. But in the midst of her talk, there was a moment when I was hearing nothing and I felt that I was so relaxed. I fell asleep. Still, my untimely slumber was not that deep that I was perfectly conscious when she finally ended the activity and asked us to stand.

April, who took her place beside me, approached me sniggering. She asked, “Did you snore? I thought I heard someone snoring.”

And I was like, “Of course not… I was asleep.”

[defensive.. wink wink]

-no evidence of mucus membrane.

While thinking what to write in my patient’s record, I decided to peruse the previous chartings made by my classmates in their respective shifts when I came across my own handwritten report of my client. Charting is the written document of the Nurse in the Patient’s Medical Record. It is where we write our observations and the follow up interventions to our client’s problems. A usual charting includes also the “subjective” data of the patient, which are usually verbalized complaints; Nursing Diagnosis; and the Nurse’s plan. But in this particular hospital, the SOP is to write only the “Objective” or observable data and the implemented interventions of the nurse. (Click here for my first ever REAL hospital chart [HYUUUCKKK!!!])

Yesterday, my Clinical Instructor asked me to rewrite my Nurse’s note. Thank goodness the previous chartings have already filled all the previous pages or I would not have been able to write in a clean leaf and would have left a page dotted with erasures accompanied each by my own signature. I really didn’t know what was the problem with my original charting, nevertheless, I did what he said. I rewrite the whole page as it was and passed it. This morning, Angelo told me that our CI was pissed off yesterday by Neil’s and my own charting. I asked him why and he said Neil and I made some terrible “technical’ mistakes… He was sure that it was with the spellings and other grammatical stuff. (I think Neil misspelled received as RecIeved in his patient chart.)

By Nine, as I read my own charting the other day I found this line;

-no evidence of mucus membrane.

HUH?!!! I mean, WHAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTT????!!!

I reread the line a couple of times and I was wrapped in a fog of an embarrassing disbelief. Who else read this record? Of course, my classmates from the other shift. Yes my Clinical Instructor. I looked at the bottom of the page and saw my own signature countersigned by my CI, then by the Staff Nurse, then by the head nurse… I almost thought that I saw the Chief Nurse’s signature thank goodness it wasn’t there.

Grabe. The doctor’s Diagnosis is AGE c Mild DHN (Acute Gastroenteritis with mild Dehydration). I meant that line to be “-no evidence of DRYNESS in the mucus membrane”, which supposedly would mean that the child is successfully being rehydrated. But for some reasons I have omitted the important word- dryness. I mean if I have forgotten mucus membrane the sentence will still mean what I mean, write? right?

VROOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!!!

Okay it must have been really weird for me to let the last Celebrity Edition of Pinoy Big Brother to come and go without writing a single entry about it.

Actually I have been really busy these past months (10pm-6am duties, film docus… etc etc..) and I was not able to watch the whole edition. Plus, I found the housemates really uninteresting this time. I was really bored during the Season One Celebrity Edition, but the Season Two Celebrity Housemates were just outright boring.

I would have wanted Ethel, Macoy, or Gabby to win though. 

ANAK KA NG PUTANG INA MO!!!!!!!

BAGONG TAON NA BAGONG TAON!!! Kaasar. Isipin mo, inihian yung pinto ng bahay namin. Bale nanonood ako ng CD na binili ko kahapon. Nasa kalagitnaan na ‘ko ng kumatok yung kuya ng inaanak ko gustong manood ng ibang CD sabi ko ayaw ko umuwi na lang sya at bumalik na lang ‘pag tapos na ‘ko. Nung palabas na sya may tatlong batang sumunggab sa kanya, nangangasat. Eh di hindi sya makalabas, pinapasok ko sya tapos sinara ko yung pinto. Aba ’di pa rin natigil, kumakatok pa rin, pati ako sinasagot tapos maya maya pa narinig ko yung isa sabi, “Ihian nga natin yung pinto. ” Eh di takbo ako sa pinto pagbukas ko, andun basa na tawa pa ng tawa. Tinanong ko sa kuya ng inaanak ko kung sino yung nanay nun, itinuro sakin, pinuntahan ko nga.  Naabutan ko yung nanay nagtotong its sa kanto. Sabi ko nga, “Misis anak nyo ba ‘tong walang modong ‘to? Inhian nya lang naman yung pintuan namin. Pagalitan nyo at nakakahiya sa amin.”

GRABE!! Nanginginig talaga yung boses ko. Galit na galit ako. Gusto kong suntukin yung bata kaso alam ko pagginawa ko mapapatay ko talaga yun (TALAGA).Hanggang ngayon nanginginig pa yung kalamnan ko, wala pang thirty minutes yung limilipas. Aba putang ina nya, kung di naman sya gago. At yung nanay nya kung ‘di ba naman iresponsable. TANGINANG MGA KAPITBAHAY Yan!