Read my Lips

We’ve just completed all our cases so everyone was happy and Leslie was suggesting to celebrate by singing it all out at a Karaoke Cubicle.

The hospital where we came from was extra far from my house so I delayed my urge to poop that morning. I wasn’t really feeling as intense to dump at that time when we have finally finished our shift in the delivery room and were traveling homeward, but due to its distance I didn’t think that coming with them to sing in a videoke would be such a great idea.[In case]

Anyway I told them that I can’t come and Leslie surely was upset. She frowned and said something I was not able to hear. There were other people in the Jeepney so I just mouthed back, “Na-ta-ta-e–a-ko.”(I feel like defecating) to appease her.

She didn’t seem to understand what i said, so I mouthed again, “Na-ta-ta-e–a-ko.”(I feel like defecating).

And for the third time, I tried to mouth again, and as I mouthed the words, another jeepney tried to overtake us and turned left. I was sitting at the jeepney’s door, on the right side, so I was directly in front of the other vehicle’s right side, clearly seen through its wide window. As I mouthed the words and as the other vehicle gained at us and leaned towards left, I saw a girl on the other jeepney’s window giggling with her finger pointing at me saying something to her friend, who immediately turned her head and looked at me.

It was like.. “Nata-” I saw the girl smiling “tae” boom she pointed her finger “ako” and laughed with her friend. In an ordinary setting I would have blushed but since we were, technically, at different places, I was really amused.

PS I want to greet Skinny Angel a Happy Happy Birthday! 25 ka na! Gurang ka na! HAHAHA

Miss Gay Strikes Again

Ash Wednesday- As the group’s Head Nurse, I have to supervise all my groupmates’ tasks in our duty in the payward, I have to delegate patients, check if anything is wrong, make prescriptions of ordered medications(which the staff nurses sign), answer to all the patients’, relatives’ and my classmates’ queries and all.

Our CI made it clear that since we are graduating within a few weeks time, he expects us the standard of a real registered nurse, in short he has the right to leave me with Neil as my Vital Signs Nurse and to roam around God knows where.

The payward is like a mini prototype of the whole public tertiary hospital where we were interning. It has its own Surgical, Medical, OB, Pedia wards, and private rooms. My CI instructed me to delegate one patient each to my classmate while I have to take care of the rest. This wasn’t really hard since I handled 30 plus patients when I was in the Pediatric ward just three weeks ago as a Vital Signs Nurse (and I had to monitor, record and graph all their Vital Signs).

During the first hour Rose and Loren approached me and asked me about their patients’ IVs. The bottles were about to drain. Since the nurse was still using the charts they have to ask me since I was the one who endorsed the clients to them. I checked my Cardex and gave the necessary IV bottles.

While I was assisting Rose as she change her patient’s bottle, Loren came running into the room and told me that Miss Gay was insisting to let her change her boyfriend’s IV Bottle, so I said no. I made it clear to Loren that she’s the one responsible to her patient and whatever might happen to him, she’ll be the one liable. Besides she’s not even from our school.

I really do not care about the Miss Little Philippines VS Miss Gay feud, but she really was a nightmare. I had many a chance meeting patients with Medical Doctor and Registered Nurse relatives, but none of them acted this way. Loren, Aiza, Melanie, everyone inside the surgical ward had something to say against her. She’s a total headache, so when I passed by the ward and saw her lying on an empty bed, I told Loren to tell her that relatives are not allowed lto lie down on the beds. Loren told her so, but she acted as if she didn’t hear her. So Loren asked our CI’s help… and finally, we have confirmed, our CI is no match against her.

Little Miss Philippines vs Miss Gay

Nursing Student from other School: Tayo nga kayo. Alam nyo ang gaganda nyo, dapat sumali kayo sa Little Miss Philippines. (Can you please stand up . You girls are pretty, you should join Little Miss Philippines.)

Aiza: Alam mo ang ganda mo. Dapat sumali ka sa Miss Gay. (You know what, you’re pretty. You should join Miss Gay)

Actually that’s what my classmates’ imagined reply to the girl’s sarcastic remark about their heights. “Imagined” because they didn’t say anything.

Loren, Melanie, Rose, and Aiza are small but we do not dare make fun of their heights (we usually joke about their cup sizes hehe). But the girl really had it going. Joking about my classmates’ height is like burning a North Korean Flag on the North-South Korean border… it’s a war. But I was surprised that they didn’t talk back. They sourly smiled to the girl and bitterly listened to her stories about herself and her boyfriend who was confined in our ward.

Just after the girl left, Melanie, Aiza, and Rose went inside our locker room furious and told us about their little encounter and about what they should have said. Aiza was red-faced recounting her agonizing minutes listening and falsely smiling at her.

Haaayy.. but honestly, haven’t they tried to audition yet? (wink wink)

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!

If Ever I Die Along the Way

Tonight I am leaving with my father to spend the season with our relatives in Isabela. It always takes us more or less twelve hours to travel from Bataan to Isabela, and thus my father prefers that we go on a night trip. However, travelling that long especially thru the rugged terrain of the Cordillera mountains of the province of Nueva Viscaya is certainly dangerous, actually any kind of journey via national hi-ways is dangerous. In fact, I have encountered an accident when I was little in the said route.

Last September, I acquired an Organ Donor Card from the National Kidney Transplant Institute (NKTI). The card is part of NKTI’s HOPE or Human Organ Preservation Effort program that aims to “advocate organ and tissue donation and to source out transplantable organs from deceased organ donors.” Organ donors are not just the victims of accidents, there are instances when a person’s body still lives though the brain has already given up and so he becomes the perfect candidate for organ donation. This card guarantees that if ever I die, my organs will not be wasted and rot with the rest of my body.

At first I found it a little bit repulsive. Just thinking of people hauling my lifeless body from a supposed vehicular accident, and immediately transferring me from the site to the nearest hospital, not to revive me, but to the take advantage of the still fresh and still “consumable” internal organs that haven’t been destroyed by the accident.

I gave it a thought and with the help of a little explanation that my death will not be put to waste and will mean a lifelong health for someone else strucked me. It is a little bit eerie but death is an inevitable phenomenon so why not endure with the optimism that at the end of the day someone else’s life is lengtened. So I agreed and took the card. I went home and jot down the needed data at the back; it says;

In the hope that I may help others, I wish to donate after my death; 

followed by a list of five organs and a word “others’ with the corresoponding boxes where I have to put a mark. I checked all the boxes. Then I proceed to the next statement with a box saying;

Any needed parts to be used for transplantation, research and education.

i didn’t find the last three words, “research and education”, inviting so I put a slash mark over them and wrote the word “only” after the word “transplantation” so it looks like this

Any needed parts to be used for transplantation, only

research and education.

Obtain your own HOPE card now at the National Kidney Institute, who knows, LIFE might be your next perfect Christmas gift to someone.