A Day in the OR

I am bit slow in updating the blog these days, with uni back on and assignments to be done, also being at the hospital can tire a girl out. Nothing real exciting has been happening at the hospital, except for people in recovering from car accidents and brain tunours. I have been enjoying working in neurosurgery at lot more than some other places I have worked. However the work is heavy, patient requiring a lot of care and attention, which is not one of my favuourite things, I prefer a lighter patient load etc.

Anyway on Tuesday last week however another student and myself got the chance to go into the operating room to see a patient have a craniotomy and revomval of cancer tumours from her brain. Crainotomy is one of the most dangerous types of brain surgery, only the most talented neurosurgens perform them, and they have a high mortalily rate. In a craniotomy the cut back the skin on the head and drill into the skull, they then remove a whole section of the skull to see the brain. They then use telescopes etc. to look into the brain and remove the tumours. It was such an awesome surgery to watch, the best bits a rekon was the cranio-drill and just seeing this persons brain pulsing away.

After seeing that last week, this week could been seen as very boring, but I guess we will just have to see!

The catch-up

Haven't written in ages...so here is what has gone down:

1. We all did leave Port Pirie, we left on the Tuesday
2. I did get to see theatre for one day, it was gynie day....I am def not a lesbian!
3. Got to spend the day with my boyfriend on his actual birthday
4. Had actual week and half of holidays

Now more recently, I started back at the my usual adelaide hospital, I am now in neurosurgery which has been great. I feel like I am back in a ward where it feels like they want me. I have so far in my two week there learnt heaps and actually feel part of the team.

In other more sadder news, a man that had huge impact on both mine and many others lives, especially my boyfriends family past away last monday morning. He was battling bowel cancer for the past year or so, and couple days before he pasted he got jaundice and went into liver family. This man was a at my school and was a brother, but not your usual kind of brother. He was a grumpy man yet strangly infectious and very funny man. In younger years you are afraid of him, or I was but now and when I was part of the senior school, you are just drawn to him. You are no longer afriad of him, but see him as someone from the school, a teacher of sort who you actually want to invite to 18th and 21st birthdays, see at the pub etc.

He was an amazing man, someone who will also be such a big part of my memories of high school. I thank god that I met him, got to know him better than others, and now I thank god that he's no longer in pain. I just hope st. peter has his socks pulled up and had a hair cut!

Day six

Well you would think that because its the start of week two things would be better, but no that thought is so far from the truth. There are now three of us up here and we were screwed around all day. As I said before I was meant to be in theatre but no theatre was cancelled again today, so yet again I had no ward to go to. The two other students also weren't told where their wards were going to be. We then got abused by various nurse managers as they thought we were trying to pull something, when really we actually tring to find out what we were meant to be doing today.

Next up I got told theatre was going to be cancelled again on Wednesday, but theatre would be open on Tuesday. Everything just got really confused, so I went to clarrify things with this lady who is meant to organise our placement. Well she just cut sick at me, calling me to comanding in my manner, when all I was saying was that I would like to say in theatre for Tuesday. So we got into an argument.

One of the girls got so sick of being treated like second class citizens she has decided that she is going home tomorrow. I think I might join here, same with other student in leaving early. We rang our course orridinator and he said it was ok if I left early cause really I should have had today off and I don't have to go to any ward on Wednesday.

Placement sucks and we all just wanna go home!

Day five....and the weekend

Day five did not last long, the staff in A&E let me leave at 11am so that I could get in the car and travel home before dark. It was also so quiet in A&E that day so it all got a bit boring really. With nothing much to report on really that day, the drive home was more eventful.

Driving home it was just bucketing down with rain, like the windscreen wippers could not wipe fast enough. It also got kind of scarey when like the huge trucks speed past and threw heaps and heaps of water up onto my car as well. I was like ahhhhh, but other than that it was an alright trip home.

When I got home I got to see my mum and my boyfriend which was great! Then on Saturday I went up to the Murray with my boyfriends family and relatives for the day. It was a great day even though it was raining. We played american board games and cards, drank some great wine and ate awesome food. Some of the jokes that were told were just so funny, it was like the best night out, I was so glad that I decided to go. But I had to come home early cause they are all staying up there for the weekend, but my boyfriend came on with me.

He went back up to the Murray today so today I am getting my washing today and then leaving for Port Pirie again...yuck!

Day four - calm before the storm

Well I definately know that the word quiet is a jinx in A&E. We had another student there today, and she said at about 9am "boy its so quiet", we all just looked at her and said "don't say the 'Q' word down here". Low and behold 30mins later we had two emergency come in, both little kids 3 and 4 in respiratory distress. Both of the kids required intensive care and constant monitoring and there was no where near enough staff!

The first to come in was a little girl who was 4 and was having her first ever asthma attack as she wasn't previously known to be asthmatic. And well things weren't great for her, we put her on nebulizers to help her breath but it wasn't helping at all. Things got so bad, she was getting so tired and looked like it was getting harder and harder for her to breath. We had to call for a retreval team to come and get her and in the mean time while waiting for them, get her a bed in the high dependency unit in the hospital. When I last heard she still wasn't improving.

The second was a little 3 yr old boy, who was actually in respiratory distress from suscepted RSV and asthma. This boy was also an epileptic and has a history of bleeding PR. He wasn't good and got so bad they had to call theatre and get the anaestist to look at him. When he got there he took one look and said, "he needs to go to theatre for intubation NOW". On the way the theatre he stoped breathing, it was one big race to get tube in, so we could get him breathing again. We did get tube in and he stabilized sort of, we then found out from blood tests that he is aneamic, with a haemoglobin level 1/3 of what it should be. We called the women's and children's hosptial for immediate retrival. Things are not looking good for this little guy. I guess I will have to wait and hear whats happened to him, last I saw was him getting on a plane to go to Adelaide.

While I was in theatre there were two more emergency's another asthmatic and another little kid, with really high temperature who had collaspsed. But I don't know whats happened to them as it was way past the end of my shift and well I was buggered and needed to go home and rest.

Hopefully tomorrow no one will say its quiet!

Day three - all quiet on the front

Calling today quiet would have been an understatement. In my entire 8hr shift we had a total of 4 people come in, just 4! Two of them only required basic care, one needed a bandage for a cut and another just needed some pain killers for severe back pain. The other two just required admitting to the ward for further investigation, because the on-call doctor could not make definate diagnosis.

So it was quiet, things down here are quiet and I can't wait to get in the car on Friday and drive home. There are things such as my 2 years with my boyfriend, which is tomorrow. Also missing seeing my Dad and brother leave for Kokoda. Looking forward to coming home for weekend.

Day two

Accident and emergnecy wasn't all that busy today but I did get to see something. Also it was nice having a quieter day because I got to know my way around the department a bit better. So far I have enjoyed A & E because I actually have been able to get exposure to paedatrics.

Today there was this little nine year old boy who came in, he fell of his grandpa's boat which was in the shed onto a sticking out piece of metal. His arm and clothes got caught on it. He ripped at 7cm whole in his arm that was about 3cm deep and he lost a lot of fat tissue and you could see his muscle. I thought I would feel bit sick from this cause it was little kid but I was surpirsingly calm and I just focused on keeping the boy happy and calm. He was brave little kid he didn't cry at all. He ended up having 5 internal stiches and 10 external. We made a deal, cause it was hurting when the doc was injecting the local anaesthic that he would squeeze my hand but I promised I wouldn't tell his grandpa or his friends so they would think he was really brave. I think he was brave even though he was squeezing my hand.

Other that little boy there was a lot of chest pain, and shortness of breath (SOB) which I am told is really usual for A&E. Other than that there was a ex-nurse who fell off a ladder even though he wasn't meant to be climbing ladders cause he had heart attack just four weeks ago.

Tomorrow it will all start again

First Day

Today was my first day here in Port Pirie, and boy was a confusing day it was. I got to the house and let myself in with Mum to find that there is only one other student down here this week, however there will be more next week. We both headed over to the hospital for my orientation and it turned out that the lady in charge of me for my time here is a friend from high school aunty. So we will have to see how that goes due to issues with this friends mother! After orientation I learnt that the operating theatre where I am meant to be spending this week is closed due to the nursing strike. So they have to find me somewhere else to go.

My new ward is now accident and emergency, and well today it wasn't all that exciting, and I am a bit nervous and don't really know what I can do in there yet. Today in emergency there weren't that many people, just a guy with broken ankle waiting for plaster and few people who came in for get cuts and blisters "fixed" when just getting a bandaid would have done the job! But oh well it kept me from becoming too bored.

I get to sleep in tomorrow as all the crazies come in emergency after 4pm so I will have to see how I go!

Bags all packed

Well things are all ready for me to travel up to Port Pirie tomorrow. I know its a bit early but I have big day of events tomorrow, 50th birthday lunch with my boyfriends family and then a fairwell mass and headmaster dinner for my brother and dad who are going to Koakoda. So I am leaving late at night with Mum for company so things have to be ready now. So the bags are all packed up.

Last night I had just the most mouth watering dinner ever. We went to this place for my birthday as well, but boy did I have such a good feed. I was really hungry so I think everything just tasted better. It was Japanese food, so like sushi and teppaynki...they cook such good beef. It was all just like oh my god! Then for desert we had chocolate fondu with fruit and marshmellows. It was all so very good, it just all melted in your mouth even the meat did. Cause everything was so good it just made me sooo happy. I was giggling all night and I hadn't even had anything to drink!

The mood however went a bit funny when I got home and got accidently got pushed down the stairs at my house. Dad and my brother where fighting to get the key in the door and my brother pushed dad who stubled back into me. But the hero in my life actually caught me, I thought I was going to get really hurt, but no my boyfriend caught me. MY HERO!

Oh my God!

Well I don't know about anyone else but we I heard the news last night I was oh so excited in a year 6 screaming girl kind of way. The SPICE GIRLS the band of like the 90's who brought about girl power in the weirdest of ways is having a reunion tour. I mean if you aren't excited about that I don't know what will get you excited. I still remember like all the words to their songs and I am even thinking about putting their CD on and dancing/singing around my room to it! In fact I think I will, I think I may even take the CD down to Port Pirie and sing along to in the car. Yay for Spice Girls!

In other less exciting news, I rang up and got my roster for next week in theatre. I start every moring at 7.30am which sounds bad, but its actually not cause I usually start shifts at 7am so the extra half hour is deeply appreciated. The nurse who I spoke to on the phone sounded so nice, so my out look on the week has improved. Plus I am looking forward to seeing different surgeries, even though I am not helping cause I am not allowed, can't wait to observe and see if I can hack in there. But my over ridding thought at the moment is still SPICE GIRLS!

SPICE GIRLS, SPICE GIRLS, SPICE GIRLS!!!