LYSISTRATA

This week in clinical I found myself shadowing an RN in the Medical Step Down Unit on Thursday. Our pt had Necrotizing faciitis (flesh eating disease). Extremely rare, but also extremely life threatening. This made for a very excitting day. I was also able to give my first SubQ injection! Later in the day we had to change the dressings on his arm, which required min 2 nurses (one to hold the arm up)...Luckily another student wanted to watch b/c as I was holding the pts arm and watching as the nurse worked away cleaning the wound, I started to feel a bit woozy, dizzy, sweaty ... I had to excuse myself from the room for a few minutes. This is right after telling the pt and his wife that I want to work as an OR nurse after I graduate! I must have looked like a complete idiot! And it's not like the wound grossed me out or anything. It was pretty cool actually...you could see right into his arm and could tell that the bacteria were 'eating' their way from the inside out as there was a lot of undermining. and it was yellow from the infection, not at all pink like it should be. So, if it doesn't gross me out, and it hardly had any smell to it, I can't figure out what my problem is! I need to get over this woozy/dizzy/wimpiness STAT! His other wound is pretty cool too, about the size of a CD but has what is called a VAC dressing attached to it, where we cover the open area with a sponge and cover it with tranparent tape (Tegaderm stuff) and hook a suction up to it with a tube leading to a little box. This helps it heal quickly.

The next day I was back on the regular medical floor and was assigned a new patient (since my previously assigned pt had passed away before I even met him). This guy was only 23 years old and had a seizure while swimming apparently, and now has DVT which is causing extreme pain, which is pretty odd actually since DVT occurs predominatly in elderly.

So it was a pretty good week at clinical and I learned tons, but I'm still super glad to be a student since there is soo many things I have no idea about and soo many things that I forget about!

Today was a total Pdawg Day. After swimming some laps at the pool I went over to the Hart House Theatre to see Lysistrata (a play that was put on by U of T). It was wonderful and my first Toronto Theatre experience, even if it was a school production...I stopped at Starbucks on the way home to satisfy my grumbling belly and treated myself to a Soy Chai Latte and Whole Wheat Raspberry Scone mmmmm.

Allllllso, today I ordered my groceries online from Grocerygateway.com. I'm pumbed to get them delivered on Monday! No more carrying cases of water for this pdawg!

and finally i think that's all for now. :)

I have a good feeling about today.

What great day doesn't start with Sheryl Crow's "All I want to do" on the radio followed by Madonna's "Hung Up" AND if that wasn't enough, cereal with Chocolate Milk for breakfast! mmm mmm

and just for interest, the radio also informed me that cellphones have more germs on them than the toilet seat :S Ewww.