it's friday!

another week of clinicals to cross out. =) i did my turn on surgical, which wasn't as hectic as ortho. the patient i picked up had an NG, which wasn't as complicated as i expected. i did ask another student to show me how to empty the container, because with my luck, had i done it by myself, i would've ended up with 300cc's of slimy green mucous all over the floor. not fun!

he was an awesome patient. i told him i was so extremely impressed with him because throughout nurses pushing his NG tube further down so it was where it was supposed to be (which caused him to gag and cough), repeated ultrasounds (where he had to 'take a small breath, annnnd hold' seriously about 25 times each ultrasound), changing his PICC line (a catheter threaded from his arm to his heart for IV fluids) to the other arm, and putting up with student nurses (two of us, two weeks in a row!) he never once complained. not once.

i enjoyed talking to him about his daughter. she came from out of town, and when she saw him her eyes welled up. as i helped him shower and get back into bed, i asked about her. his eyes lit up, and he just said, "isn't she beautiful?" i told him i could tell she was a daddy's girl as soon as she came in.

this week was the first week i really dealt with a lot of family members hanging around the room with my patient. it wasn't bad, but when i had to get a stool sample from his colostomy, i was happy they left. i don't have any problems with working with patients, but i feel awkward working around the family....

i loved helping his primary nurse change his dressing on his abdomen. he had no stitches or staples. it was an open wound that we assessed, then put tegaderm over the intact skin, cut out holes for where the wound was open, and cut a sponge to fit the open wound, then placed a clear adhesive drape over the whole thing. last a "foot" is put in the center of the sponges and hooked to the vacuum. once the wound vac was turned on, the negative pressure sucks the sponge down into the wound bed and helps pull the wound edges together.

speaking of wounds, i heard of a division the Army added a few months ago called "AFIRM". According to the Newsweek article,

"War may be hell, but it has a way of accelerating medical research. World War I brought methods for collecting and preserving blood for transfusions. World War II saw the introduction of penicillin into medical practice. One day, medical historians may remember Iraq and Afghanistan for spurring regenerative medicine, a grab bag of techniques that share the same end—to repair human bodies by helping them regenerate living tissue, rather than relying on artificial parts."


the article showed pictures of a spray gun that sprays a person's own stem cells over an area that needs new skin growth, and a few weeks later, the person has regenerated their own skin. they're in the process of working on kidneys, etc.

imagine what that research will lead to in the next 20 years.... :)