And on day 1 I wasn't so comfortable. I didn't know what to do and everything had to happen in a jiffy. But over the next few days I started feeling comfortable. I had this aha-moment when I realized "Aha! It's all about the patient. Our duty is to make life the best for our patients." And if we think from that perspective, everything becomes easier.
Saturday: Dressing
Dressing is required for most patients with large wounds and especially diabetic patients. Wounds tend to get dirty with dead tissue and pus (promoting bacterial growth) and debridement ensures there is nowhere that bacteria can grow comfortably. But good debridement is a difficult skill to achieve.I'll write about hydrogen peroxide, povidone iodine, spirit, sterile gauzes, pads, gloves, etc on a later day.
Sunday: Free Day
This is a relaxed day where we don't have complicated cases to monitor. After rounds, the entire unit went to have tea. Back in the wards I asked my PGs whether us interns had to come back later for rounds. They said "Yes, come for evening rounds at 5.30 and night rounds at 8.30". I asked them, "Oh, so 3 rounds in a day?" "No, there's also another at 10.30pm. Coming for that?"That evening the seniors were hosting "Summer Dreams" their graduation day. It was a nice night. Dr BM Hegde was the chief guest and apparently didn't have any eccentric thoughts that night. I missed the movie the seniors made because I was helping the Malayalis edit the audio track for their dance. And that dance was simply superb. Later I was managing the computer playing the karaokes and songs, working together with Ganesh, like all these years. Met L.I.'s super cool mom while having the "high" tea which became the "long" tea because of the queue.
It was during the graduation day dinner that most of us saw each other for the first time properly after internship started two days back. And that's when I realized that we had to sign in an attendance register in the office every day morning. People who were doing night duty were sneaking in and eating while we were leaving quickly to sleep early to report for duty on time next day. Gone are the sleepless nights of student days.
That day when I woke up I had a very weird dream. I was vomiting into a tub in which my PG had vomited already and which was actually meant for the patient whom we had just put Ryle's tube to vomit into. Brain seems pretty absorbed.
That night I was reading this "House officer's survival guide" which helped me gain more confidence.
Monday: Major OT
In Major OT there are no local cases. So, there's no need to give test doses. Or rather, the anaesthesiologists will take care of that part. I ran to the wards to take BP before the OT starts. Didn't forget to sign the attendance register today (for all three days). But we still haven't given the reporting letter that the unit chief signed on the first day to the office.Today there was one multinodular goiter and one pleomorphic adenoma of the parotid gland being operated. Actually there was another MNG in the list. But it was too late and this surgery was postponed. When I asked the PGs though, they said "Sir said we will do it in the ward itself. Didn't you examine the swelling, it is a single large swelling, isn't it? So we'll use something called a crow's leg and put it in between and pull the swelling". Very funny.
That night, Fadnis brought his brand old Yamaha RX 100 motorbike and we had one square round around the hostel wroom vroom.
Tuesday: Wards
Nothing special in wards. Checked BP and pulse. Then, turns out, there was an emergency surgery for a burst abdomen early this morning for a female patient. She was in surgical ICU. I had to give her a blood transfusion. Yes, that would be my first. But turns out the lady had not passed urine either. So I had to catheterize her too. I had learned how to do it, even watching a youtube video previous day, and so I did everything correctly till the actual insertion of catheter into the urethra and then I couldn't find the urethra. Finally the sister came to my rescue finding the urethra, inserting the catheter, then filling the balloon with water, connecting urine bag, etc.Then I got the blood from blood bank (like I had done it previously in paediatrics) and the sister again taught me how to cut the outlet, prick the sterile transfusion set into it, and start transfusion without spilling blood or making it all unsterile. Not to forget, I got the consent signed before the transfusion started. I then started monitoring the patient continuously for any signs of adverse reactions. There wasn't any.
Before we left, the sweet sister gave me and Abdu and even Abhishek a piece each of the kalathappam she had got as gift from a Malayali PG.
No comments:
Post a Comment