All things considering

Despite having a pretty crummy weekend, Saturday was actually a really good day. The morning started off rather busy; we had a new admit who was being flown in from the other end of the state. He arrived early in the morning, so luckily I was able to get my assessment done on my first patient. Anyway, he was an older man and very hard of hearing. Very quiet; didn't talk much, but was able to do what I asked. Later in the afternoon is when things started getting interesting. My preceptor calls it "50 first dates," what she means is that a patient asks the same questions over and over and over throughout the day. His question was if he could have something to drink. Because of his current symptoms he was NPO (nothing by mouth) until his physician could figure out what the problem was. Every time I told him no, he'd give me this "look." I'm going to use Martin Freeman as an example.

The "look" that encompassed most of my day. That "I'm not amused by your BS" look

Anyway, so I did my best to acknowledge these looks I was getting and tried to help him out in the best way that I could. Most of the day he didn't talk to me; he'd just ask the usual questions. And he didn't like oral temps either...don't know why. Every time I'd go in there I'd try my best to make conversation, but he just stared at me. Near the end of the day though, he gently tapped my shoulder. He then asked me how much longer I was a student. I was so surprised; he barely made conversation with his wife! I said I had about 7 weeks left. He then asked me if I was looking for jobs and if I had found a job yet. His voice was so quiet I had a hard time hearing him too. It made me think though; I had gotten through to this guy, but I didn't do anything different. I didn't whip out any special powers; I was just myself. Then my other patient was also very interesting too. She had come in for r/o SBO and was supposed to have surgery the day I was there. Apparently her surgeon was very tied up with another procedure that was very long and dragged out, so she was moved to the next day so he could go home and get some sleep. Not that I blame the guy at all; I wouldn't want to go under the knife by a surgeon who had been busy all day without a break. She was understanding. Anyway, she had a history of chronic migraines and the only thing that would help was Dilaudid. That morning she had been kind of grumpy because she didn't feel well; our good friend Dilly changes people! By the afternoon she was a completely different person. She and her husband were talking, laughing, making jokes with me (not AT me). It was a good day. Later she got a dose of Ativan because of her impending surgery...again, a completely different person. At one point she was talking in her sleep. Drugs can be bad, but they can be good too.

I'm down to the wire now with only 4 shifts remaining. 6 weeks to go until I walk across the stage. It's scary, exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time. I register for the boards on Monday!!!! I feel I've come a long way, but I've still got a long way to go!

# of days completed: 16
# of hours remaining: 48