Saturday I was with Techs that I haven't yet met, and since it was two women, I don't think they quite cared to meet me. Friendly, but stiff as if I'm intruding on their work day. I understand that to them I am just a student, but come on, give me the benefit of the doubt here.
The first Tech I was with explained to me what a blood draw is, and why we would do one. Seriously? I already told her I'm IV certified, but it was if she didn't care. Methodically, she explains: "This is a butterfly needle. It's used for drawing blood" Wow! I just stopped paying attention and instead focused on the patient who was there for a voluntary psych hold because he was hearing voices. During his blood draw, he began crying. His tears were....yellow. Seriously, this man was crying bright yellow tears.
After that, my Tech left--maybe on lunch break, I don't know. I was just left standing there in the department feeling quite uneasy. I wandered around, entered exam rooms with some of the nurses and watched them evaluate patients. It was quite ordinary, overall. But one of the nurses who actually does know me was showing me this woman's feet and ankles which were extraordinarily swollen, and at the very least, at least I got to observe swollen feet. A sign of congestive heart failure, perhaps.
Another Tech--a rather tall man--nicknamed Sasquatch by some of the staff began speaking to me. Funny thing is, I've officially met him three times now, but he still has no idea who I am. Can I blame him? No. I think overall I'm not a big stand out student/Intern, so why should he remember me? It doesn't matter because for three hours he and I had a jolly time together. He told me stories from his days in the field and about his wife who is a nurse and all the exciting things she's seen. It was nice to have company, for this day was no ordinary day.
We worked together on a young man who had sudden acute lower right abdominal pain. A nurse asked us to get 'Vittles" (vitals) on him, and even though this man was supposedly in heart wrenching agonizing horrific pain, he still was aware of the fact that a young woman (me) had entered the room and was trying to coax and work on him. Funny seeing men's entire demeanors change, even if they're "dying" when I appear. I've gotten more than my fair share of admiring looks, winks, and efforts to be charming. If only they knew how they appeared to me. This poor guy accidentally kicked me in the arm as I was taking his blood pressure--I guess the severity of his pain was so bad that he could not lie or sit still.
I also helped irrigate the wound of a two year old who had just been bitten on the neck by a Black Labrador Retriever. The wound while relatively small made me wince because a) I have a black lab and b) what would now happen to the dog?
Another woman came into the ER with chest pain, and when I entered the room, she had her hospital gown on backwards. It was explained that she'd have to switch it around, and so she did--with apparantly no unease with the fact that she was topless and braless and had the biggest chest I've personally ever seen. Well, when it came down to it, I was assigned to perform her EKG, and it was quite difficult placing stickers around her enormous chest. So, I'm working on getting everything ready and she turns to me and says "Can you imagine what these were like before I had my breast reduction surgery?!" Egads. The very thought....
Alas, my big friendly giant Tech had to go work in admissions, so he had to swap places with another staff member. Unfortunately, this staff member is no longer allowed to talk to me (no lie--this is a continuance from Wednesday's blog about "doing the right thing") so I was once more alone. The other female Techs didn't want me to assist and so I once more wandered aimlessly, probably looking like an idiot. Said staff member (we'll call them A for simplicities sake) went out of their way to avoid all eye contact, and even when I was told to go into the same room that A was in, it would create an awkward and uncomfortable atmosphere.
The last patient of the day before I left was brought in via ambulance. He was ushered into the room and since A was working on the patient, I chose to not join in on the fun. But then this Tech comes up to me, completely oblivious to the fact that I'm in the ER all the time and says "You need to go into the room. It'll provide great experience. Anytime an ambulance comes in, you should go in, you don't have to stay out here". And really, what could I say? So in I went. And in the small room were the ambulance crew, a nurse, A and me. I'm on one side of the patient, A is on the other and there is no eye contact made, no words spoken. It's a bit hard to work in unity with someone who now refuses to acknowledge your existence. Not that I blame them--their job is at risk, but still--it was agreed upon that they could talk to me if it was job related. Not so much, apparently.
Well, this patient stunk. He was missing teeth, looked like a bum, and talked so slurred that I would swear he was drunk out of his mind. He was covered in urine, the bottoms of his feet were black, and you couldn't understand a word he was saying. We chose just to cut off his clothing due to the nature of the situation. When another Tech appeared and asked if we needed any help (mind you, there were six billion people in the small room already) A yells out "Yes!! We need your help!!" and so one more was added to the mix, which was fine with me because I actually wanted to get out of there. Surprisingly, smelly people gross me out.
A common mistake of EMS providers is the assumption that a patient is drunk when they are in fact, severely diabetic. This man had a blood glucose reading of over 700. Normal blood glucose is between 70 and 150 mg. This reading would thus indicate a serious medical problem. However, he was also complaining of pain in his scrotum, and the EMS provider explained it to the doctor as feeling "like a hockey puck". The doctor, a comical man turns to me and says: "I'm sorry sir. You have.....a hockey puck" Hahaha....
The only nice part of the day that didn't make me feel like no staff member cared about my existence came as I was headed out the door. A Tech said "You're leaving? Feels like you just got here--time flies..." I know that's not very heartfelt or anything, but for a day like yesterday, it just dampened my soul. I guess I'm just not used to people not liking me, and not being able to converse with me. With the loss of A's communication, I seemingly have lost where I truly do belong. It's like the domino effect: One small change causes a similar change nearby, which then will cause another similar change, and so on...
Jeepers you are a regular Dr. Carter or Kovac aren't u????
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