an on-call machine
Happy Sunday in the spring. I have no good breakfast to put here. Got a quick cup of latte and donut in the car on the way back to Dublin, and yesterday was the third time I was on-call this week alone.
Yes I'm doing 1 in 3 calls these days. They're for the on-calls I didn't do when I went home for the break. Seriously, being on-call takes so much out of you especially after working in A&E for the whole day. You're pretty much drained already after 8 hours trying to figure out what's wrong with the sickies and *ehem* saving lives, and now you have to be up in the wards all nights to do the ward jobs. Man it's too much.
And suffice to say the calls I've been doing these past couple of weeks have been challenging as well. A LOT of patients went into respiratory arrest and they happened to be on the nights I was on-call. Great. One of the patients I thought was really going towards the end of the tunnel, he had horrible croaking breath sounds as if he's drowning in his own lungs when I arrived on the ward. I was busy taking ABG, bloods, putting catheter, ordering ECG and CXR while chanting to myself, "Don't die on me, don't die on me, don't die on me..". Yeah like in one of those dramas haha..He actually didn't that night and eventually died the night after.
I'm also beginning to see the whole point of A&E rotation. It's actually very good for an intern cos you've got your arse covered by the seniors the whole time but you're still one of the first line doctors receiving emergency cases. It's cool. One time I actually went overboard and saw a patient in the resuscitation room with a heart attack all by myself and only spoke to my boss about the case 30 minutes after when I finished. Lucky me, nothing happened to the patient in the interim. *Berangan dah terer sangat*
It's also good that I'm seeing varieties of patients with different presentations. A lot of trauma cases as this hospital is the trauma center for this region. Man tell me about it. Every single road traffic accidents and every falls and broken hips. This man was sitting at the bottom of a hill when a water tank rolled down from the hill top and rolled over onto him, leaving him with fractured ribs and pulmonary contusions. I mean, what are the odds for that to happen??! Seriously..
Being in A&E also made me learn few different general rules of life. First rule, always wear nice undergarments, you'll never know when things gonna hit you low. Last thing you want when you're in agony from broken legs is people started cutting your pants only to reveal that horrible undies you're wearing. Haha seriously...Secondly, malang tidak berbau. An example would be the water tank guy above. Tak pasal-pasal terpenyek sementelah tengah duduk lepak di kaki bukit. Lastly and most importantly, everything that lives is certain to die. Whenever your time's up your time's up. This guy came in with a massive heart attack which later went into cardiac arrest. Despite our vigorous efforts of resuscitation, after few rounds of getting v tachy and shock, he died.
Oh well..
That's to sum up the busy week. I was walking home this morning when this Irish guy came from behind and complimented my pink scarf. He ended the little chat with, "Something's good going to happen to you today," as if he sees future..
We'll see..
Yes I'm doing 1 in 3 calls these days. They're for the on-calls I didn't do when I went home for the break. Seriously, being on-call takes so much out of you especially after working in A&E for the whole day. You're pretty much drained already after 8 hours trying to figure out what's wrong with the sickies and *ehem* saving lives, and now you have to be up in the wards all nights to do the ward jobs. Man it's too much.
And suffice to say the calls I've been doing these past couple of weeks have been challenging as well. A LOT of patients went into respiratory arrest and they happened to be on the nights I was on-call. Great. One of the patients I thought was really going towards the end of the tunnel, he had horrible croaking breath sounds as if he's drowning in his own lungs when I arrived on the ward. I was busy taking ABG, bloods, putting catheter, ordering ECG and CXR while chanting to myself, "Don't die on me, don't die on me, don't die on me..". Yeah like in one of those dramas haha..He actually didn't that night and eventually died the night after.
I'm also beginning to see the whole point of A&E rotation. It's actually very good for an intern cos you've got your arse covered by the seniors the whole time but you're still one of the first line doctors receiving emergency cases. It's cool. One time I actually went overboard and saw a patient in the resuscitation room with a heart attack all by myself and only spoke to my boss about the case 30 minutes after when I finished. Lucky me, nothing happened to the patient in the interim. *Berangan dah terer sangat*
It's also good that I'm seeing varieties of patients with different presentations. A lot of trauma cases as this hospital is the trauma center for this region. Man tell me about it. Every single road traffic accidents and every falls and broken hips. This man was sitting at the bottom of a hill when a water tank rolled down from the hill top and rolled over onto him, leaving him with fractured ribs and pulmonary contusions. I mean, what are the odds for that to happen??! Seriously..
Being in A&E also made me learn few different general rules of life. First rule, always wear nice undergarments, you'll never know when things gonna hit you low. Last thing you want when you're in agony from broken legs is people started cutting your pants only to reveal that horrible undies you're wearing. Haha seriously...Secondly, malang tidak berbau. An example would be the water tank guy above. Tak pasal-pasal terpenyek sementelah tengah duduk lepak di kaki bukit. Lastly and most importantly, everything that lives is certain to die. Whenever your time's up your time's up. This guy came in with a massive heart attack which later went into cardiac arrest. Despite our vigorous efforts of resuscitation, after few rounds of getting v tachy and shock, he died.
Oh well..
That's to sum up the busy week. I was walking home this morning when this Irish guy came from behind and complimented my pink scarf. He ended the little chat with, "Something's good going to happen to you today," as if he sees future..
We'll see..
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