Tuesday, September 20, 2011

sometimes its just one of those days


You know when you have "one of those days" where all that can happen does, well that was my yesterday. After a fairly average start, where the alarm goes off and you cant believe you actually got any sleep, to chasing stuff up that someone else puts in the too hard basket, which is not on in an icu.
Waddya mean you couldnt get bloods done, there is a whopping vein right here, i point to spot, oh you had to peel back some plastic, oh i forgot, you work as a blood collector.


That was about 7.30am,  it didnt get much better, pt slipping into a worsening medical condition, trying to pump in as much drugs as her ailing heart would allow to keep her lungs from filling up, with moderate amount of success over next few hours.
15.30 now breathing and not drowning, good.

Just getting on top of things, when first code went off, so off we run at a rate that had me more hypoxic than the pt we were called to, and was successfully transferred to the unit and now breathing assisted by ventilator- pt not me. Poor guy had a gut looking like he was having a baby cow, no gastric tube and on the ward for 2 weeks filling up, prob had no lung space left to breath with, so now has tube, both ends, yay.
 17 30 finally getting him settled and under control, when second code went off, in front of the hospital.
Running again, except we realised whilst running we had no crash cart. crap. yelling at student, poor love, to get the crash cart, but it ended up the pt was unconscious but still had a pulse, just not breathing to well.
Alcohol and drugs, what a surprise. The driver who brought her in didnt see the rather large emergency sign brightly lit in red at the front and instead drove around to the desk for admissions, of course.
Back to icu, pt needing more iv access but shut down, struggling to find any veins, junior dr too shattered to help, so found a large bore cannula and just went for a major one, success, yay. now 19.30pm.
That when we are supposed to finish. The doc and i looked at eachother and laughed, as code 3 was announced, thank god night staff were here!
pt = patient.

2 comments:

Helsie said...

Sounds like a hard but rewarding day.
cheers
Helen

Ann Marie @ 16 Muddy Feet said...

and to think, you are inbetween moons too.