Well, I do way more than that but I seriously mean that I'm loving it. I started training last Thursday through Sunday (but from now on it's Fri, Sat, Sun). I think everyone likes me so far, but I haven't met everyone yet and I'm still trying to be on my best behavior. Ha ha ha. On one hand it's extremely overwhelming to try and learn everything: the way the hospital is run, the priorities and protocols, setting up for various emergencies, all the little details, yada yada. I know it takes time and experience to become proficient, but I just want to impress everyone and be trusted AND not make any big mistakes. That is probably my biggest fear - to cause harm to the patients. They are already here because they're hurt somehow, and the hospital should be a place of healing. I don't want them to be here longer than they need to be. Even though the big decisions aren't directly in my hands, it's still a lot of pressure to be responsible for a life. A big part of my job is to administer treatments, and pharmacology was not my strong suit. So I double and triple check the 5 rights (mini lesson for non-medical readers: make sure you have the right patient, drug, dose, route (how it's given: IV, orally, etc.), and at the right time).
Basically, I just don't want to screw anything up.
On the other hand, I'm with horses. All. Day. Long. I get to see whatever routine or rare case that walks through the door (and stays over the weekend). I get to interact with them, take their vitals and check how they're feeling. I get to pet them and love them and tell them I love them and feed them and clean up their poop. Just this weekend I was able to get my hands dirty, really, and reflux a colic horse (long explanation short: colic is a horse owner's worst fear. It's an upset to the GI system with various causes that can be fatal. Google it if you want more info. And since horses cannot throw up, we do it for them by refluxing - pass a tube through their nose into the stomach and get rid of its contents). This particular horse was a Gypsy Vanner, and they look like this:
Basically a smaller, paint draft horse, but so pretty! Anyway it's a smelly, gross procedure. He had surgery performed on Tuesday and hadn't eaten since then, so we were basically getting rid of the stomach acid and bile. If it doesn't initially come up and out through the tube, another method is to create suction. You know how that's done? Put your mouth over the end of the tube and suck or blow on/in it to create negative pressure. Not as sexy as it sounds. I'm not particularly grossed out by it, I mean, it's part of the job! Not really a surprise that I'd be doing unpleasant things. This had to be done every 2 hours or so until (hopefully) the amount of reflux is nearly gone. When I left on Sunday he was being refluxed every 6 hours because the amount was decreasing, so I hope he's gone by this weekend!
In non-work related news, Somerset has a little (seriously, it's tiny) farmer's market every Wednesday.
These are both pics of the same table, there were 3 or 4 other tables but they weren't as pretty as this one. You have to be pretty for me to take a picture. But they also had veggies AND Amish bread which I will be buying tomorrow because it looked so freakin good.
So that's what I did last Wednesday, I started work on Thursday (12 hour days are SO. LONG.) until Sunday and I did abso-freakin-lutely nothing yesterday. I felt like a bum but it was great. I even slept in until 8 am! If you know me at all, I am one of those rare gems that is 100% a morning person. If I'm not up before 8 something's wrong or I had a little too much fun the night before. Is there really such a thing as too much fun? I'm not so sure.
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