Newbie Overload

Newbie overload in Casualty last night…I put in my first IV AND did my first complete suture!! A patient came in complaining of diarrhea and fevers. He had gonorrhea, a supra-pubic catheter, and said he had been drinking the jungle water. We couldn’t really understand his exact reasoning for coming in but it never hurts to give some fluids for re-hydration. I was a little hesitant for this to be my first cannula insertion because the veins were difficult to find. But with a little re-assurance from the other students, I decided to give it a shot...and I got it on the first try!Woohoo! Afterwards, Dr. Raymond came over again to chat with the patient, and we finally got the real story for his visit. Apparently, the old man was using alcohol to “cool down” his fevers and Dr. Raymond guessed he simply needed a warm bed for the night. What a little trickster! 

Once the ER slowed down some, Simon (a med student from England) and I decided to “see what the crack was” in Labor ward. He had never been before and I don’t think he knew what he was getting himself into. The look on his face was priceless when we walked in to 5 or 6 women simultaneously screaming and a baby that was on its way. We weighed and cleaned the healthy little baby boy, and by then, Simon was ready to get the hell out of Labor ward haha! I guess its not fit for everyone! Then, we went over to Neonatal to visit all the little newborn babes…except for one baby that was 2 months old and was tinier than much of the other newborns. The poor thing had been malnourished and only weighed 2.4kg, which is only 5.3 pounds! The nurses were optimistic about nursing the baby girl back to health by slowly increasing feedings and monitoring her very closely. I plan to check on the her progress over the next couple of weeks so I'll let you know how she is doing.

 

Just as we got back to Casualty, a guy was coming in with a bashed up head and dislocated toe from a knife fight. The distal bone in the toe had been laterally dislocated and the proximal bone was literally sticking straight out between his big toe and second toe. The plan was pretty simple…inject some lidocaine, pop the bones back into place, and stitch it up! Dr. Raymond popped the toe back into place and then gave me the chance to do my first suture. With his helpful instructions, I successfully sutured the toe closed with a single stitch! A little cleaning and bandaging and wala! Toe was fixed! We also saw a lot of other interesting cases, like Tuberculosis (scary to be in the same room though), a badly busted lip from a car accident, and severe post-natal hemorrhage. Overall, a very interesting night ending with a hilarious conversation with our favorite schizophrenic patient, Mr. Crazy Eyes! Alex had told us that schizophrenic patients in Indian and Africa are very different than those in the US. Apparently, it is more common for schizophrenics in the US to hear and see violent things, while those in Africa and Indian have much happier episodes. Crazy eyes totally makes this believable because he is quite the happy character! You can see pictures of his photo shoot below. lol

 Just another baby pic. I'm not obsessed or anything ;)

 It's a rough life

Oh Crazy Eyes, we love you