Vacation, all I ever wanted...

[fredericks]

Longish couple of days. But, no school tomorrow! "Thank Jesus for the Jews", as my aunt put it. Happy New Year, to any Jewish peeps on my FL.

Had my second clinical session in geriatrics this morning. Normally I'd be looking forward to the experience, but we had to be validated in skills. And I'd gotten practically no sleep, since I had to wait up for my mom and dad to return from the hospital. Dad had another seizure and, because it took him longer than it had before to becoming oriented (x3 - using my nursing knowledge already) we called 911. When they came his BP and pulse were elevated so they decided to take him to the hospital. The folks left on the truck around 11:00 and returned home a little after 2:30, a much shorter stay than dad's last visit. It annoys me that he can't find it in himself to take his meds. He has a family to take care of, and all he can seem to think about is the adverse affects of the meds (and, perhaps more importantly, that he can't drink while on them). So he freaks my mom out and puts his life in danger by being non-compliant. God.

Before the whole seizure episode though, Sunday had gone fairly well. My brother couldn't find it in him to wake up at 7AM so it was my dad who ended up taking Krishna and me to church. Dad only goes to church on holidays nowadays, so I told him he didn't have to come in if he didn't want and offered to buy him breakfast to eat while he waited for us. Color me surprised when he came downstairs dressed up for service. AND we managed to get there on-time (punctuality is a problem with my folks; since I have to be at a place early it causes friction, believe you me)! The service was nice. I saw a number of dogs, a few cats, and quite a lot of rabbits in attendance with their owners. It was funny to have the readings interrupted by barks and meows. Krishna was quiet (I guess being unable to open your jaw fully will do) and relatively calm, except for the time she got annoyed at a kid who touched a delicate part of her head and tried to snap at him - "tried" being the key word there; the most she could do was tug on his sleeve and growl a little, but the kid's mom was understandably freaked. Other than that, smooth sailing. Very much worth it, I thought.

Fast-forward to today. I got maybe an hour and a half of sleep before my alarm went off, and I was out-of-it. I was surprised I didn't just fall back into bed. All I could think about on the ride out was how much I wanted to go home and go to sleep. Once I got into the hospital I did manage to perk up a little. This instructor was fairly lax on the validations, so it wasn't as nerve-wracking as the in-school ones tend to be. We bathed another client, this one a semi-conscious male, and I confronted head-on my compunctions about washing the genitalia of a man I have no intentions of having sexual relations with (no pun intended). I think the fact that he was pretty much out of it made the task easier. If he was fully conscious and unable to wash his perineal area then I might have been a little more apprehensive. It was "lift, wipe, shift, wipe, pull down, wipe, dry". Very exciting. Sort of like those gaming cheat codes, only thing...not so much. He had a sour smell about his body (the morning shift claim the evening shift washed all the patients, but that guy's odor said otherwise) and my smell memory is so strong that it's like I can still get whiffs of it. Again, very exciting. And quite possibly TMI. The day went by fast, and I got home by around 2 in the afternoon.

My messenger bag? the one I asked y'all for suggestions on? came in the mail today. It's so cool and so big, and fits around my shoulders comfortably. I ended up not customizing it and saved ten bucks on the green color scheme I'd liked. Can't wait to stuff things in it and go. On Wednesday, of course.

Comments

[lostcrackerjack.livejournal.com]

Oh my! I don't think I could wash a man's genitals, particularly a man whom I didn't know. I'd be waaaaaaaaaaay to embarrased. Heh. But I understand that is apart of the job, kudos to you though. ;-)

[devoosha.livejournal.com]

My friend is an RN...and she said the worst part of everything she learned was dealing with, as she put it, 'men's down theres'. Catheters were the worst to learn. I do give you guys props on doing it though, since it is something that needs to be done. I know it's something I couldn't do :)

[fredericks.livejournal.com]

*grin* Yeah. I mean, I have three younger brothers so I technically have washed the genitals of men I'd never have sex with (while they were in diapers - incest is a no-no, unless it's pseudo cousin loving on "Arrested Development"), but it's still slightly unnerving to have to do it in a clinical setting. I was supposed to do most of the bathing this time, since my partner did the bulk of it last time, but once our instructor started going on about how difficult some people find washing dicks to be on their first go at it, the chick dove right in. I was standing there like "dude, you're only scrubbing that dick down because you want extra credit; you know I'm supposed to be doing it!" I didn't say that outloud because, I mean, did you read the sentence that I typed? Eh.

[fredericks.livejournal.com]

We've practiced catheterization...on female genitalia. I was looking around the lab like "uh, are we *ever* going to have to do this on a guy? because there aren't any plastic penises around?" The instructors didn't say anything. I do hope we get around to male anatomy sometime before, oh say, graduation.

*grin* Your friend says "men's 'down there'"? Our OB instructor continually refers to genitals as "down there". I find it somewhat amusing that a medical professional can't say "penis" or "vagina" or "perineal" when the need arises. My instructor also only masculine pronouns when referring to doctors, and that's more annoying that amusing. It's like she's never run across female OBs, or could never imagine one.