I'M AN ER TECH AGAIN!

I feel like this...

SO MUCH EXCITEMENT.

I start in 11 days!

Oh, how I missed the Emergency Department...

things that happen at work.

ER Stories 15: Under the Influence part2 #selfie

A collection of things people in the ER have done while under the influence of alchohol, drugs or keyboard cleaner:

ONE: Drunk patient threatens to call his lawyer at 2 a.m. because we won't let him leave without a ride home.









TWO: High patient hits the call button every five minutes and every single time it is because she wants to know if we can paint the ER room's walls a nicer color.

this is what i want to do someday.

http://www.msf.org.uk/article/yemen-driving-arvs-through-city-under-siege

Doctors Without Borders

ER Stories 12: Motor Vehicle Accident (MVA)

It's almost one.

12:35.

Uh.. it's sort of almost one.

Sigh.

We've stopped accepting new patients at this point. (That's the nice part about working in a health clinic in Ecuador: we can close up shop for an hour a day during lunchtime without much consequence.)

12:37....

ER Stories 11: Foreign Body (Eyes, Ears, Mouth & Nose!)

Note: These posts are intentionally vague (with no names, ages, or dates) so as to protect patient confidentiality. These stories are random and their publication dates have no correlation to the dates they occurred.

Many of these foreign body cases aren't even handled by the ER Doctor; they are often handed over to a physician who specializes in Ear, Nose, Throat Care. This post is not meant to be an educational how-to-treat these cases, but rather a blog post of my personal account of how certain, specific (freaking cool) cases have been treated. Really what I am saying to you here, is let's not try this at home folks.

Kids have a tendency to stick objects where they're not supposed to go.

Turns out, adults do that too.

Foreign Object in Eye

(http://www.surgical-tutor.org.uk/default-home.htm?specialities/ent/eye.htm~right)

random ER did-you-know

Did you know that we can place IVs in the veins of baby's heads?

It freaks parents out and hurts a lot more to place than one in the arm or hand, so it's the last option, but it can be done!

(And, actually, sometimes the veins in the head can be much better for an IV than the other options.)

http://community.babycenter.com/post/a40551538/my_baby_has_arrived_photo_bomb

The more you know..

ER Stories 10: Under the Influence

Note: These posts are intentionally vague (with no names, ages, or dates) so as to protect patient confidentiality. These stories are random and their publication dates have no correlation to the dates they occurred. The photos in this post are from medical websites featuring patients with similar injuries, but by different causes.

Patient comes into the ER with "foot injury".

I am taking Patient's vital signs.

I am impressed with the severity of the wounds on his right foot. They look odd, though and I've never seen wounds quite like them before. Some of his skin is pink and raw, and some of it tan, hard and looks burned.

https://escholarship.org/uc/item/17r2w1z9

"What happened?" I ask him, smiling. People usually love to tell their crazy how-I-ended-up-in-your-ER-tonight stories.

He paused.

"I got an infection.." 

That isn't a very helpful description. I figure it's personal and don't pursue it.

ER Stories 8: Burnt Skin

[Entry from my journal on Wednesday, February 6, 2013]

[Only the first picture is mine. All other pictures included in this post are ones I found on the internet from patients with similar cases.]

Patronato was really busy in the morning. I did a lot! Lots of patients, a few shots and a really interesting emergency:

Denise (coworker) and Chanmi (Global Citizen Year 2014) in the office/waiting room of Patronato

Denise and I exchanged a funny look when we heard odd squealing from outside. We thought it may have been an injured dog. A few seconds later, a very frantic set of parents rushed into the clinic, carrying the source of the squealing -- a little boy.

ER Stories 6: Before and After - Amputated Toe

Another ER Story from Ecuador:

Short Background Story to these photos: On my first week working in the clinic, I met a woman who recently had a good section of her middle toe/foot removed as an eventual result to her diabetes. I cleaned her foot every day and after a few months her wounds heal. 

Long & More Interesting Background Story: http://everydayambassador.org/2013/01/07/looking-up-from-sympathy-to-respect/

I am humbled to see the drastic before and after. Our bodies are miraculous.

Before:

ER Stories 5: Dislocated Hip

Note: These posts are intentionally vague (with no names, ages, or dates) so as to protect patient confidentiality. These stories are random and their publication dates have no correlation to the dates they occurred.

My first dislocated hip.

Very cool older woman with a great sense of humor.

Two nurses, me (ER Tech) and the doctor.

The doctor administers sedative, making the patient sleepy.

(We know she is out of it when she says "Doctor... I amm soo glwaoudd yoaahuu........ greaaaaadfdfa .. peeeee... ajlwoudlfajadfljad....")

One nurse charts.

Second nurse holds patient's hips.

 I help hold the rest of the patient.

Doctor props his knee up onto the bed and proceeds manipulating the leg. The goal is to put the bone back into its socket (called reduction).



THESE PICTURES DO NOT GIVE IT JUSTICE

ER Stories 4: Medical Gore

I geek out over medical gore.

I find the human body absolutely fascinating.

It's crazy to me that our bodies are so strong and so fragile at the same time.

Anyway, let's get to the good stuff:

WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGE :)

ER Stories 3: DNR (Do Not Resuscitate)

Note: These posts are intentionally vague (with no names, ages, or dates) so as to protect patient confidentiality. These stories are random and their publication dates have no correlation to the dates they occurred.

This is a sad story and it is difficult to tell, as I want to approach the subject with respect.

The first time I saw someone die was in the Emergency Room.

She was an older patient with a preexisting condition. Her family expected her to pass away soon, but her husband did not want to sign the paperwork to make his wife a "Do Not Resuscitate" (DNR for short.).

If a DNR patient's heart stops, we don't attempt CPR.

...............

Before this day, I had never understood why anyone would want to make themselves or their loved ones a DNR. In my uninformed mind it seemed like giving up; and giving up seemed weak.

.........................

The patient came into the Emergency Room as a CPR in progress; the ambulance had already started chest compressions.

classic monday moment

I arrived at work last night to the loud and high-pitched squealing of the hospital's fire alarm system.

The elevators are off-limits during a fire or fire drill.

Guess who works on the sixth floor?

Happy Monday to me.

ER Stories 2: It's a Boy!

Before I worked as an ER Tech in the States, I worked as a CNA in a little clinic in Puerto Quito, Ecuador.

We have a small Emergency Room and I got a lot of hands-on experience with the burning, the broken and the bleeding (and I loved it).

...........................

In this little clinic, we have a small room dedicated to giving birth. I knew about it, but in the six months I had been working at Patronato, we had never used it.

On February 7, 2013 I came into work to find that little room occupied by a doctor, nurse and mother in labor.

Um, what?

I stood outside the door for five minutes wondering if it was appropriate to knock on the door and ask to help. I tend to over think things. I finally decided it was an opportunity I could not pass up, and knocked.

"¿Quién es?" I recognized Dr. Rios' voice. "Sydni," I replied and he immediately opened the door, welcoming me inside; but not before he instructed me to scrub in.

ER Stories 1: Ruptured Achilles Tendon

Note: These posts are intentionally vague (with no names, ages, or dates) so as to protect patient confidentiality. These stories are random and their publication dates have no correlation to the dates they occurred.

1. Healthy Male Patient in his twenties presents to the ER with ankle pain.

Patient was playing basketball and reported he felt a snap followed by severe ankle pain.

Not the most exciting story ever; it's the diagnosis that is fascinating.

And the diagnosis isssss....

Mr. Healthy Male Patient ruptured his Achilles Tendon.

http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/achilles-tendon-rupture

Sydni Heron PCT

I. have. a. job!

Within the next two weeks, I will be a maroon scrub wearing Patient Care Technician on the Medical Surgery floor of a hospital in a big city in the USA.

Coolest part about my new job? I'll be trained in Phlebotomy. This girl will be drawing blood for a living. (You know you work in the health field when you're excited about that.)

After I got the job, the first thing I did was buy the proper colored scrubs and take a crappy quality cell phone picture... 

...and I'm too excited to be embarrassed about it.

I'm Home!

On April 14th, I left my second home of Puerto Quito to come back to my first home in The States.

I made a video to tell ya'all about my experience, and remember it myself:

I also happened to be featured in USA Today and The Des Moines Register in an article about gap years. (http://m.usatoday.com/article/news/2140259 ;  http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20130507/NEWS/305070052/Advocates-gap-year-say-time-away-from-school-builds-confidence-expands-worldview)

And now that I am home (with reliable internet access), I will keep my blog better updated. Hopefully. :)




Next on my Ecuadorian adventure: I go back!

A Short Preview of My Apprenticeship.

 

This is the subcentro I am volunteering in for the next six months as a Nursing Assistant.

 

This is me in the subcentro with my over-sized lab coat which advertises a medication that probably has something to do with the urinary system. (I am investing in scrubs in the near future.)

 

All of the histories for the patients are paper.

 

There are over 12,000 of them and that number is rapidly growing. My job includes shuffling through the thousands of histories to search for the patients' history and to return the histories that the doctor(s) saw that day back to their proper place. 

Each of those binders holds 200 histories.

 

I sit behind that nice little window for a good chunk of the day and sort through histories, greet patients, and do all of the paperwork that needs to be done before the patient sees the doctor (which simply includes finding the correct history or making a new history if the patient is new to the clinic).

 

I check vitals before the patient sees the doctor(s) -- height, weight, blood pressure, etc.

 

 I also get to do cool things like cleaning wounds, taking out stitches and assististing/observing the doctor(s).

 

(Want to see the before and after to this patient? Check it out here.)

I´m getting lots of practice doing what I love, learning new skills and learning new ways of doing things (for example, in my clinic, we don´t get sterile gauze in packages on a regular basis, so we fold the gauze inside of paper and we put them into a machine which sterilizes them).



Next on my Ecuadorian adventure: Vacation to the beach - Video and Photos

a letter & a letter

(practicing taking blood pressure manually)

oh, hey. guess what i did today..

I PASSED STATE TESTING. i am now a CERTIFIED Nursing Assistant - a CNA. 

i am so excited! dream summer job, here i come.

cherry on top of the summer job cupcake: a letter from chris!

some pictures of his week:

 You were probably expecting something prettier, right? 

In his own words, "It has been a good week, but a painful one."

Tuesday he ran into a parked car. Totalled his bike. On Thursday he got into yet another bike accident (I think he borrowed a bike after wrecking his) in which he scraped up his face, ruined his new pants and got himself lots of bruises. And then , on Saturday, Chris & his companion were forced to walk home because Chris got a flat (...), and some lovely people driving past him (at 45 miles per hour, i may add) threw a slushy at him. That's right. Elder Stott got slushied. (Have you ever seen The Glee Project?) He says it was extremely painful and he now has a bruise on his stomach shaped like a cup.

things that could only happen to Elder Stott.

On the bright side, he went treasure hunting this week!