As usual, the early morning wakes for ward round. Got up excited because i admitted a patient yesterday and furiously prepared a perfect case presentation to present to the consultant on Friday ward round. Right, so here is where the disaster starts. Nurse comes to the house surgeon whispering that Mrs. T is not her usual self. Locum house surgeon went to visit patient. Halfway through, consultant came and said where were you guys? I was waiting for the ward round. * Snorts grumpily* Then, consultant said, ok Chwee, do a blood culture. Do you know how to do one? I enthusiastically said YES! In my head i was like, oo this is the time to impress the consultant! Fine, so i went to get the blood culture bottles, a butterfly needle, alcohol swabs, a torniquet, plaster, cotton balls and S sized gloves from the ward. I sorted myself out and wore the gloves. A booming voice came along saying WHY ARE YOU NOT USING STERILE GLOVES!!!! WHERE IS YOUR STERILE PACK!! DONT YOU KNOW THAT YOU WILL GROW ALL THE SKIN ORGANISMS IF YOU DO THAT?? My expression?? *Shocked@@* In my small little head, i was thinking, what?? that was what i was taught by the house surgeon! Following that, consultant got irritated and took over the whole scene with a very black face and more grumpy snorts. Talk about bad luck! To top it all of, he asked me to insert an IV line in. Consultant said that patient had good veins. Yes i agree she has super bulging and very prominent veins. But!! her veins were so so so tortuous. The vein took angles ever so often!! they are like so curly worvy. ahhaha. i tried 2 times and the house surgeon tried 3 times. At last we had no choice but to use the vein which the consultant used for blood cultures. Bleah. After all the drama, guess what?? i did not get to present the patient which i painstakingly prepared for because by the time i caught up with the ward round, he already saw the patient. argh.
11:45 PM
Saturday, October 11, 2008