Attention Attention Code Blue

http://au.eonline.com/uberblog/marc_malkin/b125402_greys_anatomy_inspires_reality_show.html

Yes. Today on prac I encountered by first ever code blue. And yes. It was on my patient. And yes. I saw it all unfold before my eyes. I was once told by a seasoned nurse about the situation I would lose my first patient in, and they were right. I didn't believe them at the time, but they were right. I shan't go into that because most people probably wouldn't want to hear. But listen to those seasoned nurses, they speak the truth.

Anyway, just like in Grey's Anatomy, I pressed the big red button and set off the emergency bells in my ward (my mentor was with me the whole time, just so you know..otherwise I'd a be freaking out far before this stage. I kicked and shoved everything out of the way so the nurses with the resuscitation trolley could come barging in. Compressions were started and so the story unfolded. I mainly stayed in the corner where I was out of the way but helped where I could by priming IV lines, manually pumping the jellofusion (fluids to increase blood pressure) and doing the all important blood sugar level (Got to give me something?). By this time the Medical Emergency Team were in the room and jumping around in full force. There was nothing short of 20 people all jammed into this very small room. I was sweating up a storm as I furiously pumped jellofusion into this patient with voracious force.

Once patient was stabilised, it was off to ICU for us. In reality, the bed was pushed down the corridor in a slightly hastened walk with myself holding the notes and my mentor holding the portable suction but in my mind we were sprinting down the corridor shoving people into door frames and screaming as we hurtled faster towards the lifts.

Code Blues are funny things. Every shift I here about 3 or 4 code blues from other wards, or in an elevator in one instance, but you don't think anything much of them until its your patients. It was a pretty harrowing experience but was made all the much better because the patient survived and the whole team of doctors and nurses in that room were incredible.

To narrow it down, I learnt: Doctors argue a lot in codes, nurses are lovely, patients can be talking right up until the end, Grey's Anatomy prepared me somewhat, and 20 people jammed into a room at once make more than a sweaty haze - they save lives. Booyah! (The booyah is uncharacteristic. Please don't judge)

Introductions.

Do you ever have those introductions, particularly in new jobs or the like, where you're asked to say you're name, where you came from and something interesting about yourself? I mean I know who I am, I know where I was born and I'm sure there are interesting things about myself, but as soon as I'm sitting in a circle with everyone looking at me, I freeze.

I end up saying, or stumbling, that my name is j-j-jill and I was born in Perth, Western Australia. Then I have to think about something interesting. I've been skydiving, bungee jumping, in a hot air balloon, driven from one side of Australia to the other 4 times (that's 4100 kilometres, or about 2480 miles each time), heli-hiking and nearly got ran over my first time in a toboggan. I cook a mean caramel slice, I can draw an exact map of the city of Melbourne even though I've never lived there, and I can construct a mean Lego tower. I can also untie any tangled knot, even if no one else can. Those are a few mildly interesting things aren't they? Well without doubt, every time, I end up forgetting every accomplishment of mine and end up blurting out that I am scared of cream and warm milk.

Side note: I am deathly afraid of cream and warm milk. I have to drink my milk with in about 6.5 seconds of being out of the fridge or I am convinced it will have curdled. And, I cannot even think about eating cream. Whipped cream is worse. My reoccurring nightmare is that I am at my local pool and all of a sudden these ninjas run down the hill and push me into the pool which has turned into a pool of whipped cream. And there the nightmare ends, with me drowning in a pool of whipped cream. Yes these are some big problems. Oh dear..

Anyhoo, it puts me in a bit of a pickle when this is all I can say as an interesting thing about me. My irrational food phobias really ought to be saved for perhaps the fourth date/meeting.

But in summary I guess I'd like to say, Hi, my name is Jill or Jillian, I was born in Western Australia and still live in the same house 18 years later. I have a sister who is six years older than me, she works for the radio, a cat and two lovely parents (what are the chances?). I like to cook, yes I do and I am a half-way nurse, one and a half years to go!

p.s - sorry for blurting out my food phobias. Again.

Prac - land of no sleep.

Yes, two shifts down and I already feel like a zombie-esque being. It probably wouldn't be so bad if I still had to go into uni and write all of this extra work about prac, but I do and so does every other student so suck it up I say!

By the end of this prac, I will hate this stupid orange book where I have to write things like,
'Today, I declined to give an injection because I did not draw it up. It would be against policy to do it. The end'
Apparently that shows that I am a good nurse. Yes.

I have zero exciting pictures because for some reason, we are discouraged from whipping out our cameras when inspecting catheters. Strange huh?

Now, off to the hospital I go. Toot sweet!

Clinical Practicum

Doesn't that sound schmancy? In 1 hour and approximately 29 minutes I shall be attending by third first day of nursing prac. First day of this year at least, and first time that we have our own patient loads which is a tad bit scary. I don't know about you but I probably wouldn't want me looking after me when I'm really only half a nurse. Ah well! It should be fun.

There are injections to be given, pills to pe popped (by patients not me), and blood pressures to be taken etc. So off I go.

My friend and I. She's training to be a doctor and me? I'm a going to be a nurse.

Indecisiveness.. #1 (sub-heading - blog title)

Oh dear! First blog entry and already 3 4 of my weaknesses have come out.

1. I am indecisive for I struggle with decisions. If I am avoiding your text message, it's probably because your multiple questions have left me quivering at the possibilities. Please don't think I don't like you. It's just when you ask me what movie, where, what time and who should drive there all in one go, I'm kind of prone to very nearly cry. My parents have learnt to draw out their questioning over the period of a day so as not to bother me..so very sneaky!
2. I like lists. Mostly the lists are in my mind and I do not write them down, but when exams are looming and procrastination is booming, I all of a sudden can justify spending a good half hour writing the prettiest of lists.
3. I end up going over the word limit all the time. Like all the time. I lie in my word counts in essays, I end up sending people 376 letter text messages when they're meant to be under about 160 (?) and apparently my blog titles end up being a blog in themselves.
4. I didn't know what to call by blog. I like the children's book, There's a Hippopotamus On My Roof Eating Cake by Hazel Edwards and was totally going to try and name it 'There's a Jill on my roof eating caramel slice' but I just wasn't feeling it so I went for You can call me Jill, just like You Can Call Me Al by Paul Simon. Just like.

Yes, that's all there is, there isn't anymore. Well until tomorrow..

p.s Don't you reckon people are pretty much real bloggers when they use those clever cross outs through their letters so it's like they're writing on a piece of paper. Yes, I'm a loser cool person. And those are my feet by the way.