The Most Enjoyable and Tiring Day In Medical 3
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I can’t remember which day it was but it was probably during the weekend or a public holiday as I remembered that I was allocated on call who was in charge of this ward.
I was allocated to “General” on that day and was I was alone at that time. I remembered sitting at the other end of the ward at around 11am when one of my colleagues who was allocated to be covering the “Neuro” patients went to have lunch.
The medical officer on call at that time, a rather “happy-go-lucky” and rather jovial person struts into the respiratory cubicle and asked if there were any house officers available?
To which I responded, we’re right here and he came over. He asked for the person who was in charge of the front cubicles which happened to be my colleague who went for lunch. I asked what’s wrong, is there anything I can help with?
He casually replied, nothing much, just walked in and saw a patient’s pulse oximeter reading 70% under room air. Then he laughed.
Me and my friend who happened to be there at that time were shocked and rushed to the patient. True enough, the pulse oximeter reading was 70%, well, 68%. Oddly enough, the patient seemed rather comfortable and not tachypnoeic. In fact, he was surprised as we crowded around his bed, looking concerned.
I asked him if he was having any difficulty breathing which he was not. Thus, our first instinct was probably the machine was faulty and proceeded to check with another vital signs machine.
This time, it was 65%.
I proceeded to take full set of bloods while my medical officer was writing his review and my friend attempted to call my colleague.
I ran his arterial blood gas and it showed Type 1 Respiratory Failure. Considering he did not have a baseline during this admission, we do not know if this was near his baseline or a sudden deterioration.
We called the Peri ICU team and referred the patient for non-invasive ventilatory support (NIV). Imagine, not knowing why this long stay patient was ever here in the first place to summarising the reason for admission down to his current progress. It turns out, he was due to be stepped down to a district hospital for continuation of antibiotics.
Well now, he can’t.
We transferred hum to the acute cubicle for closer monitoring while awaiting the Peri ICU team.
While awaiting, my medical officer decided to check on a patient who was handover to him for afternoon reviews.
This lady was in her 60’s and was admitted for left pleural abscess, meaning there’s pus in her lungs and for this patient, the whole left lung was completely filled. Clinically, she seemed well, speaking in full sentences and laughing to her family members as well in the morning.
In fact. I was even taking her bloods that morning only to have it splashed all over me after attempting to fill the blood culture and sensitivity bottle.
I recalled walking past her as I made my way to the front of the ward and she seemed alright. However, the moment me and my medical officer oncall stood in front of her. She desaturated an started being tachypnoeic.
Well, here’s another one.
There goes the next referral to the Peri ICU team for intubation and also Urology for emergency suprapubic catheter insertion as we attempted to insert a urinary catheter multiple times but failed.
Now, all these events happened very fast but at the same time, time flew by fast. The second patient was intubated and we inserted a femoral venous catheter. My medical officer then wanted to excuse himself to settle the pending discharges in his other ward. However, the first patient wasn’t saturating well under NIV and needed to be intubated.
There goes another intubation as well as another femoral venous catheter insertion. Finally, after all the chaos, things began to finally settle down.
I proceeded to trace my coming mornings, considering that I was the only one in charge of “General” that day and nobody would be helping me. Finally, I proceeded to begin my oncall reviews. This was around 8pm by that time.
After completing my in all reviews with intermittent disturbance in between. I proceeded to aid my friend in preparation of her coming mornings.
It was close to 11pm, I was just clearing my stuffs and getting ready to go when a nurse informed me that a patient seemed rather tachypnoeic.
Annoyed and tired, I attended STAT to find a patient sitting at the side of the bed with his BiPAP machine unlatched and hanging at the side of the bed. The patient beside him then told me, he removed it himself an hour ago.
Boy… Why am I not surprised?
This is another impending intubation.
At this rate, I might as well not leave anymore.
The day was busy enough. I sometimes wonder why is it that we feel guilty to even desire to return home on time? To walk out with the family members watching us finally ecstatic to return home for the day while their family members are stuck in the hospital?
Back to that patient, I didn’t left him gasping on his own of course, I fixed back the BiPAP machine, took an arterial blood gas and alerted my night colleague and medical officer oncall to which they attended STAT.
Thankfully, the following day, I was allocated as night shift. Thus, despite returning home late, I was able to sleep in and recuperate a little before returning back to work that night.
It was a busy day but considerably a rather fun one considering that I happened to work with a rather jovial medical officer oncall and my colleague stayed back to accompany me despite her shift being till 6pm.
Working with certain people definitely helps alleviate some of the pressure of the day.
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