CPR: Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation

Lately what I feared the most had happened. I was sitting in front of my computer happily blogging when all of the sudden I thought, "How do you do CPR again?" And that's when it hits me, my being out of the clinical area for one month has weakened my thinking ability and I now forgot how to do Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation. And to think I even had a Basic Life Support training that I had from Red Cross.

But there's no need in crying over spilled milk, I have to review and reacquire that skill which I believed I was already good at. So how do you perform CPR? Here is a graphic illustration of the steps in CPR which I guess summarizes everything I need to remember:
Here are some facts and tips that I have remembered:

• the brain is damaged after 3 minutes of no air and dies after 4-5 minutes without oxygen
• always add "1000" after every number when counting from 1 to 30. Adding a "1000" word will make the pace of chest compressions regular and mimic the normal beat of the heart.
• If you are in a scene of an accident always look around and check if the scene is safe, you do not want to become one of the victims
• Always remember the ABC... Airway (check for obstruction and tilt head and chin back to open airway), Breathing (check if the person is breathing), Circulation (check for a pulse).
• Do not bend your elbows when doing chest compressions, doing so will deliver a weak and ineffective chest compression

For more information on CPR you might want to visit health.howstuffworks.com.

On Wanting Green Eyes

I had always wanted to wear contact lenses because I want to change the color of my eyes. And what color do I want? Green! Yup some people may find this weird but I would love it if my eyes were green because I find it unique and interesting. And if you're wondering my eyes (as well as the ridiculous) here are just Photoshop edited, Lol!

I just want to share what happened that changed my mind about having contact lenses. I went with my mom to get her glasses that she had ordered and we had to wait because the glasses weren't done yet. I was looking around when I realized that I wanted to get some contacts. A sales girl was approaching me and asked me what I wanted. Normally I would get irritated with sales girls who keeps on hovering above me as if I'm going to steal something. But somehow this sales girl was quite nice and I was in a good mood so I asked her about contact lenses. The sales girl was very accommodating and showed me the different lenses and their solutions and stuff.

I was quite amazed that she knew a lot about contacts. Sure she may have worked there already for so long but she was able to point out different eye conditions where contacts were preferred than eye glasses. I was quite ashamed because I forgot all the things I have learned in anatomy & physiology like astigmatism, myopia, and stuff.

In the end, I decided that contacts for the sake of fashion is not worth it because:

1. It's quite expensive, the cheapest pair comes at Php 2,000 or $48.
   
2. Contact lenses are only good for a year and then you have to change it
3. Wearing contacts only increases your chance of scratching the cornea of your eye and presenting an opportunity for infection

I since that visit I was really uplifted and became more interested in health... if only I was motivated a little more to have good study habits hehehe...

Student Nurse to Doctor Relationships

Before you think that this is some post about a love interest between a student nurse and a doctor I might just as well inform you beforehand that this is not what you're thinking. Besides the student nurse me and the doctor is a guy so definitely no. this is an experience that I would want to share with you guys.

I always get jittery whenever doctors are around, but being on duty at the operating room even made things worst and I was very jumpy. The doctors in the operating room were very nice and I was a bit at ease but I was also nervous because it was my first time to scrub-in in an actual operation. The surgical procedure was only a minor case, just an excision of a fibroadenoma at the left breast. A fibroadenoma is a non-cancerous benign lump that is found in breast tissue. When felt under the skin, the lump may feel rubbery and easily moveable within the breast tissue. Fibroadenomas are commonly found in young women during their reproductive years (New York Times). It's caused by normal estrogenic fluctuations (Wikipedia) and it could be removed with out any worries.

The tumor looked like this when removed. The surgeon was very skillful! Even with lacking instruments (the operation wasn't held in the main hospital mind) he was able to make use of his fingers and got that tumor our perfectly! What even made this doctor, Dr. Perez, even more amazing is that he took nursing as his pre-med course! Wow that is really amazing! I even learned a lot from him and he was so nice and showed me a cosmetic style of suturing so that scarring could be put to a minimum. What did I tell you? Amazing!

Well I was very lucky that I was around very understanding doctors because I was stuttering (oh I hate myself) and I was being jumpy! Imagine? I called the doctor Ma'am! And the doctor was a guy! Oh oh... good thing the conversation was about a female clinical instructor at Xavier University. Ooh I am so dead!

Thinking of the things I did that they makes me want to kill myself. The doctor was talking to my colleague and I interrupted their conversation because I needed more suture (I was the scrub nurse so I was sterile). Oops, sorry doc! I did not notice that you guys had a conversation (why didn't I ask my other colleagues instead?).

Ooh I am such a mess! But at least the operation was a success and it was all thanks to Dr. Perez! hehehe.

But a thought comes into my mind. Why do doctors want to be called Doctor and not sir? Isn't sir a sign of respect? But maybe it's because the word "sir" is equated to nurses and patients. Oh now I get it hehehe. ^_^

Air Bubbles are NOT Cute

Do you know what takes most of my time when I’m duty at the hospital? It’s regulating and checking the IV flow rate. Yup I’m so obsessed with getting the number of drops perfectly that if I have nothing to do I check the drop rate over and over again. It’s supposed to be checked by the hour but I guess I over do it and check it every 5 minutes or so. What can I say? I’m afraid that the patient might get under-infused or worst over-infused and this could lead to hypervolemic shock or heart failure if the patient has a serious heart problem. Plus I don’t want to be get an extension (it’s equivalent for detention for student nurses).

But regulating IV flow rate is not that a big deal. The big problem would be air bubbles! Yup you heard me. Air bubbles may seem harmless but once 5mL of air bubbles is injected into your blood stream this could lead to pulmonary embolism. Another worst possible situation is when the air bubbles flows to your brain or heart and impedes blood flow. The medical term for air bubbles getting into the body ladies and gentlemen is air embolism.

I also had an experience once when I was in the hospital (this time as a patient), a nurse from a rival school (I’m not telling which school hehehe) came in to inject cefuroxime (an antibiotic for my tonsillitis) through my IV line and when he left I noticed air bubbles! Lots of air bubbles! I stopped the IV infusing and pressed the button calling for any nurse. When the nurse came I told her about the air bubbles and she then removed the air bubbles using a syringe at the connector for “piggybacking” other IV fluids. And then a few hours later I realized that the nurse that almost got me killed with air bubbles was the brother of my brother’s girlfriend. No wonder he’s trying to kill me, I’ll kill myself too if that’s the reason (Lol).

As a student nurse I really hate air bubbles. Sure I can try tapping them so that they could go back to the drip chamber or roll the IV tube with my pen so that the bubbles would disappear into the drip chamber but most of the time it’s easier said than done. And the only way to get rid of them is by aspirating them into a syringe… and this is quite a hassle because as mandated by the Philippine Nursing Act of 2002 (R.A. 9173) IV lines are off-limits to students! So I have to run to my clinical instructor and disturb her with her work (hehehe).

So fellow student nurses: if you see air bubbles don’t think it’s cute… it could kill your patient so watch out!