Wound Care and Carefree

The past several weeks of my internship have been trying to say the least. I am not really cut out for the hospital setting, and I am really not into bodily fluids, regardless of if they were meant to come out or if they are coming out of a new "hole" in the body. My "boss" (aka Clinical Instructor or CI) wants me to sit in on an open heart surgery. Unfortunately I laughed in her face when she told me this--as weird as it sounds I literally feel the patient's pain when they hurt--don't think it would feel good for me to watch a chest be cracked open. My second week of the internship, we had a patient who had undermining and tunneling wounds in her chest (right below her breasts) and the inside of her thigh. The thigh wound measured 7.6cm deep and the chest wound 6.something cm deep. We were asked to place a wound vac in the wounds (essentially the wound is packed with foam and then sealed with tape and a hose is attached to it and a vacuum is created--helps with wound healing). I went into the patient's room and attempted to be present--even attempted to hold a flashlight so my CI could see into the thigh wound to clean it out. I nearly passed out and the nurse laughed at me--starting a vicious cycle of dry heave crying. So pathetic. Fast-forward to yesterday: this same patient is now being seen on an out-patient basis (she is no longer IN the hospital bed, but comes to us 3x/week). I decided to put my big girl panties on and stay in the room while my CI changed the foam/wound vac system. (WARNING: the previous link is a wound VAC system in a buttock wound--it isn't terrible, but you should be prepared...I wanted to include this so you have an idea what I was involved with) You will be so proud: I actually HELPED! I held the thigh wound open so a pic could be made and I held the foam in place in the wound AND I prepped the skin around the wound! No, I didn't do any packing or cleaning of the actual wound--but I was there, I looked, and I touched! BIG STEPS. Today I helped clean road rash on a guy who was in a motorcycle accident...it was pretty crazy and he wasn't really happy.

Last week I had a great week with friends, old and new. On Thursday, Josh and I went to The Big Apple in Murray to hear a band play with Jessica Reed and her brother (David Wayne) and his girlfriend (Hannah). We ran into old friends there and sat with them. We had a great time! I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. SO much fun!

At The Big Apple with J.Reed! So much fun :)


Then on Saturday night Josh and I went with our new friends Stacey and Jarrett to downtown Paducah for "Downtown After Dinner". We ate at a place called Toucan's and wandered the streets listening to the bands and going into the little shops. We had so much fun people watching and drinking fru-fru drinks (which were expensive and only full of calories--no liquor, we are sure!). There are some special people to watch in Paducah, too!

Lemon Drops, or lemonade?? More like lemonade.

This is NOT a picture of Stacey--but the people behind her thought it was! HA. Nice shirt on him, huh!

BUG EYE

She wishes she had a brain??