first day at wards

listening to jet - look what you've done

today was my first day watching the phlebotomist take blood in the wards..

its so freaking hot in the wards... partly due to our attire..

imagine wearing shirt and jeans..

with oversized lab coats that cover you from top to the knee area..

throw in *ehem* you know what if you're a girl..

walking around in that astronaut attire when the temperature is like 30 plus degrees..

i will kneel down and serve you tea if you tell me its not hot.. plus ill call u shifu..

its like being in an oversized autoclave..

*shakes head*

***

i really dont like being in the wards.. just dont like the sight of those poor patients lying there waiting helplessly for their discharge..

my tears welled up in my eyes for a couple of times today.. i guess my classmates with me didnt know how traumatised i was..

the first that made me almost cry was an old man whom we were taking blood from.. can see from his face that he was very afraid of the needle.. and he kept holding onto the phlebotomist's hand..

the phlebotomist need both her hands in order to take the blood properly.. so she asked the old man to hold onto my hand instead..

the old man's palm was so cold and clammy.. and he held onto my hand really tightly to the point that i felt that my blood was not circulating to my fingers..

and when the needle poked him.. he squeezed my hand even more tightly as he tried to squirm his way out of it..

seeing the way he looked makes me think of my grandfather when he was in the ICU years back..

i felt so sorry for him that i stepped out of the cubicle as soon as i could before i cant control my tears..

***

then there was this lady patient.. she had this urine bag attached to her and the bag was quite full at the time when we went to collect her blood..

we had to pull down the metal railing at the side of her bed before we could be close enough to poke her..

the phlebotomist asked one of us to pull down the railing..

as one of my classmates faithfully did so...

the urine bag that was hanging on her bedside dropped from the railing until it was like hanging in midair..

the patient winced..

but she kept quiet.. i guess its because its embarrassing to have your urine leaving you through a tube instead of the normal way..

ouch. *tears again*

from what i know.. the urine bag is actually connected to the patient's side of the body through some kind of hole that was created...

imagine having the bag hanged in midair with nothing to hold the weight.. it must be freaking painful...

i wanted badly to do something.. but the phlebotomist was blocking my way and i didnt want to ask her to shift in case she poked the patient wrongly.. causing more agony for the patient..

so i just watched helplessly as the urine bag hanged in midair (ouch) while the patient was being poked (ouch)..

OUCH.

these 2 incidents happened at the beginning of the day.. and i felt giddy just looking at these 2 cases..

not to mention the orchestra lady who kept shouting non stop even when no one was provoking her..

then there was this incident in the isolation ward..

shall not mention what happened cause it was too traumatising.. and i got no nice words to use for how i feel about the incident..

so... *zips mouth*


***

tomorrow is going to be another traumatising day.. sigh..

my knee is killing me after a day of standing and walking around..

ouch.