Maybe I won't be a nurse after all

Some days I love medicine.

Last week I had 5 of them days in a row. I loved every minute on the wards. Well, actually, no, I don't think I can say that I loved the cardiac arrest I attended. But I loved watching the doctors do their work, all having a designated task, and I loved it when the patient got a pulse back, albeit briefly.

I loved my time on A and E, particularly getting to suture someone's scalp. It was my first time stitching anything (my Mum was upset I'd never learnt embroidery when I was telling her how much I'd enjoyed it). It was medicine at it's most practical and logical- this guy's head has been split from having a lift fall on his head, sew it back together so you can't see the bone and it'll all be fine.

I also went to a phlebotamy clinic and stuck some needles in people. I can't say how much I appreciate the people that let me have a go, a shaky, red-faced little girl with a sharp object going in your arm... I'm reluctant to let the professionals do it.

Then I saw some bronchoscopies. Now they were brutal. People who had looked fairly well ten minutes previously, writhing in pain and choking. Didn't like that so much. But the pictures were interesting, and my consultant is an excellent teacher.

All in all, a fabulous week. Bring on another!

Got to love old people...

They do come out with some gems once in a while. I've had a few bloody awful homecare shifts of late, and sometimes that little thing that makes you laugh is all you need to get you through to the end of the day. This particular weekend one of my regulars (an 84yr old Jamaican man) was in bed whilst I had a chat with him.

"Do you have a boyfriend?" he asked.
"No, I don't have time." I answered. It's my standard response. I regularly get asked the same question. Or if I'm married with children.
"Good girl. You concentrate on your studies. But do you not ever get hungry for the boys?"

Brilliant. Perhaps you need the gesticulations to fully appreciate how hard I had to try to not laugh.