see new things

This morning I had to get up very early to go and see ECT. My lecture professor was there, that lunatic, she tried to quiz me on things and took me down to ECT herself. When I saw my clinical instructor I practically ran to her, like "save me! save me!" I was observing with some med students, I'm guessing first year students because they didn't seem to know much at all and they didn't seem to have a clue who I was. At first they assumed I was a med student, until I said I was a third year. Then they just got confused. My instructors always poo-poo the med students, roll their eyes at them, and dismiss them completely. I think I'm developing the same attitude.

Anyway, watching a seizure induction was interesting and the doctor had a habit of explaining everything to us, as well as quizzing us regularly. I enjoyed looking at the EKG strips. Still, it was still a little startling to watch the pt's body reactions. They are supposedly paralyzed except for one foot, but the anesthesia produces body movements that look like a seizure.

I forgot to mention that on Tuesday I watched a PICC line placed for the first time. It was a very difficult placement because the patient's arm was so swollen. They tried to place it in three different veins, I can't even remember which one ended up working. The cool thing was watching them find the vein and place the needle on the ultrasound. I held the patient's hand the whole time, not just to keep her from going over the sterile field but also because the lidocaine they used on her arm stung her every time. The amount of blood coming out, however, resulted in me gripping her hand instead.

Today we had our GI lecture in medsurg, and it always makes me laugh at how interesting nurses and nursing students always find bowels and stools. I think we could've talked about it forever.