It wasn’t my first time being a triage nurse. I’ve been released as a Triage nurse a few months back. But after being ‘promoted’ to being an MN (medication nurse), it has been quite a while since i last became the triage… I have a reputation of being a patient-inviter whichever shift i was on. One doctor even gestured this Chinese prosperity cat-figurine and said that it was me..
During my first few triage shifts, I honestly wanted to cry after shifts. But little by little, I decided to accept it as a challenge. I had to know how to Triage. It was inevitable, being an ER nurse. And moreover, I wanted to be good at it.
January 1 is said to be the most toxic time of the year for the ER. As soon as I saw the schedule that I was again to be the triage on that day, I wanted to find any possible reason to get sick… Still, I mustered up my courage and told myself that I just need to keep my head in the game. I had to do it. To prove once and for all, that I’m not a stupid nurse.
When I got to the hospital and received the Day shift Triage, I was relieved to see that there weren’t that much patients at the ER. Unfortunately, I somehow had this gut feeling that they’re just lurking outside the hospital for me to get in. True enough, not an hour had passed by when I already interviewed 12 patients.. I did not have the time to fill out all the blanks on the Nursing database. My priority was to write on the MD assessment page their vital signs, complaints, HMO and doctor of choice. Patients came every 5 minutes. As expected, they had complaints of LBM or gastric upset. Kids and adults alike had been vomiting for the last 24 hours. All of them blaming their noche buena. By the time my 8-hour shift was over, we had a total of 100plus patients on the log book, my throat was dry, my pee was too as yellow as it could get, my co-worker’s hair was a mess, the housekeeper was asking for a double pay, and everyone’s tummy was full of air.
During that terrible shift, not only did i get the expected patients, i even had patients who came in becaused the freaking boil on their armpit was giving them terrible pains and wanted to ask for a painkiller. I seriously wanted to ask the guy why he waited for that thing to grow as big as a grape before he went to the doctor. He should have been seen by a surgeon weeks ago! (I had TWO of those cases by the way.)
Not only did boil-patients decide to come to the ER on January 1, I also had people coming in due to low back pain for the last 2weeks, had Dysuria problems for the last month, had hemorrhoids bleed for the last 48 hours, people doing hyperventilation (thus having numbed extremities) because they fought with their boyfriend/husband/kids at home. Talk about perfect timing!
Doc Amboy (one of my favorite doctors in the ER) usually finds me cute, but on that particular day, he was wishing bad luck for me. He even gestured shooting me on the head point black.
As much as I believe that it’s never the Triage’s fault when the ER gets full of patients, somehow I’m starting to think that maybe it does have a connection somehow. Maybe fate has a way of teaching me things so that I can become a better nurse. —-but i have to be loathed first by everyone in the ER - doctors, fellow beloved nurses, clinical aids and even the housekeeper (for goodness sake!)
This just happened yesterday. And as much as I look forward to learning and getting more experience everyday, I am currently not looking forward to my next triage assignment. I’m just drained. I need a serious trip to the beach!
The good thing about that day though, is the fact that I somehow don’t feel like I’m a dumb nurse. Sure it wasn’t perfect, I even wrote the wrong complaint on the wrong chart, forgot that the other patient in the room didnt have fever and so on, but I somehow didn’t get any humiliating remarks from my doctors. Maybe it was because the doctors on that shft were luckily really nice, patient ones, but I did not commit any big, serious mistake. I knew where I had to place each patient adn whether they needed urgent care or not…
I still have a long way to go, being an nurse, an ER nurse at that. But I accept the challenge. I fear every high patient census or tiage assignments still, but I look forward to being more experienced afterwards. I guess I simply have to live with it. I had times when I was seriousy thinking of getting into medicine, but it’s times like the one I had yesterday when I remember why I didn’t mind getting ‘stuck’ as a nurse and not push through with medschool. I’m actually quite happy with where I am right now.
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25
AprStroke in the young
Migraines have usually been a part of my life. Eversince I was in highschool, I remember bringin myslef to teh school clinic due to a sudden unexplainable, agonizing pain on half of my skull. I was also experiencing nauseousness and vomiting. It wasn’t until I got to first year college when I found out what it was called. MIGRAINE. 2 older nursing students were thankfully in the same dorm as I was and they saw me rushing to the bathroom to throw up, only to go back to bed and cry again. This went on for half an hour, the alternating trips to the bathroom and lying in bed troubled them. ONe of them approached me and asked me about the characteristic of the pain I was experiencing. I told them about it and thankfully, they held the cure. ONe said I had to induce vomiting and hopefully it will do the trick. I did. I stuck a spoon and placed it at the furthest part of my tongue and I threw up as expected. After that, they gave me a pain reliever and in just a few minutes, I was sleeping like a baby.
Eversince then, I knew when it would happen or when it was about to happen. I also found out that there are certain factors that would trigger this event. I always had a pain killer in my pouch just incase. But nothing prepared me for what I was about to find out almost 17 years since it first started. A diagnosis of stroke.
I was on the road on a sunny day in Quezon City looking for a certain establishment where one of my licenses as a nurse should be renewed. I went to a fastfood chain to have lunch and while doing so, I noticed that my right eye became blurred. I tried blinking a couple of times thinking that something just got caught in my eye. When I tried to close my left eye, I found out that the upper half of my vision was a total blank. I could only see my companion’s shoulder and below. From neck up, there was nothing. I was confused and terrified. but in about a minute or so, it slowly cleared up. When I told this about my mom, she practically pushed me to see a doctor.
Upon relaying the story to my Neurologist, she ordered for an MRI, EEG and several blood tests. Upon receipt of the results, she told me that I experienced a certain stroke. A very small part of my brain and been damaged due to lack of oxygen or blood flow for a certain amount of time. I became even more confused. I did not understand how it could happen at my age.
Upon further inquiry regarding my past health history, she found out that it was probably because of the pills I took for 5 years. The pills were prescribed to me because I have PCOS, PolyCystic Ovarian Syndrome. The pills help regulate my hormones thus enabling me to have a normal menstrual cycle and decreasing the incidence of having even more cysts in my Ovaries. I took them because I wanted to be sure that I would still have babies when the time comes.
I wasn’t sure if I regret ever taking the pills, but I knew for sure that I didn’t want my condition to get worse. The doctor observed that my right eyelid is slightly larger and has less muscle tone compared to my right. Also, my right facial muscles are also weaker compared to the left side. If a bigger part of my brain was affected, things could have been much worse. Maybe an arm or a leg would be uncontrollable, or my speech slurred to a certain degree. It could have been worse, but I thank God it wasn’t.
Now I am even more serious about taking care of my health. I even take into consideration the side effects of the medicines I take. I don’t want another stroke event to happen. I realized that no matter what your age is, you can’t set aside the fact that your health when you’re 80 depends on how well you took care of yourself while you’re young. Life really is too short to waste away. So it’s never a bad idea to start living a healthy lifestyle as eraly as now.
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24
Apr
My Daddy dear (Taken with instagram)
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24
Apr
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24
Apr
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24
Apr
Blast from the past. A ticket stub from a Trip to Phuket, Thailand. Dec 2004. (Taken with instagram)
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24
Apr
It’s our 19th month. I cant really tell where we both are at the moment. We both have priorities, plans and other things to think about. But all i can say is, he loves me…maybe more than i love him. Im glad to have him in my life. Glad to have someone who’s a “constant partner”
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2
JanTriage Day
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15
Janall about him…
it started out with him asking me to eat out together after work.
First it was Kenny’s then it was Shakey’s… all paid by him.
He would always ask me to tell him if i’m already gonna eat my baon during break time.
Then one time he even escorted me to the parking after my eve shift since he’s on night shift.
He would always bring me some sort of sweets… first eve was the toblerone bar. then it was the cinnamon roll…
He’d text me stuff just to get to know me…
even if he already had my mobile number through the ims, he still asked me personally for it since he said it’s like taking advantage.
he attempted to hold my hand once when he was leading me to the pantry to eat some food.
he keeps saying the right words…
on our first date as bf/gf, he attempted to kiss me, but i avoided his kiss… he respected it and kissed me on the forehead instead. This went on for weeks… 2 weeks i think…
He tells me I love you for any reason… ex: when he found out I knew how to drive a stick shift car, or while riding the jeep,
he once said he even likes my lips even if they’re all dry and chapped up.
He admires me for being able to relate to all of my sisters…
he admires the fact that I lived in Basilan for some time.
I love how he remembered that I like my eggs scrambled.
I love how he tries to cool my rice before eating…
I love how he tries to find my hands while he’s driving…
I love it when he wraps his arms around me from behind.. and how he once said that it seemed to be a perfect fit…
I love hugging him, holding his hand, kissing him,…
I love how he makes me feel…
Like I’m the only person in this world…
Like I’m the most important person in this world for him…
and how he Babies me even if i’m older than him…
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15
Jan[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]Baby ko, you’re the best indeed….
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23
Nov2nd Monthsary
We were supposed to have breakfast today to celebrate our 2nd month together. However, my migraine had it’s way of ruining things and suddenly appeared right after I ordered my food. In the end, I asked him to have it packed for take out and just bring me home. I was able to bring the car so going home wasn’t a problem. But on the way back, it would be since there already was heavy traffic along Dña Soledad Ave.
My mom had some errands to do in Alabang so by 11am we just went with Mom to Alabang so it wouldnt be of any inconvenienve for him. My poor boyfriend got home by 2pm. I told him to just get some sleep immediately since he would still be on Night Shift that same day.
I, on the other hand was able to doze off in the car as we went to Makati. I was able to eat at Superbowl of China and then got back home by around 4pm…
I was impressed to know that he was still able to make a writing task 2. He really is full of surprises…
However,… lately, he isn’t that sweet to me anymore… I’m not sure if it’s because of the IELTS thing or not… but I’m just here to support him.
I love him. I’m INLOVE with him… when at first I thought I just liked him for being a cutie, now, I can confidently say that I’m inlove with him.
I like it when he holds my hand, when he kisses me. The way that it seems that I’m the one taking advantage of him.
He asked me once, why I chose to be with him… I honestly don’t know the answer… Is it because I just wanted to have a boyfriend? Maybe. But why him?… When I never settled for anything that doesn’t seem to be worth my time.
He’s 3 years younger. But when needed, He acts more mature than I do.
He had said he wants to marry me already. At first it scared me. I mean, why would you say that when you hardly even know me… But nowadays,.. I already welcome the idea.
I don’t know how long we’ll last. But I hope we really end up together. I wouldn’t want it any other way…
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