3rd & 4th week of clinicals

I must have forgotten to do this last week. My 3rd week of clinicals was @ NEMC on the Jeff Gordon Children's Hospital floor! I had a 13 y.o. was sickle cell disease and a recent cholecystectomy, that had been readmitted for pneumonia. He was overweight and needed a low fat diet, which he was not happy with and refused to eat dinner, therefore his mom brought him some fried chicken. I felt so bad for this kid, because he's only 13 and he can't play any sports due to his sickle cell and his one great accomplishment of his life was being up to go through a whole season of baseball without getting sick, made me want to cry. Anyway, he got the pneumonia from not TCDB enough after his surgery, but while I was there he was using his incentive spirometer and improved a lot.

Week 4. I had a 48 y.o. this week that is diagnosed with breast cancer and came in with a fever. Her cancer has metastesized (s/p) to her bones and liver. I gave meds on Thursday and Brandon gave her meds on Friday. And Teresa was the "official" lung listener, b/c I like to confirm things before I char them!!! :] While Brandon and Teresa were in her room, confirming the crackles that I had heard and administering meds, the Dr. came in and talked with her about becoming a DNR. He explained to her what it was and that she would still be receiving great care, but if her heart were to stop they wouldn't bring her back. She then told him that's what she wanted. Teresa said that it was awesome the way he approached the situation. I tried to carry on some conversations with this woman to lift her spirits and it seemed to work. She generally acted like she wanted to talk to me and appeared to be in a better mood after we would conversate for a while! It's amazing how simply talking to someone can help!! :]