Babysitting in ICU
Feb. 10th, 2021 09:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
whitewriterYesterday I was babysitting an AIN-able pt (Val)
Today I am babysitting what will be, and is currently, a palliated gentleman.
41 yr old with IVDU and cancer Hx, metastasis, now in type 1 respiratory failure (as opposed to type 2 respiratory failure, type 1 is when the lungs itself are failing, rather than an external cause which is type 2).
There is no cure for type 1. Your lungs either get better or they don't.
For this 41 yr old it's not getting better and hence the palliation.
So my goal tonight is to see how many HETI online courses (mandatory) I can smash out. Turns out its 3. They're all infection control related.
I only managed one yesterday, mostly because I was being bad and doing naughty things I shouldn't.
This is what's nice about ICU. When you have nice allocation, all you have to do is drive a ship that has already been well set up.
Update on a previous pt from last weeks nights -
Mr 26 got intubated on the Saturday - the day after the new nurse flapped about his worsening respiratory status.
Today, I saw his leg was amputated. Apparently it was amputated the day of his son's funeral (which he could not attend, because he was stuck here, in ICU with a septic knee/flap that wasn't getting better).
You go to hospital to get your knee replaced; not to get an infection, stay there for months, get worse, get pneumonia, end up with multiple ICU admissions and multiple intubations whilst your son dies in the ICU next to you - and you miss his funeral - and your too delirious to know about any of these things.
He's still sedated and ventilated.
I wonder if he will still be there when I return in 3 days.
I saw a few old mates taking handover in CICU. They're renovating big ICU at the moment so all their staff are being distributed amongst neuro/cardiac/small general. I wanted to say hi but it's never good to interrupt handover. I send her a text instead.
My shift ends with me running up hospital road and then cursing when the bus I was aiming for drives past. I'm sure it left early. So I walk the 2km home.
Today I am babysitting what will be, and is currently, a palliated gentleman.
41 yr old with IVDU and cancer Hx, metastasis, now in type 1 respiratory failure (as opposed to type 2 respiratory failure, type 1 is when the lungs itself are failing, rather than an external cause which is type 2).
There is no cure for type 1. Your lungs either get better or they don't.
For this 41 yr old it's not getting better and hence the palliation.
So my goal tonight is to see how many HETI online courses (mandatory) I can smash out. Turns out its 3. They're all infection control related.
I only managed one yesterday, mostly because I was being bad and doing naughty things I shouldn't.
This is what's nice about ICU. When you have nice allocation, all you have to do is drive a ship that has already been well set up.
Update on a previous pt from last weeks nights -
Mr 26 got intubated on the Saturday - the day after the new nurse flapped about his worsening respiratory status.
Today, I saw his leg was amputated. Apparently it was amputated the day of his son's funeral (which he could not attend, because he was stuck here, in ICU with a septic knee/flap that wasn't getting better).
You go to hospital to get your knee replaced; not to get an infection, stay there for months, get worse, get pneumonia, end up with multiple ICU admissions and multiple intubations whilst your son dies in the ICU next to you - and you miss his funeral - and your too delirious to know about any of these things.
He's still sedated and ventilated.
I wonder if he will still be there when I return in 3 days.
I saw a few old mates taking handover in CICU. They're renovating big ICU at the moment so all their staff are being distributed amongst neuro/cardiac/small general. I wanted to say hi but it's never good to interrupt handover. I send her a text instead.
My shift ends with me running up hospital road and then cursing when the bus I was aiming for drives past. I'm sure it left early. So I walk the 2km home.
