I finished! I finished! I finished my blimmin' degree!!

I think, well that's if I pass my exams, which I'll find out next Friday. But I've finished my one month of clinical!!!

So all in all, I really enjoyed this past month, I'm getting used to waking up at 0530 every morning. And I'm realising that if I do stick to the floor (ward work) I will be missing either Christmas or New Year's every year for the rest of my life. The rest of my life, well I'd rather miss out on New Year's than Christmas really, well as long as I get to go to the Christmas Eve service.
Anyways, I learnt a lot this past month, I know the cardiac and emergency drugs even better which is very good.

[EDIT] made it a tad clearer I think...
Pun's first MET call
When: Wednesday night
Where: CCU
Who: my patient
Diagnosis: Hx of acute myocardial infarction (heart attack) and had an angioplasty done that day. Angioplasty: a balloon which is put into the affected artery to compress plaque back against the artery walls. Performed usually through the femoral artery (groin), a large amount of pressure must be placed on the site when the sheath is removed, otherwise blood spurting, haemorrhage etc.
What to do: regular observations ie. blood pressure, pulse, sensation, pedal pulses, haemotoma, ooze. Also we had to turn down the pressure of the Femstop (device used to prevent bleeding when sheath is removed) by 20mmHg every 20 minutes on the groin site.
What happened: I noted his blood had dropped to 66 systolic (they need to be over 90) and his pulse was 43. Normal range for pulse is 60 to 100, so this pt's heart was beating 43 times a minute. So I told the RN with me and looked at him. He was completely asymptomatic, talking, nil nausea, dizziness or shortness of breath, we wouldn't even have known he was hypotensive or bradycardic if not for the monitors.
So anyways, we called a MET, I grabbed an IV line and Gelofusion (fluid used to boost up blood pressure) and started scribing. Other nurses came running, closed the curtains so the other patients in the 4 bedded room didn't have to watch. Although we did freak them out during it.
The patient seemed pretty entertained, surrounded by nurses and doctors and the ECG machine. So we pushed atropine (to increase heart rate) and Gelofusion stat and waited til his BP shot back up to over 100. And he was stable for the rest of the shift. Then we were running late for the rest of the shift.

I'm guessing people don't know what I'm talking about but I'm going on anyway coz it's my first MET.

Anyways, I finished at 1330 today, yays! Then I went upstairs to cardiothoracic and tracked down my friends whom I spent my first 2 weeks with. Made them leave early and headed off the Westfields for a drink (non-alcoholic mind you). Had a great chat, many, many laughs.

There's one thing that I regret over these past 3 years and that's I didn't get to know more of my colleagues. Lata and Amanda are absolutely wonderful, wonderful people and I had such a great time with them. So we hugged goodbye and I'll probably see them next on registration day in January. So I've become great friends with them so that's one thing I regret, not getting closer to my nursing colleagues at uni. :( Hopefully I'll get more opportunities to see them soon.

And then, I headed on home and my bro and I headed out to Hurstville for dinner coz I said "I've finished my degree! I want dinner out!" so we had a 4 course meal each and had creme brulee for dessert. And since my brother is lactose intolerant, he was feeling nauseous all the way driving home. Making me feel very nervous and opening the window and saying stop at a kerb and just puke. But for a cleaner solution, I said to stop by Bankstown Hospital emergency department and use the loo there. So we basically rushed home and my brother had a great time in the loo.

So Christmas dinner plans (not definite):
- Christmas pudding & brandy sauce
- creme brulee - although this looks most unlikely considering my bro's lactose intolerance
- Spanish tapas
* chicken drumsticks
* olives
* garlic mushrooms
* bbq octopus
* tortilla espanola
* patatas bravas
* empanadas
- green salad of some kind
- olive oil and bread

Recent purchases:
- 2 tops
- 1 strapless bra - that fits, surprisingly comfortable, wearing it right now

Current background noise: MTV Europe music awards
Current craving: nil
Concurrent webpage: HP ff