Skills and Spanish

Today was an adventure......

I was assigned to a nurse who had me do everything...and I mean EVERYTHING! My patient had a vaginal/uterine prolapse with a rectocele and a cystocele (those words look up yourselves, it's kinda gross) meaning...her organs were falling "down." She had a partial Hysterectomy. This lady spoke spanish and had her husband at bedside to interpret for her.

Sadly, after surgery, this lady had urinary retention. According to Doctor's Orders, she was supposed to be bladder scanned every 2-3 hours to check for urinary retention. If the scan was over 160mls, a straight catheterization procedure had to be done. My nurse did the first one, because the patient had over 275mls still in her bladder even after she attempted to void. She tolerated the procedure well. After another 2hrs, I bladder scanned her again, and sure enough she had over 250mls in her bladder. Then it was my turn. It was my first straight cath procedure...aaaand I was successful! :)

After the third time, the Doctor ordered to have a foley placed. The foley catheter is always more complicated. Of course, my nurse had me do that too! It went well, not as well as I would have liked, but it was successful. I need to get my psychomotor skills down! It was especially difficult because her tissue was swollen due to the surgery. And, on top of that, it was extra painful.

After that, I got to teach her husband about the foley and how to measure urine output because they were going to be going home with some equipment. She had to take the foley home with her. After that I gave a Tdap injection (tetanus), and a Flu shot! I was so so so so happy to be able to perform those skills! Like I was jumping up and down...I'm such a nerd!

After the patient and the husband received some teaching and information about home care, I got to wheel out the patient to be picked up by her husband. During that time, I got to try out my spanish. It was gutsy, considering my 4 years of spanish was about 4 years ago. :p Surprisingly, I did quite well. I couldn't understand most of what she was saying but I got to talk to her about her family, her hospital stay, and she actually complimented me (or so I thought). "Cuantos anos tienes tu?" "tienes hermanos, padres?" "Donde vives?" And I could actually answer those. I thought it was hopeless. God definitely helped me out with that :)

I said my goodbyes, and off they went. Discharging makes sad, though it is a total good thing. I just develop relationships and I get attached which is not always a good thing haha! Overall, today was good, very good. Lots of learning experience! Thank you Lord God for all your incredible blessings. It was such a great day! :)