Med-Surg

Long time, no post. I fail. So I've begun my second clinical rotation at Spiffy Urban Teaching Hospital, on the CCU/Telemetry floor. WHAT a difference from the sketchy nursing home! All the toys I missed are here, from blood pressure cuffs and pulse oximeters to blood glucose monitors. LOVE it. I don't think CCU is going to be my permanent home. I didn't get that "zing!" I feel when I walk into an ER, but I think this rotation is going to be a good one. We even get to go into the OR and observe, AND the cath. lab. Which is freaking sweet.
Only one patient so far, one that I will call "Pleasently Confused Lady". 88 or so years old, pretty frail, with every stereotypical old-person-malady in the book, from osteoarthritis to gout, to diabetes to osteoporosis. And she'd just had a new hip put in, even though she is SENILE. In the nicest way, of course, she'd pat your hand, call you sweetie, and grin at EVERYONE, but she couldn't follow even simple instructions, and has NO idea why her hip hurts so much. She even denied being in pain, while twisting in bed, moaning, and clutching her hip. We gave her morphine anyway, on the OFF chance that the pain scale wasn't precisely accurate for her. You know, since her heart rate would spike every time she moaned.
Tomorrow may be a snow day, which would be a mixed blessing- I wouldn't have to get up early, but I really do like the hospital.