Friday, April 24, 2009
Today, I am happy I am going to be a Doctor
Let me start this post by saying that I am very grateful for nurses. However, I remembered today why I didn't want to be a nurse. I walked in to pre-round on a patient this morning. This was a very large woman with very swollen legs that had some sort of weird rash on them. As I prepared to leave, I asked her if there was anything she needed. She asked if I could rub some lotion on her legs. Now, remember that there are not too many things in this world that gross me out, but these were some pretty gross legs. I hesitated for a moment and then told her, "Well, I can actually find your nurse and have him or her do that." So, I found her nurse, and he may have liked his job, but as I walked off after asking him to re-apply the lotion ("It puts on the lotion!" --name that movie), I could sense that that moment he wished he was a doctor, too. When I told the resident about it, she said, "You didn't put it on did you? You know, that's not your job." Although I have and will continue to deal with many gross things, today I am happy that I am going to be a doctor.
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6 comments:
So, I guess what they say about Doctor - Nurse relationships is true. Maybe I should re-think my career path.
I could never be a nurse!
Yay for being able to pass off gross rash massages! As for your movie quote, "Joe Dirt" is what I'm sure you're referring to, (you may already know this) but that movie was actually referrencing a scene from "Silence of the Lambs". Reflecting back on my heathen teenage years when I watched a lot of wholesome movies.
Trust me buddy, there will be thousands more of these moments. Here are just a few precious ones I can recall:
1. Adult diaper changing
2. Any sort of wound dressing change--VOMIT. I hate wounds. It is a large large part of what convinced me I was not intended to be a surgeon. I took care of a girl who had necrotizing fasciitis of the FACE who had serial debridements twice daily for 4 days until they'd taken off almost all of her face. The nurses had to lift all her flaps and rinse them every few hours and every 4 hours they had to page one of us to look at all the tissue as they did this. SO SICK.
3. Constipation cleanouts. We put an NG down and run GoLytlely at a high rate til only clear stuff comes out. You can imagine the nursing ickiness this entails.
4. Bedsores you could put your whole fist in. EW! Who changes those dressings? NOT IT!
Yowzer...definitely feeling more secure about my career path as the grossest thing I saw today was the human watching spectacle that is a courtroom.
And yes - I did wear that dress to senior ball, and I wore it for my Jr. Miss, so it has luck attached to it. Thanks for the congrats - I hope Madi has a blast and can someday also feel secure in her career choice :-)
... happy that I chose the dental field.... :) Miss you lots Maggie.
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