Mary’s Pad

Today was our first official day in the ED (or ER as it’s sometimes called) and we jumped in with a baptism by needles - we started IV’s on each other! And it was by choice too. I think the instructor thought we were crazy to want to stick each other with needles, but we figured the least intimidating way to get your first experience at putting an IV line in is to do it on each other. We all did good, got the IVs in successfully, shed some blood, and laughed a lot. There was an “oh shit” thrown in there when someone (hi Alison) forgot to put pressure on a vein and ended up with a nice little pool of blood, but the classic quote of the day was when someone ended up with gauze taped on both arms to prevent bleeding, and Beth asked her “How’re you doing there with your bilateral cotton balls?” That sure got the laughter going. Although I think we were all somewhat giddy from all the blood loss…

And then there was the “chocolate people” and the “cocoa puff” moment… but I won’t go there!

Seriously, though, I’m just messing around. We all did great, there wasn’t that much blood shed, and I think we’re all feeling much better about having to start IVs on actual patients tomorrow.

Other interesting stuff - I got to watch the doc lance and drain an abscess, the patient almost tore my arm off because of the pain she was in! I also watched another doc apply cocaine in a patient’s nose to stop nose-bleeding… it’s not the normal formulation that people snort to get high, it’s topical 10% cocaine, and what it does is constrict the blood vessels to stop them from bleeding.

The ED is interesting, and mentally stimulating, because there’s always stuff happening, and I know I’ll get plenty of opportunities to put my skills and knowledge to the test, so I know I’m going to enjoy this. This is definitely the best rotation to end the semester on! And a big thanks to Barb, Nicole, Teddie, Melissa, Beth, Alison, and Pam for making the IV insertion experience fun, and for the great little bloodfest today… very fitting for Halloween huh?