as i have reflected on my day, i realized - what i've seen and done and heard and felt today is rather amazing, and not a "normal" job.
i stood at a 67 year old man's bedside for almost 2 hours, telling the nurse what to do to keep his blood pressure up, his heart rate down and try to get his heart into a normal, safe rhythm, what medicine and fluid to administer, what tests we needed to order, which bodily fluids we needed to send to the lab for cultures, and what antibiotic to start to keep the infection i was suspicious of from making him any sicker. and he's doing ok now.
i pulled a tube out of a woman's side/chest wall where it had been placed to treat a pneumothorax (when air gets into the space around your lung and the tube sucks it out).
i walked in to my other patient's room to find the floor covered with her bodily fluids (and solids). and then i walked out again.
i watched and listened (and prayed) as my attending doctor told a patient that she has advanced lung cancer, already spread to multiple sites in her body.
and this is what i do every day. what a crazy life! and i love it.
