#kkrambles

1) there is this patient whom i’ve had on my assignment every time i’ve worked for the last month, so i’ve seen all the shit she’s gone through and gotten to know her fairly well. she’s been taken off tube feeds and allowed to eat, had uncontrollable vomiting, put back on tube feeds, taken off again, aspirated, put back on, etc. not to mention all the other complications like episodes of not being able to breath due to mucous plugs and needing emergency bedside bronchs (a very invasive and highly uncomfortable procedure), infection, poorly managed pain, pressure ulcers, urinary incontinence, post-op necrotic bowel leading to her needed a colostomy bag which has, on at least one occassion, exploded and covered her and her bed sheets in her own diarrhea, so on and so forth. she’s the cutest lady i’ve ever seen and she’s never once complained or been negative which i find absolutely astounding.

anyway having gone through unbelievable amounts of shit (sometimes quite literally) and having a ‘one step forward two steps back’ with this whole transplant experience, yesterday we finally capped her trach (i.e. closed off that additional airway entirely) and took her off of oxygen altogether. in the spirit of monitoring her closely, i was hanging out in her room for awhile, to make sure her oxygen levels were maintaining themselves and that she didn’t become short of breath/distressed and anxious (which, as you can imagine, leads to shortness of breath pretty darn quickly) because as you might imagine this is a highly vulnerable time for LTx’s who desat very quickly and/or tend to freak themselves out over the whole thing. she was doing amazingly well. we got to chatting and she shared with me that this is the first time in 13 years that she hasn’t needed to be on oxygen.

and seriously, every time someone would come in and comment that ‘wow hey you’re off of oxygen!’ you could just see her entire face light up! it was wonderful and i might have had to excuse myself to go cry in the supply room.

2) a gentleman who had been on tube fees/not allowed to eat anything for 3 weeks, passed his swallow test yesterday. the first thing he did was have his husband run down to starbucks and get him a caramel macchiato. i asked him how it was and his eyes literally rolled back in his head as he was drinking it. he didn’t say anything cuz i don’t know that he had anything else to say on the matter and also he probably didn’t want to stop drinking to answer me.

you haven’t seen the face of bliss until you’ve seen someone getting to indulge in their favorite treat first thing after being unable to eat ANYTHING for an extended period of time.

anyway it was a hard day but i seriously love my job and all the highly intimate and personal little melodramas that i get the privilege of being a part of