The Silence of the Spams
It has been a while since I wrote down a healthy dose of blog. Lately, I had another one of those "post-coital" headache attacks last Friday I could hardly lift my fingers to key in the dictates of the subconscious mind. The headache was brought about by my most toxic duty yet last Thursday. I had no admissions (thank God) but early in the morning, a young boy was admitted in the department due to difficulty of breathing and unresponsiveness. I saw this kid earlier at the ER about a month ago and comparing to the kid I saw before, this one didn't look good. The young kid had brainstem tumor and by this time the tumor has grown enough to cause all these herniation symptoms we were all staring at: unresponsiveness, pinpoint pupils, irregular breathing, not to mention the already paralyzed left side of the child. He was admitted and I could not stand to look at the worried eyes and faces of his mother and father. The prognosis wasn't good.
True enough, at around 3:00 a.m., the nurses called me up because they noticed the patient was already cyanotic and gasping. I assessed the patient and thought that this was not good. Heart rate was tachycardic and breathing was irregular and bradypneic. I called up my Junior Consultant who, after a quick assessment, apprised the folks that the patient may die anytime. Earlier, the folks have already signed a Refused Intubation Order. Eventually, the young boy died, at around 6:00 a.m. I had to do CPR twice and revived him twice until his heart just gave up. Before a grieving family, I watched the young boy ebb away before my very eyes. He was their only child.
So I only had a few minutes sleep, did not have enough sleep during Friday morning, went home drenched in the rain. The past few days have been stormy. I wanted to write a blog about death and life and how vulnerable human life is last Friday but the tension headaches were too much and from that alone I was already too vulnerable.
Thursday afternoon though was an opportunity to come back to my alma mater and attend a lecture on research designs. It was an opportunity to meet the first year medical students of the college and rekindle friendships from the rest of the undergraduates. At the end of the lecture, June, a 3rd year med student and an old friend approached me to tell me personally how she won the presidency of the student government. She knew that I would be happy if I did learn about her victory. June has always been an ally during the political turmoil during my time when I was president. The other candidate, whose name is not worth mentioning in my blog, unless of course I would want to desecrate these sacred writings (ahem), despite the backing of (ahem) higher authority failed to get the majority. June was telling me all the juicy details about that conference and how she was elected by a large majority. It was sweet vengeance for all of us.
Saturday went by uneventful. The rest of the afternoon was spent sleeping and recovering from what I call remnants of those tension headaches. Sunday was an OD for me and it wasn't as toxic as expected. 3 days from now I will be posted at the E.R. so goodbye nursery, hello E.R. come Thursday. But I have to admit I shall miss the wacky nurses at the E.R. and the cute little products of human conceptions. It is definitely a stress reliever cuddling one of those babies.
True enough, at around 3:00 a.m., the nurses called me up because they noticed the patient was already cyanotic and gasping. I assessed the patient and thought that this was not good. Heart rate was tachycardic and breathing was irregular and bradypneic. I called up my Junior Consultant who, after a quick assessment, apprised the folks that the patient may die anytime. Earlier, the folks have already signed a Refused Intubation Order. Eventually, the young boy died, at around 6:00 a.m. I had to do CPR twice and revived him twice until his heart just gave up. Before a grieving family, I watched the young boy ebb away before my very eyes. He was their only child.
So I only had a few minutes sleep, did not have enough sleep during Friday morning, went home drenched in the rain. The past few days have been stormy. I wanted to write a blog about death and life and how vulnerable human life is last Friday but the tension headaches were too much and from that alone I was already too vulnerable.
Thursday afternoon though was an opportunity to come back to my alma mater and attend a lecture on research designs. It was an opportunity to meet the first year medical students of the college and rekindle friendships from the rest of the undergraduates. At the end of the lecture, June, a 3rd year med student and an old friend approached me to tell me personally how she won the presidency of the student government. She knew that I would be happy if I did learn about her victory. June has always been an ally during the political turmoil during my time when I was president. The other candidate, whose name is not worth mentioning in my blog, unless of course I would want to desecrate these sacred writings (ahem), despite the backing of (ahem) higher authority failed to get the majority. June was telling me all the juicy details about that conference and how she was elected by a large majority. It was sweet vengeance for all of us.
Saturday went by uneventful. The rest of the afternoon was spent sleeping and recovering from what I call remnants of those tension headaches. Sunday was an OD for me and it wasn't as toxic as expected. 3 days from now I will be posted at the E.R. so goodbye nursery, hello E.R. come Thursday. But I have to admit I shall miss the wacky nurses at the E.R. and the cute little products of human conceptions. It is definitely a stress reliever cuddling one of those babies.
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