R.A.T. in 5, again

Dear Blog,

SUCCESS! with no help whatsoever from my useless ice cream alarm clock.

I got up at 6.15am! Yay! (tepuklah sikit...hehe)

So, I arrived at the ward around 7am. Saw alotta med students there already, at the counter asking for blood, like a bunch-O thirsty blood-sucking vamps! It scares me how enthusiastic one medical student can get when it comes to drawing out blood from patients. Don't you people have a heart? (look who's talking...lol)

This ward is the Haematology ward, so that's why there's plenty of blood for everyone coz every patient's blood is required to be monitored everyday. So, this is the HOTSPOT for venepuncture.

I saw Dr. A (and his sweet smile haha) talking to the students and caught Assila waving at me and pointing to the counter, indicating "Hey, come! Plenty of blood here!" lol.

I just nodded and held up my hand showing "later". I went to the tutorial room at the back, dropped my junks and headed for the counter when I saw everyone already kelam-kabuting in the procedure room to take all those syringes, needles, gloves and alcohol swabs for venepuncture preps.

Blood-thirtsy I tell ya.

So, I came over and asked "anymore for me?". They were like, "yeah, but you have to wait for Dr. R".

When I heard that, I was a bit disappointed. I could've sworn they said there were plenty, and I'm pretty sure there were plenty. So, why was it so hard to distribute the bed numbers equally? Another thought that came to mind was..."heh? Dr. R? That arrogant, perasan handsome sangat doc?" (he is good-looking btw, lol)

Ain Musa offered her bed numbers to these surgery posting students awhile ago, so she told me she'll go with me and ask the doc if he needed more of them patients' blood. There at the counter, was Dr. T. Which btw, has a name that starts with the letter A too...but we'll just stick to calling him Dr. T, yes?

Dr. T was friendly this time. And funny too. Tall, is attractive to me. But his hairstyle? Wayyy too long for my taste hehe. But, he too was nice. Dr. T asked whether we were any good at taking blood, before distributing us to our respective bed numbers. Of course he was only playing with us, but I wonder why there was a slight pause before Ain and I answered that question. Could it be that we're not as confident as we think are? Or we just didn't know what to answer.

After a few minutes, Dr. R came in. Assila told us to ask that doc to see if he needed help with his patients' blood taking. He answered, "tunggu dulu" with slight annoyance in his tone of voice...and without even looking at our faces.

Okayyyy...I know you're like tired from your oncall and all, but that was sorta rude. I really dislike rude and arrogant people. I tend to avoid them, not wanting to speak or even look at their faces.

So, whatever. I continued towards my patient. That task, was difficult I tell ya! I couldn't see the veins...AT ALL. I tried my best, but my confidence were wearing thin, and I didn't think I could pull it off. Therefore, let's just leave him to the experts. After that, we went to Ain's patient. His veins were also not visible. But the difference was, there was a very prominent pulse at his right cubital fossa. His left arm however had a few AV fistulas, which we were reminded numerous times already to NEVER take blood from that very same arm.

Both Ain and I sought Dr. T and he told us to take the patient's Arterial Blood instead. Which was new to us. The veins are supposedly more superficial than arteries, that's why we usually draw out blood from veins. To take blood from the arteries, the syringe needle is to be pointed downwards at a 90deg angle. It's also very, very painful for patients coz the needle will poke in deep.

Ain wasn't confident enough to do it. So was I. But, I guess it was sorta a challenge for me. Therefore I volunteered to take that patient's blood.

My first ABG procedure in the Brachial artery...cooool.

When I inserted the needle, the patient was already yelling. My hands started to shake. But, then I thought "I'm doing this for a reason. I'm not just doing this for fun. His blood is needed for monitoring and further investigations. I have to do this and I have to do this right". Initially, no blood came out. However, after shifting the needle a bit to the left and right...relief overwhelmed me. A few mL of blood was successfully drawn out. It wasn't much, but I succeeded my first ABG taking! cooool.

Throughout the whole procedure, the patient was yelling and squirming and saying "sakit...sakit".

I felt like a monster.

I had never thought I would cause so much pain in someone I barely even knew. But, that was pain he felt. And I had caused it.

After feeling a bit remorseful, Dr. T came up and said "that was scary" with a joking tone and gave me an encouraging smile. That remark sorta lightened my mood and made me laugh a bit, and I felt OK again. Thanks Dr. T!

.scary, l e n a.