Thank you, Mom.
Pyo, A Prefix for Pus.
Case: A Diabetes Mellitus patient with an infected wound of third and fourth digits of left foot.
Fact: After all my OR exposures, I don’t get scrubbed out willingly or forcefully, ever. It’s kind of an achievement for me ‘cause I did almost all of my OR duty at PGH under the feared OR Clinical Instructor, Sir Alfaro.
So, Disarticulation of toe on left foot and wound debridement sounds chicken, I mean easy, right? ‘Cause really, that’s a minor case, and if you’re used to scrub on major cases then a minor is just, well, a minor case. But, excuse my words, damn that frckn case to hell, that minor case broke my record.
I’m fine retracting all that peeled-cyanotic-full-of-pus-with-ready-to-fall-in-any-minute-toenail 2nd and 4th toes away from the third toe, I mean, really, it’s fine pulling them away from the totally infected third toe ‘cause all I have to do is hold it, then sponge if there’s blood. Oh,that’s easy, but when Surgeon tried pulling the distal portion up and down as if nagbubomba ng poso, all hell break loose and all my senses are heightened. The smell of pus entered my mask, and I started feeling a churn in my stomach. I would recognize that signs anywhere. I tried telling myself repeatedly that it’s all in the mind. It’s all in the mind, it’s all in the mind. So, I tried to zone out and feel numb, but when I get back to test if I can handle it, it only got worse! I found myself sweating cold, massively, as if all my sweat glands are in a marathon. I tried to look at my circulating nurse, my vision focused then swayed. I turned my head backwards, tried to focus on a certain part of the wall then turned back front and look at my circulating nurse again, contemplating if I’d ask him to come over and tell I’m feeling sick, but my thoughts were cut short for my vision got blurred. Damn. I, then, look down, to the gangrenous-now-excised-joint-free-bloody-toe. Hello. Then the million dollar question was dropped-Surgeon: Are you ok? Silence. Again. Surgeon: Are you ok? Damn, man. So, I answered, No Doc, I think I’m about to faint. And there goes the action scene as if playing on slow mo. I saw my circulating nurse looked, and I know that look, rushed towards me, and pulled me a seat, so I sat still holding those frcknA 2nd and 4th toes, sighing- I put down my hands, took off my gloves, scrubbed out.
Lesson Learned: Never underestimate the power of a toe, no matter how small it may be, it maybe gangrenous. HA.
Realization to self: I can take all those operations where you incise the skin, cut the layers, pull/remove the abnormal part then suture the layers back, but I can’t handle those operations where you need to cut a visible body part and never put it back. I’m no Ortho Nurse, just an Ortho patient, that’s a solid fact.
Side notes: I’m supposed to text message this to Ellie, cos I randomly update her with the what’s up in my career life, and since this is a first and a very embarrassing first at that, so hey. But since I haven’t posted any personal experience here recently, I opted to post it here instead, so the friends I owe an update to, can just read it here and me storytelling it once. :-)
The Lolo’s Girl Story. On the upper left corner, you can see her peeping through the holes ‘cause she’s trying to spy on Gramp, who’s cooking just on the other side, to make sure that his attention is elsewhere and she won’t get caught playing her favorite toy- bottle seals. So, after making sure that the coast is clear- she started grabbing, pulling seals and putting her finger in the bottles she managed to unsealed, leaving it for an ambivalent Lolo to discover after. x
She have done that many times already but this is the first time she wasn’t caught. So, yey! Thanks for her mother who did nothing to stop her and documented it instead. Hay, childhood days. x
