A Beautiful Friendship

At the end of my shift on Monday afternoon a new patient arrived in the ward. Charlie had spent a good potion of the day sitting in the miyun and he was glad to finally be able to get some rest. The nurses bustled around and got Charlie settled into room number 4 for the night.

The next day a patient by the name Joe arrived in the ward and was wheeled into room number 4. He didn't know it yet, but life as he knew it was about to change. His bed was set up directly across the room from Charlie's bed. Tired and worn out from having a procedure done earlier that day, he drifted off into a troubled sleep.

Joe woke up a few hours later and sat up in his bed and surveyed his surroundings.  He hadn't paid much attention when he had first arrived, he looked across the room and saw a man around the same age as him sitting in the bed across from him. The man looked up and smiled, Joe smiled back.

It was boring in the hospital, and lonely. Charlie sat in his bed wondering when his wife was going to come to visit. She had called earlier to say that she would be there after work but it was only 14:00 in the afternoon and she didn't finish work until 16:00. It seemed like time was barely moving. 

Charlie sighed and looked across the room. The man in the bed across from him was starting to wake up. He watched as the man sat up and took in his surroundings. As their eyes met, Charlie smiled. The man smiled back.

A nurse came into the room with a glucometer to check the diabetic patients blood sugar levels. The nurse took Charlie's level first and then walked over to Joe's bed. "So we're both diabetic.." thought Joe as the nurse pricked his finger.

The nurse left the room and Charlie realized that it had been a while since he'd last visited the little boys room. He tried to stand up but got tangled in his IV line. Those damn nurses seemed intent on pumping him full of fluids. 

Joe watched the man in the bed across from him flounder as he struggled to free himself from his IV line. The man lost his balance and the IV stand began to sway dangerously. Joe jumped up to the rescue and ran to grab the man before he fell.

Charlie panicked as he lost his footing. Just as he thought that he was a goner, he felt a firm grasp around his arm and steadied himself with the help of his rescuer. The two men worked together to free Charlie from his IV line. 

As the line came untangled the two men smiled at each other. They stood there like that for a while until Charlie remembered his manners. 

"I'm Charlie, thanks for saving me there.."  said Charlie as he stuck out his hand. "Ya, no problem." said Joe as he shook the outstretched hand "Names Joe". Charlie nodded towards the spot of dried blood on Joe's finger from where the nurse had checked his blood sugar level . "Watchya in for?" he asked. Joe sighed and answered "Chest pains. You?" Charlie smiled and said "Same.".

Joe let out a little laugh "Two diabetics administered for chest pains... What are the odds?" Charlie thought for a moment and said "It's like it was meant to be.". Happy to finally have  a distraction Charlie offered to show Joe around the ward. Joe had been pretty out of it when they brought him in earlier and thought his legs could definitely do with a stretch.

The two men spent the remainder of the day together. By the next morning, they were inseparable.

At the beginning of the shift my clinical nurse divided the room into two, assigning me with left side and the other student with the right. When I went to take Charlie's blood pressure before breakfast he asked me to take Joe's as well so they could go to breakfast together. I explained to him that the other student was in charge of Joe's side of the room and she would take his blood pressure for him.

Later in the day I found the generally bubbly and outgoing Charlie lying in his bed "How are you feeling?" I asked him. "Oh you know... Alright I suppose." said Charlie with a sigh. Twenty minutes later Joe was wheeled back into the room after having had an X-ray done. Charlie jumped out of bed eager to welcome his friend back to his room.

"I was worried that you might miss lunch!" Charlie exclaimed. "I never miss lunch" Joe answered with a smile.

When I went to check Charlie's blood sugar level before lunch he hesitantly asked if I could check Joe's as well. I explained again that he wasn't my patient and he would have to wait for the other student. They looked at each other longingly across the room and sighed. Charlie pulled a chair up to Joe's bed. "I'll wait with you.".

During lunch I watched them sitting across the table from one and other telling tales as they ate. Joe gestured about wildly as he excitedly described his adventure around the hospital on the way to get his X-ray. His hand knocked over a bowl of apples on the counter behind him. The two watched as the apples bounced to the floor. The head of the kitchen staff watched them with a stern look on her face as they chased the apples about the room giggling with glee like a pair of young boys.

Later that day, the two men sat outside in the courtyard off the ward. They introduced each other to their spouses and children. It was a day full of laughter and bonding in an otherwise bleak ward.

Charlie was released from the ward later in the afternoon. Joe was sad to see him go but they promised to stay in touch.

Who knows what it was that brought them together... A mere coincidence or perhaps fate?

The Tale Of The Forgotten Sweater

Things have been kind of boring lately. Mostly I've been studying for finals and taking driving lessons. Riveting stuff, I know...

I took my last final yesterday morning and now I'm just waiting for grades (fingers crossed that I passed all of them!). Finals actually weren't to bad this semester and I'm feeling good about things.

Yesterday I picked Hadassah up from gan. Getting her from gan wasn't much of a problem but things went south on the way home. We got about two blocks away from the gan before Hadassah stopped walking and began to frantically search through her bag. Unable to find whatever treasure she had been looking for, she promptly burst into tears.

Hadassah: I have a thing for my arms so I'm not be cold!

Me: You're cold!? *stares at her in disbelief as sweat drips off my face*

Hadassah: Nooooo! In gan! *burts into tears*  I am have sometin so I'm not be cold! 

Me: You have a sweater in gan?

Hadassah: *nods head*

Me: Um, OK....

Hadassah: We need to go get it! *still crying*

Me: Uhhhh, maybe we'll get it tomorrow

Lavi:  EEEEEEEE! *sees bird and shrieks in delight*

Hadassah: Noooo! We need to go now!

Me: OK but we're almost home now so they'll save it for you and we'll get it tomorrow.

Hadassah: I need it now! *continues crying uncontrollably*

Me: Are you cold now?

Hadassah: No. *still crying*
Lavi: *still shrieking at presumably deaf bird*

Me: So how about we go home and watch a nice movie and tomorrow we'll get the sweater from gan?
Hadassah: *sniffles* ok... The princess with the long hair?

Me: Sure...

Hadassah: Ok

We made it home without any further mentions of the forgotten sweater. Hadassah went straight to the couch when we walked in and reminded me to put on the movie about the princess with the long hair. She also said we should put the air conditioning on because apparently, it was hot outside.

Next week I start my second rotation in the hospital. This time I'll be working in internal medicine which I've been assured is much more interesting than E.N.T. and I've heard only good things about the staff. 

I'm pretty excited to be in a ward where I can learn a lot and really be hands on with the patients. 

Maybe we'll even get some good stories out of it! 

The Trials And Tribulations Of Traffic Circles

I'd like to take a moment to share my feelings about traffic circles...

I don't get them.

My driving instructor has gone to great lengths to try and explain them to me, including drawing some diagrams and raising his arms in frustration and despair almost every time I unsuccessfully try and use one. But I just can't seem to figure them out.

The idea is simple enough in itself. You slow down as you approach the circle and if there are no cars coming at you, you enter the circle and somehow maneuver the wheel in a complex series of twists and turns to magically get the car to come out of the circle where you want it to.

I've discovered that the most important part of this delicate procedure is to NOT use the blinkers (or as my Israeli driving instructor likes to call them, winkers). Using the blinkers helps the other drivers know where you want to go and we can't have them knowing that because apparently, its a secret.

Aside from my difficulty using traffic circles, driving lessons are going all right. I've been told that learning how to drive is a bit of a learning curve.

Between you and me, I'm just glad that its not a traffic circle.

The Unsuspecting Passenger

After years of avoiding and pushing it off, I have finally begun the ever so tedious process of getting my drivers licence. This country sure doesn't make it easy.

Last week I went to take theory and passed (if only my finals at university could go by as smoothly!) and this week I had my first driving lesson. It was a bright and sunny afternoon as I stood in the sunshine anxiously awaiting for the driving instructor to pull up.

In the distance I saw a car with one of those triangles on top signifying that it was an instructors car. I briefly considered hiding behind a tree and letting them drive by without me but the tree wasn't very wide and it just looked like I was standing behind it to get out of the sun.

The car pulled up and I noticed that there was already a student in the drivers seat. I waved at the instructor and introduced myself. She smiled and gestured for me to get into the car. I happily started to make my way to the back seat of the car when the other student got out of the drivers seat and climbed into what I presumed was my seat.

I looked to the instructor for guidance and saw her patting the drivers seat. When she didn't make a move to get out of the car I succumbed to the inevitable and got into the drivers seat. I had spoken to a bunch of my friends before my lesson and they had all assured me that I probably wouldn't do much driving. They said that the instructor would probably drive me to an empty parking lot to point out the different car parts and maybe let me drive in a straight line.

The instructor began to point out the important things in the car that I would supposedly need in order to drive and I relaxed a little bit thinking that my friends were right, I probably wouldn't have to drive. When she was done explaining she asked if I had understood and mentioned that we had to get the other student home. I nodded enthusiastically and opened the door to get out of the car so we could switch spots.

Before I managed to get out of the car, the instructor asked me where I was going and told me to sit back down. I sat back down, and put on my seat belt. The instructor told me to adjust the seat and mirrors. When I looked up into the mirror I saw the student in the back looking a little uncertain, I didn't blame her.

And thus began the drive to the other students house on the other side of town. I'm pretty sure she wished she had walked.

We got there without too much trouble. The instructor has total control over the car from her seat so I mostly pretended to control the wheel and played with the blinkers.

After dropping the other student off we turned around and drove back to my apartment to drop me off. I happily relinquished control of the drivers seat and went on my merry way.

All in all, not the worst experience (although it is a rather costly one!). Hopefully the process continues to go smoothly and next year I'll be able drive myself to whatever hospital I get put in!

Just Like Chicken

This week I moved from my quiet little ward into the operating rooms.

My ward had been small and at times boring but I was comfortable there. The staff was always nice to me and the patients were more or less happy to let me treat them, except for that one really quiet day where I spent so much time playing nurse with one patient that he started to pretend to be asleep whenever he heard me come back into the room.

I've never really been a fan of blood and gore. I'm the type of person that gets queasy and fast-forwards through the surgery scenes in tv shows and movies. I wasn't thrilled at the thought of having to stand in an OR and watch someone preform surgery right in front of me.

As you can probably imagine, it wasn't the most flawless transition.

Things didn't go exactly as planned on my first day. Or rather, they didn't go quite the way that the nurse in charge of me had planned. I picked up my scrubs on the way into the hospital and was ready and dressed by 7:10am. Unfortunately surgeries don't start until closer to 9am so I had almost two hours to sit in the staff room panicking and trying to come up with a plan on how to get out of there.

My OR nurse came in at around 9 to find us and give us a quick little tour of the place. As we walked farther away from the staff room and deeper into the OR I noticed the drastic change in temperature. The next thing I noticed was the distinctive smell and then, the nausea hit.

Everyone had finished eating and the OR had come to life. Doctors, nurses and anesthesiologists rushed around shouting orders and double checking that everything was ready. My nurse started to explain the types of surgeries scheduled for the day, my insides churned in protest.

Feeling like a ticking time bomb I desperately tried to explain that I needed to get out of there. After a difficult five minutes of arguing I was sent to the head nurse that's in charge of all of the nursing students. I tried to calm my insides down and went to present my case. Twenty minutes later I was introduced to the nurses in the recovery room where I spent the day hooking patients up to monitors and taking their vitals while they waited for the anesthetics to wear off.

Today I got to the recovery room bright and early only to find that this mornings surgeries were all "big" surgeries that would take at least 2 hours per surgery. After sitting for an hour and a half in recovery with no patients to hook up to monitors I started to get really bored.

I saw the nursing student that I'm supposed to be watching surgeries with hurry down the hall. She stopped by the sinks to grab a face mask and then walked into one of the OR rooms. Curiosity got the best of me and five minutes later I was standing next to her watching a gastric sleeve surgery.

The surgery was laparoscopic so we could see everything on a big screen. They were just beginning to cut the stomach when I went in, my insides panicked in sympathy. I felt like throwing up but then I noticed the liver and the spleen and then I noticed that it was kind of like cutting up raw chicken.

I don't know if it was an adrenaline rush or a miracle but my insides calmed down and I couldn't look away. It may sound kind of gross but I just kept thinking of chicken and steak and it made me really hungry.

The other nursing student kept checking on me to make sure that I was feeling ok. Towards the end of the surgery I told her that I was going to go out and she asked me if I was ok I said "Ya, I'm just going to go grab something to eat. I'm starving!".

After eating a quick snack we went in to see someone have their hemorrhoids removed and then finished off the day with a bilateral hernia repair.

I'm pretty proud of myself for actually going into the OR and watching some surgeries. I'm also really glad that I didn't throw up or pass out!

Tomorrow is the last day that we're allowed to watch surgeries and then its back to hooking people up to monitors in recovery.

The Power Of Determination

Learning in the hospital has been interesting. My ward is pretty quiet so I spend a lot of my time making small talk with the patients and their families. One of the questions that they love to ask is "So, why nursing?" and I'm never quite sure how to answer. 

Today I was treating a patient that had undergone a surgery earlier in the day. When I was done talking to her and taking her blood pressure she informed me that she really needed to smoke. I smiled and did my best to explain to her that she was still under the influence of the drugs that she had gotten during surgery and wouldn't be able to leave the ward on her own until the following day. 

She patiently listened to my explanation and told me that she understood completely. Relieved that it had been so easy I asked her if there was anything else she needed before I left. She stared back at me blankly and then reiterated that she really really needed to smoke. 

I explained to her again that there was no way for her to leave the ward to smoke and that smoking in the building is illegal. She smiled and nodded before giving me a wink and telling me that she understood. I stood there staring at her for a minute wondering what the wink was supposed to mean, she offered no explanation but gestured towards the door and waited for me to leave.

Slightly perturbed I slowly backed out of the room. She took out a cigarette and wrestled the window open. Realizing that there was not much else that I could do I sighed and went to make sure that she didn't fall out of the window or get the drain from her surgery stuck on anything. 

As I stood there holding the back of my patients robe shut while she enjoyed her precious cigarette, I couldn't help but wonder to myself "So, why nursing?".

The Vanishing Act

The hospital is a busy place. I started my clinical hours in the ENT ward last week and so far things have been going pretty well. Freddie works in the ER just one floor down for me and I pop in every once in a while to say hi and see if there's anything interesting going on.

ENT is a quiet little ward that consists of four rooms of patients, a nurses station and a room where the doctors examine the patients. The staff is nice and the patients accommodating. Alas, its not the most interesting ward in the hospital.

Things in the ward this morning were as riveting as they usually are. We took blood pressure for some of the patients and followed the doctors as they made their rounds. When the morning routine was done with they sent us down to the clinic to see how things were going there.

While I was walking past the ER to get to the clinic a little old Romanian woman was making her way into the hospital. The little old woman hobbled over to the reception desk and waited patiently as a file was opened for her. File in hand, she continued her journey to the entrance of the ER to wait for someone to come call her in.

I sat in the clinic watching the ENT doctor work. In between patients we chatted, she told me that she had been in the field for thirty years and was happy to share her knowledge and answer any questions I might have.

While I was sitting in the clinic looking at patients vocal chords Freddie was in the ER calling for a patient named Atilia. A petite older woman standing with her shoulders hunched and looking like she was in quite a bit of pain raised her head in response to hearing her name.

Atalia was an older woman in her 80's. She had broken her leg earlier in the year and came in to the ER today with a fractured clavicle. She was noticeably in pain and walked very slowly. Freddie took her by the arm and led her to get an x-ray.

This is where things started to go wrong. The little old lady with a painful fracture never returned from the x-ray. She simply vanished.

When the doctor received the results from the x-ray he went to find Atalia so that he could give her the diagnosis and prescribe some pain medications. Except, she wasn't there. After waiting half an hour to see if she would turn up the staff grew concerned and began to look for her.

All of the hallways and bathrooms near and around the ER were checked but there were no signs of the little old lady.

While the search for Atalia continued, I made my way back to my ward from the clinic. After my shift ended I went down to meet Freddie in the ER so that we could go home. I asked one of the nurses that works with her where she was and they told me to check the security room at the entrance of the hospital.

I walked into the security room and found Freddie and some security guards watching footage of the entrance to the hospital from earlier in the day. They quickly filled me in and we all stood there staring at the screen trying to find Atalia.

It was almost like playing a game of "where's waldo" except the picture was constantly moving and Atalia was a short little old lady that couldn't walk very fast and had a broken clavicle. At one point we watched some of the footage backwards and it looked like everyone was being sucked out of the hospital by a freak storm of some sort.

We watched the footage for at least half an hour but couldn't point out our leading lady. Eventually they spotted an older women that came in to the hospital around the same time as Atalia had and they decided that it was her.

I'm still not entirely sure that it was her in footage. My theory is that she magically vanished into thin air. It seems much more believable than any other alternative.

In any case, there's an old Romanian lady on loose so be sure to lock your doors!