Anaesthetics and !ED!

Hello world,

I shall update you with the latest adventure. I have finally finished up with GM (hopefully – as my gen med results are awaited…)

I was doing well on day #2 of anaesthetics. Day #1 consisted of an introduction with a friendly anaesthetist who was really nice and said ‘ I wont tell you everything as we can only take in so much’.

It was cool – I fumbled with a few oropharyngeal airways, pushed in a laryngeal mask airway and got to grips with the head tilt chin lift.

The airway positioning on a dummy is dead easy (so many puns in my writing today!) but it takes more muscle on a real person. I felt much more confident after day #1.

Day #2 commenced. I did fine answering questions about different agents of anaesthesia. I saw the vocal cords and epiglottis in a 6 year old girl whilst handling the laryngoscope! yay

I followed the little girl into recovery and the doctor told me to stay and watch her ‘wake up from the operation’ to see for myself what it was like. The nurse joined in and said some children are like little monsters as they can thrash around on waking. How ironic this comment will become as the latest events unfolded…

Now I have a 2 year history of dysmenorrhea (painful periods) that is somewhat abated by Synflex/Naproxyn (the happy blue pill). I had taken one this morning and I had the usual background pain that I just tried to ignore.

Funny through the last ten minutes of theatre, I had the smallest tinges of nausea. Anyway I was in the recovery room listening to the doc and nurse whereby my feeling nauseated increased. I felt slightly weak on my feet but managed to keep things together. The doc left and I was left with the girl and the nurse. I felt light headed and got myself a stool to sit on. As I started to sit on it another nurse who was at the nurses station came rushing up to ask if I was ok. I did have some foresight but not fast enough! I went on to sit and had to continue downwards by sitting onto the floor. I moaned – ‘I feel dizzy’.

It was amazing how fast the nurses moved! They all appeared out of nowhere to swoop in and lift me onto a bed. I felt hot and sweaty and dizzy. It as such that I had my eyes shut the whole time while I felt nauseated still. I heard in the distance – her heart rate is 42! to be asked ‘do you normally have low heart rate?’ I said no. Someone asked if I had any pain anywhere. This was a great relief as I did register pain that was amounting in severity by the second…

So basically I had a typical presyncopal episode triggered by my pains. Oh my, these pains were 10/10 in severity, constant and made me writhe about like a mad woman. Too bad this did not help relieve it in anyway. I felt very hot and thirsty. I had severe pains like this right before I got prescribed Naproxyn but that would be a 9/10 pain (dimmed by the mists of time? i mean i did have to lie down and writhe for half the day then) but that pain came and went. By this stage I was in extremis. I threw my scrubs top off and kicked my shoes off (oh dear – poor nurses) and I was very bad at keeping the sats probe on! Thinking back I would have been not the best patient…

This continued after a while and the strangest thing was was the urge to go to the toilet but not being able to pass anything. So weird it freaked me out. The orderly and a nurse took me to ED.

Wow it was so weird to have other people take responsibility for you. Amongst fervently wishing for something, anything to take away my pain, at the same time I marveled at how efficient and fast I was travelling on my little wheeled bed. I am grateful for all who were involved in making sure I was in the right place. Including the heat pack which did not help at all initially but later on did.

I was in pain in ED for about 5 minutes. Then amazingly it abated. Just like the high tide that pulls away when it is the time to. I was left again with the background intermittent pain – which on a normal occasion I would be rather unappreciative of – but after this worst ever wracking pains – (I fear for childbirth now – as I got a nice taster for it) I was meekly relieved to have back again.

I got an ECG (my first one ever) and lying and standing blood pressure. Its amazing how brusque some nurses are to a fragile and worn out person! And funny how the simple question ‘what happened today?’ made me talk to her about what happened as if I would to a friend or family member to be cut off into the next question which was abrupt and unrelated – like ‘are you allergic to anything?’…

I hope when I am talking to a sick person in ED as a doctor I never come across like that.

The diagnosis was severe dysmenorrhea with presyncopal episode.

It was just bizzare how everything just happened so unexpectedly. I turned from a upstanding young medical student into a lying writhing wreck on the bed to be wheeled off into the emergency department. The intensity of these pains worried me and all those nurses. Atleast in the ED I knew the protocol of investigations and the questions that are asked by the doctor. It made me less scared compared to a member of the public would have felt but it still was an odd experience.

Weirdly enough how the pains abated. After getting over the shock of it all- i actually was quite thankful and sorry that I must have been a demanding patient when I was hot and parching, to kicking off my shoes – this to me was the worst as well as writhing off the bed pretty much to be lifted off again. Oh my- what a handful. And to take off the sats probe to as it pinched my finger!

I presume the little kid waking up from her anaesthetic would have been a lot tamer than me.

Then I felt compelled to buy the staff in recovery a box of chocolates for their efforts- and me having been an extra patient- not part of their job decription. I guess we are in the caring profession. Although what a surprise for them to see me walk in after 3 hours looking much better.

This was the tale of a medical student disconcerted to be put into the position of  a patient – with little warning or preparation. I definitely experienced the ED first hand. Oh dear though as I will be studying in ED  in a few weeks time – but on the team I usually am on- the doctors.

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