BURN

so far two clinicals done in leadership and management in the Burn ICU at UCI Medical Center. i still havent decided whether or not i like the BICU but i am definitely seeing some interesting stuff. burns are probably one of the worst traumas to see and treat. its grossly disturbing and its definitely not for everyone. i was supposed to be only doing the leadership/mgmt part of the nursing unit but i helped out at the bedside too. i have NEVER seen anything like what i saw on those patients. most of the patients on the unit had 90 percent of their skin seered off. this means that some muscle and fascia were exposed. raw meat covered their entire body and their abdomen, fingers, arms, and legs were soooo swollen that surgeons had to cut open the skin to relieve the pressure from all the swelling. two of the patients swelled so bad in their um private areas that their scrotum were seriously the size of footballs. sorry for the gross picture but im not even exaggerating in the slightest bit. it looked extremely painful. i helped the nurses do hydrotherapy and when that is done, all the dressings on the burn victim are taken off, their skin is washed (painful), medication is put on, and new dressings are put on. during this time, it takes about 5 nurses to do this procedure and it puts so much pain on the patients because of the constant touching and moving. imagine when we get burnt on our finger from a flat iron and multiply that pain by like 500 million. thats how painful it looks. heartbreaking...

anyways, a boy who looked about 10 years old was brought in today for the fire starter program. apparently, in school, he had been getting in trouble for burning girls' hair. nurses brought him in to show him what could happen if the boy actually burnt the girls' hair and the whole body caught on fire. he came in with his older sister and visited the most critical patient in the unit. i think immediately he learned his lesson because he was bawling. but i mean, the nurses really pulled out all the stops on this kid. they had him talk to the family of the patient and had him look at pictures (which is sometimes a lot worse than seeing a patient). im glad the kid learned a very important lesson but i hope he wont be traumatized for life.

anyways, i was watching the car chase on the news right before writing this. some guy stole a car and put the CHP on a car chase for an hour and a half all around orange county and la. he was driving at 120 miles per hour according to the news and the whole time i was praying that he wouldnt hurt anyone or that there would be no car accidents. I DONT GET IT. why are people so dumb. why would they put other ppl's lives in so much danger for a stolen car. everyone knows hes gonna fail and go to jail eventually....

but, anyways, please all my friends, don't do anything stupid. be careful. the world is a scary place. please dont get caught on fire, please dont set other people on fire, please be careful when youre drunk, please practice safe sex, please dont do drugs, please be considerate, and please STAY OUT OF THE HOSPITAL. its scary and life is precious. be grateful.