Short Story

“The patient is Adam Rudd, a 78 y/o white male with a history of hypertension. He has been diagnosed with hypertension past 15 years and is on anti-hypertensive medications and aspirin. He is very weak and short of breath. He is accompanied with his longtime friend Jennifer, who reports that Rudd was looking very weak and was complaining of severe headache and blurred vision before coming to the hospital. He is 5’9” and weighs 270 lb. Vital signs recorded were: oral temperature 98.20 F, BP 224/120 mm Hg with a heart rate of 102 beats/minute and respiration of 24 breaths per minute. The pulse oximetry reading was 94% on room air. He is complaining of severe headache and blurred vision. Rudd said that he did not take his antihypertensive medication or aspirin since he ran out of pills. He has not been taking his medication for past 15 days. He reports no known allergies to any medications or other substances.”

When you don’t feel well, you go to the doctors, and at the doctors, they tell you what's wrong. But what if they can't? For over three years, doctors haven't been able to find what my mysterious condition was.

The purpose of this journal is to reflect on my experience and skills gained during my clinical placement at Ben Taub Hospital. On my first clinical day, I was excited and nervous at the same time. My first placement was in the PREOP/PACU area. I was assigned to help a patient who had been in the PACU area going on 2 days. Normally, once the patient comes from surgery they are only in the PACU area for a short period of time before they are discharged home or given a bed in another area of the hospital. This particular patient still had not received an assignment for a bed. The physicians would make their rounds to come check on him daily. The patient was a 28-year-old Hispanic male, non-English speaking, he had a hemicolectomy. He had a NG tube, urinary Foley catheter, and a wound vac. My preceptor had just clocked in and she needed to check on the patient’s vitals and notes from the previous nurse. Once she introduced me to the patient and explained while I was there, she then asked me to check his vitals. (Vital signs indicate the body’s ability to regulate body temperature, maintain blood flow, and oxygenate body tissues. Vital signs are important indicators of a client’s overall health status (Hogan, 2014). I froze for a quick second. I have practiced taking vitals numerous of times and I knew I could do it correctly. I started with the temperature first, when I was quickly corrected on a major mistake I had made by my preceptor. I HAD FORGOT TO WASH MY HANDS and PUT

This is it. Today will be the day to end the mystery of all the fainting I have been doing lately. I had my blood tested a couple of weeks ago, because my mom thinks I am diabetic. I don't think I am, but it's always better to be safe then sorry. I can't keep still, I really want to know what has been causing me to faint.

On April 18, 2016, I attended my assigned clinical site at Maimonides hospital. My assignment consisted of taking care of a 95-year-old female, who I will name as Ms. Lily due to confidentiality. Ms. Lily was admitted on April 9, 2016 for shortness of breath. She is alert and orientated to person, place, and time. She also has a history of atrial fibrillation, diabetes, HTN, and high cholesterol. Ms. Lily was also scheduled to have coronary angioplasty on April 18th.

I had been feeling so tired for weeks I just thought it was because of my busy schedule but, all I wanted to do was sleep. I then became week and started losing weight I figured it must just be stress or the fact that I was coming down with a cold. I had the worst cough that just wouldn’t go away combined with the discomfort in my chest I thought it was time to call the doctor.

In the spring of 2014, I got the stomach flu. But it never seemed to leave my body. During the summer I would get shaky, my legs would go weak and I would feel like I was about to throw up. I went to the doctor for my annual check up and I got my blood taken. It was a lot of blood, 5 tubes full of that red, liquidy substance, tubes the size of fingers. The doctor told me that I had not been growing as much as I should have. I mean think about it I probably could have been 5’6” instead of 5’3.” Then I would have been taller than my mom! The doctors office always surprises me, it is so clean, white and it always smells like hand sanitizer and cleaning product. Plus you never know what is going to happen.

Woke early at 0500 hours on Wednesday morning to get ready for my foot surgery scheduled at 0900 hours at the Veteran Hospital. I could not eat or drink anything after 2400 hours midnight and of course I was starving and seriously craving a cigarette, which I know I could not have. My husband Mert rushing me to put a little pep in my step, commenting that I usually run late even though I get up in plenty of time. I watched as Mert eat a breakfast of eggs, bacon, and pancakes. It was really hard for me due to the fact I cooked the breakfast. Washed the dishes and out the door we went.

___[NAME] is a (52)-year-old female with a history of CVA, hypertension, hyperlipidemia ,hypothyroidism presenting with chest pain. She (was) admitted to the medical telemetry field were troponins were taken which were negative and the patient underwent nuclear stress testing, results of which are noted above, essentially showing an unremarkable nuclear stress test. She also had a D-dimer that was normal ruling out pulmonary embolus as a cause of her chest pain. She remained hemodynamically stable throughout the duration of her hospital course. On the day of admission, she had no complaints of chest pain. No events on telemetry were noted. She was stable for discharge.

“My head and left arm has been hurting constantly since three days,” as I heard him complain but refused to go to the ER or make an appointment with the primary physician. As I over heard him vomiting, I rushed him to the Abington Memorial Hospital ER as I recall it was 9pm that day. The first thing that was performed on him was an EKG after I had described the signs and symptoms to the nurses at the front desk. He was soon rushed into the room as the nurse told us he had been suffering from a major myocardial attack.

Doctors' appointments became my daily norm. I went to neurologists, oncologists, psychiatrists, pediatricians, hematologists, and even acupuncturists, hoping to reveal a connection between my various maladies. Unfortunately, a connection was never made, and none of the medicine seemed to make any of my illnesses better. Despite my great frustration, I tried to live as normal a life as possible. I knew, however, that this feat would not be easy.

Hello Everyone! We are so close to the finish line, another week down and only 2 more to go! This week I spent my time observing in the cardiology department. The most excitement actually came from an emergency situation that arose with one of the nurse’s family members who was shadowing her for the day. The patient would suddenly become ill without any warning. His heart rate and blood pressure dropped drastically and his lips became pale. He was rushed to the stress lab to get vital signs but we had a hard time placing the leads on his chest due to hyperhidrosis. Surprisingly within minutes his color came back and he also became more responsive. As we continued monitoring him, his heart rate and blood pressure returned to normal. At one point

Something was wrong. Every fiber within me was screaming this but my mind refused to accept it. The nausea, lack of energy, and the constant feeling of being tired were becoming commonplace in my daily life. The thought of going to see a doctor was not something I was looking forward to and had not been entertained frequently by me in the past. I had always taken pride in being active and healthy. Unbeknownst to me, doctor visits would become a regular, unpleasant, occurrence for me in the months to follow.

It started off as a perfectly normal day. I woke up in the right atrium of the heart, and said goodbye to my wife, Pie and my three children Pizza, Fries, and Cheesecake. You’re probably wondering, why are we named after fatty foods? Well, our home Bobby Johnson is not very healthy. He needs to work out. Keep that in mind for later. After I left the right atrium, I squeezed through the tricuspid valve. That brought me to the right ventricle. From there, I went into the pulmonary valve and then the pulmonary artery. Remember how I said I visit the Pulmonary Co. Headquarters everyday? Well, this takes me there (the lungs). So, I got there to pick up oxygen. I picked it up in pill form because the ear was complaining about not having enough. I exchanged the pills for carbon dioxide, a waste gas. From there, I traveled back to the heart in the pulmonary veins. Those took me to the left atrium. As that room filled up with other blood cells, including some friends and colleagues like

            But here I was, in a quarantine room after volunteering for three months with doctors and nurses. I felt paranoid. What if the dental pick had HIV on it? Am I gonna die? My worries soon transformed into