Craven Week 3

Incredible thing for the day: patient comes into ICU unconcious, with a blood glucose of 1273, patient drinks 1/2 gallon of vodka per day. Enough said. We aren't sure if we will be seeing them tomorrow.

I had an emotional experience with a patient today. I screened an 85 year old man due to low albumin (he had pneumonia) and when I went into talk to him, he was so talkative but as it turns out his wife had died suddenly two weeks ago from CHF and he was completely torn up. He started to tell me about his usual diet and that he hadn't felt like eating, and he felt he needed to force his food down. He started to mention his wife and how they cooked together and he just broke down and cried so much in the bed. I wanted to cry too, as I do now while writing this. I was really glad the nurse was in there with me and we were both trying to console him. She was apparently glad I was in there too because she had been trying many times to stick a needle into him and he was refusing to let it happen but he was too busy talking to me to even notice that she was doing it. It was all very sad but I think that he will get through this. I saw a note in his chart that he had expressed interest in the local senior center Senior Companion program. So I have faith that he will be OK.

Oh and my preceptor told me that they have only had one intern ever who hasn't cried. So I'm really hoping that I can make two. Fingers crossed