Some kind of a farewell party at the ICU

Last night was my last duty in the intensive care unit. There were four of us nurses in the ICU and four unstable patients. Everything went well, the usual morning care was rendered, vital signs were all manageable, NGT feeding were ongoing until one of the patients had seizure attacks--a total of 4 episodes, longest was 9 minutes. After the seizure, the same patient experienced oxygen desaturation. We notified the resident on duty (ROD) and we flushed 10cc of sterile H20 into his ET tube to liquefy tenacious secretions while ambu-bagging in-between. Thank heavens his 02 saturation went back to normal.

One of the senior nurses was so nice and generous to treat me for a pizza on my last day, as a sign of gratitude for all the help I've rendered to them. She called Pizza Hut at 12midnight). We ate at around 2 a.m. after the toxic moments have passed and everything is stable again.

Saan ka nakakita na ang senior nurse pa ang magti-treat sa isang hamak na nurse volunteer na tulad ko. To me, that is so rare and precious. Sa Marikina Valley - ICU ko lang na-experience ito. I'm so touched by her gesture. Hihintayin kang matapos mag-document/charting kahit graveyard ang shift nyo, pagod kayo pare-pareho, para lang sabay-sabay kayo uuwi kahit hindi naman pare-pareho ang inuuwian nyo or sasakyan nyo. Tapos magte-thank you sa iyo every after duty in a really sincere manner. I mean, most of nurse volunteers were taken for granted, being bullied, being abused of their skills/abilities, and so on and so forth.

Thank you, Ma'am Mikee, for showing such generosity to a volunteer nurse like me. Hope to work with you some time, maybe in the same hospital, or in another land.