My patient patient

So...hooray! I ended up getting a 100% on both skills they selected for me to perform on the practical. I ended up having to do an insulin injection and medication via nasogastric tube. All my fussing over forgetting to open my biohazard bag was for nothing. But for the record, I DID remember to provide Mr. InjectiPad with adequate privacy, assisted him to a comfortable position, and only exposed the area I was working on (even though he was a naked, lifeless blob of liquid).

Big thanks are in order to Jane, my very patient patient. For both this class and for Health Assessment, she was a very willing victim for me to practice my skills on. The poor thing had "wounds" all over her body that I did dressing changes on, and during Health Assessment lab, she sat through nightly "Head to Toe" assessments, as I peered, poked, prodded, and listened (clinical terms being inspected, palpated, percussed, and auscultated) all over while she calmly reviewed our practice sheet to make sure I wasn't forgetting something (I kept forgetting to do the ears). Overall jane is in good health, although her tonsils get a grade "0." They like to "grade" things a lot in health assessment. Like pulse (0 is absent, 1 is weak and thready, 2 is normal, up to 4 which is bounding). With tonsils, 0 means they are not present, 1 means they are present but not swollen, 3 means they are toughing the uvula, and 4 would be when they are so swollen they are actually touching each other in the middle of your throat. Apparently with tonsils, less is more.