Working Woman

Me, all scrubbed up at 3:15.  Yes, that's a.m..  Not p.m.  The two, I have found, are quite different.  

As challenging as this job was, I was fortunate enough to work with patients that will forever leave a mark.  

I was quite touched to read this sweet woman's obituary (the last paragraph of the bottom photo)

To recognize our effort in an obituary was extremely touching.  So many patients I learned to love.  

Below are some pictures of what my job duties where:

First, each patient would come to the clinic with some kind of access point to their blood.  

Here's a central venous catheter (tubing that goes straight into their heart):  My responsibility would be to clean the catheter and change the bandaging, then hook the patient to the machine.  About 20% of our patients had this kind of access.  

The other 80% had a fistula, which is accessed through needles.  Mmmmm.  Needles.  Each fistula patient needs two needles placed, one for the blood to come out of, and the other for the blood to go back in after it has been cleaned.  

How cool is that?  It's incredible what modern medicine is capable of doing!

Here's is basically what things look like when they are hooked to the machine.  Most patients don't have their arm in a cast too.

Here's the machine that I was responsible for setting up, tearing down, cleaning, and setting up again.  Takes longer than one might think.