Today I got a little insight into the nurses' work on the ward. I was present at the nurses' handover in the morning. Afterwards, I followed a nurse to our little patient whom I had the pleasure of getting to know on the first day - the premature baby with a pacemaker. After we had checked her parameters on the monitor and attached a new set of electrodes for the ECG, the nurse explained a few more things about the baby. Apparently there is fluid collecting in the lungs which is obstructing the baby's breathing. The cause is not entirely clear, it could be chyle, for example, so a diet of short-chain fatty acids has already been tried without success, or it could be an infection from the lupus antibodies. In addition, the diaphragm on the paralysed side is too high and presses on the lungs, which has already caused some atelectasis. I learned that our patient has been on the ward for quite a while and has not been growing and gaining weight for about 3 weeks. Because she has always spat out her breast milk, a duodenal tube was inserted. The nurse told me a trick how the insertion of such a tube always works: the cold water, which opens the stomach gate. However, you have to be careful not to cool the baby down too much by doing this. Around noon, a conference was held with almost all the doctors on the ward, as well as a few thoracic surgeons, to clarify how to proceed with the premature baby. They agreed on a new intubation, which I was allowed to watch, and a chest drainage to drain the fluid. My other highlights of the day included the bedside teaching of the minor students, during which we took a closer look at two patients in the NICU and one patient in the gynaecology department, a cranial ultrasound of a premature baby with IVH and dilated ventricles, as well as the MRI of our asphyxia baby from last week. The evaluation will take place tomorrow in the X-ray discussion.
Tonight we had cheese fondue with at Veerle's and her flatmate Marisa's place, also a medical student, who let me stay over from yesterday to Wednesday. Very cool and sweet of them! It tasted really delicious. 😋
View from the radiologists room to the MRI.
Intubation set.
Our cheese fondue.
Marisa, Rebecca, Veerle and me.
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