Clinicals are finished

I am breathing a deep sigh of relief. I got through clinicals for this quarter without any problems. I have a couple weeks left of class, and then I am on holiday until January. I will be at Valley Medical Center for winter quarter.

It was definately a very interesting experience working at the VA hospital in the spinal cord injury unit. I always assumed that if you had a spinal cord injury and were paralyzed, that you also couldn't feel anything. That is true for some people, others have exactly the opposite. I won't get into neurons and sensory receptors, but essentially, a simple touch can overstimulate them, causing extreme pain, so some were on so many pain medications you wouldn't believe.

The following may have some references to poop and rectums, so it is not for the faint of heart......beware!!

I learned how to change a simple dressing, flush a catheter (next quarter is when I get to learn how to insert one....anyone interested in letting me practice on them?) I also learned how to do a bowel program. That is really interesting. People who can't feel their bowels and don't have control of their rectal sphincter can train their body to go to the bathroom once everyday or so. The inner sphincter still works, so essentially, you glove up, put on some lubricant on your finger and use it to stimulate the inner sphincter. It stimulated the colon to push stuff down a bit, so you use your finger to pull it out - the feces. Weird! Today I did it for the first time and I can't stop thinking about it. I keep trying to go back to a happy place in my head instead of thoughts of putting my fingers up someones ass............