Issie (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} bell_sprout) wrote,@ 2007-10-06 14:43:00 |
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| Current mood: |  tired |
Shift 5 Perspectives 07-08-07
C/T – 1 m/o F SOB ALOC – Code 1C
The pickings were slim in terms of acute cases however, I’ve chosen this one over the age old lesson about how people develop some sort of affliction to providing forewarning of the potential for impending reverse peristalsis. I learned that lesson a while ago and my vigilance continues.
Anyhow, our patient’s mother called because baby had a chesty cough and seemed to have some difficulty coughing. She was also delayed in waking up for the morning. Baby did wake up as we departed and she was happily looking around and doing all those random active motions that babies do as normal. Mum had become a little bit over cautious as three weeks earlier, baby had caught the flu, stopped breathing and developed encephalitis, earning a week intubated in Mater Children’s ICU.
What struck me when mum had first answered the door, was just how young she appeared to be. We talked in the back about a variety of things, mostly related to her child however, at one point she asked me a question about something relating to baby’s skin v. body temperature, one of those “mum” questions. I baulked and told her that I didn’t have a clue as no amount of babysitting my niece would ever have provided me with motherly powers of knowledge. She said something about how she thought that I’d have children which left me wonder just how old she thought I was. We continued to talk for the remainder of the journey.
Afterwards, my mentor told me that she’d just turned 16. Her assumption about my potential parenthood made sense. Remembering back to her age, the seniors at school looked to be so much older and anyone who was at uni was just so adult! In my own world, I still consider myself to be 18 and just starting out in uni, despite the fact that I’m about to finish my fifth year of uni and turn 22. Obviously, she sees me how I saw uni students when I was her age.
