Ari’s Journal April 12, 2018

Today when I woke up, the last thing I wanted do was going to clinicals because my head
was so focus on studying for my HESI exit exam. However, when I arrived at hospital I started
forgetting about HESI and focusing on my day. The working day started by being assigned to a
different nurse because my preceptor was off that day. She had only one patient that had a
balloon pump and waiting to be clear for an open-heart surgery.
My patient was 82 years patient with heart block. Her coronary arteries were blocked
almost completely. We were waiting for the doctor to talk to the family about the situation. The
Dr. explained them the pros and cons of the surgery. He said she had a 10% chance of not
making it and if she did she had the same probability of have renal failure. At the same time,
the Dr. said if he didn’t do the surgery she could die any moment. Finally, they decided to do it
because they want to try everything possible to save her. Her husband, which is 83 years old,
came to me with tears on his eyes and told me they have been married for 61 years. He stated
“I don’t want to be selfish but I don’t want her to die”, that broke my heart. He started crying
and me with him.
We were monitoring her blood pressure since it was very high. We gave her Labetalol to
reduce it but we could not lower it. The intensivist doctor said maybe she was having pain. We
asked her and she said a little bit, and he prescribed pain medication. I did an EKG on her to
give it to the doctor, and I printed another copy to review and practice reading them.
The last thing I did was a post-mortem care, which a nurse told me to come and help her in
order to learn how to do it. It was very interesting since it was the very first time doing it. Today
I learned a lot about balloon pumps and how to manage situation when you have to choose
over taking a risk and win or just wait for the inevitable. It was a great learning day.