A smile is worth a thousand words

Today was my last day of clinicals here in Budapest. I'll be honest, I kinda just glazed through the day. I didn't even really realize that I'm not going back to the military hospital again until just now. I said goodbye to the wonderful doctors and nurses, and acquired the email addresses of some of my favorites. It didnt even hit me when I turned in my keys and badge or cleared out my locker. I wish I could have more time here, but I'm glad that I have pictures, journals, and notes to look back on.

Ready for my brief account of my day? Here goes.

Mornings never get easier. They just don't. They're especially hard when a fire alarm wakes you up thirty minutes before your alarm. Lest you think that we let this rouse us out of bed, I assure you that, had it been a real fire, we would all be nurse-kebabs right now. I remembering asking Laura if we should get up, and she grunted a response that I took to mean no. Accordingly, I rolled over and covered my head with a blanket so that I could sleep for a few more minutes.
Oh the good life choices I make when sleep deprived.
In my defense, I would like to think that if we were truly about to get cooked, the staff would have started yelling or something. That's what I've been telling myself anyway.

When I finally did drag myself out bed, I was regaled with Michaela's dream in which I apparently dumped a syringe of something on her. Thank goodness for my entertaining roommates because we then spent the next 30 minutes debated possible meanings. We never actually settled on one, but it was fun to speculate about.

Upon arriving to the hospital, our presenter opened with, "I am a cardiac surgeon here at the hospital. I will give you a brief presentation over the history of cardiac surgery and then you may come with me to the OR because I am doing a mitral valve reconstruction and my patient is right now on the table." I think all of our jaws hit the floor. His patient was ON THE TABLE and he was casually explaining the history of bypass machines AND ignoring his phone which was ringing incessantly. He was obviously a very intelligent man (and very arrogant) but I think we all breathed a sigh of relief when another surgeon came in and said that he was going to begin the procedure so that the patient wouldn't have to wait. I wasn't in the group chosen to go to OR because I've already seen several open heart surgeries (I can't believe I just said that so casually), but David was, and he said that there were actually 4 cardiac surgeons in the room during the surgery and that the patient was doing very well upon PACU admission. The surgeon is one I've met before and he genuinely seems to enjoy teaching, so he is very helpful from that angle.

Dr. Hollòs let us pick which unit we got to work on today, so my group unanimously requested the CICVU, which is where Dori, our favorite nurse works. She was thrilled to see us, and we were grateful to get the chance to learn from her again. While we were all standing next to the nurse's station catching up with her, the patient in bed six was cheerfully waving at us and smiling from under his mask. When we walked over there, Dora asked him, in Hungarian, if he would like anything from us, but he told her that he simply likes people and wished to welcome us. It doesn't take much to make us smile, but that sweet man had us grinning from ear to ear. It's nerve racking to be on a unit  where we're unable to communicate with the patients, but when a patient is that sweet, it's impossible not to try. We did communicate with him through a translator and he continued to be so kind and uplifting. Happy patients really are the best.
One of Dora's other patients, the man in bed 3, was spiking a fever during the shift, going from 36 to 38.6 during a very short period of time. Dora went to go draw his blood foe a culture, and he got a pinched, uncomfortable look on his face when she told him what she was going to do. I know just enough Hungarian that I walked over to the other side of the bed and introduced myself, placing my hand on his so that he could hold it if he wanted to for comfort. He looked quite surprised that I knew any Hungarian at all, and responded with a smile. Dora translated it as the equivalent, "Im sending you my kisses," which is how most of the locals seem to express gratitude. He grabbed my hand and held it until I was called to leave the floor. Even though we didnt speak for most of that time, he seemed to calm down when I was there, and it definitely made me glad that I was there. The nurses are so overworked that they not always have time to simply sit with their patients, and so it was nice to be able to help them out by watching out for him for even a little while. We placed ice packs on his neck and shoulder to bring his fever down and administered more IV nitroglycerin to decrease his blood pressure. Over the next little while, his temperature started to decrease slowly, which helped me breathe a little easier.

One of the head cardiac nurses took us to tour the cardic floor, which us nothing new to us, but I was, as seems to be the theme for the day, truly touched by one of the patients I met. When we entered one of the larger rooms, which contained 4 patients and the nurse was explaining the specifics of he care provided, a patient waved me over. I walked over to him and the first thing I noticed was the smile with which this man greeted me. He said something in Hungarian, and when I shook my head and replied, "Im sorry, I speak English!", he laughed and nodded to communicate the he understood. He then grinned a little wider and said "Good luck!" In this sweetest voice possible followed by a string of Hungarian sentences. By now, the nurse had finished introducing the equipment so I waved our translator over to help interpret. She said the man was a miner previously and he wanted to wish us luck with our studies. All that from a man that we had not even spoken to! I thanked him for his kind words, and, when I left the room, I noticed that I too was grinning uncontrollably now. Patient enthusiasm is contagious.

I can't begin to explain how grateful I am for the kind patients we had today. It makes me wish that I spoke more Hungarian so that I could talk to them more.

Overall, my day was, once again, incredible. I hope that tomorrow, despite the final exam, is just as interesting.

Goodnight from Room 2,
Forever changed