more school = less blogging

my first real day of clinical practice at toronto rehab consisted of another member of my clinical team swinging the door to the locker rooms open and smacking me in the head.
6:45 am, 15 mins before i'm due on the floor in my unit, i'm bleeding profusely, seeing stars and wondering how the hell this could have happened to me.
after freaking out my new clinical instructor with the amount of blood on my hand and saturated paper towel, i'm left with a 2" vertical laceration above my left eyebrow and a massive goose egg (not correct terminology, i know) which is every shade of blue/purple/yellow, combined.
looks lovely.
but it did initiate conversations with patients and nurses alike.
i am now known on the floor as "the girl with the big bandage above her eye". atleast i'm known on the floor, right?

my clients are a mix of lovely and interesting.
i'm drawn to 2 in particular, one being lovely, and one being interesting...and difficult.

i have a woman, whom i thought was only about my age, but discovered later is actually 41, who, as a result of cerebral palsy, has very limited movement & function, and has kyphoscoliosis (kyphosis=hunchback, scoliosis=an s-curvature of the spine).

i also helped care for a woman who has a history of drug/alcohol abuse with ODs relating to suicide attempts and withdrawal seizures but was admitted after a domestic dispute with her then common-law spouse left her with severe brain damage, resulting in left-sided hemiplegia (paralysis). when she came into rehab she had a trach tube and had staples holding the skin on her skull. she's been on a slow road to recovery, although it'll never be complete. she has learned to read and write at a about a grade 2 level. she yells at me and she likes to throw her shit on the wall.

speaking of trach tubes, i got to clean the mucus spewing out of someone's whole in their neck and see the stoma created to attach a colostomy bag. i saw intestines. amazing.
what's not so amazing is the smell from the bag.
i figure, when your waste goes through the intestines, it's reabsorbing water to dilute the concentration before it exits your anus. if you're catching the waste before it's been through the intestines, it is pure, undiluted, concentrated waste, mixed with bile and acid. it's enough to make anyone vomit.