Blood transfusion (Photo by Charlie-Helen Robinson on Pexels.com)
This is an interesting question!
A handful of patients had requested blood from unvaccinated donors. But more than 90% of current donors have either been infected with covid or vaccinated against it. Dr. Michael Busch explained.
People requiring transfusions may donate their own blood in advance (Autologous blood transfusion). They can also request donations from designated friends and family members. But according to Red Cross, there is no evidence that the latter’s blood is safer.
“Nurse B, my bag leaks again! The other nurse A applied the bag just thirty minutes ago!” called Mr. Ahmed, a bed-ridden patient.
“Sigh! Look at the mess! Now I have to change a new bag again, the bed linens and your hospital clothes!” Nurse B grumbled as she changed the linens and the stoma bag…
Nurse Chen saw the patient tearing silently. She went toward him.
“Nurse Chen, see that window? If only I can walk! I would jump out of it!” he cried sadly.
“What is the point of ‘saving my life from cancer of the large intestine’, if my life is such a mess everyday!” he lamented the poor quality of life after operation.
That happened in the late 1980s. A small pioneering team of surgeons and nurses were tasked to look into the care of patients who were operated and had a stoma (<—see the images here) on their abdomen or ‘tummy’.
Those days stoma bags were a basic bag with zinc oxide adhesive (below). Very often it leaked and the fecal effluent spilled all over their clothes and bed linens. The skin around the stoma became excoriated or burned by the frequent contact with the excrements. It became inflamed and excruciatingly painful.
It was very depressing for the patients, and frustrating for the patient, home-carer and healthcare staff, too.
Upon discharge, some patients used cloth, new-papers, coconut shell, empty tins over their stoma to collect the effluents. Some created their own stoma bags (see below).
Self-made stoma bag for faecal effluent or discharge
please put up your hands! ( Fish sculpture on lid cover by ChenSP)
Those absent- please put up your hands!
… if you are present, would you agree on behalf of those who have left [past]? or for those who have yet to arrive [future]?
In presentism, present-day rules. Not the past, not the future.
Many names of roads during colonial times have been renamed to VIPs of today. That part of history and story about those locations is, therefore, lost.
‘Pa, you always say that during your time, you used to have ten cents daily pocket money! What can ten cents buy today?’
‘We used to manage these workloads with half the workforce! You don’t need extra staff!’ proposed a senior nurse manager. Yea, but today, we manage patients, machines, and lots and lots of defensive documentation! However, the future may be changed when we start to get more robots instead of nurses!
Don’t compare why things were done then, cannot be done now, and vice versa. Each period has its own weaknesses and strengths, and its own challenges. Yet the true challenge is when a veteran or baby boomer, used to chalk and blackboard, now has to meld into current technology and computer age!
One can’t help but to compare and contrast differences!
“92nd story” First published: May.23.2019 Once upon a time in a kingdom, the king suffered pain in his eyes. Many different doctors visited him but none of them were able to cure the king’s pain. The King’s right-hand minister suggested: “There is a wise man in the Kingdom who knows everything, let him […]
A courier counter service experience for a disabled…
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Last week, a man went to post three A4 brown envelopes with 3 different addresses at a courier service centre.
He came back to the car where his elderly mother was waiting. He showed one invoice (proof of receipt).
The mother went to the counter… and asked.. Why 3 envelopes but only one invoice.
The counter lady raised her voice.. ” I asked him many times if he wants to put them together. And he said yes.
She went on repeating..as if to justify her actions to the other three customers in front of the counter.
The mother intercepted her, “hello, hello,… he is disabled!)
“Saya mahu dia belajar berkomunikasi … nampaknyI want him to learn to communicate… look like he has failed! But I am proud that he entered here just now.)
The lady soften her voice, “ya la…ini maksudnya dia berani mahu masuk sini. Saya pun tak tahu dia OKU.” (Yes, indeed, it means he was brave enough to enter here. I didn’t know he was disabled.)
“Nanti saya akan terangkan kepada anak saya.” ( Later, I will explain to my son.)
The counter lady put the 3 envelopes into 3 separate plastic envelopes…and gave the mother 3 invoices ( proof of receipt).
It was a learning experience for the mother.. and hopefully the courier service counter lady learned something, too.
Chen Song Ping 