Can't Hardly Wait

I just woke up from sleeping all day.

Because I didn't sleep a wink last night.

It wasn't really a busy duty. Admissions were few and far in between. However, at 3:00 AM, when it was no longer my shift, I just had to stay at the ER to play MouseHunt. Because I am a dork.

Apart from the ICU admission, a pregnant lady came in. Yelling to the high heavens about how labor hurts and that she wants a caesarean section like NOW. I was just sitting there at the ER, letting my co-resident do her job. Vaginal exam done on the primigravid (woman on her first pregnancy) patient was at 2 cm cervical dilatation. Hardly enough to make you worry about her screaming her lungs out that she wants an epidural.

The nurse was on his way to inserting an intravenous line when the patient complained that she thinks she pooped. Said nurse checked her... uh... nether region and discovered NOT poop, but a hand. Her freakin' baby's hand.

And so, along with my co-resident, Marivic, the obstetrician-wannabe (that's me, by the way) rushed to the IE room to finish delivering the baby. We weren't at the delivery room so while Marivic held the baby with one hand, I had to make do with tiny-ass Kelly forceps to clamp the cord and tiny-ass Mayo scissors to cut it. And because Marivic had to inform the attending physicians of this development, I had to hold the baby.

There I was, in the examining room, holding a slippery baby suspended in air under a droplight, for nearly half an hour. I have no idea why it took so long for the NICU to send out clothes for the baby. I couldn't just lay the baby down on whatever surface. Being delivered in the IE room is unhygienic enough already.

Manang, NICU nurse akong labas ato. I had to do cord care, wipe the baby clean...

And I have no pictures. Sterile hands and all.

Haay..