Typical Day
Ah...in the sky are clouds made of cotton candy. There's a caramel iced coffee river filled with Nutella fish winding its way through gentle marshmallow hills. Lana Cain, Princess of the Land of Corn Syrup, is munching her way through a chocolate rock plucked from the river. All is well...
Bleep. Bleep. Bleep. Lana's jolted awake by the beeper on her rickety bedside table. She checks the clock and groans: it's 4:00AM. Of all the times to be forced to leave her magical sugar kingdom, it had to be now. Sometimes, being on call is about as much fun as a root canal.
However, Lana didn't get into this job because she wanted lots of beauty sleep. When duty calls, she'll answer, no matter what time of day or night it is. She hops out of bed, dashes through the shower, throws on her scrubs, wolfs down an energy bar, and is out the door by 4:30AM.
Lana arrives at Merciful Heart Hospital at 5:15AM. She heads to the radiology department, where her boss tells her that they've been running behind and needed an extra technician to help out with patients. Lana gets her schedule. Surprise, surprise...it's jam-packed. She's not going to have enough spare time to hit the vending machine, never mind get a real breakfast.
In her office, Lana quickly goes over the chart of the first patient. Oswald Hicks is coming in for a vascular scan; in other words, Lana's got to check the veins and the arteries in his legs for any signs of blockage.
At about 5:45AM, a nurse wheels in Oswald, who doesn't look at all happy to be there. "You need to call me Mr. Hicks," he snaps, without even saying hello first. "I'm old enough to be your grandfather, so you'd better show some respect."
"Great," Lana thinks. "I always get the cranky ones in the morning."
Lana pastes on a smile. "Alright, then, Mr. Hicks. Your doctor thinks that the swelling and pain in your legs is due to a blood clot. I'm going to scope out your legs to see if I can find anything. If there is a blood clot, I'll be able to map out the source of the problem for the surgeons. It shouldn't take too long, and I promise it won't hurt."
Mr. Hicks just grunts. "Hmph. They told me I couldn't eat for eight hours. This'd better be worth it."
Lana selects Mr. Hick's name on her ultrasound machine, which has all the names of the patients coming in for an ultrasound. She then selects the type of camera she wants to use for this procedure. For venous exams, she goes with the Doppler ultrasound, which helps to find blockages in the veins. Lana then applies a water-based gel on the ultrasound camera and Mr. Hick's legs.
Let's hope we don't find anything. Even though it's annoying to work with cranky patients, Lana always goes into a procedure hoping that she doesn't find anything.
As she scans, both she and Mr. Hicks are able to see what's going on with the monitor. Mr. Hicks asks a lot of questions, and Lana is sure to answer them. It's important to have good communication with her patient.
After the scan, Lana helps Mr. Hicks get dressed and wheels him out to the waiting room so she can review the pictures taken during the scan. The bad news is, Lana found a clot in Mr. Hicks' leg. The good news is, finding and treating a clot early enough prevents it from moving to the lungs, which would be...pretty bad.
Lana brings Mr. Hicks back in to let him know what she found and that his physician will probably recommend surgery. To her surprise, Mr. Hicks gives her a giant hug. He's happy to finally understand where the pain comes from and have an opportunity at relief.
This is why Lana got into this job.
After Mr. Hicks is wheeled away, Lana sends the notes and pictures to his physician, who will make the ultimate call on Mr. Hicks' next steps. Then, it's onto the next patient. And the next, and the next, and the next.
By the time she's finished with her fifth patient of the day, Lana feels like her stomach is eating itself. Fortunately, it's only 12:30PM, and her next patient isn't until 1:00PM. Lana drops everything on her desk and sprints to the cafeteria.
The cafeteria food stinks, but just about anything tastes good when you're hungry. Lana scarfs down a burger that looks like it's been sitting in the pan for forty years, and then she runs back up to her office to tackle patient number six.
The rest of the day goes by pretty smoothly. Lana goes through patients six through nine pretty quickly.
It's always super-hard when Lana finds something nasty like a cancerous tumor, but she knows that it's her job to find any problems early. Lana works hard to provide a comfy and open environment for all of her patients, and she loves answering questions. If she can't deliver good news, she's at least going to deliver it well, with compassion and honesty.
Lana's last appointment is an ultrasound on an expecting mother. She loves doing ultrasounds on mothers, because it's usually a pretty happy moment for an expecting couple. It doesn't hurt that this is the last patient of the day. Lana's been at the hospital for nearly twelve hours, and her feet are killing her.
At around 5:30PM, the couple comes in for their ultrasound. "It's our first baby, so we're super-nervous," the mom says. The father holds the mother's hand nervously.
Lana reassures them that there's little chance of anything being amiss and begins her ultrasound. Everything looks good, and the baby looks healthy—wait. Lana squints and shifts the monitor. It looks like the baby has...four feet? She looks a bit further. Yep, there are four feet. Four arms. Two heads...
"Well, congratulations. Looks like you're having twins." Lana tells the parents. The mom's eyes bulge. The dad passes out. Oops. Maybe Lana should have delivered that news a little more gently. Still, she's sure the parents will be happy once they're over the shock.
Lana leaves the hospital at around 6:15PM, exhausted. It's been a long day, and it's definitely time for her to eat a real meal. As Lana pulls into a local convenience store, she thinks about the couple that just found out they're having twins. I think I'll have some cake for them tonight.