Thursday, October 16, 2008

two failures

i failed to set a cannula today. my poor patient was already in pain from her earlier c-section and there i was, a clumsy medical student, guided by (i suspect) equally clueless student nurses, thrombosing her vein.

it was a bummer. words cannot adequately describe how i felt when a small bump swelled up on her hand as i attempted to flush the vein. sigh.

failure comes in little ways as well as big ones. whether it be cannulas, exams or friendships, failure brings us to a fork in the road. do we become disheartened and wave the white flag, or do we wipe the tears away and try again?

i'm mostly disappointed that i caused a patient discomfort today. i am, however, grateful for the student nurses who cheered me on, the housemen who gave me tips and encouragement, and most of all the patient who forgave me.

next time, i'll get it right.

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i also failed at my first attempt at making bolognaise sauce from scratch. from scratch ok? fresh tomatoes, corned beef (ok fine that's processed meat), fresh garlic and basil, yo.


looks pretty good, no?


it turned out too watery and too salty. sigh. it's amazing what a teaspoon of salted water can do! and i forgot to add sugar. dang it. doggone it. ok i need to stop talking like sarah palin.

in addition to all that, i forgot to add an extra minute to the cooking time for my fettucine. rats.

anyway, it didn't taste half bad (except for the salt), so i guess i'm encouraged by that. the next time, no more extra teaspoon of salt and water. and i'll add the sugar i told myself to add but forgot. and more beef. mmmmm...beeeeeeef...

yeah. well. yeah.

lishun at 7:25 PM

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