Spleen in the Spotlight

So I've only been on the floor now for a month or so and there's a huge learning curve, people! ...But sometimes I forget or just don't know things that I might be expected to. I am supposedly a NURSE after all which I guess means I should come complete with encyclopedic knowledge of the human body upon graduation (not really). Anyway, over maybe the past week and a half we've had not one but two patients involved in similar freak tripping accidents in which they have fallen onto a chair, stool, box or some other object landing directly onto their spleens and causing a splenic laceration (or splenic "lac" if you're cool). This got me thinking... where the hell is the spleen again and, uh, what does it do exactly?

The spleen is part of your immune system and is located on your left side. Old red blood cells are filtered out in the spleen, and platelet and white blood cell storage also occurs there. Extra blood is stored in the spleen and its removal can make a person more susceptible to infection.
I read in wikipedia that "spleen" is a Greek word and that the Greeks considered kind and considerate people "good spleened."

Last Day of Clinical

Yesterday was my last day of clinical. I only have to wear my nursing school uniform one last time for about 2 hours and then I can BURN IT!

On my last day I took care of a patient who'd been set on fire by her boyfriend several years back. She was on our floor for another reason though and was hell bent on getting outside to smoke a cigarette. She wouldn't do anything (or in her words, she "wasn't doin shit!!") until someone took her outside to smoke. She was pretty feisty and she could be kind of mean but I really liked her.

This is the End

I'm in the final stretch of nursing school. Just a month and a half to go before my classmates and I emerge from under the protective wings of our instructors to hopefully not fall out of the nest onto our faces as new fledgling nurses!

Yesterday I started my preceptorship on the surgical trauma unit where I'll be working for the next 80 hours. I was expecting to see mostly traumatic injuries (as the name would suggest) but the patients I worked with last night had a whole range of histories from cancer to car crashes.

I'm happy to report that my preceptor is VERY nice and in fact all the nurses I met on the floor were friendly (no meanies)!!