Scared Of Healing

Helping

"Ok sunshine, those dizzy spells that you have been having worry me a bit, I wanna give you some fluids to hydrate you, would that be ok?" I ask, receiving a nod, "ok honey, bare with me while I get some stuff, I'll be back in a sec" I say before leaving her with Baker, shooting him a cautious look before I leave. I grab the supplies for a cannula and blood testing, putting them in a kidney dish, bring a saline bag with me and begin walking back to my patient. I stop on the way though, realising that there is a very good chance that she hasn't eaten in a while. I make my way back to the supply room, grab a blood sugar monitor and finger pricker, putting them in the kidney dish before grabbing a glucose bag as well.

I start walking back to the room when I walk past my friend Luke, who looks like he is doing nothing, "yo Luke, wanna help me?" I ask, "please I'm so bored" he replies. "Cool, she's scared though, hasn't said a word, wont let me touch her" I warn. He nods and we walk back to the room together. I place my things on a bench, making sure that they are out of her sight before introducing her to Luke, "ok sunshine, this is my friend Luke, he is going to help me, does that sound alright?" I ask, receiving a nod. Luke sits next to her and tries to take her attention as I prepare my equipment, "alright honey, I need to touch your arm for a bit, can you try to stay calm for me?" I ask, not sure how she is going to react. Thankfully, she doesn't seem bothered so I carefully take her arm and begin tightening a tourniquet around it. 

I look for veins, pausing when I see the amount of needle marks scattered over her arm - no child should have those sorts of scars. Nevertheless, I continue, struggling to find a viable vein but, eventually finding one that might just work. I subtly stretch on a pair of gloves, rip open the wipe and start wiping the crease of her elbow. She doesn't like this and immediately tries to move away and I assume that it is because she doesn't want a needle. I see Baker roll his eyes at this but I have to ignore it to try to calm my patient. "It's ok sunshine, you're ok, I'll be really gentle" I assure in a calming voice, holding her arm still as she tries to get it away from me. Apparently my comforts are not good enough as she starts trying to use her other hand to get me off her. "No, no, no, sweetie, this is to help you" Luke says, taking her free hand and keeping it away. She starts to whimper as she continues trying to get her arm out of my grip. She looks more angry than scared, tipping me off to the fact that it might not be all fear that is controlling her actions. "Luke, let go for just a second" I say to him, "sunshine, is there something you're trying to tell us?" I ask. She sighs in relief before pointing to a vein in her hand, "do you want me to use that vein?" I ask and she nods quickly, "alright love, I can do that" I say. 

She watches intently as I prepare her hand for the cannula, "can you look at Luke for me sunshine?" I ask, not wanting her to watch me put the needle in her hand. She just shakes her head, "you don't have to watch this part angel" Luke says, taking her hand but she ignores us and keeps her eyes firmly glued to her hand. I sigh, "can you close your eyes for me then? just for a second?" I plead, really worried that she will freak out at the sight of the needle. She gives another firm shake of the head before gluing her eyes back to her hand. I sigh again before nodding, gripping her hand tightly before subtly grabbing the needle"little sting sunshine" I warn as I insert the needle and cannula into her vein. She doesn't even flinch, making sure she watches my every move. I pull the needle out and put a dressing over the cannula to keep it in place before quickly hooking her up to the bag of fluids. "Alright sweetie, I want to do a quick test so I know how to help you better, it's just going to be a little finger prick, does that sound ok?" I ask carefully and she nods, "alright sunshine" I say, gently selecting a finger, "quick pinch" I warn before pricking the finger and waiting for the bead of blood to form on her finger tip. Again, she doesn't even flinch, but this time, she does look away. I quickly test her blood sugar and see that it is significantly lower than I would like and she is hypoglycemic. I quickly hang the glucose bag and attach it to her IV, along with the fluids because I know they won't hurt.

"Ok sunshine, I just want to get Josh to take some blood really quickly, are you ok with that?" I ask carefully, pretty confident that she will be alright with me taking blood, judging from her reactions to other things, but unsure how she will feel about Baker doing it. She hesitantly nods as Baker groans quietly, "thanks sweetie, I'm gonna be right here" I say, standing from my stool and moving away to give Baker some space before he takes my stool. Baker grabs a pair of gloves and slowly stretches them over his hands, "alright darl, give me your hand" he says, holding out his hand expectantly. The poor girl looks to me nervously, "I'm still here sunshine, everything is going to be alright" I reassure, prompting her to slowly hold her hand out for Baker. The intern takes her hand harshly, leading to her flinching away. "No, we're not doing that... let's get this over with" Baker says sternly, taking her hand again. She tries to pull her hand back but Baker keeps a firm hold and she starts to freak out a bit. "No... calm down. This isn't going to hurt" Baker speaks, annoyance evident through his words. This proves very stressful for my patient who starts to hyperventilate, causing her to fall into a coughing fit. The girl is overcome with chest rattling coughs and I quickly hand her a cup before signalling for Luke to prepare an adrenaline nebuliser. The coughing continues, becoming more and more violent as time goes on. Luke quickly returns with the nebuliser and holds it near her face so she can inhale the medication as she continues coughing. Eventually, the coughing becomes so violent that it causes her to throw up.

Baker's eyes grow wide as he sees about a cup of blood sprawled over the sheets of the bed. This is not good... she is losing a lot of blood and the coughing is not stopping. My patient seems to be relatively calm though which is helpful in me keeping the same way, but it also indicates that she has had experience in this before which is not encouraging. The coughing soon stops thanks to the adrenaline and I breathe a sigh of relief... I really do not want to have to intubate this girl. "Alrighty honey, I promise that Josh is going to be really gentle, Luke and I are going to watch everything he does to make sure it is right, we just need a little bit of blood to test, ok" I explain, knowing that I really need these bloods.

The girl stops fighting, knowing that there isn't much point. Baker then quickly flushes the cannula and takes some excess blood before attaching a clean syringe and taking her bloods. He then proceeds to flush her line again, with her watching everything he does intently. "Alright, that's done" he sighs in relief, ripping off his gloves and disposing of the waste. "Run that to the lab won't you Baker?" Luke says, shooing Baker out of the room.