novice at work

worked my first clinical shift at the hospital yesterday.
it was a long day that started way early but by the end of my shift, i loved it.
saw several pelvic scans that included transvag exams, one of which was a blighted ovum. it was sad to see the 17 year old girl start to cry when she was told there was no fetus but inside, i wanted to shake her and tell her she should be glad because she could finish high school now.
saw several carotid scans and general abdominal scans (to rule out stones, determine source of pain, and one hell of a fatty liver).
i even had the pleasure of assisting in a venous leg scan (looking for DVT) in a gentleman that was as wide as he was tall. and let me tell you something - this guy was every bit 6'4".
the gal that scanned him said "you get to augment for me, new scan girl," and i was leary of the terminology, especially when it was accompanied by the shit eating grin on her face.
once the big guy was on the table (that was under some extreme pressure holding him up off the floor), she instructed me to get a towel. she then proceeds to yank his shorts leg up to expose every bit of his meat and potatoes that hung under this immensely huge belly that sort of... went everywhere.
she tucked one long edge of the towel under his belly and i had to get on the other side of the table and pull the towel by the opposite corners to lift this guys poundage off the leg so she could scan. it took everything i had to hold that out of the way so she could scan his upper thigh. and when she was scanning his popliteal artery (behind the knee), i swear - she was elbow deep in the guy. the lower she went down his leg, the less circulation he had, too. when she got to his ankle, i had to "augment" there by wrapping my hands around his ankle and squeezing for a few seconds and then letting go real fast to create some pressure. and there was very little.

augment in a scan situation = hold someone's big bag of belly off their leg and
squeeze the crap out of a body part to create pressure.

also saw a cranial scan on a 7 week old baby that fell or something. if you ask me, the trash that brought that baby in probably use him as a punching bag. he wasn't covered with bruises or anything like that but it just didn't seem right to me. but, then again, i'm no authority.
but the gal that did the scan on him sent him to x-ray. she wanted to rule out some other things and i think she had the same thing in mind when she did.
later, she told me she sent the baby to x-ray to get a picture of his ribs. she thought the same thing i did in the end.

and through the day, i was allowed to scan some and even learned some new things (regarding o/b scanning and how to set up a foley catheter - oh joy).

over all, i was very excited about next monday when i left.

but i'm not too excited about the lack of sleep i've been getting.

as my dad says - there's plenty of time to sleep when you are dead.
what can you do, eh?