Right, I forgot to mention something that happened on the last day I volunteered at PAH. The nurse in charge taught me and Lydia how to get a patient's vital signs--that is---> Blood pressure, Pulse and Temperature.. She said that she might needs us to help if a really emergency case comes in.. Like we could help them get the vital signs of the patient..
Ooo.. To measure the first two, a machine kind of like a squarish box on a stand is used. The nurse demonstrated how to use it by putting it on Lydia's arm.. A flap-like thing is wrapped around her arm and you gotta push certain buttons on the box-like machine. Then, the flap tightens up and the second number (on the box) shows you how much pressure is exerted on one's arm..
We tried it out ourselves and it was pretty funny--I think I must have laughed too much so the machine couldn't measure my pulse or blood pressure (BP) properly the first time, causing it to tighten a lot--normally, the machine exerts around 180, that time, it exerts about 299 on my arm.. My arm felt like it was going to break.. The blood even stopped flowing down the lower part of my arm!! When the flap finally loosened, I can even feel a hot rush of blood rushing down my arm!! Seriously!! OMG!!
Anyway, my blood pressure was 114/89 and my pulse was 94.. The first numbers b4 the stroke is my *systolic pressure while the numbers after the stroke is my **diastolic pressure.. My dad says that my BP numbers are okay..but my ***pulse was a bit high--he said it could be due to my crazy laughing that caused it to shoot up.. so I guess it's ok, I hope. :P Well, I could try cutting down on those oily foodstuff I guess.. *Shrugs*
Right, and we used a ear thingy shaped like a green fat pen to measure our body temperature... nothing special abt that, except we didn't know how deep to put it into someone's ear... Gotta be careful.. Hehe.
That's all for now... until the next post, cya!!
* Systolic pressure is the pressure of the blood when the heart is pumping blood into the aorta.
** Diastolic pressure is the pressure of the blood when the heart is resting and the blood is juz flowing thru the blood vessels..
*** Pulse is kind of a measure of the heart rate..heart beat. Same thing, I guess.
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