the day i became a fierce 'nurse'

wow...anyone who heard the way i was talking to my grandfather earlier in the evening would have thought that i was scolding him.

yes, i raised my voice. yes, i gave orders instead of asking about his preference. and yes, i did not give him any choice not to ignore my demands.

i had no choice. grandfather is almost totally deaf and i had to take off the dressing on his arm.

he fell on tuesday i heard after he came out from the bathroom and grazed his right arm....near the elbow. as his skin was super thin, so i guess the layer of skin just tore itself and he started bleeding. dad and aunt brought him to the clinic and they washed the exposed skin and dressed it with gauze. nobody knows how the accident happened.

anyway, he did not take down the dressing yesterday and he only decided to take it off today after taking his bath. and guess what happened?? haiz.....the gauze had grown into the exposed skin it covered.

his exposed skin was about 7cm long and half of the gauze was in his skin. so there was no way we could take it out just like that. the doctor gave disinfectant and he said to dab the area wet with it before taking down the dressing. however, since the gauze and skin were already one, there was no way i could do that. and grandpa started complaining of pain and swatted my hands away. i wanted to make the area wetter, yet he did not allow me to. he said, just let it dry and let it be. how could i with the gauze half-hanging onto his arm?

so i let him sit there for almost half an hour, then i could not take it anymore. by hook or by crook, the gauze had to come down. i googled for some answers and most said to soak it in a basin. and i told my grandpa just that. but he said no....just leave him alone.

then i left him for another 15 mins. then i brought a basin with warm water and raised my voice and started giving him the ultimatum. that was when the one-way order was the loudest ;)

if you have seen me shouting instructions, that was how i did it lah.

there was a lot of -'no, no no' from grandpa of course. but you know how 'fierce' and persistent i can be lah. in the end....he moved over to the sofa and soaked the elbow into the basin of water.

but wait......that was just the beginning. you are supposed to soak it for about 20 minutes but grandfather could only take 5 minutes and he started to complain of pain and no more. so he took up his elbow but......the gauze was still sticking to his exposed skin!!! yes, it was that stubborn...the gauze. but it had been left there for 3 days wor...of course new skin would grow and eat into the gauze loh. haiz.....

so in the end, i got a pair of scissors instead and cut off the gauze from the skin. i did not know whether i was cutting skin or gauze at some point. i only wanted to get that dressing off. mom was there to help me hold his hand. grandma was sitting away from us and she was closing her eye all the time. she just could not bear to look at grandpa's suffering. poor her, i think it was a more traumatic experience for her. i was still adamant in getting rid of the gauze and was working without any feeling. i could not afford to have sympathy at that time because i know leftover gauze can lead to infection.

of course grandpa was wincing in pain and not looking when i was cutting. i did not know i could be so brave hor. i could see a thin layer of pus forming already too.

after the gauze came off (finally...phew), there was more work to be done. as mentioned, a thin layer of threads had eaten into the skin and it was time for me to get it out thread by thread , warp and weft. i used the pointed end of the scissors to help me lift the thread and then i had to use my fingers to pull it out. i know my fingers could be dirty but i could not find a pincer at that time. so i held his hand while doing this meticulous task until there was one thread which had eaten into the new skin forming at the side that made him told me to stop. i knew it was a painful one when i pulled that thread because it was thicker than the others. i guess that was the last straw.

then i surrendered.....in pulling the fine threads and started to disinfect the exposed skin again with the disinfectant given by the doctor. mom and grandma was searching high and low for iodine and they could not find it. then mom found a chinese alcohol-based disinfectant and i used it. ok...that was another last straw. i guess it stung more than the doctor's disinfectant. and he quickly snatched his hand away and that was it. final. no more! but i thought to myself........i had dabbed more than enough disinfectant already by that time. i was also satisfied with my work.

phew!!!! we did not bandage the wound anymore now. there was no blood but of course the exposed skin is still wet. tomorrow, i will have to apply disinfectant again and i hope i won't get a stubborn 'no'. but of course i have to convince grandpa that i am not using the stinging alcohol lah. lol.

and, they found the iodine one hour later. it was right beside the chair where grandpa was sitting all along. something must have intervened somewhere and made me use the chinese alcohol instead. could it be a powerful disinfectant and cure in disguise??

aunt and uncle came down from slim river after i was all done. gosh, how i wish they were here earlier. but aunt and grandma said luckily i was around to handle grandpa wor.

i just felt glad that i could get the mission done. i did not think of anything else.

i did not take a photo of the open wound....i think it would be too disturbing and gross.

anyway, i rewarded myself with a bowl of hot fish porridge for dinner. aahh.....i also had to calm my nerves right??