chapter 9
the chapter describes the hospital floor as what three concepts?
home, life, and a prison
what is a common term for a peripheral line in medicine?
a heparin or "hep" lock
what is chemo typically compared to?
poison
What does Brown say is the lesson her patients taught her about life?
Life is fragile and everyday is a gift.
what is so significant about Irenes terminal diagnosis and why was it so shocking to everyone around her?
the fact that she appeared to be doing well and looked to be healthy from the outside looking in.
what made david a difficult patient?
he was verbally aggressive and would aggressively refuse medical treatment
what is the most common blood cancer among adult patients?
AML (acute myelogenous leukemia)
Instead of "why wait," what does Brown say people should really say in the epilogue?
"Don't wait”
what is the phrase mentioned near the end of chapter nine that is significant for describing nursing culture?
"nurses eat their young"
what does hypoglycemia mean?
low blood sugar
what was one of the very important steps in administering chemo?
- reading the directions and labels
- pushing saline
- ensuring their is blood return before administering the dose of chemo
What does Brown urge readers to do for the people in their lives, according to the epilogue?
Tell them you love them
in what way did the narrator describe how crystal and the floors other clinicians see themselves as?
as disciplinarians and as people who enjoyed telling people off and that they rarely liked to help.
what was the confusion that affected davids ability to get surgery?
His INR levels were where the narrator was told to keep them at but the surgeon changed his mind and it lead to a pushback of the surgery.
when a patient asks the narrator why they wear gowns and gloves how does she answer?
she explains that chemo is considered a biohazard and it is a drug that must be handled and disposed of extremely cautiously.
At the very end of the epilogue, Brown uses her husband's random purchase as a metaphor for finding joy. What did he buy?
A Grand Piano
the narrator describes the hospital floor evolving from ___ to ___ over seven months?
prison to a home
where did davids platette count have to be in order to get surgery?
50,000
what is the downfall of eradicating a disease that is explained by the narrator near the end of the chapter?
the fact that the symptoms most commonly get worse before they get better
In the epilogue, Brown reflects on what she gained from her first year as an oncology nurse. What two emotions does she describe feeling?
Love and exhaustion