La vida es un constante cambio | Mis días últimamente [ESP-ENG]

Life is constant change, and many times those changes are ones we don’t expect, don’t plan, don’t see coming, and don’t get to choose whether we want to experience them or not, whether we’re ready for them or not.

These days I’ve been thinking about taking a course that had never once crossed my mind before—something like first aid or nursing assistant training. Life has pushed me to learn things that are simple for nurses, basic for all human beings, yet things we rarely know, thinking we’ll never need such knowledge.

I’ve been learning how to measure blood pressure and oxygen saturation, and while it seems simple, there are other things too: what to do if the pressure is high or low, what to do if the oxygen saturation is low, how to be sure those values are correct and not caused by other factors, like the patient’s position, which can affect oxygen levels or breathing. Whether the patient talks or moves, whether the pressure is consistent, and the importance of checking blood pressure in both arms periodically to ensure it really isn’t within a normal range. As well as other nursing tips, like pressing the patient’s index fingernail firmly for a few seconds to see if it regains its original color within 2 seconds, or stays pale for longer—signs of warning.

I have a nephew who’s a nurse, who has helped me during difficult times—even though he’s 10 hours away from where I live, he explains what to do and how to do it through video calls. I also have a nurse friend in Argentina who helps and explains how things should be done, and well, many doctors who explain more technical things that I manage to understand—and ChatGPT 🤣, in case someone doesn’t clarify something for me. All this knowledge, brought by life’s situations and changes, made me think that maybe it would be good to take one of those courses. But I confess I get nervous around blood, wounds, or strong stuff like that, so I don’t know if I could actually do it, hahaha.

Lately, my life has been summed up in that: staying alert to signals, to anything that isn’t entirely normal, and to measuring blood pressure, taking temperature 🌡, understanding medical terms, and checking oxygen saturation. On my mother’s side of the family, they wanted a doctor. My cousin fulfilled that dream, the one I refused to pursue. And now, I spend more time in a hospital than she does and have more contacts there. Life’s ironies.