The smell of hospitals in winter,
and the feeling that it's all a lot of oysters but no pearls.... (counting crow-long december)
Could anything be more true? Lots of slimy creatures drag themselves from the trailer park long enough to cuss, spit and swear at you because they won't be IMMEDIATELY seen by the doctor for the cold symptoms they've drug around for 2 weeks. Fuck off. My chest hurts from smoking crack! Fuck off-you shouldn't even allowed to be seen anywhere for a week! I ran out of money and am going through withdraw from my "tabs" I can only take 10's I am allergic to the 5's. Oh a super fuck off to you!. I just want to climb on top of the security desk and tell them all those lazy worthless slime sucking oyster bastards to fuck off. If they had a job and actually had to pay for their healthcare-they wouldn't use the er as a primary clinic and cure for boredom. Got some aggression? Just go to the ER and swing at the staff-they don't hit back. Well FUCK FUCK FUCK you all! ASSHOLES-everyone! Everyone of those slimy bastards will outlive us all. I'll go to the grave fighting and they will suck whats left of my estate. I hate them. Just when I am counting down the minutes on the triage clock.....in totters a lil' ole man in a brown overcoat, whispy whiskers, pale (oh very pale)but with a twinkle in his bright green eyes.
Finally (and at change of shift) appears a PEARL! Lil' ole man who complains of rib pain a little short of breath-not too bad. doesn't smoke. Just come on all of a sudden like and couldn't get any sleep. Better when he is laying down. No injury-hasn't fallen. traige bp 55/10 pulse 140 WWWHHHOOOOAAA!
Straight to treatment room for you gramps! (oh and a fuck off to the glaring slime of society bitching about being here first-this is not burger king you CANNOT have it your way asshole!)
Anyway....Gramps thanks us for the bed-he stands up he gets dizzy ya know? We scurry all
over like a hive of excited bees (both shifts).....buzzing to get him on the moniter-2 large bore ivs-stat ekg and chest xray....oh and someone tells dr smart ass who is sure this patient can wait till shift change to be seen. (collective eye rolling from every nurse there)...and we drag dr smart ass in the room -actually I pushed him in the rolling chair....
Turns out gramps had a leaky AAA but something bad went soooo goood. He's had a textbook recovery and is expected to be discharged to home! YEAH! I love the pearls!
And for the oyster sitting in the waiting room-he was still there when I left-smiling for once :)
I am sure he survived his cold, went back to his trailer park life and is currently scheming up new ways to fraud the government (aka disability from fake injuries) and manufacture meth in his bathtub.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Thursday, February 8, 2007
I finally lose it at work
Sometimes everything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
Even if you leave home determined to have a good night.
The sickest patient in the ER is assigned to me. No problem.
A frail, elderly gentleman, new onset confusion. A super nice little
wife, so attentive, always apologizing for "being in the way". No probs.
With a fair amount of luck and a tad bit of skill, he gets a peripheral
line and some fluids. Lab is at besided trying to get blood samples.
So, do you think the girl with the bulb nose told me she didn't get
them? No, why would she? Why would I need to know? So 30 more
minutes pass. I call the lab looking for results. Well, of course they
don't have them-and now I know why. I am screaming mad but keep it
under control. Come on up and I'll do a fem stick. So big bulb nose girls
meanders into the dept 20 mins later. I do the fem stick (hard one to get)
and she takes the blood to the lab. Twenty more minutes-it's hemolized!
WHAT THE F? This guy has already spent way too damn long in the er
with a whole lotta nothing helping him and this girl with the bulb nose
has managed to f up a fem stick?
Geez! I go completely 100% over the edge
flipped over/ out/ and off.
My co-workers will tell you that I rarely get
ruffled, much less down right pissed off. But I just couldn't help it.
I can't think of any other time in the last 14 years that I have been that outraged.
I scared the er doc (yes, that's hard to do) and my charge nurse (even harder to do)
and hopefully the bulb nosed lab girl. I've only seen her once since, and she ran the
other way. So eventually, the patient is handed off to the oncoming nurse, with
it still being a mystery as to his real condition-other than a thin pale pasty little
tachypnic, tachycardic, hypotensive patient.
Now, usually our patients aren't sick. I mean aren't sick in what medical people consider
sick. I Know that you have this or that ailement, but when we say someone is sick, we mean impending death. Had this situation occurred with one of our regular shmoz, I would have been annoyed, but no where near going over the edge. I think in retrospect, I like to pride myself on taking good care of sick people and I don't feel this patient received good care. Not so much from me personally but from the institution. The delay in labs delayed cts which delayed diagnosis and dispostition. All the while, the little couple never complain or fuss. They don't have to-I'm making enough noise for all of us....
Even if you leave home determined to have a good night.
The sickest patient in the ER is assigned to me. No problem.
A frail, elderly gentleman, new onset confusion. A super nice little
wife, so attentive, always apologizing for "being in the way". No probs.
With a fair amount of luck and a tad bit of skill, he gets a peripheral
line and some fluids. Lab is at besided trying to get blood samples.
So, do you think the girl with the bulb nose told me she didn't get
them? No, why would she? Why would I need to know? So 30 more
minutes pass. I call the lab looking for results. Well, of course they
don't have them-and now I know why. I am screaming mad but keep it
under control. Come on up and I'll do a fem stick. So big bulb nose girls
meanders into the dept 20 mins later. I do the fem stick (hard one to get)
and she takes the blood to the lab. Twenty more minutes-it's hemolized!
WHAT THE F? This guy has already spent way too damn long in the er
with a whole lotta nothing helping him and this girl with the bulb nose
has managed to f up a fem stick?
Geez! I go completely 100% over the edge
flipped over/ out/ and off.
My co-workers will tell you that I rarely get
ruffled, much less down right pissed off. But I just couldn't help it.
I can't think of any other time in the last 14 years that I have been that outraged.
I scared the er doc (yes, that's hard to do) and my charge nurse (even harder to do)
and hopefully the bulb nosed lab girl. I've only seen her once since, and she ran the
other way. So eventually, the patient is handed off to the oncoming nurse, with
it still being a mystery as to his real condition-other than a thin pale pasty little
tachypnic, tachycardic, hypotensive patient.
Now, usually our patients aren't sick. I mean aren't sick in what medical people consider
sick. I Know that you have this or that ailement, but when we say someone is sick, we mean impending death. Had this situation occurred with one of our regular shmoz, I would have been annoyed, but no where near going over the edge. I think in retrospect, I like to pride myself on taking good care of sick people and I don't feel this patient received good care. Not so much from me personally but from the institution. The delay in labs delayed cts which delayed diagnosis and dispostition. All the while, the little couple never complain or fuss. They don't have to-I'm making enough noise for all of us....
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