Tuesday, 04 November, 1997 09:55

This was a really long night.

I started off by oversleeping... I didn't get up until about 18:40, and I have to be at work at 19:00. So... no shower, just brushed the teeth, washed the sleep out of my eyes and out the door. Well, I got dressed first, of course...

So the night starts off bad.

And it stays pretty bad, too. Oh, we got to sit down and watch the first half of the KC Chief's game, that was kinda fun. But then the work begin in earnest. And it lasted all night. I did have some interesting patients... one kid (20 or so) who got shot in the dick accidentally. The guy was trying to kill him, he was just a really bad shot. And some really nice people for patients, too.

It is really hard to not be cynical about patients, but it definitely the way to go. Damnit, most people are pretty nice. When we see them, they're hurting and scared... of the system, of medicine in general, of dying, of pain. All that I have to do is show them a little kindness and consideration, and I can ease that fear a lot, sometimes.

The problem is, of course, that the patient that I see right before them... is using the system for all it's worth, trying to scam the system out of drugs, or get off work, or they are just plain mean and drunk and hard to get along with. And it's hard to go from a drunk calling you names and trying to spit on you to a sweet little old lady who is scared to death because she has fallen down, and she thinks that a fractured hip means that she is going to die. And you want to offer her encouragement and make her feel better... and it's hard to forget the last guy.

But you gotta do it.

You gotta change from someone who is scorned and cussed at and angry because of it... into an angel of mercy. And you gotta do it as you walk from one room to the next.

Because that little old lady deserves it.

Someday I will be a little old man, and I hope that someone thinks that I deserve it.

Back to last night... we had two techs call in once again for the day shift. Also, there was a meeting at 01:30 with the hospital administrator that I had to attend... and I didn't even get paged during the meeting. It's rare for a half-hour to go by and I don't get paged...

So, there is supposed to be an inservice at 08:00 for some new equipment the radiology group is installing, that will allow them to read films at home that I send them. Well, the guy is late showing up, and it's running on a windows 3.1 system, and the software is pretty clunky, and the guy doing the demo is practically clueless regarding the questions that I ask him. And he's making a pretty good living doing this, probably more than I'm making... anyway, I didn't get outa there until 09:30. And I'm pretty beat, and I think that I'll take a shower and go to bed now.

I don't have to work tonight, so if I sleep four hours, and Karen wakes me up when she comes home, I'll get turned around right. Then I'll have to turn around again Friday, since I work Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights... then off Monday and Tuesday, and back to work for my regular seven on Wednesday.

More later, or tomorrow...