Interesting night. Started off kinda busy and got worse for a while, then better, then worse again. Pretty thoroughly exhausting though.
About 00:30 I got called to do a portable chest in the ED... I was kinda on my way up to the cafeteria to see what was there, although I wasn't really hungry yet, and I turned around and went back to the ER.
The patient was an upper-middle aged guy, pretty ashen in color, obviously with a compromised circulatory system... he was very upset, and they were trying to get an EKG on him but he was moving around way too much to get a good tracing.
I moved my machine in and was getting the film under him when his heart stopped. The doc was right there and she immediatly put an ET tube in and got all kindsa drugs going and my favorite nurse was doing external cardiac compressions.
After a coupla minutes, Eileene was getting worn out doing the compressions, and I thought about volunteering to take over... Luckily, one of the respirators techs, a young strong healthy guy, volunteered before I could.
I had visions of doing compressions for about two minutes and having a coronary myself... that would have upset everyone... a double code!
Anyway, we lost the guy... he waited about an hour too long before coming in. Even fifteen minutes sooner would have worked maybe.
O'yeah... don't smoke or eat bad things and always get a lot of exercise and fresh air. Do what your mother tells you to do, except for that part about playing in the street...
So, I'm on the downhill stretch... three twelves and I'm done for a week. This is when I really start wearing down, though. O'well, I'll survive... I always have. And I always will.
That seven days off starts looking awfully good... I'm gonna start off with two days of sleep, I think.
So... today's moral: don't wait too long. Don't worry about looking like a fool because your chest pain might actually be indigestion... worry about looking like a fool because you died because you worried about looking like a fool.