Well, I've stayed up far longer than I thought was possible. And I'm still not really as tired as I should be, either... so I'll stay up longer, I guess.
Work was not too bad last night, it was even enjoyable except for one part, and that was pretty minor. I went to get a patient for a chest film, a middle-aged male, and gave him and his wife my usual line of patter:
The man and his wife stared at me wordlessly while I unhooked him from the monitors.
As I unlocked the cart, I said, " We'll be back in about three minutes, if I can get him to smile right.... "
Again the silent stares, only this time I interpreted them correctly: cold.
As I've mentioned before, most people like a little levity with their health care, and I'm quite happy to provide it. Those that don't... well, they scare me. And I don't scare easily.
I do back off, though.
How do people manage to live without a sense of humor? And WHY???
Anyway, the lady that I mentioned last night died shortly after I left yesterday, right before the results of the blood culture came back. She had septicemia... infection in her blood. Probably from her wounded foot, which was her original complaint.
Nothing could have been done for her even had this been known when she came in... she came in two days too late. Heart attack people come in 15 minutes too late and we can't save them, but that's a whole different story. This lady had been masking her symptoms with pain killers up to the point where her various systems started shutting down, and when that starts, you're lost.
Dammit.
Anyway, now I'm off for five nights. Then I work another seven, then the month of June I'm gonna be working four on, three off. And that sucks, because three days off isn't enough to do a turn-around... so I'll have to try really hard to maintain my night schedule.
I talked to JD last night... he'd called the night before, but Karen woke me up to take the call, and I never got really awake... anyway, he's got some car problems and won't be coming up. He will be coming up in July, though, and that's only a month away, so that's not too bad. He'll get to stay a coupla weeks then.
Well, I'd better get busy and find something to do to keep my awake, I guess. Either that or go to sleep...
And I don't really want to go to sleep.
More tomorrow...
"Hi! I'm Doug, Doc has asked me to get some x-rays of your chest."