OK this one will be brief. I was on call last night and slept a grand total of ZERO minutes. Went through my morning expecting to get out around 10:30....when our course director mentioned that he wanted to have a little mini-lecture/discussion with us at 11:00. Boo. So, I made it through the chat (barely and with a few moments of nodding off), came home around noon-thirty, and CRASHED. Again, woke up at an ungodly hour (9:45), and here I am. About to go to sleep, though.
On a serious note, I had my first experience with death up close and personal yesterday. A young man, senselessly shot, went downhill on his eight minute ride to the hospital and was more or less dead when he got to the trauma bay. His mom had been shot and killed within the last month when people shot blindly into this young man's house, presumably to kill him. I had never seen so much blood. We had been reading international news before this happened, about war-torn countries and horrific reports of lawlessness, and this young man's premature demise made me wonder about how different our country really is (or isn't).
After that first sad patient, the rest of call was a non-stop night of GSW's, MVC's, MCC's, and transfers. I missed the one surgery that went to the OR last night because I was sewing up this lady's leg & elbow for TWO HOURS. Not because of the extent of her injuries, really (though they were deep), but because I'm so stinkin slow and such a perfectionist! Anyways, I really wish I'd taken a photo of my finished work, but as it was on her inner thigh and elbow and she IS a patient...I decided that'd be inappropriate.
OK cocoa puff...
I was in the OR last week prepping a patient for his ostomy reversal. I was talking with my friend, the previously offended scrub nurse, and she asked me, "Is this Cocoa Puff?" Taken aback, I replied that I didn't know what she was talking about and asked if she was making a racist joke (as the patient is an attractive black man). Not so. Nurse friend proceeds to tell me this title story...
Apparently this guy was being scheduled for this surgery now for a third time. First scheduled surgery, he showed up fifteen min late. Who does that for surgery? Second scheduled surgery, as the anesthesiologists were doing their pre-op assessment, they asked if he had eaten/drank anything after midnight. He replied, "I had a beer and a cocoa puff."
The resident retorted, "Excuse me, how does one eat just one cocoa puff?"
The patient laughed and explained that a "cocoa puff" is a large marijuana cigarette (a fatty) laced with cocaine.
I've been laughing about this all week, and hope you do, too!
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