Sorry!

I apologize for my last rant.  I was very tired and frustrated.  I'm taking a much needed vacation in February so I will be able (hopefully) to decompress.  Our ER is also trial running a new system that allows labs and xrays to get started while each patient waits when we don't have available beds.  

I also admit that I have put myself into this situation because of the department I work.  We are SUPPOSED to see the less urgent patients.  That's my job.  I can't get upset about the non urgent complaints.  They pay my salary.  I just get frustrated that people can't look around them for a moment and see how busy we are and that other people are just as ill.  

Also, I have come across many wonderful patients and their families who are kind, complimentary and appreciative.  I need to focus on them and not let the "squeeky wheels" upset me.  

So, once again, sorry for my cynicism and bitchy attitude...

In case you'd like to hear a story or two... 

A woman came in who thought she had "lost" a tampon.  She had her period about 3 1/2 weeks before and she noticed an "odor" coming from her vagina.  Normally we don't take this complaint seriously.  The vagina is a cul-de-sac and things cannot be "lost" in it.  Especially something as big as a tampon.  Normally they just have a vaginal infection.  She told us she had just had sex with her husband the night before.  So, I set up all the equipment for a pelvic exam and I included a sterile ring forcep, just in case something needed to be pulled out.  I got busy with another patient and was suddenly bombarded by a putrid smell coming from Room 3.  Her room.  The smell got so bad that another nurse sprayed an equally obnoxious perfume to try to mask the smell.  The PA came out of the room a few minutes later and told us that she had pulled out a blackened, shriveled tampon that reeked to high heaven.  The poor woman was obviously embarrassed.  But why didn't she just reach up there herself and pull it out?  Tampons don't get stuck, they don't get lost.  And, sorry to be crude, how in the world did they have sex with that putrid odor emanating from her vag??  We put her on antibiotics to make sure she didn't get any kind of infection and sent her home, with her husband....

A man in his sixties came in by ambulance with an ankle injury.  There was a little bit of a language barrier but what we understood was that he had simply twisted his ankle walking.  I took the splint off and saw an obviously swollen, deformed ankle.  His pulse and color were good and he could wiggle his toes without any problem.  I wanted to get his foot elevated on a pillow to help prevent swelling and as I was about to lift his leg he said, "I do it".  He lifted up his leg and his whole foot just DANGLED from the ankle.  I don't feel sick to my stomach often but this time I did.  His foot was flopping all around on its own.  GROSS!  Xrays showed that not only did he have a bad ankle fracture but it was also dislocated.  The crazy thing?  The guy felt no pain.  He was like a superhero or something.  He didn't require any pain medication even when the MD "reduced" his dislocation.  Which means pulling it back into place.  Most patients require conscious sedation (basically knocking them out).  I would.  The MD put it back into place, we splinted it, and he went home on crutches to follow up with an orthopedist in the morning.  Either totally bad ass or totally stoic...