What a change from Saturday to Sunday … Saturday’s main event was a life saving enema … Sunday was ‘Armageddon in the ER’ meets ‘Twilight Zone’ – real life saving going on in multiple rooms at the same time combined with all our standard nuttiness!  Arrggghh – There isn’t enough Calgon to take me far enough away!  And apparently, it wasn’t just our hospital, as we were trying to find available inpatient rooms at surrounding hospitals once we were full.  No rooms to be had!!

It’s almost all a blur of images, but the shift started with TPA (clot busting medicine) on a vented, unresponsive patient; insulin drips; acute respiratory distress; chest pains; pneumonias; [of course] the flu  … I breathed a sigh of relief when I got to my first priority 4 ‘rash’ … oh, please don’t leave yet!  But no … more patients waiting their turn.  Lots of service recovery due to long waits – which is difficult to do sincerely for the sixth time when you still haven’t peed, let alone eaten or sat down.  An intoxicated assault with multiple facial fractures – who’s only focus is getting something to eat … “Your face is broken, you can’t eat!”  I finally say in a desperate attempt to get through the alcohol fog.  No luck, as 60 seconds later he asks for a sandwich … Listening to a conversation between patient and doctor: “Why hasn’t anyone told me I have emphysema?”  REALLY – you’ve smoked for 50+ years … why wouldn’t you think you’d get emphysema?  There’s a warning label and everything, right on the package!  And ending the shift with a bizarre patient with an equally bizarre family … mental status change vs. playing possum … the verdict still isn’t in.

After a night like that … I just feel tired and old …