It's been a while since I had the time and the inclination to write, which just means so much has been going on that I probably should having been writing about it, just to help process things.
Sometimes I feel like I all I ever do is come home from work and complain. To those who are unfortunate enough to live with me, they have probably worked out that I am NOT loving being a Dr.
And yes...it is exactly what I thought it would be....I just thought I'd enjoy it more!
But there are good days.
Sometimes it is a patient that makes part of your day so good that it acts as a life-ring and gets you through the rest of the day until there is wine.
Recently I had the pleasure of treating a truly inspirational man in the ED.
76 years old, fit, normally healthy, just a little dehydrated with some gastroenteritis, nothing exciting about his case. The morning I met him it was unusually slow in the ED, I had managed a run before work and a coffee without getting in late, so far he was my only patient for the day, so I had time.
I had time not just to take a history, and ask about his past medical problems and surgeries but I had time to actually talk to him and find out about the man behind the patient.
I think it started when I was ordering a medication for him "STAT" and he piped up to ask me if I knew the origin of the word...and went on to tell me. (I already knew, it's short for Statim which in Latin means Immediately)
It turn out my patient had studied Latin...why? Because he wanted to read Caeser's Letters to the Romans and did not want anything to be lost in translation...so he studied Latin. It sounds like a very interesting read and is going on my essential reading list...in English.
He also reads and speaks, Spanish, German and French and is the kind of guy I would not like to challenge in a game of scrabble. He has pitch perfect tone, plays multiple musical instruments...in fact was a concert pianist and once upon a time made a living as a piano man.
Like most musicians he had some groupies and was engaged at least once (to a demanding German girl) before he settled with the lady to whom he is still married to today, nearly 40 years later.
He has traveled the world, held interesting jobs and taught me something about "listening" to thunderstorms rather than watching them.
In itself, this would be enough...but he his blind. Totally blind.
The victim of domestic violence at 8 months old, which resulted in him losing his sight, he was placed in a blind institution as a baby.
Intelligent, educated, worldly, passionate about life, humble, a true inspiration and so different from my everyday patients in ED.
He and I hit it off well and he has offered me free piano lessons!
The day started of good....quickly got bad and deteriorated to ANGRY.
Not me, but the waiting room.
People do 'waiting' for some things better than others. They generally wait well for buses, trains planes and for movies to start, but not for doctors.
They don't like waiting for 5 mins, let alone 3 hours. People expect free and expert medical care, which is exactly what they get, just not immediately.
Part of the problem is that the waiting room is separate from where the ambulances arrive, so patients never see the people more seriously ill or injured arriving that may be seen before them.
The psychology of waiting though, is such that even if they did see someone arriving with both bloody legs hanging off, because they were there first with the splinter in their toe, they should be seen first.
Occasionally tempers flare, people become angry and take it out on staff. It's not uncommon for triage nurses and Drs to be yelled at, verbally and physically abused, and this was what my day deteriorated to.
I just want to say.... it's not called the "I will be seen immediately room"!
Perhaps if people had to pay for their visits to the emergency room they would not come for splinters, colds and GP type problems, then the waiting for the real emergencies to be seen would be less.
More on that later, for now I just want to remember the good in my days...and I have wine!
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