not the rodeo; but trauma. I think I'm becoming a trauma junkie. Dead one night in the Minor Care, so I went up to watch/try to help with a patient who came in unresponsive. The medics brought him in on dopamine and yet his BP was still only 50/30. When the seasoned RT comes in after pulling the results from an ABG, shaking his head, I had a feeling this might be interesting. "Goddamned pH is 6.5...I can't believe it. Not compatible with life..." The MD didn't think he'd make it out of the room alive, and the other nurses are putting on defib pads, preparing for the worst. Several hours later he's still holding on, but now intubated, a Foley put in, IVs started, several amps of bicarb and other meds given, an NG put in, etc and escorted up to the ICU nurses to let them take over his vigil. Three days later, and he's still in ICU, but being weaned off the vent. I don't enjoy seeing people that ill, but when they do get that way, I love the process and the way people come together to put them back on track and return them to their lives.
The next day I'm slammed in Minor Care, and I feel myself getting more apathetic with each low-income person who comes in, appearing in distress and telling me the only thing that will help them is a shot of morphine, of Dilaudid. They're allergic to Toradol, to Tylenol, to Motrin. They are unemployed, on disability for one thing or the other, and they don't care they're siphoning my tax dollars for a temporary high. One lady stubbed her toe (not even her big toe...) three nights earlier, and the only thing she felt would help was some Percocet. The provider, under the ever increasing DEA surveillance, firmly tells her she won't get anything more than ibuprofen or Tylenol. I don't want to be a jaded, judgmental nurse. I need to figure out a way to look past their situations/habits and see them as people. But only to a point...we can only do so much to try to help them get pointed in the right direction; the rest is up to them.
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