been there, done that

most of us have no problem saying " have you had it happen to you? because if not you dont know". i know ive said it before too and it all the time in the emergency room. well after today i can say yes, yes i have..
so far to date the only common test i havent had was an mri.


today i was seen in the er for some severe "im gonna rip out my female anatomy" pelvic pain. normally i get mad when people come in for this because primarily they come in for a check up. the er is not the place for a check up..

i had blood drawn, urine sent, a pelvic exam (sucks) and even a foley so i could go to ultrasound... all, except the blood, sucked but because its neccessary it wasnt so bad. the foley, as uncomfortable as it was wasnt half as bad as everyone makes it.. so i can say, your being a baby *unless your a guy* when you whine about it..


as much as i hate being a patient and i would honestly rather die than come to the er, and i work in the er.. so how much sense does that make?


i think people dont realize thats just because we are medical staff, we are human too. we get sick.. we have to come in and be seen too. so yes, we have been through what your going through and we know that its hurts and its aggravating and gives you anxiety not knowing what is wrong. but we know, and were only here to help you, if you let us.
all you have to do is come in and ask..

everything isnt always as it seems..

i say this and truly mean it. not all signs and symptoms will show up clear as day. we wish! it would make things so much easier!!

for example: text book signs of a stemi aka heart attack:
chest pain or discomfort
jaw pain (woman)
left sided arm pain (mostly men but varies)
upper back pain
neck pain
dizzyness
chills
sweating
shortness of breath
nausea
(if you have these symptoms call 911 asap!)

so a guy comes in today with chest pain but not horrible and that was it. no dizzyness, no nausea, no sweating, chills, arm pain..

turns out he had a stemi (st segmant elevation myocardial infarction, or MI, or heart attack) but it only showed on his ekg. his blood pressure was only partially elevated.. not much.


chest pain can come from many things. could be an anxiety attack, a heart attack, a start of a pulmonary embolism, or a pneumothorax.
but you dont know until you have it tested!

just because you think its one thing, you could be wrong. heck, we could be wrong. thats why we test and question and observe and look and do what we do..

so when you get mad about how long something is taking, please! take a second to remember when you come to the er and get what feels to be a thousand tests ran, we dont do it for our health, for fun, or for the money! its done to save your life.

xrays only show so much, so then catscans are ordered. if they cant see off that they go to mri annd so on. and one tube of blood does us no good when drawing labs.
each lab tube has a different thing in it to obtain results for different tests.


so before you come yell at us and complain about how long its taking, please remember its not really our fault. test results take time.

so before your next visit to the emergency room bring your patience, and a good book. :)

"do you wanna talk to the doctor in charge or the nurse who knows whats going on"

this makes me laugh everytime i see it. its actually quite true. sorry to burst your bubble for all the people who thought doctors were god-like, there really not.

they do know alot. alot from the books they study. as for how people actually work *realistically how they work* nursing staff know more because we deal with them more..

an issue just came about that made me laugh and think of this. im pretty sure i pissed the attending off but when you fight with a nurse who knows what shes talking about and try every effort to prove her wrong, and two hours later shes right, i get to laugh at you..

im sure most of you dont know much about medi-ports and central lines so ill explain them simply: there a larger more productive version of an IV.

a pt came in wanting us to draw blood and do cultures off of her medi-port. what she didnt say right away was why.. they were suspected to be infected (nice rhyme i know..)

nurses, lab techs, not even most doctors will ever draw off of any mediport (or central line) that may be infected. these can spread anything faster than ivs or anything else. so after many many phone calls to her doc, other docs, our lab, our charge nurses, ect.. we finally all came to the conclusion (actually the doctor and patient did) that WE CAN NOT DRAW OFF OF THAT LINE and we wont. its not worth our liscense or job.

not to say this happens all the time but, this happens all the time!

we get it. you trust doctors and thats great, you should. they go to school they learn alot and they save lives.. but they dont have the people skills we do and they def. dont have the time we do to spend with you. 98% of people (<<this comes from my head, not actual statistics but its pretty accurate. ask anyone who works in the emergency room)

another reason why nurses know as much as doctors is because we see it all. over and over and over again. no two cases are the same for anything. but when we see symptoms we've seen in a pt before we notify the doctor who can say "yeah ive read about that" or "ive seen that once before and yeah it seems that way" theyve seen it once to our 100 pretty much.

so the next time you say you want to talk to the doctor in charge, you may want to rethink that decision. by all means tell your doctor whats needed, especially when your in the er. dont keep anything back because it could only hurt you in the end. but let the nursing staff know whats going on to. especially since you'll see us more than you'll see the doctor.

please stop telling me how "slow" we are..

k so really, just because you think we arent doing anything doesnt mean were not busy..

i think people dont realize that alot of what happens behind the scenes is a waiting game.. we have to wait for xrays and cts to be done then read by the radiologist. we have to wait for labs and no lab test takes the same amount of time (there all diff schedules) and if you need a consult for surgery, ob/gyn, ortho, ect.. you have to take into consideration that they have other patients all over the hosp or they could be in surgery.. so its gonna take a bit.

but if you do come in and see, especially in triage, that were not backed up and you dont have to go to the waiting room BE HAPPY AND KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT!
murphy's law: the second you say how quiet it is we get slammed..


on a more serious note.. suicide isnt a joke and needs to be taken care of like asap..
there for sure needs to be an outlet or group or something for everyone who feels that its the only thing they can do cuz there are so many other things!

annd. i hate when people come in for "attempted suicide".
i get it. life sucks sometimes.. but really?! come on.. open your mouth. theres places you can call just to talk to someone.. do that. dont mess up your life more!

top 5 ways people "attempt" suicide and end up in the emergency room:

1. over dose.

2. drinking.

3. strangling.

4.gun shot wounds.

5.cutting.

so drinking normally wouldnt be one but if you knew the affects of drinking so much, daily or at a time you would get it.. its horrible.

it really kills me when you see teens come in who have been in for multiple failed attempts or for depression. ive seen many with scars from cutting and i dont think they get that even if you pull yourself out of it, your stuck with that. for ever. thats a scar that will not go away and people know what you did. think about that.

MOST IMPORTANT!

if your going to od (again, not that i would evvver say its a good idea cuz there are so many more options than trying to kill yourself!) DO NOT OD ON TYLENOL! it will not work. not right away. you will kill yourself slowly and it will be painful. tylenol ruins your liver and you cannot live without it. last time i checked when you od or do anything to damage your liver purposely like drinking excessively they will not allow you to get on the transplant list. therefore, if your lucky enough, only your family could donate.. if your lucky..

ive seen it on so many medical shows and i think kids think because it can be accessed easily its a good idea. not. which is why parents shouldnt keep things like that out and need to talk to your kids more.. not hassle.. talk to!

if you or someone you know is thinking about suicide please pleasee! talk to someone.. i promise you are not alone. someone will miss you and does care now!

please also visit these websites: suicidepreventionlifeline.org and save.org.

think before you act..

"can you tell me why you came in today?" "no, i have no idea"

working in the er, you hear this all the time.
in 4 hours alone today i heard it over 20 times. my favorite part is when people come in by ambulance and we ask, so what brings you in today. Usually they say ambulance or once again, they have no idea. so we keep going back and forth with "you have no idea why your here, in the er, or why the ambulance brought you in?" "no i have no idea"

seriously?

its one thing if these people come in and there mentally unstable or a trauma case, but when you come in talking and laughing, but have no idea why really?
i really love it too when they do that and then they wanna know when they can leave. uhm. you called 911 they brought you to us and you wanna leave..
my favorite, from that, is when theres a large amount of blood coming from goodness knows where but they dont know why and they just want to go home. yep. your pretty awesome..


Everyday i come home from work and ask my self why are people so stupid. and natural selection.. no. doesnt happen. i wish, but doesnt.

people die daily. not new news.. the funny, in a coincidental way of course, is the people that die are usually the ones with families and lives. *this doesnt mean i want people to die cuz i dont, and i dont believe in euthanasia in any way* but the people who come in and dont die are the people who have been in prison for aweful things, people who OD on only God knows what pretty much every week.. people like that. its quite ridiculous and sad.

Theres alot that runs through your mind when you hear that an overdose or attempted suicide is coming in.

i tend to pray for the families before they get there and pray that if God's will is for them to live, then they learn something from it. this rarely happens because God gave us free will and people+free will=complete stupidity..

besides that thought you always ask yourself, "what was going through their head?"
really, what in their life is so bad that they feel the needed to try anything like that to begin with and do it so much that you pretty much end up CTD (circling the drain) when you get to us?

although not every case is the same.. some people are sucidal, some do it because they cant get high enough, some do it because they wanted to try it (both drugs and sometimes strangling which will end up looking like suicide), and my favorite! when they do it for the attention. attention getters are why we call it the "drama room" they do just enough to get the attention they want and may black out, but that will only get them more attention.. and when they get to us and we give them narcan/charcoal/ammonia sniff they freak out and become obnoxiously loud and NO ONE can take them seriously anymore..
thats when we all say "drama team to the emergency room stat..."

dramatics get you no where fast in the er. and if you think not telling things is gonna get you out faster, boyy are you way off..

to get things started

first things first, most of my postings will be based off of the things i see/hear at my job in the emergency room and they will contain medical short hand and adult content. enjoy!!

Everyone thinks its so easy to have a job in the medical field and they tell me how "rewarding it is". really? cuz ive felt rewarded like 4 times in the past 4 years... excuse me but what happened to common sense and decency!

my top 10 pet peeves of working in the ER:

1.phone calls about chest pain on your left side radiating down your arm.

all i want to say is, do me a favor. hang up the phone. google symptoms of a heart attack. if you have them call 911.

2. phone calls about flu like sx.

since i was old enough to understand i knew that if i had a fever and was freezing, i had the flu. so tell me why people call the er (not their docs office even though its still office hours) to ask what are symptoms (sx) of the flu.. really? again. webmd, google, the freaking cdc website, disney channel... all of them will tell you what symptoms of the flu are and how NOT to spread it. rule number one on not spreading it, DO NOT GO OUT IN PUBLIC!

which brings me to

3. People who come to the emergency room for non emergency things.

some say its job security so we shouldnt complain, others say its money. i say its a waste of space. why do you need to come to the er for a fever of 99.2? a. thats barely a fever b. take tylenol, thats what its for. c. really? or when people come to the er for a toothache. not many ers have dentists on staff and when you come in complaining about your toothache you sound like a drug seeker. (we really try not to judge people but we have to because if not the world would be full of ridiculous drug addicts.) i just really wish people could understand what the emergency part means.

4. If you think your back pain is gonna trump a guy with chest pain, cold sweats, and is turning blue, your out of your mind.

the ER is not first come first serve. we will get to you. but we have to triage you first which means we have to see who needs to come first. someone who is having stroke or stemi sx, or! comes in with a gunshot wound, they come first!

5. Please do not call and ask how long you'll have to wait to see a doctor.

like i said before, they come first and so do ambulances... we dont know when there gonna come in. cant plan it..

6. DO NOT CALL THE AMBULANCE FOR NON EMERGENT THINGS!

medics and emts, like er staff, are here to save lives. we cant do this if you call us because you woke up and have a fever of 98.2 (thats not a fever..) and seriously! please do not call the ambulance, have your friends/family drive behind the ambulance, complain when they cant come back to see you right away, and then ask how your gonna get home. i dont think people realize that ambulances cost 500+ for the ride alone. the visit to the er is more. why you wouldnt want to cut that cost is beyond me..

7. if your child has an actual fever, and youve checked it correctly (by mouth or rectally for kids under 3 years) please give them tylenol or motrin.

that is what these medications are for. to lower fevers and help with the aches and pains of being sick. if you bring your kid to the er with a temp of 105.2 and didnt give them anything, we will look at you like your stupid. because you are. they could have a febrile seizure and you shoulda gave them something anyway!

8. when you come to the er, whether you drove or you came by ambi, dont ask for food or water.

you cant have it because of testing and i really think its funny how you feel like your gonna die/puke/pass out from the pain but you are soooo hungry NOW?!

9. the call light is not a good way to get someones attention.

we all have heard this sound so much we learned to block it out and we didnt do it purposely.

10. causing a scene, trying to fight us, and! my favorite, throwing things isnt gonna get you seen any faster.

especially when your drunk. thats only gonna piss us off more and make us take care of the pts who are being nice and calm about there stay.

so let me explain myself. i love my job. i find it absolutely fascinating actually. ive wanted to be a nurse for ever and right now im going to school for my nurse pract specializing in peds. ive been working in the field since 06 and dont plan on letting anything steer me away from it.. but sometimes, i worry because i get things like what i said above and it scares me becuase i would like to have some sort of faith in society, but really??

i just wish people could use common sense when seeking "emergency" care. we will never turn people away. its not in our nature. we're healers. but we cant heal or help if you dont try..

as much as i hope people will get a laugh about this i really hope it helps people understand how we feel because like i said, we are there and we do care, but you, well, have to see it from our point of view too...