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Showing posts with label frustration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label frustration. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Sunday, May 23, 2010
In the dark
It's been interesting lately. It always is when you work the evening and night shift. Most of your life actually happens in the dark.
First, you confide in your coworker who's sitting just outside in the darkened hallway of what you see around you. She's been a nurse forever (since dirt, she likes to say) so she tells you about life in other places, and it ain't like the soap opera of the Hotel, either! Yes, sistah!
Next, you eventually turn down the lights in the rooms so people drift off to sleep. Sometimes, they don't drift too quickly. They fear the dark, sleep apnea, and the doctor showing up tomorrow. They vent in the dark--"Why didn't Dr. X tell me why I had to have so many blood draws?", "How come I have this IV?" or "No one told me I had xx bug."
One of my patients confided a lot of firsts to me recently. First person he knew to become injured. First person in his family to have cancer. First one in his family who controlled his type II diabetes effectively. First one in his family not to have a heart attack. Now his cancer has caused his recent mayhem. He's going back and forth on a pendulum he did not choose--surgery here, treatment there, back to us, and the cycle swings back again.
He does have a little consolation. His siblings bought him a computer. While the internet's not working yet for him, he does play games, which keeps him occupied. One of these days, he says, he'll beat that computer in chess.
And off I go in the dark, for the next round of confidences and consolations.
More to come...
First, you confide in your coworker who's sitting just outside in the darkened hallway of what you see around you. She's been a nurse forever (since dirt, she likes to say) so she tells you about life in other places, and it ain't like the soap opera of the Hotel, either! Yes, sistah!
Next, you eventually turn down the lights in the rooms so people drift off to sleep. Sometimes, they don't drift too quickly. They fear the dark, sleep apnea, and the doctor showing up tomorrow. They vent in the dark--"Why didn't Dr. X tell me why I had to have so many blood draws?", "How come I have this IV?" or "No one told me I had xx bug."
One of my patients confided a lot of firsts to me recently. First person he knew to become injured. First person in his family to have cancer. First one in his family who controlled his type II diabetes effectively. First one in his family not to have a heart attack. Now his cancer has caused his recent mayhem. He's going back and forth on a pendulum he did not choose--surgery here, treatment there, back to us, and the cycle swings back again.
He does have a little consolation. His siblings bought him a computer. While the internet's not working yet for him, he does play games, which keeps him occupied. One of these days, he says, he'll beat that computer in chess.
And off I go in the dark, for the next round of confidences and consolations.
More to come...
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