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Conspiracy and smoke

October 14, 2005, 5:39 AM

The Pat. Services Coord that was supposed to be here at 4am is not here. That means that she won't be here and I'm stuck until 6:30. There have been no patients.

Knock on wood. I don't mind if it's steady all night, but when no one has come in and then suddenly a steady flow of patients, it's hard to shift gears.

Especially when I haven't slept much this week. Not whining. I took the graveyard for the much needed income.

The security guard, whom I will call LarBear and he LOVES that name, went and got Starbucks. He said if I went, I'd come back to a bunch of dead patients lying around.

Anyway.

Now that this is an established ER, there are more and more drug seekers. I put my irritation on hold because they are patients and they have a problem. For those of us with Chronic pain, they've made it harder for us to get meds we need for real pain. At the same time, they have a problem and they probably haven't set out to make it harder for everyone. In fact, I feel sorry for them.

So the Security guard has been talking conspiracy theories all night and that's been keeping me awake.

I like all our security guards. I like all the environmental services people too. What I like about working here is that everyone's job here is important and all are treated with respect. We have one enviromental person who cleans the hell out of everything. She even cleans the doorknobs, light switches and everything that's been touched. She tells us to move out of the way because she has that authoritative mom voice and even vacuums the key boards and tells us to wipe everything down that we touch when we come in for our shift. If we don't, she does.

Everyone is vomiting. Terrible gastroenteritis stuff going around. I see someone coming in with a bucket and run to hand them barf bags. This is probably why The Real Betty is taking everything out of each patient room and scrubbing the floors with the machine and wierd smelling disinfectant.

Trying not to smoke.

Yes, I know. All who smoke these days are treated with much disdain. They have to hide. Luckily, I am wearing dark green scrubs and am camouflaged behind a couple of trees on the grounds. Then I blow the smoke into the tree's branches and know that it's instantly taking in the carbon monoxide and releasing oxygen.

Maybe not.



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Tanya McBee Gunby | Create Your Badge