S1 in the ER

No kidding.

It was 9 AM, I walked into the ER reception and standing there checking in were S1 and her husband. WTH! Her husband, V, was having trouble with his blood pressure and had recently fainted at the gym, so they wanted to get him checked out.

This isn't a large city, and I work at its only hospital, but I know exactly ONE person who lives near it, and that's S1. And there they were at my work: ) I immediately joined them in the waiting room but saw that they were stressed so I didn't say much. I drank from my travel mug (yummy Starbucks Via) and listened to them talk.

V hates to be vulnerable, like so many guys, and I didn't want to make him feel worse, but I wanted to help.

So when it was their turn, I asked to run his EKG. (In German, they say "WRITE the EKG".) It was nurse Mark, the one who thinks patients are stupid, but I saw him treating them very very nicely today - perhaps cuz I know them? Perhaps cuz they're educated Germans who dress very neatly? *shrug*

Oh, I have to add, I'm such a newbie in this environment. I suddenly found myself in the exam room with my friends and the nurse, and had my travel mug in my hand. Omygosh, the realization struck me, a rule I'd never read,  never been told, but OBVIOUSLY you don't bring a drink/food into an exam room! Stoopid! I'm just so used to doing things with a travel mug in my hand...cuz I come from 15 plus years working in software where you don't have to ever set your coffee down. ACK! The nurse Selina looked at my coffee, horrified, and I whispered, "I don't know what to do!" I "hid" it on the window sill and hoped they don't have cameras in the rooms.

As Mark attached the vein catheter I said to S1, "Watch how fast he is at this, he's amazing!" and Mark grinned.

Mark asked S1 about the awful scratches on her arm, "Cat?" "Yes." I asked V, "Did Murphy do that to you too?" (He also had scratches.) Yes.

V's BP was higher than any I'd seen, I think. And he's on BP meds, like I am. I asked him about his symptoms, and he said exactly what I go through when my BP is high, precisely. It was eerie, and S1 had no idea what we were talking about. So I guess V and I bonded today over our scary BP.

Then, as always, the nurse left us alone, and I kept them company, as I try to do with all patients who are abandoned by their doctors (ugh!). They argued a little and I tried not to listen. I could tell S1 was stressed about his condition, and he was stressed cuz he felt foolish being taken care of by his wife.

I had this feeling they would force V to stay for a few days, and I warned him. He said, "Surely I can go home and pack a bag!" I said, "Um.....I hate to say it...."

Remember yesterday, the nice Turkish man who was told he may not leave to pack a bag, he was "stuck in jail" for three nights? Well.....it happened to V.

He caved to S1's insistence that she will take care of everything and bring him everything and I felt so bad for him. Cuz I think if you walk into an ER on your own legs, you should be able to go home, pack a bag, and then return for a stay. OK it's my 2nd day, what do I know.

I stayed with them until they were absolutely done, and there went my morning: ) So cool, to help someone I actually know! And Mark, the nurse, was so patient with me (in contrast to others later this day).

I said, "V, if you are here, would it be possible if we had lunch together? Better for me than eating entirely alone!" He said yes. I called his cell later to find out his room number.

I have no idea if that's allowed, but I really don't give a rip.

So at 12 noon I went downstairs and got my hospital food tray and rode the elevator for the first time, and was dismayed to see it had mirrors and I finally got to see what I look like. UGH. Clown suit. Blue top, white bottoms. But today I found one room that had the blue gloves (most have white) and I was thrilled, cuz I put on one white and one blue and said, "Look at me! I match!" Selina laughed, cuz she's the nice one. No one else would, cuz you don't joke around in Germany.

I arrived at his spacious, gorgeous room with a view of the rolling treed hillsides (what? where are we?) and he was still eating his lunch. I had hoped we could watch TV together, but he told me, "The TVs are those tiny little screens that we pull over our beds to watch privately." I said, "OH! Airplane screens." Horrible, except I understand that if your neighbor is watching something awful.....yah.

V seemed  happy to have me there, and I asked them about their planned trip to the North Sea - it's only a few days away! But they will probably manage it, cuz he's only here for 3 days.

I told him that just 10 minutes ago a patient had told me about how wonderful the North Sea is (I've been there a few times, but find it interesting that people love it so.). She said it clears your lungs, that air. I looked at her dubiously and she nodded, "It's true!" OK then.

V said he never noticed a difference in his lungs, but they go there cuz it's easy to bring Murphy along. Really? You bring your cat on vacation? Yes.

I was feeling pretty pleased about lunch with a friend on my second day, it felt defiant, because my colleagues are very distant and would not ask me to eat lunch with them. Which is fine cuz I need some alone time! But I basked in this experience.

A nurse popped in to check on V, and looked at me with a stunned expression, "Um...?" (cuz of my clown outfit, sitting next to a patient, both of us eating lunch....hehhheheh)

I introduced myself confidently and apparently it's OK....or she's just super nice and left the room, after trying to persuade V to eat his brownie dessert, but he just kept the apple.

Sitting there I realized how similar it was to my last hotel room, and wondered where his laptop was. We were sitting at a table with electrical outlets, so I said, "Do you have your laptop, to plug in here?"

He gasped, "Oh! I forgot" and right then called S1 and said, "Bring my laptop!" *giggle* I said, "I'd never want to be stuck in this room without mine. Then he said, "Yes, she's here right now, with me. OK I'll tell her you said hello!" (Germans have this "greeting" culture that is very strange for Americans.)

I could tell he was very relieved to have something to do on that great big table in a nice hotel room with no proper TV. Poor V!

I left him and he said, "See you tomorrow?"

OF COURSE.

I have to add something I told them as we waited for the doctor.

I said to them solemnly, "It would be massively ironic if I were to become infected with an illness while working here, which leads to my death."

"Because I was named for a character in a book (called Little Women, a classic) who insisted on helping sick people, and died from their contagion."

They both looked at me, they'd never heard of Little Women. I said, "Well, it would be fitting, if I died from working with the sick." No worries: )

But I think my personal hygiene is superior to those I work with, cuz they're jaded. I'm par-a-no-id!

While I'm waiting with patients who have been abandoned in their exam rooms, I often disinfect the entire room. I wonder if they think I'm the cleaning lady? *lol* I try to engage them in conversation but often it's not possible.

***

Patient of the day. Benjamin. Holy crap. I worked on the ambulance and I know how often people dial 911 when they should just get in the car and drive themselves to the hospital. Or take a bus. BUt Benjamin.......

It was 3 PM and he'd had a fall from his e-bike ......exactly 15 hours earlier. He had retrograde amnesia, and was shaking, in shock, and a chunk of his right arm was missing. I tried to communicate with him but he was shaky.

This new-to-me nurse prepared a sterile table to work the wounds, and I took his vitals. Then she shouted at me because I was trying to let his O2 level stabilize (it was jumpy) and she shouted at me again. I had the pen, and the paper, to record those levels, and she got impatient and wrote the rest  down herself, until I finally grasped she was in an awful hurry and I needed to get the device out of the way. OK then. I've seen patients way worse off and doctors not hurry at all, so ..?

Then she prepared a sterile table for the doctor to work from, I guess, what you'd see in an operation room? As I tried to help, I made my way to this table and she suddenly grabbed me by my forearm and thrust me backwards, "NO! Do not approach the table."

Whaa? OK obviously no one had shown me/told me that the blue color means do not approach.  I resented her at that moment.

These are things you learn....possibly in your first week but hopefully with teachers who are patient and kind.

Nope, this lady was one of those who cannot tolerate people who do not understand every technical term spoken in German. I'd encountered that on the ambulance, only once, an EMT would ask me to do something, and I didn't understand the term, or her accent, and then she'd get angry.

I was feeling sad that some people are just difficult to work with, and every time I looked at her today, I realized her face never changed from its scowl. Like a cartoon character. I should pray for her, not the patients.

Then Maik took me under his wing again, the paid intern. He had me help treating Benjamin's other horrible wounds, the ones that didn't need the stitching up, and poor Benjamin - I don't know the names of things yet, and they are different from the ambulance/my training. So I took forever helping, if you can call it that. The good thing is, Maik doesn't get mad at me, ever. He just repeats himself over and over and over.

After, I told him, "I need your help, learning not only the hospital-terms, but also the normal terms you use around here." (For example, when he asked me for a "pflaster" I kept thinking of "plaster - materials for a cast? - but...of course, in Germany, pflaster is a simple band-aid. Ugh.)

Mail also asked to help me again through my workbook of tasks I must accomplish.

Thank God for the good ones. So far, Maik and Selina. The others are mostly indifferent, they don't want to take the time to teach me how to help them, and I get that. Funnily, the doctors themselves are pretty kind to me - though they should be feeling the most stress. I've had a few of them just stop working on a patient and ask me about Seattle. OK...Every time someone (nurse, etc) asks me personal info around a patient I freeze. Cuz..come on, PATIENT! The patient needs to be the patient!

However, whenever I spend that 20-30 minutes just hanging with a patient stuck there, I enjoy when they bring up the topic! Today I met a guy who lived in Rhode Island for 6 years! And a proctocologist whose mother is from Chicago, and he wanted to talk about it (with the poor, poor lady stretched out).

THen again...

One doctor today said, "Give me a 'latsche'. " No idea. I said, "I don't know what a latsche is." He was perplexed for a moment (I'm really old to be an intern!) and then said, "You're an intern." Yah. He was never rude to me, he just accepted it. Later I asked him about the x-rays we'd observed from the poor e-bike rider. Ha, the doctor had missed the 4 broken ribs! Next time I will be able to say, "OK you missed these 4 broken ribs here." *lol* Cuz I will not forget what busted up things look like! The e-biker kept his cigarettes close, I hope he can let them go just to recover without coughing for a while.

But the doctor was nice when I asked him how he would write it up, I was curious. He replied he's not a Roentgen (xray) expert, he's just a doctor. OK then.

And guess what the "latsche" is! It's pathetic. It's a torn off piece of a sterile glove, cut to a straw form, to leave in the wound he'd sewn shut, to drain. A piece of a glove! Good grief!

Poor e-biker had to have me wheel him back to Roentgen for more thorax images, and the poor guy had to stand up to do it. He was delerious with pain and still shaking.


I left and asked Maik, "Do we know whether or not he was wearing a helmet when he had his e-bike accident?"

Maik said, "No one asked him. No."

I said, "Can I go ask him, cuz he's still here!" 

Yes

I asked Benjamin, using last name and formal language, of course, "Helmet or no?" He said, "Yes." I said, "And you suffer amnesia, despite helmet. Is your helmet OK?" "No, it's destroyed." : ) "Thank you, I was just curious." "No problem."

I really wanted an e-bike cuz of all these hills. Maybe not. This is not the first time I've heard of people crashing bad on e-bikes.

***

As I explored a bit of the hospital today, I saw a familiar face, that Turkish guy from yesterday! He was sitting alone in a waiting area by Heart-ultrasound and had a weird contraption attached to his chest. I was thrilled to see him again, and sat down next to him.

"What is that thing?"

"It records my heart."

Oh. We spoke again in English, cuz why not, he knows it, and I'm the only person here who will, and Lord willing no employee will understand and fire me for my friendliness.

He smiled so big when he saw me, it broke my heart.

I told him about V, cuz that had just happened. I said, "You know, what happened to you yesterday, where they imprisoned you here, it happened today to a friend of mine!"

I wish I'd had more time but then they called him for his heart ultraschall and I waved goodbye, maybe. What an awesome thing to meet up with ER patients later in their stay here, and say, "Hey there!"

***

Or, goodbye, maybe.

I told an 84 year old woman today, that I spent almost an hour alone with (waiting for the doctor)..."I hope to never see you again here."

She was 84 and coherent, well, mostly.....She bonded with me in that hour and had such pain!

She told me her daughter was coming to meet her, who could tell us what allergies she has, etc. I was insistent that we find the daughter, cuz time was ticking and she was in pain.

I ran to the waiting room and called her name (my first time doing such a thing) and no one answered.

I came back and asked the lady if I can seek her anywhere else, and then I just decided to do it, and I ran all over the place looking for her.

It  took sooooooooooooooooooo long before she appeared, over-dressed does not adequately describe it, but she was there for her mother, and I didn't let go of her mother until I had to. That lady today seemed to appreciate that I stayed with her 30 minutes alone, and then another 30 while doctors pestered her. Her daughter thanked me profusely ...and then again as we left her in the xray waiting area. She asked me about my past, why I was there, and wished me the best for my future.

Omygosh, this is not what I signed up for: gratitude. But I keep getting it, and it makes my face burn red in surprised emotion. I know  EMTs are attacked and underappreciated, but so far I've had people in terrible pain thanking me profusely.

Lord help them, and every EMT who responds and the doctors who take a moment of eye contact, respect for people in pain. If they won't, I will!! Also, Lord help me keep this attitude...