No!....

I hate needles...

The shift had just begun in the emergency room and things were already running into a ditch. It seemed that everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.

A few hours into the night, everyone was settled in to a great rhythm and things were working like a well oiled machine. I was happy to see the worry and concern on the faces of my co-workers, begin to soften and leave.

The place was full when we had arrived and there was a waiting room full of sick people waiting to come back for treatment. Tensions heighten and tempers flare when people are suffering or their loved ones are suffering and treatment is not occurring as quickly as needed. We got the most critical people packaged and moved to ICU or to the Operating room or other rooms assigned in the hospital; this freed us up for more to come into the treatment area.

There was a child who had a pearl in her ear. She had wild hair that stuck out in all directions as she cried continuously. I believed her tears were caused by the excitement and activity around her more than any real pain. She could barely talk but was eager to say, “I put it in my ear” when asked how it got in there. It was a delicate procedure but our physician was able to remove the pearl pretty quickly. This made the child and the mother happy, happy, happy. They were soon discharged.

There was an adorable little boy about 12 years old with red hair and lots of freckles who had been demonstrating some new tricks on his skateboard and took a spill down some concrete steps which left him with a broken left arm. He did not look particularly happy but he was doing as his father instructed. “Suck up the pain and be a man!” was an order yelled by his father repeatedly. His arm was set in the ER and after a few hours, he was released.

There were 3 heart attack patients and one who had COPD (a serious breathing impairment). All were stable at the moment.

One man had gotten drunk and accidentally shot the end of his finger off. He was using some foul language and had to be scolded many times by his wife and by our security.

I am sure he was in great pain, but we had children and people of all ages that did not need to hear those nasty words he was spewing out.

At about midnight we received an ambulance call saying they were 5 minutes away with an 82 year old woman who could not sleep. We all repeated, “Could not sleep!”

When she arrived, she was placed in one of our “fast track” rooms. These rooms are used to treat people who are not felt to be seriously injured and are expected to be treated and released pretty quickly.

This lady told her nurse that she insisted they bring her to the emergency room because she was afraid and could not sleep at home alone. Within 30 minutes of her arrival she was snoring so loud that we could hear her over the screams and cries of other patients and she slept for hours. My heart went out to this lonely little lady and I was actually glad that she was here, around others, peaceful, secure and resting.

I looked up moments later to see a tall scary looking young man being escorted to a room by his assigned nurse. He turned out to be the most memorable patient of this shift, for me. He was covered with tattoos. They were fully covering his arms, on his legs, neck, back, fingers and toes. He also had multiple piercings in his ears and nose. He looked like he had a significant infection on his right arm that needed attention. When Lisa entered his room with the supplies to start an IV and to draw blood for lab work, he said, “No!” She froze for a moment. Then he said, “I hate needles, please please don’t stick me”. He was not kidding, he really feared needles.

I looked at her and she looked at me, we both wanted to laugh but we thought better of it. Lisa asked him why he had so many piercings and tattoos, if he hated needles. It was obvious he had paid someone to stick needles in him many times. His reply was, “that’s different”.

The tattoo guy got an IV in each arm and he received IV antibiotics for a staph infection he had from his latest tattoo. 

This guy looked tough, scary and strong; yet he was afraid and teared up as his blood was drawn for routine testing. I will always remember his girlfriend holding his hand and patting him as she said, “It’s ok Edgar, you will be ok, calm down.” I couldn’t help but wonder if she did the same when he was getting tattooed or pierced.

People are interesting creatures. We saw pain, suffering, fear, loneliness and a huge array of emotions on every shift. 

I came to realize there are some people you can’t help but love, yet some you just can’t help.