Thanksgiving Leftovers
I did the good and thoughtful thing this Thanksgiving.... I went in early for a friend. She was having 15 people at her house and needed a little extra time. So I had breakfast with mom and my sisters, watched the parade (didn't know half of the people in it.... God, I'm getting old), took a short nap and went to work. The trauma room had been empty all day. There were 2 turkeys on rotisserie in the back, and enough sides and dessert to feed a small army. This was just the day shift!
About an hour in I got the call. Helicopter outbound on a GSW. Fan-freakin-tastic. 61 year old decided to show the kids and grandkids the old WWII era gun he bought. In his turkey-laced state he dropped said (loaded) weapon and it went off... right into his belly. He was rock stable for the flight crew. No issues... until he hit the roof and was loaded in the elevator. He puked turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, greens and probably some pie ALL OVER the elevator. He then arrived in the trauma room and crapped out his bp. He stayed awake the whole time, but looked like complete shit. 1 unit of blood and we had him rocking to the OR.
I made my way back down thinking I have now done my 2 good deeds for the holiday and gearing up for the night shift showing of the Thanksgiving feast. Yeah.... the trauma light was on when I got back. 20 year old, 36 weeks pregnant, no seatbelt, head vs windshield in MVC. Ugh. She was stable, very sweet girl. L&D and the OB attending came down to check her out. They put her on the toco monitor and guess what? Yup, fucking contractions. Regular, with a decent fetal heartbeat. CT for a head and c-spine and then to labor and delivery for monitoring and ultimately, delivery, of a healthy baby boy.
I made it back down for yet another red light special. This one was unrestrained, rollover, who also puked her dinner.... every-fucking-where. It was pretty damn gross.
This trend continued through the night. All night long. Almost every hour, on the hour, I got a trauma. I managed to get some turkey in the wee hours of the morning... or little pieces that I was able to load onto a tostito's scoop and cram in my mouth in CT. No stuffing, no green bean casserole and sadly, no pumpkin pie for me this year. After 14 hours of this I was exhausted. I couldn't think, I could barely walk. The world was talking about Black Friday and all I wanted was my bed and electric blanket.
The complaint of the night that made it all worthwhile....
My foot hurts, I dropped the frozen turkey on it yesterday and I think its broken.
Well, why didn't you come in sooner?
I had to cook the turkey first
Omaa.......
About an hour in I got the call. Helicopter outbound on a GSW. Fan-freakin-tastic. 61 year old decided to show the kids and grandkids the old WWII era gun he bought. In his turkey-laced state he dropped said (loaded) weapon and it went off... right into his belly. He was rock stable for the flight crew. No issues... until he hit the roof and was loaded in the elevator. He puked turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, greens and probably some pie ALL OVER the elevator. He then arrived in the trauma room and crapped out his bp. He stayed awake the whole time, but looked like complete shit. 1 unit of blood and we had him rocking to the OR.
I made my way back down thinking I have now done my 2 good deeds for the holiday and gearing up for the night shift showing of the Thanksgiving feast. Yeah.... the trauma light was on when I got back. 20 year old, 36 weeks pregnant, no seatbelt, head vs windshield in MVC. Ugh. She was stable, very sweet girl. L&D and the OB attending came down to check her out. They put her on the toco monitor and guess what? Yup, fucking contractions. Regular, with a decent fetal heartbeat. CT for a head and c-spine and then to labor and delivery for monitoring and ultimately, delivery, of a healthy baby boy.
I made it back down for yet another red light special. This one was unrestrained, rollover, who also puked her dinner.... every-fucking-where. It was pretty damn gross.
This trend continued through the night. All night long. Almost every hour, on the hour, I got a trauma. I managed to get some turkey in the wee hours of the morning... or little pieces that I was able to load onto a tostito's scoop and cram in my mouth in CT. No stuffing, no green bean casserole and sadly, no pumpkin pie for me this year. After 14 hours of this I was exhausted. I couldn't think, I could barely walk. The world was talking about Black Friday and all I wanted was my bed and electric blanket.
The complaint of the night that made it all worthwhile....
My foot hurts, I dropped the frozen turkey on it yesterday and I think its broken.
Well, why didn't you come in sooner?
I had to cook the turkey first
Omaa.......
posted by jeepgirl at 09:23
2 Comments:
Thanksgiving was always the busiest day/night of the year when I was in LE. Family, whose members HATED each other, would get together (for the sake of whatevah) and after some liquid libation the fights would start. Not unusual to handle 20 or calls like this throughout the PM shift, as a one man unit. The worst one was rolling up on the incident and finding over 30 people involved in brawls on the front lawn, in the house and in the back yard. Got a lot of "stick time" in before my back-up arrived some 25 minutes later.
Yup, Thanksgivings were never dull. ;)
Wow, sounds like a lot of family drama in the ED for the holidays. Sorry it wasn't the best of Thanksgivings.
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