"When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold on to them. They are the life boats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely illusive. So the question becomes, or should have been all a long... What would you do if you knew you only had one day, or one week, or one month to live. What life boat would you grab on to? What secret would you tell? What band would you see? What person would you declare your love to? What wish would you fulfill? What exotic locale would you fly to for coffee? What book would you write?"


Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Thank You Dr. Improv....

So the other day I go into see my patient. I'm assessing him, being that it's the beginning of my shift. I noticed the surgeon had just left the room but I was tied up with another patient and didn't get to talk to him.

So I notice on my patients bed sheet above his leg area, it's bright red.

Obviously, being that we're in a hospital, I'm a nurse- this is my patient ...my first thought is somehow my patient is bleeding profusely...from his....thigh area...

Noticing my sudden concern regarding the bright red marks on the sheet, the patient laughs.


I have a raised, expectant eyebrow expression- like this- ^_^ (sort of).

Patient: "oh don't worry. Dr. Improv did that."

Me: (again) ^_^....... "um....can I...see what happened...?"

Patient: "what do you mean?"

Me: "the blood? On your sheet."

Patient: "oh! No. That's marker. Dr. Improv was drawing pictures for me about the surgery hes doing on me tomorrow. See, this is my stomach, those are...the intestines...I think...that's the duodenum there..."


Me: "well, this is a first."



Reason # 37291 why I don't advise using red markers to draw pictures on your patients bed sheets.



*sigh*

-WNB




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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

And I'll bet the doctor didn't have to pay to replace the sheets, did he?

A Writer in a Nurse's Body said...

I bet he doesn't even know where we keep the sheets!