Today was pretty interesting. I think I had a case of turrets, there were so many aggravating things. The first was my patient, Jorge. This poor kid is 19, Marine and was a photographer. Why you ask was he in our ICU? He was there becasue while performing his non-combat duty, he stepped on an IED. He lost both his legs, four fingers on the left and mangled the right. He has a good chunk taken out of his butt and has an open belly wound. This kid is not your typical "warrior". He was taking pictures. I did reassure him of a few things; 1) he could still take pictures and 2) his butt was still cute enough to attract a nice young lady and 3) he still had his penis. I think that's important for these guys, they can still function sexually.
I remember when I had my tubes tied, I felt like my femininty was gone. It was a terrible feeling and I mourned the loss of not being able to have children (yes, Konner came afterward but at the time I had no idea that could happen).
I felt so much annoyance with everything today, especially with the contractor that I admitted. Yes, he was admitted to the ICU for "asthma exacerbation". He WALKED into the ER, yet was admitted to us. He had no drips to include IV fluids, only that he could have an inhaler treatment every 4 hours if needed. What a joke! Then when I asked him about his asthma, he said he had it in Balad, went home and then came to Afghanistan. What, did he think the air here is any better for him!! I am so tired of these contractors who are not healthy enough to be in this kind of environment coming here with their chronic illness and taking up valuable resources. We've had too many lately and if their companies were held accountable for sending these chornically diseased people into this environment, maybe they would screen them a little more closely. But we can hold people accountable, we just need to not have enough for our folks who are actually fighting here and require care.
I hope my turrets is cured tomorrow, but I'll go to the gym in the morning and work out some of this anger on the weights and machine.
I have a Muslim friend that claims Israel is ruining the entire world. They are killing "her people." When I hear about these poor young kids stepping on IEDs, placed there by Muslim extremists, I want to yell at her, "What are YOUR people doing to the rest of the world?!?!?!" I really do like the lady. She is a "Conservative" Muslim. Sunni, not Shiite, but still. Don't make claims against a certain group when "your" group is murdering innocent people DAILY! Ok, enough out of me on that point.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about the contractors. They have tons more benefits than and because of our soldiers, yet they have no hoops to jump through as far as screening goes. So backwards!