Rant Slashed for a cigarette!

the hot nurse cliche is a major myth! there maybe one or two but i have had my fair share of hospital visits (which by the way, Nexxo, waiting times are a lot shorter at eight or nine in the morning, I was in and out in 1hr and 20 this morning and my record is just over an hour for a broken arm) but as for your hot nurse Phaedron, I'm jealous. Any chance you could have got a sponge bath for the stitches?

 

<professional curiosity>

Do they triage patients at A&E or is it a first come first served system like in Canada?

</professional curiosity>

As someone who spends a lot of time taking people in and out of ERs, let me assure you that there is a spectrum from good to awful. Somthing else I've noticed is that appearence is not always a good determiner. A lot of times the bright, sparkley, designer hospitals are filled with doctors who can't handle anything more complicated than a broken leg, bit on the other hand out regional level 1 trauma center is dim and a bit run down, with stacks of backboards outside the door, but offers the best care in the state.

 

i spent 2 1/2 days in a hospital once. had one nurse who was good looking. She was on the night shift. I was blitzed out on Demoral, Demeral... some pain killer the entire time i was there. I woke up once to find her over me trying to wake me up because the iv had stopped and she had to put it in another spot. 5 holes later she gave up on my left hand and went to work on the right, 3 holes later she went and got someone else to do it. You know what really hurts? the needle for the iv wasn't metal, i'm nto sure what material it was, but it wasn't strong, and when she put it in the 2nd time in my right hand, the needle bent after it was inside the vein and hit the side wall. that hurt. even with the pain killers.

some more highlights from that trip, waking up to find 15 doctors (it was a group of new people with one experinced doctor) standing around me, waking up to find a priest standing above me, waking up when someone wanted to take a blood sample from me, then falling asleep while she was doing it, and then having her wake me up again because i wasn't allowed to fall asleep.
and the last highlight of my trip, seeing a nurse(or whoever it was) take my temp and then go running to find another nurse to tell her how high my temperature was. and then hearing the other nurse respond by saying "oh, thats normal for him".
lol.

where do you live that they treat people on a first come first served basis? I haven't been in many hospitals but i have never heard of that?

 

Oh, you're one of those people

Some people just have no veins. We hate them. You also have to be careful pulling the IV catheter out because the end can break off and cause no end of problems if it goes wandering merrily through your bloodstream. Things like that tend to fially get stuck in the lungs and cause a pulmonary embolism.

Yeah, it's always a good idea to do a reality check on vital signs. There is a "normal range", but that doesn't mean it's normal for every patient. I remember a couple calls where we had a student medic and they're getting all freaked out over a patient's behavior and we're trying to explain to the student that no, this is normal for this patient.

I live in the US but occasionally transport patients to or from Vancouver BC hospitals. Up there if you walk into the ER you get seen in the order you arrive and so people can and do die in the waiting room before being seen. A lot of people want to blame this on the government run health care, but I think it was just a bad policy decision. (Vancouver General is probably the worst for this)

Down here walk-in patients are triaged on arrival and assigned an acuity rating, then are seen by the doctor on the basis of that. They now also have added an urgent care clinic within the ER for low acuity patients so they're not waiting for hours while the more serious patients are seen.

 

thats the thing though, my veins are huge. Its no problem to find one and when I go and give blood I usually hear comments like "oh good, an easy one"

I wonder if that may just be a BC thing, I have waited a long time in hospitals before in halifax. watching people with more serious problems get in before me. i've only been to the hopsital twice since i got to alberta and it didn't seam like it was a first come first serve basis either.
I dont think the people in Nova Scotia would tolerate someone dieing in a hospital becuase they didn't get seen in time. someone would take a real beating from the general population if that happened.

 

the problem with triage is that sometimes you get a low risk tag, wait 3 hours and then start feeling sick, you go to the doctors and they say "wait for your turn", you wait until you faint and die, they call you and pass to the next person when you don't answer..... the rest is obvious. Another problem with this is the "cunha" problem were a friend or family member or a known figure has very high priority with a small scratch and you, with an open leg, have less priority than him, and then you die of tuberculoses..... ow and of course, if you have been on a bike accident you get less priority, even if it was not your fault, even with high priority you still have to wait for about 1 hour while the doctors pick their noses and watch porn..... /rant

 

you never fail to make me chuckle

 

the thing about the hot nurse thing, is that you think you are on your death bed, you see a half decent nurse come in and it's like "...um nurse, im gonna die, gimmie something good before i go.... let me go with a smile on my face..."
The perceived level of attractiveness is directly proportional to the percieved level of one's health status, so if you think you are really stuffed than an old nurse looks like a supermodel!

 

Yeah, that and all the tasty morphine...

 

Damn, well luckily he didn't seriously hurt you/kill you. It happens a lot, and is easy to do with a knife, I know it sounds so wrong to say, but count yourself lucky I guess.

 

Doing it yourself doesn't look too bad. Bent sewing needle, snub nosed pliers, bottle of vodka and a reel of fishing line should do the trick.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=hV9MJ6_e4s4

 

WTF it's already got stitches.

Sorry to hear about your run in with the scruffs dude

 

Been there and done that a few too many times. I don't miss it at all.

 

glad you're ok

 

meh in my hometown a 15 year old guy was at his brothers 18th and some guy asked him for a *** the 15 year old refused then the guy got a set of nunchucks out of his bag and hit him over the head 9 times put him in a coma then when he was in hospital he died from brain damage and a heart attack! the things some people do for a *** is ****ing ridiculous!!!

but yer at least youre ok!

 

If someone did that to me and i got the advantage and took them down - I probably would have beat the living daylights out of them.
Your a much better person than I could be il say that. I probably would have stolen their belongings too out of anger. Pulling out a knife is just..."ok all bets are off" - Life or death situation and im not giving mine up without teaching them a lesson.

Im not a good person i know

Id never steal, ever but if someone like that attempts to take my life, then id take them for everything - My way of teaching them a lesson.

Im glad your well and werent seriously injured.

 

Then really what makes you better than him?

 

What you just said does not make you a bad person, in my eyes it makes you a decent human being, with a lot more people around like you, assholes like the guy who slashed the OP would think again of whiping the knife out. If someone slashed me, I would make them unconscious if I had the chance to do so. And I'd also steal their wallet and phone if they have one.

Anyone who attacks someone for no purpose what so ever has no rights in my eyes, if you kill someone in self defence, no charge should be brought up, at all.

 

Just shows there are complete nutters out there, good that your ok though mate.

 

Try living in the US ha.....

glad you got out with only a cut