Tonight is the first of six which will end this month in the TICU for me. Agon (an Albanian-Canadian who is a second year prelim) is scheduled for the same six nights. Between our last row of six nights together, he had four days off and I was scheduled for three day shifts. He tries not to feel too guilty about his good luck, and I... well, I try not to make him feel too guilty about it either. ;) I did have last night off, so I just contented myself with having a nice evening off. It was a Jane Eyre kind of night. I tell ya... lunatics, attempted murder, revenge, heartbreak all topped off with a happy ending...well done Charlotte Bronte, well done!
We've recently had a string of admits to the Trauma ICU of individuals having gotten themselves inebriated past the point of typical mental impairment arriving at the edge of loss of any cognitive ability. You can take an easy guess as to what their combativeness and disregard for any and all caution for their own safety buys them... rapid sequence intubation and a tube down their throat. Then as a package deal, their intubation buys them admission into the TICU. Prior to their arrival to us they are pan-scanned to determine extent of actual injuries. While we wait for all of their images to be finalized we keep them status quo. And then once their scans prove to be negative as long as they continue to fight we keep them chemically chilled-out. Not until they can prove cognitive awareness and control (usually shown by following simple commands, 'show me two fingers,' ' give me a thumbs up,' 'wiggle your toes,' etc.) will we consider removing the tube from their throat. This makes me marvel at just how expensive a hangover can be. A night in the ICU alone roughly $4,000. And God forbid, should cars be involved, how can you put a price on a life? Am I allowed to hate something? Because strongly dislike just isn't enough for how I feel about alcohol.
Much Love.
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