If Only I had Gone to School For This, Or Something!

There has been a spate of RSV going around, lately. RSV, or Respiratory Syncytial Virus, is contagious, via airborne droplets. In small children, it can lead to hospitalize-level-illness, whereas in adults it generally causes “a cold”. The reason younger children can get so ill, is that should the virus elicit swelling of the smaller airways, children, having narrower airways, cannot tolerate as much swelling as adults and older kids, before their ability to move air is compromised. We can test for RSV in the office.

So, from time to time parents bring in their kids, reporting cough, or lack of interest in feeding, or runny nose. Occasionally such a child will test positive for RSV. Occasionally such a child has alarming vital signs. One such child arrived, and the MA truncated her intake, once she noticed retractions and diminished oxygen level in this infant. She trotted out, figuratively grabbed me, and brought me in to see the child.

I saw, myself, the retractions. Retractions occur when the effort of breathing in, is increased to the point that the skin between the ribs, or below the ribs, draws in from that effort. NOT NORMAL!

We administered a nebulizer (“mist”) treatment of a bronchodilator. Subsequently, the retractions had not particularly improved, nor did the oxygenation of this child. I directed the mother that she needed to take her child to the emergency department. She responded that her ride was not present, and there would be a delay as the ride returned.

I recommended EMS at that point. The child appeared to be stable, presently, but I was uninterested in determining how long that would take to go downhill.

The mother responded, “No, I want to wait for my ride.”

It appeared that I had not successfully identified to her the ways that significant delay could make things go horribly wrong. And, waiting for her ride promised to present a significant delay.

Mother was not impressed. Her ride (eventually!) arrived, and everybody went to emergency. Finally.

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If You Take Care Of Your People, Your People Will Take Care Of Business

A long, long time ago, in a city so very far away, I was an afternoon shift nursing house supervisor. In the course of my shifts, I would receive call offs from midnights, and attempt to discern that point at which nights would be short, and I would have to attempt to backfill their staffing.

One such evening, I had determined that nights would, indeed, be short. I started on the unit that was short, and called up. The first nurse I spoke with was the recipient of my stock spiel.

“Ms. Smith, golly, have I got an opportunity for you!”

She was amusedly skeptical. “Oh, you do? What sort of opportunity might that be, Mr. McFee?”

“Ma’am, I have the opportunity for you to make eight hours of time and a half, right this very night! What a deal!”

“What might I have to do, to earn this time and a half?”

“Why, simply keep your same assignment, and ride home in the morning glowing in the satisfaction that comes from a job well done!”

“Suppose I don’t have a ride home in the morning? I carpooled with Ms. Diaz, and she is completely uninterested in OT.”

I had an answer to that problem. “In that case, I’ll trot up there with a cab voucher for you!”

She was surprised. “Can you do that?”

“It certainly appears that I can, as I have the cab voucher right here in front of me!”

“But, I did not bring anything to eat later!”

“No problem. What would you like? We have KFC, pizza, Burger Biggie, and others not so far away.”

“But, I did not bring any money!”

“Who asked you for money? You’re working over, I will be sure that you eat, and have a way home. Any other concerns?”

“But, who is going to pay for the food?”

“Not you. Beyond that, not your problem!”

She sighed. “OK, let me call my husband. I’ll get to keep my assignment tonight?”

“Yep! I will so advise the night supervisor!”

“Thank you, Mr. McFee!”

“Ms. Smith, you are welcome. Thank you for being flexible!”

I caught up with the security supervisor, and asked him if one of his officers could make a chow run. I handed him a $20 dollar bill, asked for my change and the receipt, once Ms. Smith had her food.

The next day, I took my receipt to my boss, explained how I had negotiated coverage for night shift, and presented the receipt. She wrote out a petty cash voucher, and sent me to the cashier to get reimbursed.

Cross Country Adventure

So, TINS, I was NOT FDASL. Rather, youngest brother and I were driving a rental truck full of my mother’s earthly possessions back to The Un-Named Maternal State. She had died, and we were consolidating her possessions so as to end paying rental on a storage locker, once we had each kept a few items as keep sakes.

In any event, we had departed early in the afternoon, and therefore were NOT going to make the trip in one go. Gotta admit, the allure of driving through the night, well, had faded with the years. Neither of us were thirty, anymore.

As it started to get to about midnight, Youngest Brother had searched for, found, and reserved a room at a hotel something on the order of 1/3 of our way There. This hotel was described as “near the airport of (fairly large city)”. Now, I have flown a time or several, and have some expectation, expectation that I feel is not unreasonable, that there would be, ya know, SIGNS, announcing the presence of something as large as, oh, gosh, I don’t know, AN AIRPORT. Signs, no less, on the adjacent interstate highway.

Notwithstanding my expectations, I managed to drive a considerable distance past (fairly large city), and began to wonder out loud where the freaking airport, and, with it, our hotel, might be. Youngest Brother did a bit of internet searching, as well as phone map application searching, before he announced that I had managed to drive past it.

Score, ME!

So, we reversed course, and drove back, finally observing a sign announcing the airport, set way, way, way back off the side of the highway, obscured by shrubbery. We only saw it, because, unlighted, another vehicle’s headlights momentarily illuminated it.

I guess that these folks believe that if you do not know how to get tyhere, already, you don’t belong there in the first place!

Once we arrived, Youngest Brother entered, and registered us, obtaining a pair of key cards. We trundled our crap up the elevator, and found the room. This hotel used proximity key cards, and (I supposed) placing the key adjacent to the door locking mechanism would trigger the door to unlock, and we would stumble into sleepy time bliss.

Or not. The lock blinked a persistent red, and there was no whirring as of, say, unlocking, to be heard.

Youngest brother returned to the desk, there to explain the problem to the clerk and elicit a replacement, functioning, key card. He returned to report the following.

He told the clerk that the cards did not function at our lock.

The clerk asked him, deadpan, “Did the light turn green?”

Brother’s answer: “Nope!” (while thinking, ‘Of course it turned green, you idiot. The door popped open, and right now my brother and I are sitting on the sofa, eating our dinner!’)

I suggested an alternative answer. “Yeah, it turned green. And I looked all around, and never did see the butler who is supposed to open the door, turn down my sheets, and unpack my luggage! What sort of low rent establishment are you running here, anyhow?”

We did, in fact, receive a new set of keys, which worked.

THE WISDOM ASSOCIATED WITH HINDSIGHT!

So, the other day, My Best Man and I went to the range together. He had recently acquired a Garand that he had not yet shot, so, by way of introduction, I brought mine, along with some other guns that merited airing out. A good time was had by all, as range time = good times. “Group therapy”, so to speak.

My friend is a bit of a raconteur, so the stories never end. He told several tales regarding the CEO of his employer, and these stories revealed a soul steeped in the tradition of leading from the front, and taking care of your people = taking care of business, which equals, in our line of work, taking care of patients. Well. Taking care of them, well.

From him, with our history, these were tales of high, high praise, indeed. (He is the originator of the observation that “Little Mary Sunshine is *NOT* a force multiplier!”)

Eventually, we had shot everything that we had brought along to shoot, and noted that it had clouded up, with occasional rumbles of thunder to draw our attention. Therefore, we safed the weapons, packed up the ammunition, cased the firearms, and paraded to our vehicles.

Once everything was settled into our vehicles, well, the skies opened. We were at my conservation club range, and so I got the opportunity to exit my vehicle, unlock the gate, open the gate, exit the gate, and relock the gate. This, of course, required that I exit my nice, warm, dry truck, wade through the slough that our driveway had become (soaking my feet in the process. I *HATE* cold, wet feet!), fiddle with the lock, fiddle some more with it as I fail to correctly recall the combination, fiddle with the damned thing YET AGAIN, finally opening it. In the downpour.

As my partner exited the gate, I ran to my own truck, entered it, and realized that I had a poncho therein. I donned the poncho, and attempted to close my door.

As it developed, my truck will *NOT* exit park, and move, until the driver’s door is secured. That required me to remove the poncho from the door, and attempt, several times, to close the damned thing. Finally succeeding, I moved my truck through the gate, and re entered the cataract in order to re lock the gate.

It occurred to me, right about then, that donning my poncho (as well as, oh, I dunno, FREAKING BRINGING MY FREAKING FIRE BOOTS) might have gone a long way towards allowing me to open the gate, close the gate, lock the gate, and then return to my vehicle, without being, you might say, soaked to my damned skin.

Ah, the wisdom associated with hindsight!

Sometimes, The Pucker Could Squeeze Diamonds

So, TINS, TIWFDASL at an urgent care out in Flyover Country. It was a typical afternoon, featuring a parade of sniffles, coughs, and poison ivy. Our clinic was on the south side of the road, east of Middling Sized City, and the Big Time Big Deal Hospital And Trauma Center. In other words, to get the the BTBDHATC, one would exit our driveway, and turn west (that is, LEFT!)

Abruptly, the registrar summoned me. My MA and I walked over, to behold a limp toddler. Very Not Good!

The MA escorted the male carrying the child to an exam room, and began to collect vitals. I examined the child, discovering a heartbeat (Crom be Praised!) and spontaneous respirations. The registrar collected demographic information, and I asked the adult what had happened, prior to arrival.

“Well, he started shaking, and then he stopped. He just wouldn’t wake up, so I brought him here.”

Well, the “wouldn’t wake up” part was still descriptive of the child, and I noted that I would have to call an ambulance immediately, because this could have several causes, none of them good. Indeed, “floppy child” is right up there in my Triage Catalogue Of Very Bad Things.

The adult male paused at this. “I don’t want to send him by ambulance. I’ll take him myself!”

I was surprised. I noted, “So, you *DO* realize that several of the things that caused this, could reappear, and he could stop breathing or his heart could stop. EMS is trained and equipped to deal with those things, should they occur. You, while driving, are not, right?”

He persisted. “I’ll drive him myself”.

We directed him to go there immediately, with no delay nor detour. We explicitly directed him to exit our driveway, TURN FREAKING LEFT (that is, west), and not stop until at the ED.

He stated that he understood, and would do so.

He scooped the child up, and exited the building. I sat down to chart, as well as call BTBDHATC, in order to provide them with forewarning of the sick, sick, sick child coming their way. That is, until my registrar called me, excitedly, to report that this sunovabitch had turned EAST! (exactly away from the hospital) upon exiting our driveway.

WTAF!

I had the clerk print a face sheet, and called emergency dispatch. I related the above information to dispatch, along with my concern that a critically ill child was *NOT* being taken to the ED. I provided the street address we had received, as well as the contact information.

I next called the child protective services emergency number, to report the above. I was assigned a report number, which I charted, and my own name and contact information was taken.

Several hours later I received a telephone call, from a gentleman asserting he was from CPS. I asked him to confirm the report number, the child’s date of birth, name and address of our record. He did confirm all these details.

He queried me about the particulars of the child’s presentation. I supplied the requested information. I asked how the child was. The worker paused, and said, “Well, I am not allowed to provide information regarding an ongoing investigation, particularly one where the child in question has been hospitalized. I’m sorry. “

My response? “Yeah, it’s too bad you couldn’t tell me if the child had been hospitalized or anything. I understand. Thank you.”