it seems like lately at work, i've been surrounded by more death and dismemberment than i am comfortable with. every time i go down to the cafeteria for lunch, just minding my own business, trying to get a sandwich, there are undertakers in black suits in the morgue hallway, transferring a bagged body onto a gurney.
why you ask is the morgue near the cafeteria? i think it has something to do with refrigeration.
heh....bleh.
it puts me off my feed, but it also is a painful reminder of the gravity of the work that we do. even though all lives will ultimately end in death, and we know this...i can't help but feel a little bit like we failed that one who's being wheeled away, since one of our core tasks as health care providers is, you know, making people stay alive.
most of my days involve elective surgery for hernias or gall bladders...or even for more harrowing things like breast or colon cancer...still, typically, our patients are fairly well when we get to them, and most of them go home at the end of their hospital stay without major problems.
but this week, i had to help amputate a foot for gas gangrene. the patient will hopefully survive, since we got to him soon enough (barely), but part of him will be sent to the morgue.
if you have a clearly infected limb (discolored, bad smell, redness/blackness, hot/cold to touch, non-healing sore, fever) GO TO THE ER. DO NOT WAIT.
i don't want any part of you to be sent down to that cold hallway near where i make my salads.
right then. so we've agreed on that.
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when I read your posts, I'm usually making weird noises and awful sounds. there are no words.
i've been telling chris he really needs to take care of that appendage!
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