Silvy
It is my last week of work before I go on maternity leave. And tonight is my last evening shift. I get out of here before ten tonight and I am thrilled. I’m so tired of these nights in the ER. I swear that is when all the crazies come out. My boss told me when I come back from leave I get to go back to working in the ICU. I am beyond happy about that. I was not built for working in the ER. I have serious respect for the nurses that do but they can have it. The number of drug seekers seemed to have increased and it is bothering me. I have two weeks until my due date and can’t move very fast. If things get violent there is no way I could get out of the way quickly. And we went from having one or two seekers a week to three and four. That is just my shift. There is no telling how many of the seekers the other shifts are getting.
With the help of the club and Bradford, there are a few more safety measures in place. For hostile repeat offenders, we discretely take a photo of them and keep them in a file that we have shared with Bradford. Bradford even had a volunteer off-duty cop stationed on each shift to help out our in-house security. I still have my shadow as a guard, Meathead. He stays out of my way so I can work unencumbered while keeping an eagle eye on me. I told him several times he could just sit at the nurse's desk and I would yell if I needed him. You would have thought I told him she didn’t believe he could take care of her. Turns out he was more worried about Goof and Tank. When he was given this job they told him if one hair on my head was harmed, Meathead’s full patch would be at stake.
I will not be responsible for that man’s patch just because I was being a little stubborn about his hovering. And he didn’t hover. Except when it came to dinner. That is on me because I make sure to pack enough for both of us. Or Goof when he packs my meal. Meathead eats at the table with me and we talk. We have become good friends. Not as good as Goof and me even before I approached him about having a baby, but he is definitely in the top five. Meathead just helped me put our dinner away and now we are at the nurse's station. I am. Meathead is in his normal spot leaning against the corner of the wall. The nurses that are fixing to get off duty wave and say “ Hi.” to him before we get to work. Most everyone is used to seeing him around by now and doesn’t even blink when he is here. Not bad since the guy is six foot two, tattooed, wore his kutte with pride, and could be intimidating if you didn’t know him.
I went with Rachel, the nurse I was relieving, so she could show me her patients. The first one is a seven-month pregnant woman. “ This is Meranda. She hit her forehead on her kitchen cabinet. She is all stitched up but her blood pressure was a little high the last two times we took it so doc said he wanted to check it one more time before we sent her home. She is due for another check-in in twenty minutes. Check it then tell Doc to see what he wants to do.” Rachel told me. Elevated blood pressure isn’t always an issue or something we deal with. We just advise them to follow up with their doctor. But a woman this advanced in her pregnancy could be a sign of a more serious problem. It is better to play on the safe side of things.
We went through her other two patients. One was waiting on their x-ray report and the other was waiting to be admitted. I could handle that. I went back to the desk as the girls left. I was stuck with Megan again. Thank heavens this is my last night shift. Since the night I had an issue she hasn’t left me alone much. Or she still went off to fuck any man under the age of fifty. She just made sure I had Meathead or Bull with me. Wasn’t that nice of her? Note major sarcasm. The night was fairly slow up until dinner. After dinner is when all hell broke loose. We had a three-car accident with injuries varying from minor to serious. It is a blessing everyone is going to survive and recover. An exploding barbeque grill because when the guy ran out of lighter fluid he thought gasoline was a good substitute. He suffered burns to his arms and chest. Because adding gas wasn’t bad enough he was grilling shirtless.
Then there was the drunk who decided to crush a beer can on his forehead. It would have been fine had the can not ripped open and cut up his forehead. Some cuts were so deep they required stitches. There was the unfortunate pinata accident where a man got hit in the ribs with the metal bat they used to break it open. Cracked a rib and gave him a nasty bruise. The little kid that accidentally hit him was upset that he hit his uncle. The uncle was great about it and called the kid down saying he didn't blame that he should have moved out of the way of a blindfolded kid with a bat. Then there was the seven-year-old that decided to shive a marker up his nose. My last patient of the night set off alarms in my head. It was a woman with a boyfriend hovering over her. Both had bad teeth and bloodshot eyes. They were dirty and had an odd odor coming off of them.
I had seen the man several times before. He is on the drug seekers list. The woman had a fractured wrist. The story they told us didn't match the injury. Any time one of us would enter the room the woman would scream and whine about her wrist as soon as we left she would quiet down and talk to her boyfriend. I gave her a mild pain reliever, stronger than an ibuprofen but not a narcotic. I told her it was a heavy narcotic and she calmed down right away. It made it easier for me when I went to put a cast on her wrist. The entire time I was working with her I had Meathead close. No more than five feet away. I pulled him in closer to me when they first came in. I even had him alert the off-duty officer just in case. We made sure to put other patients away from them for safety purposes. We don't know what these two are capable of if they get agitated. It takes me twenty minutes to wrap from her hand to just above her wrist in a temporary cast. She will need to see an orthopedist to have a permanent one put on. It would normally only take ten minutes. The girl was over dramatic and whined the entire time.
I finish her up and tell them to sit tight so I can get her release papers. I already had the doctor sign the woman's prescription, a mild pain reliever and the rest of the papers should be on the printer waiting for me to. I had everything in place so I can get them out of there fast. I get a tightness in my stomach. Almost like a cramp. It lasts less than a minute and then goes away. Probably the stress from dealing with the couple. I grab everything I need and go back into the room. As soon as I walk in something feels off. I hand the papers over after a quick explanation. " We aren't leaving until we get the good drugs. We want real painkillers." the girl says then pulls a knife from her back. Where did she get that?