(With apologies to Alexander)
Oy.
So, I started out today thinking, great. I've been on walk-ins all week, today should be shorter, I get to see my own patients, it should be a nice time. Here is how I expected my day to go...
-Starbucks
-Get to work around 7:30
-Lecture
-Patient 1 - difficult, probably fragile, teetering
-Patient 2 - fine but cranky
-Interview
-Conference
-Patient 3 - casual, placid, pleasant
-Patient 4 - annoying but manageable, quick
-Patient 5 - ten minutes late, enjoyable, stable
Leave by 4:30-ish. Easy, low-key, early day - woo-hoo!
Here's how my actual day turned out....
-Starbucks
-Get to work at 7:30
-Lecture
-Patient 1 - remarkably stable, doing pretty well. Yay.
-Patient 2 - sobbing, messy, suicidal. Spent half the session trying to coerce her to be admitted. Finally won...well, sort of.
-Interview - nice enough kids today.
-Conference -again, pleasant enough.
-Patient 3 - Like friggin' pulling teeth. Come on, man, you've got to work with me a little. Give me SOMEthing (I nearly fell asleep in this session. It was bad, y'all).
-Patient 4 - Oh, my freakin'...trying to break things. Needs to be admitted. Starts having chest pain. Gets a personal Dr. Kate escort to the emergency room...who, um, realized while alone in the elevator with him that she probably should've called security to do that...
-Patient 5 - fifteen minutes late, enjoyable, a little nutty
-Go back, check voice mail, hear this: "Doc, my husband left me last night, I'm completely distraught, I just don't want to live anymore!!"
-Leave at 6:45 pm. With three notes left to write when I got home.
Bleh.
In good news, though, Peng and Chef have set a date. And - I get to be in the wedding! Whee!! I'm so honored. I almost cried. Differently than all the other times I almost cried today.
Ohhhh, so glad it's finally the weekend. And it should be a nice one - busy, but nice. Tomorrow I've got a charity thing I'm working in the morning, and then Mike is having a tree trimming party in the evening. Hopefully next week will be a little calmer (but...you know....it won't).
Happy Holidays, folks. Ho freakin' ho ho.
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1 comment:
I could never do your job. I would have lost it the minute someone left me a voicemail stating they didn't want to live anymore. Does she not know that it's your job to talk her out of it? I would have probably gotten fired for saying something like, "You obviously DO want to live, because you're um, calling me."
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