So here's my call story for the evening...it's been a rough day, actually; we've been crazy busy and I got a whole pile of bullshit consults, including one on OB to evaluate a woman for postpartum psychosis, which it turned out she did not have an in fact her only problem was that she was KOREAN and thus spoke KOREAN. Not English. So, you know, they didn't explain anything to her and then decided she was freaking out and psychotic when she was running around with blood on her arm (she pulled out her IV) babbling in...wait for it...Korean. I also had a patient try to leave the hospital (he almost made it) when I came by to tell him that I was trying NOT to commit him.
But anyway.
So, Guido, my intern, and I decide we're hungry and we're going to order dinner. And there's this great service around here that, you order online from one of like twenty restaurants in the area, and they pick it up and bring it to you. For a fee, of course, but you can pay with your hospital meal credit that we get for taking call and let me tell you, it rocks. Okay. So Guido and I order around 7. Usually it takes around an hour, so when dinner wasn't here by 8:30 I called them. And the kid that answered was like, wow, yeah, sorry, we're really backed up tonight, some stuff happened, lemme call the driver, blah, blah, blah. So she shows up about half an hour later, looking frazzled, and we tip her in quarters (neither of us had real cash, but, college kids like quarters, right?) and get our dinner and we are happy campers. Well, at least we've stopped being hungry.
But shortly after that, I get called to evaluate this college kid in the ER, right, who's complaining of "confusion" (as I was telling the kids story to my attending, he stops me and says, "Wait. She's a pothead, right? She sounds like a pothead." That...well, really says it all). And it turns out that what prompted this kid to come in was, she went to work tonight - guess where - and "kind of forgot I was supposed to be at work." Which ultimately translated into this: she went to pick up an order, then promptly went home and ate it. Her boyfriend walks into the kitchen and is like, wait, why are you home, and what are you eating?
Fortunately, it turns out that it wasn't, in fact, our dinner that she was eating.
Sweet kid. Really delightful family. Needs to cut back on the weed.....
4 comments:
So sad about the Korean lady. That will be on her record forever now. BTW, my word verification is roula, lol
Nah. Fortunately, what's on her record forever is my consult note saying, "We recommend being more culturally sensitive, you morons."
Okay, so the pothead story totally made me laugh. I probably shouldn't admit that but...well, hey, it's FUNNY.
When my mom had me, she was in an American hospital in Stuttgart and she had this Hungarian nurse who was sent to tell her that I had been born with my foot pressed up against my shin. By the time my dad got there for visiting hours, my mom was hysterical, thinking she'd given birth so some hideously deformed child. Not so much cultural sensitivity or even well, translation available back them either.
LilaHi Kate, I just found your blog. I'm also in medical training, and was looking for blogs written by other trainees. I'm considering writing one, and have a lot of questions about the practicalities (confidentiality, for starters). Then, as I was looking through your blog, I saw an uncany number of similarities in our lives. Would love to talk off-line. Please e-mail me if interested in talking further - DrLilaT at gmail.com . No facebook or myspace account.
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