Wednesday, June 19, 2002

Well, today was rough. We had a staff meeting that crunched into our patient care time, but all the things said in the meeting were pertinant. So, it was a catch-22.
I got really scared today. Mr. T was a patient admitted from the ER last night. He was in a back brace because some of his vertebrae were missing. Also, if you touched him on his back just so, it could cause paralysis, or worse. Anyway, he was lying flat on his back, in a lot of pain because he had metastasis to his bones, which can be excrutiating. Anyway, he also had gastroesphageal reflux disease (GERD), which is really bad indigestion...it is a bugger however, because it can produce symptoms that can look like a heart attack. To make a long story short, this guy gave me such a scare I set up an EKG and called the doctor in a panic...imagining the worst, I thought we'd have to send Mr. T to one of two places...the ICU or the morgue. But it turned out all he needed was some Maalox, a bit of TLC and some pain medicine, and he was as good as new.

But I remember also how concerned I was that he might have also aspirated something. Aspiration occurs when something goes wrong in the throat, and something that was supposed to go to the stomach ends up in the lungs. This can be very dangerous and sometimes life-threatening...it killed Led Zepplin guitarist John Bonham. And it happened to my grandfather when he was hospitalized after his open heart surgery, so it is something to which I am very sensitive.

Well, on a more upbeat note, Father John led a weekday Mass this morning for the first time in 7 weeks. The Better Half said it was packed.

Also tonight, the most notorious episode of South Park. My guess is that it is going to be the pilot episode. First, it started it all, and has a concept of Cartman having something shoved up his butt. In fact, the episode is entitled, Cartman Gets An Anal Probe. We shall see.

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