5812 - Friday ER visit and other stuff

As most people know (or don't) Claudia has Parkinson's. She's been throwing up recently and not eating much. Our PCP said he can't see anything obvious and if it continues we should see a GI doctor. On Thursday I was trying to decide how to pick a GI doctor that knew about Parkinson's. I finally decided to take her to the ER because it will probably be impossible to get into a GI doctor very quickly.

The ER did lots of blood tests and a CT scan. Results? "Nothing we can see." A mild UTI was it. So we got some antibiotics. Not much has changed. Today is going to be a call to her Parkinson's doctor for a GI doc suggestion and an appointment as soon as possible. Wish me luck on that one. The best medical system in the world? HA!

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While at the ER I was talking to the nurse and the good old days came back to mind. 55 years ago I worked one summer as an orderly at a hospital where my mother worked. 

The first week was my training week. During that week they told me to go up to room ***. I was going to escort a guy with the ambulance driver, 70-year-old Gene, to another hospital for a brain scan. When I got to the room I noticed the door was a heavier wooden door with a small window in it. I looked in the window and saw six nurses and doctors unstrapping (heavy leather straps) a guy from the bed. I went into the room and stood at the foot of the bed.

"Once the guy was unstrapped he raised up, looked at me, and said, "Are you my new doctor?" My answer, "Yes I am!" 

The trip was uneventful. The patient did everything the "new doctor" wanted him to do.

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After my week of training, I was put on the 11pm to 7am shift. There were 4 patient floors. I can't remember exactly how many rooms were on each floor. I guessing somewhere between 30 to 40, most of them double rooms. A main hall and two wings.  From 11pm until about 5am when more people started showing up for that day's work, there were 8 staff, 7 nurses and me. 2 nurses per floor except for the floor I was on where it was one nurse and me. 

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One night I get a call from the head night nurse. She said she heard some noises in the basement over the intercom. So she says let's go see what's going on. So I put on my security hat and down to the basement the two of us went. My only positive thought about going down there that time was I was pretty sure I could outrun her if I had to.

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But I did go down to the basement by myself quite a few times for the 12 weeks of summer I worked. Because that's where the morgue was. If someone died on any floor, I got to prepare the body and then take the body down to the morgue. Typically 2 to 3 patients a week died. 

This was a railroad hospital so most of the patients were old male railroad workers. If a female died, the nurse would prepare the body, then escort me down to the morgue because you know, necrophilia. Although one time the nurse escort wasn't around so I just took the body down by myself. The nurses were beside themselves, HA!

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What was the "fun" part of the job? In the morning I got to give the enemas for the rectal surgeries that morning. I saw a lot of assholes that summer.