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Ellie is a bright and bubbly, yet dedicated new nurse in the Emergency Department at Chicago Medical Institute. Dr. Harry Styles, meticulous, hardworking, and driven, is the head of the department. Ellie's little q...
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My next shift was more manageable than the last. I had made a point to eat something substantial before I got started. I also left a large bottle of water at my station so that I could take a swig every time I sat down to take notes or make phone calls.
One of my patients, by the name of Midge, was a mystery case. A twenty-two-year-old woman who had been suffering from fever, chills, fatigue, body aches and a headache for weeks now. She'd also been having occasional joint pain, but she was very active, so joint pain didn't seem consistent with her lifestyle. I could tell she normally had a light in her eyes, but it looked faded with her current ordeal. She had been lying in the bed for several hours since her condition was chronic and not life-threatening. A spike in her fever had prompted a friend to bring her to the ED. Unfortunately, the doctors still couldn't find any cause for the symptoms, so they were about to discharge her with a referral to an infectious disease specialist.
The second patient I saw was pretty gruesome, a teenager participating in a championship track and field meet had somehow gotten a javelin right through his thigh. The ends of the javelin had been cut off, but the doctors still hadn't removed the piece through his leg. I kept my eyes off the injury while I went through the standard vitals check and questions for the whimpering teen and his father. He was begging for pain medication, so I promised to check on that right away. I mean, honestly, why hadn't they doped him up in the ambulance already? Finally, I inspected the injury, which wasn't as shocking as I expected, yet still quite ghastly. It was helpful that I had prepared myself in advance to take a look at the thing. Another solid tip from nursing school - always prepare yourself for the worst and you'll do much better in almost any situation.
I left the room and sent a quick message to Dr. Styles asking about pain medication for the poor kid.
My remaining patients were more common cases, a kid with a broken arm, a middle-aged man with chest pain, another kid with a marble up his nose, a baby with a raging fever, and an elderly woman who had fallen and likely broken her hip.
All seven of my rooms were full, but I was on my game. I felt good about keeping on top of it all during this shift and I was sure I wouldn't be fainting on any patients.
I made the rounds, took the vitals, checked on any news in the chart from the doctor, got the elderly woman ready for x-ray, and assisted while the teenager got the javelin removed from his thigh after they determined it hadn't nicked his femoral artery. It wasn't pretty, but thankfully he had some pain medication in his system by that point and I gave him another dose as soon as the javelin was removed. The doctors were still determining whether he would need surgery, so that wound wasn't stitched just yet, but they dressed it and the bleeding was stopped, so he was now resting comfortably in his morphine-induced haze.
When I checked on Midge, the patient with the unexplained fever, she was understandably frustrated because Dr. Styles was ready to discharge her with no diagnosis and no treatment. Her elfin features were crumpled into a frown. I felt for her, but that was the nature of medicine. Despite the most cutting-edge technology and advances in knowledge, sometimes illnesses still remained a mystery.
