scrub-chafe

Moments I will cherish from the Peterborough ER (in 2013) -

1. Man with epistaxis (massive nosebleed) requires packing to stop the flow. "Which side did it start on?" "The left." I then proceed to meticulously and painfully pack his right nostril. After some time he clears his throat and asked, "Are you going to do the other one now?" Oops. And yes.

2. Older man brought in by paramedics. Found in bathroom with no pulse, no vital signs. They had done CPR for an hour before he arrived with us. He was, in short, very unofficially dead. I, being team leader, have to run the code. I intubate him and then immediately declare him officially dead. My staff asks me "why tube?" Answer: Um...cos he was there??

3. Stab wound to L chest causing pneumothorax. Inserting chest tube, hearing that beautiful rush of air and hearing the patient say, "Oh...that's better".

Moments I will not cherish from Peterborough the town (in 2013) -

1. Discovering that when they say, "Let your car warm up before you drive it", they mean it. Did you know your brake pedal can freeze in place?

2. Trying to find one of 30 recommended breakfast joints in P'bo's famous "cafe district". They all close between Christmas and New Years. The only open cafe stopped serving breakfast "Oh...just....now." (watching the clock tick over to 11am). They deigned to serve me their leftover oatmeal. Plain. No milk. No sugar. Tepid.

3. Coming home starving from said breakfast debacle and desperately looking for food in the apartment. Other residents have lefts bits and pieces behind. Finding a tin of "fish-bites" - herring fillets in hot sauce. Eating said herring fillets. Spilling the hot sauce on my pants and the floor. Coming home to an apartment that smells entirely of herring.

Roses and thorns, really.

I'm working NYE until 1am. Am planning to scout out a party hat and some snacks for the shift.

Would really like to come home and chug champagne, but fear that that will somehow lead to further herring-related incidents.

Worse. Could eat the pop-tarts. They expired Jan 2013, but how bad could they be?