dwf
10:33:22 PM    Comments?()  

It's been almost 21 years since I started working in emergency deparments. There's been a lot more boredom and a hell of a lot less sex than TV might lead you to believe. There have also been new communication skills.

No, I mean, what happened to you? "I fell out." What did you fall out of? With a look of inebriated disbelief - "I didn't fall outa nothin'. I just fell out." Yeah? What happened? "Look, doctor, nurse, whatever - all I know is, I was walkin' down the street and the next thing I know, I'm laying on the ground, people standing over me and shit, saying I fell out so I musta fell out! Shit!" The light slowly dawns . . . Ah, you passed out. "That's what I tol' you!" So I learned a little more about what it means to get burned.

"I took a fall." "My baby is weaseling" "I got contraptions" "My pocketbook hurts" "I've got ferocious of the liver."

Triage one summer night, about ten and the place is full up with crying babies and gunshots. Up to the window comes one young man dragging along his friend. "Hey! He got burnt."(me) "yeah? Where?" "On his thang (penis)!" "Christ, bring him around h - - -, wait a minute! (to the patient) "Are you having a drip? (Sexually transmitted disease, or DID, meaning 'Dick in Distress') "yeah," he says. "Go sit down and I'll probably call you later," says I.

There's a lot of ways to say it and, after awhile, it becomes second nature to ask "Did you fall out?"
9:02:36 PM    Comments?()