(The world is too ugly for my drawings today.)STRANGE DAY
Crazy.
I normally hate writing about current events in my journal. For lots of reasons. Mostly because they bore me or that talking about them would be redundant. You can check the news sites or other journals for that.
Obviously, today is different. For today, I have two reasons to talk about today's events. Two very opposite reasons to remember this day for the rest of my life. One public and one very personal.
I heard about the planes crashing into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon at about 10:05 a.m. Just as I was meeting my team in my office for morning rounds. The senior resident filled me in,
"Everyone's watching the TVs. It happened at nine this morning."
We then proceeded through our shock to concentrate on the old man with newly confirmed lung cancer, and the drug addict who was found "wandering" in the medical supplies room with his friend, among other patients. Business as usual.
Still, once rounds were over and the comeradie was split up, it was a little difficult to concentrate.
Every patient waiting room and conference room had family members or hospital personnel watching the news.
I caught bits of news stories in each patient's room as well.
And loads of strangeness, as usual.
People jumping out of buildings. The birth of a new period in American history.
I talked to Amy about the events around 12:30 p.m.
"Everyone is going crazy around here," she said in her usual calm voice from her nursing office.
She told me something else too, right after that. Something sweet that changed my whole outlook on the world and my life as I knew it. Something that made me see her in an even more wonderful light than I could imagine. Even despite the day's insanity.
Pentagon burning. Smoke and debris everywhere.
"I talked to the lab about that positive tuberculosis RNA test our shelter patient got in '99. It was not ordered by a doctor at the Empire. This doesn't make a lot of sense," the resident informed me.
"The patient's a lousy historian. He doesn't remember if he was treated for TB or even what hospitals he's been at," the student said.
"This is the same guy who's been coughing on us everyday, right?" I asked, leaning back and rolling my eyes.
"Yeah."
Twin Towers collapsed.
Then, outside of the next patient's room, the nurse with pharyngitis pulled me aside.
NURSE FARRAH JITUS : "You know that rash that started on Mr. Booties' foot this morning? Now it's on both feet and spreading up both calves."
Inside, I looked at Mr. Booties' legs and determined it was probably not infectious related (i.e. "flesh eating bacteria," or Neisserial rash, etc.). But it was still weird as hell. He gave me another clue.
MR. BOOTIES : "... one other thing. It didn't seem to get worse until I put those hospital socks back on."
Outside, I told the nurse,
ME : "Benadryl. Steroids. Hold the socks."
But I called Dr. Skin to see him today, just in case.
No previous intelligence.
Missiles in Afghanistan.
My final patient was on a ventilator in the ICU. She had a HUGE mass half the size of her face bulging out of her neck. She was a lucky old woman in that she survived a CPR at home (despite no detectable pulse) and still had her mental faculties intact. As for why her heart stopped and why we were having a hard time getting her off the ventilator, this was still unclear.
ME : "So how's Mrs. Elephanthead?"
STUDENT : "Well, she still refuses to have her parotid mass worked up."
ME : "Any new thoughts on why she isn't coming off the ventilator?"
STUDENT : "I talked to the ICU resident, and well, no."
ME : "What did Cards (cardiology) say about her pulseless activity in the CPR?"
STUDENT : "Her rhythm has been normal since admission. They say maybe the parotid mass compressed her carotid baroreceptors and stopped her heart before the CPR. Again, her rhythm has been normal since admission and there's no sign of compression on the C.T. (cat scan)."
ME : "So ... they don't know what's going on either."
STUDENT : "Haha ... uh, no. She, um, never wanted to be intubated and yet they intubated her when EMS found her. Does that happen often?"
ME : "Well, often enough. Anytime it's unclear or if they don't care to ask, they'll always intubate first, ask questions later. You can always take the tube out if they are alive. You can't put it in when they are dead."
Fighting between Arab and non-Arab students at university in Detroit (Wayne State Univ.).
Gas station prices jacked up more than 30 cents in the past two hours.
Paged at home by a colleague, Dr. Fuzzyhead.
FUZZYHEAD : "Hey Scott, I've got a problem. I have to take my brother to Philadelphia tomorrow to take the boards, but all the flights are canceled! And all the greyhound buses are off the road too! I think I'll have to drive all night."
ME : "Yeah, it's been pretty crazy today. I heard about all that on the news. I can cover for your morning shift, but you might want to ask the police if there's any problems with crossing borders first. I mean, the entire country is in a state of alert right now."
FUZZYHEAD : "Yeah, this is unbelievable."
ME : "You'd better be careful Fuzzy. There are a lot of crazy people out there. People who might cause trouble just because you are middle-eastern, you know?"
FUZZYHEAD : "I know. A pregnant middle eastern woman and her baby were killed after that Waco thing when it first happened. I told my wife to stay home when that happened. Hahaha!"
ME (not laughing) : "Dude, I do NOT think today is the best day to take a road trip. Just be extra careful if you really have to drive tonight. Seriously, I don't think it's safe ... for you."
FUZZYHEAD : "Yeah, thanks. I'll call someone tomorrow morning if I'll be late. Thanks Scott."
Blood donors wanted. Just not today (the lines are too long).
When I got home, I watched the news with Amy. I can't imagine what kind of chaos is going on in New York right now. Or Washington. Even the President is scared to go back there or sit still it seems. It's a bit numbing but we already know that.
The southeastern Michigan area has the second largest Arab population in the country. Their stores and shops sit side by side with the Indian and Asian shops in our area as well. I fear the reaction they might get from ignorant persons. Even the local radio shock jocks are urging peace among ALL Michiganders.
The radio also said there was some talk of shipping patients to hospitals in other states including Detroit possibly (that seems kind of far to me). The news said that all hospitals in the Detroit area were on full alert. I'm on call tonight anyways. But fine, bring them if need be.
At least in their poor cases, we'll know what happened. That's often times, the hardest part.
Free Candy and Dancing in Palestinian Streets
What a strange strange day in the real world, I guess.
How do parents explain days like this to their children?
I suppose I'll have a dozen years or so to figure that one out.
That can't be long enough.
