Vomit happens. At least in my job.

A lovely woman vomited on me a few days ago after her hip operation. The event itself wasn't so terrible; the spew missed my eyes, nose, and mouth and I got to strut around the Recovery Room in my black tank top looking like 'Nurse Abby' on "ER". Nor is the event unusual. Post Anesthesia Care Units across the land feature a host of patients clinging to the stretcher rails retching, regurgitating, and hurling. We nurses hand out the anti-nausea drugs like New York City traffic cops dispense parking tickets. The lady had blown chunks after I gave her a medication to stop her severe shivering(an occasional side effect of anesthesia), plus once she disgorged her stomach of the offending coffee and curdled milk, she felt much better. Still, I squirted the serum of no heaving directly into her intravenous line. Her husband arrived, the first thing she said was, "I threw up?" Never mind the comfort she felt now that the violent shaking had ceased. This got me thinking about society. Human beings refuse to focus on the positive. And then I thought about instant gratification, pleasure, and restless leg syndrome.
As I charted the episode in my nurses' notes I thought about my thirteen-year career and all the times I've given a medication to ease an unpleasant feeling. Of those incidences, how many were really necessary or did I do it simply because we could. I cannot predict the future but my nurse instincts, honed from twenty-thousand plus hours of human observation, tell me the lady above would not have puked again. Yet, we reassure. We can fix anything and we can always make you feel better. Not so. My colleague's patient in the next bed vomited for hours and each time her nurse dutifully called the doctor, who ordered a different medication. We both knew the up-chucking was something the lady would have to deal with for the night. We called because most members of society place great faith in medicine. Defeat is not an option for either party.
A month ago I came down with a low fever and decreased appetite while visiting my cousins in Montreal. I don't often get sick but when I do, I retreat to the sofa with a bottle of Sprite. Wrapped up in blankets, I shiver and shake until sleep and the sprite works it's healing power. My cousin said I was silly for refusing to take Tylenol or Motrin; I countered by stating, "There is a reason for the fever, my body is fighting something." The end result: having taken the Motrin, I sweat the fever down, then slept the bug out. I felt fine in the morning. Had I not taken the pill, would I have had the same result? Judging from past experiences, yes. This anecdote highlights a typical western attitude toward illness, "if you feel bad take a pill." Get the instant gratification, so one does not have to deal with discomfort. Every one I know, for the most part, thinks the same way. I'm not saying that the Motrin harmed me in anyway, however, it was and often times is, unnecessary, as are many of the pills we take today.
On one of the rare nights in which I had a moment to watch television I saw a pharmaceutical commercial for Restless Leg Syndrome. What? McFly? I just read the link I provided from Web MD and according the symptoms, I have restless leg syndrome. I fidget too. Yes for some it's severe then they should already be at the doctor.
Pill commercials on TV freak me out. Too much information.
In my local bookstore, I read the back of a book blaming the Pharmaceutical industry for making people sicker. The author claimed to have a quote in which the head of a major pharmacy company stated the following paraphrase: by the twenty-first century he wanted seventy percent of the population using one or more daily medication. Wow, I'm so happy those for-profit health care companies want to make society healthy. Can you imagine the sales meetings- "Let's go out there, do a great job, and make people beg their doc for our horse pill. One, two, three, break! Go Pill Popping." Or the montly board meeting-"Profits are down this quarter, Can we put something in the water?" In my experience, one pill begets two, two begets four and so on. That's not health care. Why the government wont mandate pill makers to become not for-profit boggles my mind, but my distaste for that branch of my industry is another blog. Stay tuned.
And have any of you checked out Web MD, my goodness there are making a world of hypochondriacs. A symptom checker?-did I miss the bus? Next time I have a twitch in my toe, or a pimple I'm gonna surf on over there and find out I have an incurable disease. My point in this tangential rant is to draw attention to the way we view ourselves in general. No matter how you believe our physical body came to be, it's a sublime design intended to balance and moderate itself without intervention. Medical people call this homeostasis and when sickness comes we should support this amazing vessel, not fight it. Vomit happens, we'll live.

Many thanks to Merriam Webster ,without their online thesurus, I could never have come up with the many synonyms and euphemisms for ralphing and 'riding the porcelain bus'.





5 comments:

Milo said...

Heather,

First off, you are an angel for all you do and endure in your job. I've seen you in action and you must know that you can go home after each shift and know you've made children (and parents) feel better.

Second, my wife has Restless Leg Syndrome, and as the recipient of semi-nightly mid-REM kicks and toenail scratches, I can tell you it's no fun. But alas, the kicker with whom I share a bed has no problem sleeping through her viscious deliveries, and undoubtedly has accepted her "malady" as a subconscious excuse to put her husband in his place for however he has annoyed her on any given day.

Matt Blitz

Anonymous said...

Infatuation casinos? repair more than this environmental [url=http://www.realcazinoz.com]casino[/url] steer and confine a impale up online casino games like slots, blackjack, roulette, baccarat and more at www.realcazinoz.com .
you can also stab into our up to appendage [url=http://freecasinogames2010.webs.com]casino[/url] orientate at http://freecasinogames2010.webs.com and sketch high-priority incredibly misled !
another obscure [url=http://www.ttittancasino.com]casino spiele[/url] locality is www.ttittancasino.com , in behalf of the fringe benefits of german gamblers, congeries up manumitted online casino bonus.

Anonymous said...

good morning ppl. I'm actually into shoes and I was digging for that exact brand. The prices as regards the boots were approximately 350 pounds on every site. But for all I base this location selling them for half price. I in reality want those [url=http://www.shoesempire.com]prada sneakers[/url]. I will definetly purchase them. what do you think?

Anonymous said...

It isn't hard at all to start making money online in the underground world of [URL=http://www.www.blackhatmoneymaker.com]blackhat make money[/URL], It's not a big surprise if you have no clue about blackhat marketing. Blackhat marketing uses alternative or little-understood avenues to generate an income online.

Anonymous said...

t's such a great site. fanciful, extraordinarily interesting!!!

-------

[url=http://oponymozgowe.pl]Opony[/url]
[url=http://pozycjonowanie.lagata.pl]Pozycjonowanie[/url]

[url=http://www.szacowny.pl/zdrowie,i,uroda/opony,s,2719/]opony[/url]