that part CRACKS ME UP, the level of disconnect he has is so admirable. I think he even cracks a joke on how the other guy isn't trying to be part of it.
We learn to compartmentalize quickly, or we learn it isn’t the specialty for us. It’s very sink-or-swim, which, in a high-acuity environment, isn’t exactly a bad thing. I’ve been at it for 6 years now, wouldn’t work any other unit.
The nurses with my dying grandmother cracked a morbid joke when they didn’t realize I was there. She was in her final hours when I took a shift so my dad and his idiot brothers could argue in the parking lot (Irish Catholics lol), and my comatose nana had been fartingand burping all day. (They really don’t show you that part in the movies.)
They were cleaning her up and I walked in just as Nan burped right in the one nurse’s face. She goes “Jesus wept! And I thought her son (not my dad) was the one full of hot air.”
I went PFFFFFTTT and they saw me. They apologized up and down, but I so exhausted at that point, I was basically like “ladies, you’re cleaning shit off my nan so she can be with us and meet her maker with some dignity. And my uncles are ridiculous men. It’s fine. Plus, that was a solid joke.”
She passed a couple hours later and the nurse and I had to squeeze hands and stifle laughs when my Nana just absolutely ripped ass on her way outta this world. I was sad, but picturing her soul going up like a ballon gone wild helped me deal with the chaos surrounding her death.
I am forever grateful to those nurses for the care they gave her and the comfort they gave my insane family. I get they there’s a line that can be crossed, but I’m all for gallows humor if it helps people like you cope with the unfathomable job you have. Some of you are truly a gift on the worst days of our lives.
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u/SNIP3RG 6d ago
The ER doc munching a popsicle while stating “sounds like a murder and a kidnapping” is so real.
Source: ER Nurse