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Tuesday, July 27, 2004


Letters and Drills 

I have finalized the letter I am sending to the Deputy Commissioner of the Chicago Cultural Center with regard to what happened last Tuesday and will be dropping it in the mail tomorrow.  I told him at the end that I looked forward to his timely reply within two weeks, so we'll see what happens. 

It was a very busy day today at CPE.  The morning began right off with a Code Yellow (trauma case) that I handled - it was a motor vehicle accident, but, when all is said and done, not a particulary bad one.  The fella broke his femur, which sucks but isn't life threatening.  I got to watch them put it in traction and I have decided ortho-people are some sick puppies.  (None of that has to do with the fact that an orthopedic surgeon once traumatized me by deceitfully rebreaking a finger that had been set improperly.  Nope, none at all.)  They arrive with a traction bed, or, as the other Ryan put it, the "Bed O' Pain".  Yeah, that bed, and a drill kit.  I watched and grimaced as they skillfully and deftly drilled straight through his tibia, applied a hook to the bar placed in the hole and attached it all to the bed.  The nice young lady who did this then swore to me this lessened the pain.  I looked doubtful apparently, because she went on.  As it happens, the major source of both pain and complications from this sort of fracture stem from the broken ends of the femur rubbing together - this device pulls them apart, relieving the pain.  Just ignore the fact they DRILL THROUGH YOUR LEG to accomplish this manner of pain relief!  All in all, it was a pretty neat procedure to watch and one which I now feel competent performing.  So, should any of you ever break your femur, don't bother with the ER and all those bills.  Just give me a call and I'll plug in the Black & Decker. 

Immediately following that I had a death in one of my units that was quite sad and it took a lot out of me for the rest of the day.  The late afternoon was spent with Psychology Chaplain Andy Travis (a Wake grad) who talked with us about ministering to psychiatric patients focusing mainly on depressed patients and manipulative patients.  It was pretty interesting and informative, but I'm not charging up to the psych ward anytime soon.  Especially since I learned the results of the last time I went up there:  the Bible I gave to a patient who requested it used it to beat another patient about the head.

And finally, some good news:  the Code Yellow patient from the 16th that I mentioned is on the road to recovery, which means, above all, that he lived!  Praise God!  He'll have an enormous amount of physical therapy ahead of him, as well as many other kinds of therapy, and none of it will be fun or easy, but at least he'll be alive.  I know his family is happy.  Also the Code Blue patient from yesterday survived the emergency "heart explosion repair" surgery, which was unexpected.  Whether she'll get better or not is still up in the air, but this is one step in the right direction.

-R


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