A Normal Day In Bedlam
Monday The RRR struggled to his feet with the alarm and began the painful stretching to try to overcome the heel pain that has been plaguing him. With Mrs. RRR’s input it was decided to wear the Dr. Scholls’ tennis shoes with the new gel insoles from Wally World and also rub with the sample analgesic cream Biofreeze from the chiropractor. The foot immediately felt better. I was able to walk from the parking lot into the county hospital almost without limping.
False dawn was well underway and the birds working on singing when I walked Bay-Toe-Ven before beginning the drive. On the way in to the Big City the sun rose straight behind the car, glowing through the haze and cloud cover and turning the whole sky red.
How do I describe a shift on an acute psych floor in a county hospital? Bedlam is too easy. (Bedlam from the cockney pronunciation of Bethlehem, the first psychiatric hospital in England and describing the sound and atmosphere there.) The RRR had six patients. A meth addict, a heroin addict, a grossly obese schizo-affective, an unmedicated paranoid schizophrenic, a fairly well medicated one, and a "depressed" schizo-affective who had feigned a suicide attempt in order to get attention and a vacation from his group home. The latter was discharged back to the streets and a new elderly behavior disorder admitted. There were crisis’ requiring medical intervention, and physical intervention. There was teaching and confrontation. Frustration, anger, tears, and mounds of paperwork. Frenzied rushes to the pharmacy, negotiations with pharmacists, physicians, outpatient clinics, the local methadone clinic, and irate visitors. There were escorts of patients to clinics accompanied by the police. In all… an average day. But the heel pain was greatly decreased.
Then two thermoses of Colombian Supremo at QT to share with Mrs. RRR and the trip home.
I repeat… an average day. A wonderful tuna salad sandwich on the world’s best homemade bread. Large curd cottage cheese – you can’t get too much large curd cottage cheese, devotions and the puttering about that makes a household, sleeping on the futon in front of the fireplace.
God bless us, every one.
False dawn was well underway and the birds working on singing when I walked Bay-Toe-Ven before beginning the drive. On the way in to the Big City the sun rose straight behind the car, glowing through the haze and cloud cover and turning the whole sky red.
How do I describe a shift on an acute psych floor in a county hospital? Bedlam is too easy. (Bedlam from the cockney pronunciation of Bethlehem, the first psychiatric hospital in England and describing the sound and atmosphere there.) The RRR had six patients. A meth addict, a heroin addict, a grossly obese schizo-affective, an unmedicated paranoid schizophrenic, a fairly well medicated one, and a "depressed" schizo-affective who had feigned a suicide attempt in order to get attention and a vacation from his group home. The latter was discharged back to the streets and a new elderly behavior disorder admitted. There were crisis’ requiring medical intervention, and physical intervention. There was teaching and confrontation. Frustration, anger, tears, and mounds of paperwork. Frenzied rushes to the pharmacy, negotiations with pharmacists, physicians, outpatient clinics, the local methadone clinic, and irate visitors. There were escorts of patients to clinics accompanied by the police. In all… an average day. But the heel pain was greatly decreased.
Then two thermoses of Colombian Supremo at QT to share with Mrs. RRR and the trip home.
I repeat… an average day. A wonderful tuna salad sandwich on the world’s best homemade bread. Large curd cottage cheese – you can’t get too much large curd cottage cheese, devotions and the puttering about that makes a household, sleeping on the futon in front of the fireplace.
God bless us, every one.
posted by Shamgar | 6:26 AM
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