Monday, December 10, 2007

Livestrong?

Banal? I guess that's a good word for it. Comically commonplace? Certainly not ironic in the classic sense. Pitiful may be the best word for it.

73 year old smoker with COPD. Came in to my ER by ambulance near intubation, huffing and puffing, and getting only a few words out. Clothes and breath reeking of cigarette smoke.

Me: "Don't talk sir, breathe... "
Patient: *squeak*

Nebs and IV started with oxygen. Full code. I go in to complete the exam and spy a little yellow latex bracelet on his wrist... right under the IV line the paramedics started... "LIVESTRONG".


(insert appropriate sentence here about Lance Armstrong, irony, 'not getting it', being pitifully unaware, magical thinking, cognitive dissonance etc...., but please, spare me the 'evil tobacco company' rhetoric)

12 comments:

  1. i dare you to replace it with a poopstrong bracelet.

    ReplyDelete
  2. i don't think he would be capable of even those quite lower and acheivable goals (but i did consider it).

    ReplyDelete
  3. So annoying. My father has COPD and will no doubt die from smoking. When do people get that the cigarette kill and the companies didn't prevent them from stopping?

    ReplyDelete
  4. The ironicity of the irony is almost too ironic. The only thing that makes these situations better is when the family arrives and says..."he's never been short of breath like this before". Once I accidently started laughing while very tired on a night shift, after hearing a comment like this. Not a guffaw, but just a little chuckle.

    ReplyDelete
  5. P.S.

    I bowled a 237 today-my high game. I owe it all to my Poopstrong bracelet.

    CAT

    ReplyDelete
  6. 'cat. be sure not to hit your wife with your bowling hand. you are on the verge of retirement from the ER merry-go-round. you need some terrible shirts... embroidered etc...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Damn. My high score of all time is 79.

    Yea.

    ReplyDelete
  8. CAT!

    howsabout one of these shirts:

    http://tinyurl.com/3bdxuk

    They's nice. Or, for Nurse K and MonkeyGirl:

    http://tinyurl.com/2ugrnb

    ReplyDelete
  9. Our EMS flew a ninety-fricking six year old from BFE for consideration of tPA for her stroke!

    Her family said "she was playing checkers when the symptoms started".

    I have strong negative feelings about tPA for "Brain Attacks" anyway, and I don't believe in punative medicine....but I almost gave this lady a dose just so she could go to that great checker board in the sky!

    Yeah, I know the waste of resources wasn't her fault....but still. Give me a break.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Aight, what's with this whole not posting thing?

    ReplyDelete

ALL SPAM AND GRATUITOUS LINK POSTINGS WILL BE IMMEDIATELY DELETED.