Real stories of the Branson ER

I have noticed that the patient population is a bit different up here in Branson vs Tyler ER. Yeah we used to get a crazy one every night or two at Mother Frances but this place is so much different. I would venture to say that half of my patients are crazy. By crazy, I mean what they come to the ER for is not their real problem. For instance, I had a 26 year old guy who came in because he suddenly got short of breath and he has these strange pains on his legs and arms. Well his real problem is that he shoots up meth, morphine, dilaudid, fentanyl and anything else he can get his hands on. He also had some other problems secondary to his drug abuse. I really did feel bad for this guy because he got the standard drug addict treatment: make sure nothing bad is wrong, give some fluids, kick them back out on the street. This is a guy who just has an addiction problem unfortunately. Another lady came in for an "asthma attack" that suddenly started when she went out into the heat(it is actually cold air that can trigger asthma). Well she started hyperventilating(because she was having an anxiety attack) and "rolled" her ankle getting into her car to come to the ER. She was CRAZY. I breathed on her ankle and she winced in pain. She wouldn't take a deep breath so we couldn't hear her normal breath sounds. She was whispering and panting like a dog but was not in any respiratory distress. I had a feeling she had played this game plenty before.

On a brighter node, I drained an abscess in a guys mouth and another one on another guys butt and they were both very relieved and appreciable. I performed a dental block on another guy with severe pain that was also appreciable. My favorite patients last night were a 15 year old kid with a dislocated shoulder and another guy with an irregular heart beat we call Afib. I helped reduce the kids dislocated shoulder which he was very thankful for and I shocked the other guys heart back into a normal rhythm and he said he didn't feel a thing(because we doped him up).

So all in all, the good overcomes the bad and it is all about having the right attitude toward everyone no matter what there underlying problem is. On that note, I am going to take today off and spend a little time with my wonderful family. I can't wait until our trip back to Texas next week for a little R&R.