I woke up fighting back tears of exhaustion as my phone began to blare its ugly ringtone. It feels like I went to bed only a couple hours ago. I look at the clock on my nightstand, checking the time before answering the call. To my surprise its 9:00 a.m, so I actually hadn't gotten a very horrible night of sleep.
"This is Dr. Anderson," I say fighting the sleepiness from my voice.
"Hey Faye, sorry to bother you, it's Colton." He says, with a hint of panic in his voice, which suddenly has me up in my bed, forgetting about the exhaustion.
"What's up?" I say, trying to keep the worry from my own voice.
"I feel really bad calling you, but we really need your help. Callie is in a severe amount of pain, to the point where she can barely talk or keep any food down. We keep trying to get doctors in here, but the nurses just keep saying they'll be here soon and we shouldn't worry. They said it's normal for after surgery, but god Faye she's in so much pain, and nobody is giving me any fucking answers or help when I ask!" He finishes his statement yelling, at about 10 times more volume than when he started.
"Colton I'm on my way, tell your parents and Callie I'm coming. Do you know if they have her on any pain medicine now? The orthopedic team should have prescribed some after the surgery." I ask, pissed and confused.
A horrible common theme I've found in the medical field since I was a medical student is that no doctors know how to do any proper pain control. Ever since the government started cracking down on hospitals because of the opioid epidemic, a lot of doctors blow off pain control all together, telling many of their patients just to suck it up, or they only try one pain medicine on the patient, even though not all people react the same to different pain medications. In reality, all that does is hurt the patient. There's actually sound research that states that patients heal slower when their pain isn't controlled because it causes the body more stress.
"God Faye I have no idea, please hurry. I'm doing everything I can to keep my brother from strangling the nurse. To be honest I'm to the point of letting him, she's the most unsympathetic and unhelpful person I've met in my entire life."
I probably would have laughed at the thought of a guy who just got a dislocated arm put back into place strangling another person if the situation weren't so serious. If Callie is in as much pain as Colton described, it could be putting some serious stress on the baby.
"Okay just hang on, please don't let your brother do anything. I'll be there in twenty," I say quickly before hanging up, feeling pure anger course through my veins.
After quickly racing into my closet to put on scrubs and my converse without caring how I look, I frantically search my house for my keys, fighting back the nausea that had decided to suddenly grace me with its presence.
I almost cried in relief when my eyes landed on my keys, covered up by my purse on the counter. When I finally make my way to my car I have to do everything in my power to stop the bile from coming up my throat, resulting in me spewing my guts in front of my neighbors drinking their morning coffee on the porch. I give them a quick waving before speeding off in the direction of the hospital. When I finally arrive, I race out of my car and into the hospital, jamming the elevator button as if it's going to magically make things move faster.
After what feels like an eternity, I finally arrive on the surgery recovery floor, stopping quickly at a computer to find what room the Kings are in. When I finally make my way to the room, I almost have a heart attack at the pain Callie looks to be in. I barely give Colton and his family a second glance before I'm at her bedside checking over her and the baby's vitals.
I can feel my heart drop into my stomach as I realize how high her blood pressure is just from pain alone. I can feel myself fully enter attending doctor bitch mode as I get ready to take out every ounce of anger I have on this incompetent nurse. I push the emergency call button, one step below a code before I get onto the computer in the hospital room, ordering pain medication strong enough to help Callie quickly, but safe for the baby. A good minute goes by before I'm tempted to push the code button just to get at least one other fucking human being in here. Before I can get that far, a male nurse rushes in looking like he's about hit the floor from exhaustion.
"If that's all it took to get a different nurse in here I would have done that ages ago," I vaguely hear from the corner of the room.
"I'm going to need you to get one more set of hands in here," I say quickly. "Her blood pressure has spiked because no one was controlling her pain, and it could be causing duress to the baby. I need you to go find another nurse, doctor, medical student, I don't care. Just someone who can find me a fetal heart rate monitor, which should have been on her to start with. I then need you, and I mean you, to run to the drug station and get this prescription IV, drip form," I say showing the wide-eyed nurse the order on my computer. He quickly rushes out, mumbling a yes ma'am before I turn my attention back to Callie.
Her eyes are badly bloodshot from what looks like hours of crying, and I can tell she's trying not to scream. I quickly grab her hand in mine.
"Everything is going to be okay, I promise you won't be in any pain in the next five minutes, this stuff works fast." She nods, squeezing my hand tightly before letting go.
I move my way to her abdomen, pressing and trying to feel if anything is wrong. I can feel the baby moving, which is a good sign, and Callie doesn't give me any indication that my pressure is causing any more pain than she's already in.
The male nurse from before rushes his way into the room, both with the monitor and the medication.
"I thought I told you to get more hands," I say, grabbing the drip from the man and quickly setting it up to deliver into Callie's bloodstream as he works quickly to set up the monitor on her protruding belly.
"I couldn't find anyone who I could trust to do it, and I knew I could do them bother faster myself." He says out of breath.
I simply nod, believing he's probably the only competent person on this floor right now as I move to check the monitor. My shoulders sag in relief as the monitor shows a steady fetal heart rate. Moments later Callie's body begins to relax as the medication begins working, and her blood pressure begins to steadily fall. In no time she's out, and I'm thankful she isn't feeling the pain anymore. When I'm sure Callie and the baby are stable, I turn to the nurse, trying to make sure none of my anger about the situation is going to be taken out on him.
"I promise you I'm not angry at you, but I'm livid at the situation this patient was in when I got here. I wasn't even supposed to work today and I had to come in. Where is her nurse, as a matter of fact where are all the other nurses that are supposed to be working on this floor? The patient's family told me she had been like this for over an hour and her nurse did nothing to help!" By the end of my spiel I'm yelling, and I'm pretty sure my face is red.
"I'm sorry ma'am. This floor has been a disaster for weeks, I was supposed to go home last night. They hired a bunch of new nurses to cover shifts, and I thought things would get better but they just got worse. None of them are competent enough to even put in an IV, let alone deal with high stress situations."
I can feel my fists clench at my sides as I try to calm myself before I go screaming down the floor to the nurse's station. Don't get me wrong, nurses are real life superwomen and supermen, but there is no reason Callie or her family should have been in that position. I would be just as pissed if another doctor had left her in this position. As doctors and nurses, we're supposed to work as a team, trusting each other to take care of patients. When one group isn't a team player the patients suffer, and it can create extremely dangerous situations.
"Did anyone even page Dr. Meyer? He's on call this weekend, and the King family told Callie's nurse she needed help an hour ago and, then nothing was ever done."
"I'm not sure Dr. Anderson, I've been on the other side of the floor taking care of other patients. I came in here when you pushed the alert button."
I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose and signaling for the poor nurse to follow me out into the hall. The King family don't need to hear anymore of this than they already have.
"I'm sorry, whats your name? Thank you so much for helping me even thought I'm sure you've got tons of other patients."
"Its no problem at all Dr. Anderson, it's what I'm here for. I'm Dylan."
"I wish we would have met under different circumstances, you seem like a really good nurse. Do you know who the nurse assigned to her room is? It wasn't even on the board in her room so rounding teams can know who it is and ask questions."
"When I walked by earlier I saw one of the new nurses in there, I think her name is Mallory. I haven't interacted with her other than a quick introduction."
"Okay thank you, do you know who the charge nurse is today?"
Dylan gulps before answering me, "There isn't one today, not that I've seen."
Oh. My. God. I don't even know who to report this to or call at this point. This is a disgusting situation I've walked in on and I don't even know what to do. I gulp before trying to form a sentence to say to Dylan, but I'm so dumbfounded I can't think of anything to say.
"I know, it's bad. I don't even know who to call, especially on a weekend."
"You know what Dylan, I want you to go home, I'm going to figure this out. Could you tell me where you last saw Mrs. King's nurse?"
"I last saw her in the nurses' lounge, but with all do respect Dr. Anderson theres about 4 nurses on this floor including me who actually know what they're doing so I would rather stay and help until I know good reinforcements are coming."
I nod in understanding before giving him my phone number for emergencies and heading towards the nurses lounge. Luckily I catch the door as another nurse comes out, looking a bit frazzled with half a piece of toast hanging out of her mouth. The hospital has it set where doctors can't open the nurses' lounge doors and vice versa, so who knows how long I would have been stuck waiting for someone to come out.
When I enter the lounge I have half the mind to lose my shit and start screaming. In the room sits about 10 nurses, one even filing her nails while the others either watch television or eat.
"Is Mallory in here?" I say firmly.
I hear a couple "oo's" and it almost feels like I'm back in the 8th grade when a student gets called down to the principal's office. I give sharp looks to those making sound effects before whom I presume to be Mallory saunters toward me.
"I thought this was a nurses only lounge?" She says to me when she finally gets a comfortable distance away.
I blow past her comment, not even wasting my breath on her childish statement. "Can you tell me why Callie King had a BP of 166/105 and why her family told me she had been like that for an hour even when they asked you multiple times for help!?"
I end my question with my voice raised, and the entire lounge goes silent, except for tv playing in the background. Mallory seems unfazed as she answers.
"I paged the doctor, and I never heard back. I'm still waiting to hear back."
"THAT IS NOT AN EXCUSE." I yell, watching a couple of nurses jolt, before a few get up and leave. The only ones left seem to be the newly hired young ones.
"IF A PAGE ISN'T ANSWERED YOU CHECK THAT YOU DID IT PROPERLY AND DO IT OVER AND OVER AGAIN. IF THAT DOESN'T WORK YOU FIND SOMEONE WHO CAN FIND THAT DOCTOR OR YOU FIND A DOCTOR BUT YOU NEVER LEAVE A PATIENT UNATTENDED IN THAT STATE!"
When I'm finished Mallory looks at the ground and I can't believe she has the audacity to look guilty. She's been to nursing school, she had to of known what she did was wrong.
"In my defense ma'am, we were told these positions were temporary and didn't matter, and we are just here until we get our preferred placements. The woman at the nursing school told us we didn't even have to try, and that the nurses who work on this floor would just take care of everything, we're just warm bodies."
I stay silent for a moment, trying to think of what to say instead of calling all of these "temporary" nurses imbeciles. "Patient lives are on the line, and you chose to stand back and let the rest of the floor nurses get overwhelmed. I spoke to a nurse who is 12 hours over what his shift is supposed to be, and you should be disgusted with yourselves. This may be a temporary position until you get where you want to be, but the days still go on, and patients still need cared for so I suggest you go do your jobs, and I hope for my patients' sakes none of you want to be placed in this hospital."
More of the nurses get up to leave and I end my spiel with, "And Mallory, I would suggest finding other patients to make yourself busy with because I want you nowhere near the King family." She simply nods and heads out the door.
Before I head to the King room I make a mental note to report what I found occurring on this floor before finding Dylan, who is indeed still here.
"Hey Dylan, would you mind putting someone you trust on the King room? I really do want you to go home, and I had a chat with some of the nurses and I think things are about to get better."
"Thank you so much Dr. Anderson. I'll stay a little bit longer to make sure things are running smooth and then I'll get someone else responsible on the King room."
"Thank you Dylan, I hope you sleep well after this." He smiles before I head into the King room.
"I'm so sorry this happened, I promise it will get taken care of today. This medicine will last about six hours before she needs another dose. I've already order a lesser dose so she'll be able to remain awake during the next one and get some food. I'm putting someone I trust on the room so there should be no problems."
Mrs. King stands up immediately, pulling me into a hug similar to last night. I hug her back before pulling away and introducing myself to Callie's husband properly. He pulls me into a hug too, thanking me for helping his wife. I can see Colton stiffen in the background, but I don't think anything of it.
After I pull away I sway on my feet for a moment, feeling exhausted, dehydrated, and starved. Colton seems to notice and studies me , but I shake off the feeling of illness.
"Alrighty, I'm going to head home again. Same as before, you have my number. Please call if something seems out of the ordinary, but we shouldn't have any more problems. I also want to encourage all of you to get sleep as well. I know you're worried, but making yourselves sick with exhaustion won't do anything to help her." They all nod, promising to go home and get some sleep.
I say my goodbyes again before leaving the hospital room with a sigh of relief. I barely make it a few rooms down before I hear Colton calling after me. "Faye, wait!"
I take a deep breath and turn around as my ears ring, making me more dizzy than I had been before.
"Hey Faye are you okay, you look a little pale and disoriented."
"Yeah, I think I'm just really dehydrated and I haven't eaten today, and I also haven't sleeping well." I say kicking myself for not taking better care of myself, especially with the baby. I'm my own worst nightmare as a patient.
Colton helps me sit down in a lobby outside of the recovery floor before he runs off. I barely notice as I try to keep myself awake and calm myself down from the events over the last hour. When Colton returns he has a candy bar and water in hand. I quickly gulp down the water as he rubs my back before taking a couple bites of the chocolate. When I'm finished I clear my throat.
"Thank you, sometimes I get so busy caring for other people I forget to take care of myself."
He nods and smiles gently.
"If you'll let me, I'd like to take you home. I don't want you driving when you don't feel well."
Everything in me wants to tell him I'll be fine, but I don't want to chance it. For the first time in forever its not just me I have to worry about. I nod in agreement before Colton helps me stand up and leads me to his car. We make small talk along the way, mostly me talking about my favorite parts of the hospital to go and destress and take time for myself. When we finally arrive at his car I find it to be different from the night we met. It's a nice Jaguar and I can't keep myself from wondering what Colton does for a living.
"Alright Faye, let's get you home and get you some real food and sleep." I chuckle as he takes off out of the parking garage, and as we leave my car behind.