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It's past two in the morning and the emergency room is starting to quiet down for the night. The rush seems to be over. Thank goodness, because my feet ache and I need to sit down for a while.
"We just need some stitches done, a small wound. The guy is waiting in room three. I gave him a sedative because he was really worked up about something that I didn't understand because his speech wasn't exactly clear. I think he's taken meth. From what I could get out of him. Either way, whatever uppers he took, he took a lot of them. I'd give him another five to calm down a bit before I go in there with a needle."
Sarah leans over the nurses' counter to hand me his medical folder. I sigh. One more idiot to take care of.
"No problem, I'll sort it out," I say, taking the folder from Nurse Sarah who has been on duty with me since eight o'clock.
We've both been at it nonstop for the past few hours. She looks as tired as I am.
It's always midnight when the real chaos starts. Usually, it's a lot worse on the weekends than on weeknights, but tonight those drunken idiots obviously had some extra reason to drink more. Maybe there was a game on that I didn't know about. Who knows.
Usually, as nurses in the emergency room, we make it our business to know when things are happening in the world so that we can prepare for the inevitable outcome of those things.
I've been distracted lately though.
Tonight, I've dealt with two stabbings, one broken bottle wound, a concussion from drunken driving, an overdose that required a stomach pumping, and a broken arm.
The other nurse on duty has mostly taken care of the late-night sick kids, tummy bugs, high fevers, and that sort of thing, only helping with the drama when I was too swamped.
We take it in turns to deal with the shit show on the night shift and it was my turn this evening. She has helped a lot though, when I didn't have enough hands or time to get through the mess.
Looking down at the folder in my hands I read through the patient's file for a moment or two, taking my time, letting those sedatives do their work.
I was busy with the broken arm case when he came in, so Sarah did the prep work for me.
I glance at my watch; it's been ten minutes since she dosed him. That should be enough time.
I head over to the supplies cabinet and get what I need to stitch up his wound. A gash on his shoulder. Jagged and deep. Probably another broken bottle and a disagreement over something stupid. It's always something stupid at the end of the day.
When I have all the things I need on the stainless steel tray I head through to room three.
"Hello. I'm Nurse Amelia. I heard you have a bit of a cut that needs stitching." I say as friendly and warm as I can.
"Fucking cunt." The guy mumbles.
"Who?" I tilt my head.
"The mother fucker who thought he could take me down. He doesn't know who I am. He doesn't know who he's messing with."
"I see."
His speech is almost inaudible, slow, and slurred. But the sedative is definitely working. The usually fast, jittery speech of someone on meth has settled down. His words are angry, but he doesn't have the energy to really do anything about his mood.
"Can I ask you to roll onto your side? I want to take the bandage off and clean it up before we stitch it."
"Umph."
I push him gently until he rolls over.
Nurse Sarah had already cleaned the wound when she bandaged it, but I could see she was struggling with him, and I'll need to clean it again, which is no problem.
I pull the bandage off slowly and start cleaning the gash on his shoulder.
He hasn't spoken again and when I lean over I see his eyes are closed. Thank goodness. I wasn't in the mood for another difficult patient. I've had enough of those tonight.
Even though he is asleep I inject a local anesthetic and then get to work with the stitches.
I'm brilliant with sutures. I take pride in my work because a good suture means almost no scar and better healing. Of course, I can't control if this idiot leaves here, gets into another fight, and rips his stitches open. That's on him.
