Spider Bites and Head Lice and Diarrhea, oh my!

You would think that Super Bowl Sunday after 1600 hours would be slow in the ED.

After a sort of slow day in triage and spending some time restocking stuff that hadn't been replaced since the Reagan administration, I wandered back to the main to hang out and goof off a bit, something that never happens in the suck-you-dry-and- write-you-up ED. Mid laugh, the charge tells me that the medic called and said that 6 adults from a group home had just checked in with n/v/d. I laughed, right, that's hysterical. I turned around and glanced at the tracker and yep, there were 6 new names up on the board each with a number next to them 1/6, 2/6 etc. Me and the other triage nurse get to work getting them triaged and back to the fast track area that has 10 beds in little cubes all next to each other. I actually felt bad for the fast track nurses for a minute.

The sixer done, I take a minute to run to the potty and when I return the medic tells me that he put 2 kids in my room with head lice. I peek in and sure 'nuff, there's 2 pre-teens sitting in there with long bushy hair, one of them in my chair. It wasn't that big of a deal, but when the mom pulled out a ziploc baggie with lice she'd captured I was like what the hell is wrong with people?

Topping off the day was Spider Bite boy. He couldn't even walk, his knee was so red and swollen. So were both his thighs. He proudly showed me all the "bites" like they were badges of honor. Yeah, dude, you're more than likely going to get a work note.

Finally, it's 1855 and in comes a guy in his mid 60's complaining of vomiting x 1 with weakness. I wheel him in and get a set of vitals which suck. His color isn't too great, either. He's there less than 30 seconds and comments that he'd feel better if his indigestion would just go away. Crap. Why didn't you say so? I call to the back for a bed and tell them I'm coming now. We get an EKG and he's having a STEMI.

Guess who didn't get home in time for Big Love?