Mr. Personality

Mr. Personality should never have come to our floor with such a minor injury. It was just a little cut on his finger that needed suturing. But surgery was delayed and the pre-op holding area needed to close, so he was brought to us to wait.

Mr. Personality arrived on a gurney and the transporter asked him if he could walk. He didn't understand the question, so I said that he could walk, it's just a finger. Flying into a rage, his face all contorted, he yelled, it's not just a finger, I've been waiting here for 12 hours and haven't eaten all day. The tirade continued, but I wandered off and missed the rest.

I tried to ignore him during the rest of the wait, but every time he wanted to complain some more, he would walk out of the room and find me. (It's at times like that when I hate ambulatory patients.) He wanted to know things like if his money wasn't as good as other people's money and he kept threatening to walk out if the surgeon didn't get to him now. (I would have been more than happy to call him a cab.)

This kind of problem can usually be solved with drugs, but none were ordered and pain wasn't an issue. Since I couldn't drug him into submission, I tried to reason with him. I would have had better luck reasoning with a one year old.

I did keep having a happy thought that kept a smile on my face. At least I'm not married to him or anyone like him. (Mr. Personality was not the name I actually used for him. I don't use that kind of language in my blog.)