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Misadventurous Melissa

Everyday is an adventure, or misadventure as the case may be. It is the latter that makes for the best stories, inspiring the name of my blog. I'm a nurse and an attorney (and way too silly sometimes). I am retired now. WELCOME to my blog! This is a work of fiction inspired by true events. The patients I refer to are a patchwork quilt of various patient's problems mixed together. If you think you recognize someone, you are wrong. These people do not really exist.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Mystic Nurse



Patrick D. Colwell RN asked me to review his book, Mystic Nurse: Four Years in the ER. If you enjoy nursing stories, and I do, this is a good book for you. During the week I was reading it, I was suffering from sleep deprivation. Normally, I read before going to sleep, but this book kept me awake. I couldn't put it down.

Patrick is an entertaining writer. The chapter involving embarrassing reasons for coming to the ER was my favorite. One story involved the aftermath of sex between a woman, a man and a camp stove. The group problem solving session and multiple attempts at extracting the penis from the camp stove was especially funny. This book isn't for the faint-hearted.

I got the book from Amazon. Buy it and enjoy.

Written by Melissa on 1:43 PM


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2 Comments:

At 6/23/2007 06:08:00 PM, Blogger Marc said...

Hi Melissa.

As a nurse, do you have to deal with death on a regular basis?

I was having a conversation with a neighbor the other day wondering what happens to doctors/nurses who have to deal with these things on a day to day basis.

As in, do they tend to hold life in higher regard? Do they tend to become more jaded towards life/death and the value of human life?

Obviously, one would certainly have to try to distance themselves from too much emotional involvement with patients dying, but how would ones view of life and death change as a result?

Sorry, I know that was sort of off topic, but was curious about your views/experience regarding that.

Marc

 
At 6/23/2007 06:37:00 PM, Blogger Melissa said...

Marc, I rarely deal with death. I work on an orthopedic surgical floor where people rarely die. That's the way I like it.

Sometimes we get overflow from other units and so will get stuck with someone we are waiting to die. By the time we get them, they are usually semi-comatose, very old, sick and almost like an empty shell.

It is almost a relief when they die because that puts an end to their suffering. Under those circumstances it is easy to be philosophical and not be overly effected by the deaths.

I'm still haunted by a few deaths where I'm not sure it was their time. Those are the hard ones to get over.

 

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