Buried Acorns and other nuts

Last night was very busy at work. Psych season is in full swing. It usually runs throughout the winter. One of our favorites (not) came in yesterday afternoon. Thew police were chasing him around the night before and caught him. He had torn up his jail cell and smeared his shit all over the cell. So they sent him to us for observation. He immediately tore up the bathroom in the emergency dept. He was standing there naked and soapy as he had just showered when he went off. We got him to his room and medicated, and wasnt a problem anymore. He has on two occasions decorated our psych rooms with his shit. Thats how he expresses himself when he is off his meds.

Finally started to watch Fahrenheit 911. We rented it for this weekend along with a couple of other movies. No, I have never seen it before. We got about half way through it and had to stop, as my daughter had to go to work and she wanted to see the rest of it. As Ben Bradlee had told Woodward and Bernstein- Follow the money. In that context Iraq is atarting to make sense. No other reasons for invading Iraq make any sense.

Came into work in the emergency dept last night at 1600 and everyone was talking about our most prolific patient TK being found dead in the bushes yesterday morning...He was a chronic alcoholic who lived on the streets. He was good for about 200 ED visits per year, sometimes 3 in one day. He had money from a pension and could have found an apartment or even gone to a motel on a cold night like Monday night, but chose to stay on the strrets. The hospital had probated him to a nursing home and to several detox facilities in the past year, but as soon as he would get out and hit the streets, he would go for the Bukoff....He hated himself. This was his way of committing suicide. Urine soaked and unconscious.

I last saw him Friday night Christmas eve, when he was one of many drunks who came in. I wished him Merry Christmas and got a "fuck you!" in return. He tried to punch me but had no motor skills due to his BAL. We peeled the six layers of clothes off him and got him changed and he went to bed. He came in again Saturday and Sunday and Monday. He was last discharged Monday and must have froze Monday night as temps hovered around zero.

He had 3 ex wives and a son in Florida who he had no contact with. He had been an intelligent man and was a management supervisor in an earlier life.The police./fire/EMS/hospital grapevine was alive last night. Some people truly felt sorry and others were grateful he is gone. He had been verbally abusive and physically assaultive to staff. He was the true test for a care giver. If you could be compassionate to him after all those times, you truly were a compassionate person. We were kindof wondering who among the regular drunks would step up and take his place.

We had Lifestar come last night....with 3" snow on the ground, we had a whiteout blizzard when it landed and took off again. He had just come down from Bennington and Albany and said it was
so clear up there he could see everything....

A few weeks ago I spilled coffee on my laptop keyboard...After tring many things, I finally got a
used one off ebay for $17. It came yesterday and I popped it in this morning. It seems to work OK so I am back...

Here we go...
a collection of thoughts , opinions and experiences....
and its snowing out....