Rolling the Dice

The latter half of my workshift revolves around the Discharge event; having patient's walk after their period of bedrest. Their Recovery period had been anywhere from one to six hours, and usually they are impatient to get going. But we wise old veterans know, this is not a hurry-up event. Perhaps 10% of them will have some bleeding, and maybe 1% might get light-headed and bradycardic. So, I'm extremely cautious about the whole thing.

Six hours of bed-rest
An average time to wait,
Before they have
Their walking date;
So, this young fellow had
His appointed walk,
All was awesome good
When he stood upon the dock.

He was on his way out
Wife and Nurse at his side,
And there he was bragging
About his beautiful ride;
That '67 Mustang
With Holly-Carbs and Lifters,
That he was a member of
The California Drifters,
When all of a sudden
He touched his pants and said;
"I think I might be bleeding
Look, my hand is all red".

Nurse Emma brought him back
Administered Epi and Lido,
Walked him again in one hour
And he bled just like Fido,
So, we laid him again
Held pressure
And invoked the Gods;
Sandbags and D-stat
And pondered the odds.

I bet on Emma
After hearing her stories,
Simple nights of debauchery
And serendipitous glories,
In Reno or Vegas
Or maybe Burning Man,
At that point, last night
I was open to her plan.

Well, third time's the charm
When you're rolling the dice,
And sometimes when you're bleeding
You need more than twice,
When the ultimate goal
Is to send you home safe and sound,
In the future I'll feel luckier
When Emma is around.

Fibril_late;
9/29/14