Call night under the full moon

I'm sitting here, in the call room, deep in the bowels of the hospital, where all the shit collects, getting ready to try and get an hour of sleep. I doubt it will happen. The Center has been alive on this full moon night, writhing around like some tortured monster. There has been a steady stream of comatose overdose patients, jacked up on the first friday night of the month, getting high on our money, and being bailed out with our money when they push it too far. There was the cocaine man, our fucked up version of the rainman. All he would say was "I take Xanax TID," "I need you to give me my Xanax." "TID." "Xanax TID." Then came the hip fractures. There have been more little old ladies with hip fractures tonight than I have seen in two months. The bulk of them were the result of a head on motor vehicle accident, several miles from The Center. Six passengers were involved, one was life flighted directly here, the others rolled in slowly with less serious injuries. However, two of these "less serious" injuries were little old ladies with hip fractures. A hip fracture for a little old lady is a health event every bit as significant as a heart attack or stroke, and one of these ladies was 93. furthermore, a church service or graduation ceremony of some sort happened to be taking place near the accident scene, and when the life flight landed in the church lot, all the people inside apparently came running out to see what the stir was all about. During the chaos, two more little old ladies became entangled in each other's feet and fell on the concrete. Two more hip fractures for Doc Hog! ... I think I hear the pager getting ready to go off now...

Crack Whore

Saw a twenty year old with an abscess in her antecubital fossa. She admitted it originated from IV drug abuse. She said she injected Xanax, which I never even knew people injected, but stated that it was her first time injecting anything. I naturally would have seen this as the biggest lie on the face of the planet, but she went on to say "I just don't enjoy it, my drug of choice is smoking crack!" She was very matter of fact and even a little stand offish. She also admitted to prostitution for crack, and in her recent history was infection with gonorrhea, chlamydia, and hepatitis C. I asked her if she ever thought about quitting crack, and she said, "why should I? It doesn't affect me at all, I can do it and not have any problems."