tonight i did the scariest thing i've done in a long time.
it was even scarier than my first day of clinical when i had to do a sterile dressing change on my patient's leg, and i had never done one outside of lab before.
it was even scarier than last thursday when i put a urinary catheter into my elderly patient who hadn't peed in too many hours, and i had never done one outside of lab before.
it was even scarier than the excessive amount of blood that was coming out of my patient's surgical wound, and the amount of urine that was not coming out of the catheter.
it was even scarier than the little episode my patient had on friday, when one minute he seemed to be doing fine, and then only 10 minutes later, he looked terrible, his level of consciousness dropped, his blood pressure plummeted, and his heart was beating half as many times as it should have been per minute. yes. scary. he could have died. a couple hours later, once he was stable and the chaos in the room subsided, i gave him a blood transfusion, and i had never done one outside of lab before. oh wait, we haven't even covered those in lab yet. that's coming up in 3 weeks.
clinical has been interesting to say the least!
the scary thing was.... i went downstairs and talked to our neighbour. ho, not so scary, you say? well, at night they have these nightly conversations in their bedroom and they've been driving us batty. we usually end up turning on a fan, to make some white noise to cover it up. well last night we had had enough. at the usual time, their conversation started and we tossed and turned, determined to fall asleep without the droning of our fan (we don't really like the fan, especially because who wants a draft in the room in winter??). finally, after at least an hour, i jumped out of bed and knocked on the floor. the voices carried on like they hadn't even heard me, so i knocked again. and then knocked again. and maybe again, i don't know i was so tired and frustrated i started to cry. i was tempted to go downstairs right then, but i didn't (probably for the best!) we turned on the fan at last and fell asleep.
this morning i slipped a note under their door reminding them that voices (male voices) carry especially well in the bedroom, at night. don't know why, but they do. [i had been fine-tuning this note for the last month]. when we got home from school, there was a note under our door. a very polite note, but you could tell they weren't pleased. she hinted that it was cowardly to leave notes and invited us to have 'polite conversation' and also for a cup of coffee. okay. she seems nice enough. it took all evening, but i finally worked up the courage to talk to her at 9 pm. i thought i'd just say, "hey, i'm from upstairs..." and things would just start rolling. i'm pretty good with people, i thought i could make this conversations flow smoothly.... not so. i introduce myself (although she knew who i was i'm sure because i've seen them spying on us... that's another funny story) and she just looks at me, "okay." *glare*
"so, i just came down here to clear things up...." "alright." *blink*
"yes, see, i got your note...." *stare*
okay, things aren't going how i thought they would. so then i just start talking about how we feel, not too apologetically, because we're still frustrated, but i tell her that now i understand her side of the story (apparently her husband only gets home from work at 11 pm each night and then they need to catch up). eventually, she admits that they were/are really upset at my knocking on the floor last night like they're a "bunch of wild beasts who have no life".... but we keep talking and start talking about school and find out that she's in education, as is R. this breaks the ice and finally she smiles. "oh good," i think to myself, "let's keep her smiling." so we talk some more and start to joke around and she tells me of the pig-sty that her apartment looked like before they moved in (the guy before her, bozo, the one i used to complain about, left beer bottles and underwear everywhere, when the landlord showed her around the place) and we laughed and it was good. before i left, i told her i felt much better and she admitted that she thought she felt a bit better too, but she didn't seem totally convinced yet. oh good. i hope this helps!! it is 10:59 pm right now, and i guess her husband is coming home any minute.... i hope things are different tonight....
Monday, January 29, 2007
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5 comments:
Wait. Let me get this right... They don't answer the door when you knock, but when you leave a note you're cowardly?? *ow* I just rolled my eyes so hard I nearly fell out of my chair.
Good job talking to them. I hope the fact you WERE willing to talk to them is helpful in encouraging them to, oh, have their conversations in the living room after 11pm. Also, she quite possibly was on the defensive at first, which is why she was so unfriendly. It must be hard if your husband comes home that late and you're a student! Still, in an apartment building you need to be aware and modify your behaviour so you're not disturbing the neighbours.
Anyway, good job, and I hope this helps lots!
i give you full credit for even TRYINg to be nice - you are a better person than me! i'm interested to hear how last nite went! :)
yes!! how did last night go??? were the quiet?? I could have never faced them. I would have been way to scared
we didn't hear a peep last night! but yes, g, i agree, she was very defensive at first. i mean, i was working up courage all evening to talk to her, and she wasn't expecting me at all (i should have taken her up on that cup of coffee! ha!). and apparently they were pretty pissed off that i thumped on the floor, so she had to get over that too!
next time just make some garlic bread. It is best after midnight. I had some encounters with people in apts. when we lived in them.... We had even considered leaving WD40 on the door mat for those squeaky bed springs............ ahhhh!!!! I'd say do the garlic bread trick though. MMMMM... I'll be over in a flash! :)
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