Piringa

(Hiding Place)

Chapter One

She knew she was dreaming. She was caught in that state of sleep where she was somewhat aware of her surrounds and the realism it oozed and the instance of mind when she was somewhere else.

A day she knew she would never forget, but wanted so desperately too.

"He's currently afebrile with his WBC decreasing; all other obs are stable within normal parameters. You still want to admit?"

"Have you heard from ultrasound?"

"Yeah. They said they're rushed off their feet. The gynae ward has a lot of miscarriages that they need to check to see if any of them need a D&C. And since his obs are stable they're not to keen to get him down there".

"This is exactly why I fucking hate the public health system".

"Well, its certainly better then most systems".

"Not according to what I've heard you say about your home".

"Hey, my country has its problems too".

"Not like this I bet".

"You'd be surprised… anyway, you want to admit him or not? I was talking to the duty manager, she says there's a few beds up on ortho that could be used as an out lye, but they wouldn't be able to keep him for more then a few days".

"I'm sure we'd have figured out if he's an appendix by then, okay, get a luer in, run some fluids, saline and dex should do it, and send him up".

"Right on it… oh, and that man in six? The one with the lower GI bleed, he's been ordered a few units of blood but the consent hasn't been done, can you do that for me since the Reg is in such a foul mood?"

"Sure, no worries… his notes in with him?"

"Nah, they're in the nurses' station".

"Okay, I'll do it for you, but I've got go I&D one spectacular looking boil, but I'll get it done after that – then I've got some mechanic in three with chest pain and a history of angina".

"Is that guy with the strange name? Sparkle?"

"Ah… I'm not sure, but he's wearing the blue pants and white shirt, has a yellow hard hat in the locker".

"Oh yeah, I think his problem is he's anxious about his son, apparently his teenaged boy took off into the forest out the back of their property and hasn't been seen since three days ago".

"Well, that's enough to give any angina prone father a chest pain… hey, maybe you could do the ECG and then I can concentrate on the woman in 12 with the bloody necrosis to her veins thanks to the damn IV drug use".

"Sure, sounds good".

Rangimarie liked him. She'd found the doctors in America to be a somewhat varied bunch. The way it was in her homeland, doctors were polite to nurses because they knew if they rubbed them the wrong way they'd never get anything done. But in America, doctors tended to look down their noses at the RNs. Of course,

Rangimarie also found this doctor to be very approachable and understanding, and he certainly never got pissey if an RN needed something no matter how busy he was. He was single too. Of course, Marie's like of him was based greatly on his work ethic and professionalism. Yet if something else came of their occasional coffee meets and the few movies they'd seen led to something else, well, she wouldn't be to adverse to that.

The nurse placed the files down on the desk in the nurses' station and looked up at her friend.

"Could I get a check for IVAB, sister?"

She asked with a smirk.

"Sure, what you got?"

"Flucox, 1.2g, which is an odd dose".

"Yeah, did you check with the doctor?"

"Yip, he said it was a loading dose… I asked him if he meant Augmentum, but he said Flucox, then I rung pharmacy to make sure, and they're happy, so if you're happy to check then I'm happy to admin".

"Okay, well, if pharmacy know then I guess that's okay".

"Its for that woman in 17 with the infected ring finger. Man, its funny what some people will do – she sliced her finger when she was trying to get her wedding ring off with a fork she found on the floor of a restaurant! She saw some guy she liked but who didn't know she was married!"

"Hahaha! Real? Gee, Marie, you've been getting all the freaks lately!!"

"Anyway, did you sort out that mess with Mr. Radely after all that?"

"The guy who sustained a fractured right NOF"

"Yeah, I heard he ended up in CCU and it hadn't been handed over that he had the fracture".

"Turns out that someone had left the X-rays and notes about the break in someone else's notes and it took them ages to figure out where they belonged. But he's okay now, he was pretty immobilised, not to mention doped up".

"True. True. He was in AF, right?"

"Yeah, they wanted him on telemetry for a few days that's why he went to CCU".

"I heard his wife tell the doc that he's been in AF for years and that his GP isn't to concerned. Besides, the guy should be palliative, why are they pissing about with telem and HRs?"

"I dunno, someone said something about just fixing it, or keeping him in traction in a hospice".

"If they can get a bed".

"Well, yeah, goes without saying".

Marie got her checked, gave a chuckle.

"I'll catch up with you later, better go give this".

She waved the small bottle of powdered antibiotic.

--

Marie knelt by the side of the pt's bed giving the IVAB via slow push. The pt seemed a little embarrassed about her reason for being here. The nurse picked up on that and began a conversation about the weather, it was going well. She unscrewed the syringe that had held the AB and stood.

"Okay, this is just some salty water I'm going to push into the luer now, it's just going to wash any of the AB out of the plug and into your body, okay?"

The patient nodded in the affirm. She'd just finished giving the flush when one of her fellow sisters came in through the curtain.

"Marie! We've got an emergency, some sort of terrorist attack in the city, people are coming in now, we gotta clear out some of these non-urgents. Get the orderlies up here to help move some beds into the corridors, then get into the rescus bay and start priming lines!"

The ex-pat turned; nodded quickly, dropping the empty syringes into the sharps container and then proceed to run to complete the tasks. When there was an emergency that was labelled "terrorist related" on American soil it was all hands on deck. And even if it wasn't terrorist related, if it was bad enough to be labelled such, then it had to be bad.