I spent most of my early nursing years in hospital corridors on the night shift, adapting to circumstances that were often out of my hands, and sometimes out of my sane mind. Even now, I’m amazed at how time flies when you’re caught in the moment and instinct takes over. That instinct made it bearable. It carried me through the relentless ride for years. Fight or flight never fails.
There are so many things about the medical world that still confuse me. I stopped asking a long time ago. Every day there’s always something new to learn, and I can’t keep up. Vaccines were once the answer to a dying world. Think of the plague, think of the flu. Without them, many of us wouldn’t be here. Now some people see them not as the cure but as harm, not as the antidote but as poison.
Years ago, we were taught that pain is the fifth vital sign, and it must always be addressed. So we treated it, again and again. And in doing so, we helped feed an addiction crisis. We contributed to the very pain we were trying to relieve.
There are so many heavy issues on the horizon these days, and I won’t solve them in my lifetime. To name a few: Contraception or abortion? Covid or mask-up? Tylenol or CBD? Marijuana or fentanyl? ER or urgent care? Euthanasia or life support? Boy or girl? Assigned at birth or trans? Real or artificial? True or false?
Code Whiteout.
On lighter things: who comes up with generic and brand names for drugs? I can’t tell which is which, can’t remember where they came from, and they keep coming up with newer, stranger names. Miss Copolla finally met her nemesis: the pill I tried so hard to remember. Quetiapine. A medication sometimes used to help elderly and confused patients sleep. There I was, trying my best to give my patient instructions before her surgery, and I couldn’t even pronounce it. I tried once. Twice. So in my defense, I came up with a name of my own.
The “quiet pill”.
Yes, you heard that right.
I got a big laugh from my patient and her husband.
And surprisingly, the world felt right again. A moment ago, I thought World War Three had already began.
We live among terribly serious things. Sometimes, something utterly nonsensical gives us just enough relief to keep going.
Like the “quiet pill” and “Miss Copolla’s charms”.