suck. it. up.

It may be awful, but I have absolutely no patience at all for people my age who are massive babies. Especially if they're in the ER for illness I've experienced and managed, albeit unpleasantly, at home.
I cut people some slack knowing that I have a higher pain tolerance than most, but some of these people are freaking ridiculous. I got a girl in an ambulance today who had eaten some bad taco bell and gotten food poisoning. Sucks. Been there, puking 12 hours straight and sleeping on the bathroom floor. Never again will eat sushi from target. DID NOT call an MFing ambulance. Because I'm an adult. The worst part is, she got sick earlier in the day and could have gone to a clinic. Nope. Somehow she managed this at home all evening, but I guess got sick of it- she was also three months pregnant, but she was 18, so I'm not cutting her a ton of slack. By the time she got there, she apparently couldn't walk across the hall to get a urine sample- how did you walk to the bathroom at home to use it? Oh and her headache- pain 10/10. Okay. Her sister in law was there, too, by the way, with the same symptoms, but she came in through the waiting room.
I almost could have tolerated the drama had she not also been completely resistant to anything I was doing to try to help her. IV? No. As soon as she saw the needle, she flipped out and started crying. Like, sobbing. I've had 7 year olds that handled it better. I hung saline on her, then went to give her medicine for her vomiting and 10/10 headache. I pushed the med in little spurts through the saline tubing, and immediately after I started pushing, she sat up and started hyperventilating and screaming about how she couldn't see. Really? You were stricken blind my normal saline? Because I can guarantee that's the only thing that hit your veins in that time period. I disconnected the syringe and told her to breathe slowly. Then I told her, "Well, you're satting 100, but if this demerol is making you feel like you can't breathe, I can just give you the phenergan? Do you think it's the pain medicine? I can hold it if you want, some people react badly to narcotics."
Her vision was magically restored after that. And she went to sleep. I woke her up when her saline was done, and I had to give discharge papers to baby daddy, who was actually really nice- she ignored most everything I said, then of course needed to exit in a wheelchair. Naturally, she wanted our asses to pick her up put her in the chair without her having to stand. I helped her up, but made it very clear that if she was still too weak to transfer from bed to chair, I would have to restart her IV and go get the doctor. Naturally, I sounded very concerned and she made a miraculous recovery and was able to move.
Maybe I'm being too harsh, but I have been sick enough before to know the difference between not wanting to move and not being able to to move. And sorry, if you're 18 and otherwise healthy, it's the former. Get it together, lady.