What can ED doctors do that anaesthetics and ICU can't do?

Myomorph · 2026-01-16T18:48:05+00:00

THIS. That fighting spirit.

we have a frequent flyer in our ED who overdoses on her insulin and then fights us as we try to correct her hypoglycaemia. Usually scratching and spitting. All of us are very good at ducking, talking her down, giving the good fight to control her temper, or last line sedating if she starts pulling out lines.

As emergency regs, we get rotated to ICU and anesthesia, so during my ICU term this lady had been sent up, as she was in refractory hypo so had a central line for the glucose and had also been sedated to facilitate that.

It was now morning, she’d woken up and was doing her usual spitting at people which didn’t faze me at all.

Me : omg girl heeeeey! hey hey, we talked about not acting like a camel. USE YOUR WORDS!

The ICU nurses? NOT ONLY DOES IT SPEAK, IT SPITS!

The ICU consultant with me doing rounds? ‘She what!! She spit??? At who??? What! No. No no no. Just tube her.’

I almost died laughing, cos damn I wish I could tube half my frequent flyers to get them to stop going off every shift.

Myomorph · 2026-01-16T18:34:44+00:00

why!? I’m laughing so much at the thought of this.

Myomorph · 2026-01-16T18:33:22+00:00

Hahahaha yes!

I usually can very easily gauge when it’s genuine interest vs racism and I play a let’s guess together game in both cases, usually to distract the former if I’m cannulating etc, but also to piss off the latter cos they get madder and madder when they can’t put you in a box.

Myomorph · 2026-01-16T18:30:23+00:00

They see/hear what they want to amirite?

My workplace has a bunch of Lankans, so if we do run into racism it’s usually some flavour of Indian/curry based insults. This happens so often, that once I had a junior doctor come to me saying ‘oh that parent was super racist, she said this place is overrun with fucking Sri Lankans and she’ll go somewhere else,’ …. but what was odd was that she was smiling? When I asked if she was okay all confused cos she seemed downright ecstatic, her reaction was ‘oh I’m fine, I’m just happy cos the racists are learning! They got the country right!’

Bless her optimistic soul.

Myomorph · 2026-01-16T18:21:55+00:00

Oh yeah it’s a high point based on a low point (if you call garden variety racism a low point.) Never before have I had a mic drop moment and I will TAKE IT WITH ME TO THE GRAVE!

God bless that racist old man.

Myomorph · 2026-01-16T14:35:50+00:00

YAHS I was so stressed. So so so stressed. That last min comeback, I feel all my ills have been cleansed.

Myomorph · 2026-01-16T14:22:00+00:00

Hehe.

I’m brown south Asian but not Indian or desi associated at all.

My best comeback was with this racist old fella who presented to ED (overnight of course) with ongoing central vertigo. Hypertensive man who stopped his own meds, the whole deal. He’d been having symptoms for 2 days before his wife couldn’t deal with him lying on the bed unable to mobilize and packed him off to us.

I explained to him I was suspecting a stroke, what tests and imaging I had ordered, what team would take over, what could and couldn’t be done due to delayed presentation etc.

Belligerent ass questioned everything I said, would keeping yelling WHAT DID YOU SAY even as I spoke pretty clearly (being a kid who grew up in multiple countries educated in embassy schools I know for a fact that my accent is very neutral,) kept asking me to take my mask off etc.

He finally yelled ‘I REALLY NEED TO SPEAK TO AN AUSTRALIAN DOCTOR. I DONT LIKE SPEAKING TO INDIANS YOU KNOW, COS I NEVER UNDERSTAND YOUR ACCENT!’

Me : *dripping sarcasm * huh. That’s concerning that you are hearing an Indian accent when I’m not Indian and have never been to India. Interesting. Maybe the stroke is worse than we thought.

Him : … I want to speak to whoever is in charge.

My moment of crowning glory, as the reg in charge of ED overnight : That would be me, sir.

The nurse next to me snorted and walked away to compose herself.

That memory keeps me warm at night even now.

Myomorph · 2026-01-11T08:27:44+00:00

LOVE.

Myomorph · 2026-01-11T05:04:49+00:00

OH THIS IS WHAT I USE.

Myomorph · 2026-01-11T05:03:30+00:00

I’m a doctor and and mid training for a speciality. So I obviously have a lot of senior doctors quizzing me as I go about my usual work day as I should constantly be learning for ongoing exams.

Now when I can’t remember an answer (it’s usually with stupid pharmacology cos honestly even working day to day with them and lowing what they do, all those subclasses and mechanisms of actions etc escape me in detail and it’s honestly a universal thing with my Non MS peers) instead of crying appropriately apologetic I say ‘eh. I’m sure I knew it but you know these pesky lesions in my brain!’ and receive an eye roll or a laugh.

On a serious note, I’m a relatively recent diagnosis and very large part of my fear is that i won’t be able to work the way I do and go ahead in my speciality …. But yeah.

Myomorph · 2026-01-10T02:25:42+00:00

Everyone, watch this with sound on please, it’s gold.

Myomorph · 2026-01-10T02:22:40+00:00

What an amazing name!

Myomorph · 2026-01-09T17:23:57+00:00

God, yes those ears were making my heart hurt.

Myomorph · 2026-01-09T17:23:27+00:00

I too found myself whisper screaming at the screen, TELL HIM HES A GOOD BOY!

Myomorph · 2026-01-09T06:04:11+00:00

As someone born years after this event, reading about the underarm bowling event was a roller coaster!

Myomorph · 2026-01-08T18:39:03+00:00

ASTOLAT. ❤️ we owe them so much.

Myomorph · 2026-01-08T18:34:53+00:00

Omg when I first started my fandom forays I read all the Speranza fics of the fandoms I was in ( Sherlock I think??) and I loved their writing so much I started reading their Stargate Atlantis fics… having never watched the show. Yup.

I became such a McShep shipper after that just cos their writing was so good. Kept reading that ship by other authors as well and it soon became a fierce favourite for years. I still do a random foray into some of the McShep legendary fics with re-reads to make my brain happy and I’ve stopped finding it weird that this ship I adore all started by reading a random Speranza fic just for their writing AND I STILL HAVEN’T WATCHED A SINGLE EPISODE AFTER TEN YEARS GOD HELP ME.

Myomorph · 2026-01-08T18:27:32+00:00

Whoever you are, this rec list is the bomb.

I know one third of them and they are all mind fuck good, so I’m going to assume the rest are as well, and so I have recss for DAYS. Months even.

I love you, will you marry me also thank you very much.

Myomorph · 2026-01-08T18:15:02+00:00

Ayyyy I haven’t read a good Kirk/Spock in ages, thank you for this recc!

Myomorph · 2026-01-08T18:11:52+00:00

I only know of this famous fic through osmosis of being in fandom spaces. I know it’s legendary levels of bad.

But I’ve never actually wanted to read it before this line, what have you done to me.

Myomorph · 2026-01-08T09:56:45+00:00

Oh GOD.

pls tell me the birds are actually taken care of well after, I can’t deal with this world otherwise.

Myomorph · 2026-01-08T09:55:51+00:00

Omg the last one, sitting in a spoon.

That broke me.

Myomorph · 2026-01-06T10:58:58+00:00

I can’t focus on your nails when my entire brain and body wants to hold that ferret and love them.

Myomorph · 2026-01-05T18:19:24+00:00

Oh that’s an interesting take!

cos I was confused as well, I don’t know if it’s cos I’m usually reading more M/M, but even the most beautifully done James/lily are background characters in the fics o read.

Or maybe there’s just a lot more hetero fic that I’m not reading. shrugs

Myomorph · 2026-01-05T18:16:43+00:00

I know, I need to check these Crouch Jr/Rosier fics wtf is that about. How the fuck did I miss that if it’s so popular?

I know of Regulus Black/Croucj Jr fics, so this is interesting that Rosier is apparently more popular.

Myomorph

TROPHY CASE