You guys can take comfort in one thing: for every ten of you there is one of me. When everything is turning to crap around me, I just think to myself "Isn't this another fine mess we've got ourselves into, eh?"
Of course, there are times when a little surliness is warranted. Here's an example:
I was asked to X-ray a 50 year-old-woman in the casualty department, using a mobile X-ray machine. When I got there and stepped into the cubicle I found a very obese woman there who was short of breath and not entirely 'with it'. She had an oxygen mask on and her eyes were half-closed. As I lowered the trolley side down, this woman started puking. Most of it was going into the face-mask, but there were two streams of puke that escaped via the intakes. The left stream decorated my left trouser leg. I had to pull the mask off (puke flying everywhere) otherwise the woman would have choked on her own vomit. I said "Okay, my dear, we'll clean you up, don't worry" and I was reaching to untie the elastic that secured the mask so I could throw it away.....
BAM !!!!
This woman punched me so hard that I got a yellow flash in my vision. She connected me on the right zygoma (cheek bone) quite a good shot. Well, I stepped back, blinking a bit, and looking around for a nurse, but they were at the nurses station. There was definitely something wrong with this woman, she was not all there, if you know what I mean. I shouted out "Nurse! I need a hand here!"
I started backing the X-ray machine towards the curtain, and then approached one more time to try to get the trolley side back up and the mask off. And that's when this woman did something that I have yet to see again: she cupped here hands betwween her legs, urinated in her hands and then threw that at me. I didn't get the whole lot, but several drops hit me on the neck and shoulder.
And that's when I got grumpy. But that's understandable.
But generally, I'm a happy guy and it takes a lot to get me down. I work nicely under pressure and I don't rely on people too much. I find life to be more manageable that way. If you're in a fix and it looks hopeless, that's when I am a gem.
Of course, I do irritate my colleagues from time to time. Just yesterday at lunch several girls were complaining about working weekend shifts (they couldn't swap with someone else) which means that some of them can't go on a group snowboarding trip. I hushed the whole table and gave them this line:
"Ask not what your hospital can do for you...but what you can do for your hospital"
:lol:
(I almost got several bowls of spaghetti tipped on me)
