Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Magically Delicious

I share about my patients very seldom these days as its become monotonous. When I first started my job I never thought the day would come when delusions of fiery angels, martians, and CIA conspiracies would be common place. I never thought I would see the day when I knew 100 ways to kill yourself and 100 names for every drug under the sun. I did not think I would one day go to work and hear that a person had 8 separate personalities and take this information with the same amount of shock as someone telling me the grass is green. But the day did come, and it camped out and I never even noticed.

My heart still breaks for the tortured souls I meet regularly. It still bleeds for those whose stories are torn right out of the newspaper, filled with hurt and pain and abuse. I still hope for recovery, coddle patients many cringe away from and pray that we somehow make a difference.

But this week...well it's been rough. The patient's have been louder and angrier, higher and drunker, more violent and intrusive than usual. And to top the whole mess off we are filled to the brim, to the point that the ER is a never ending wait list of Baker Acted patients.

But this one patient is worth sharing. This patient is manic - to the point that she cannot stop speaking for more than a brief second. She is nonsensical, illogical, angry and completely psychotic. She is carrying on about things being magically delicious and talking to people that are certainly not there. But...

Girl can sing. I mean really really sing. Like a pop star. And if you can get her to sing everything else stops and you see the person she could be, that she is somewhere down in there.

Sometimes my job sucks. Sometimes its fantastic. And sometimes God reminds me in the strangest setting that there is good in everybody, that beautiful comes in all different packages.

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