Arriving to work just in the nick of time, feeling so proud of beating the punch clock only to arrive the The Board to not see my name anywhere. Like damn, am I not even suppose to work today? Well I am not going home after the almost two hour drive to work. Choices, do I find the charge nurse and get a room, or stealth fully hide in a empty room until I’m found and give the old “doing education” line? I will just work,I approach the charge who is obviously overwhelmed, first week in, walking around aimlessly with a clip board with I’m sure nothing on it. “Excuse me Randy, I am here but not assigned to a room, where would you like me to go?”. I can see the expression all over his face, he is tasked with a question he does not know how to answer, he starts talking in circles, pondering his clip board, looking at the board, he makes a statement, “Go find someone else to ask, go ask Mary she is in the office”. He couldn’t even make that decision, and this is the leader I thought. Not going to let this shake my day, I find Mary-a hardened OR nurse from the 70’s who can direct people by the masses, she quickly assesses the situation and sends me to help a fellow traveler in the Liver case. Approaching the room, of course this is the surgeon nobody likes to work with, hence why there is nothing but travelers in here. I find my coworker James and tell him “Hey James, I am a extra set of hands, I can count instruments for you while you go get the patient”. He is thrilled that someone would come help him, as everyone else chooses to hide from this particular surgeon’s room. James gets to the room for a on time start, instruments are counted, its going to be a great day. I let James know I was going to go for a breakfast break and then I will come back for him. The room is vibing.
Arriving back to the room, its 8:45, and I see the fellow scrubbed in, I let James know I am here to let him get his morning break. I was kind of perplexed that Meanie McStinky hadn’t arrived to the room yet. I asked James, where is the surgeon? He say’s “the fellow texted him we were starting, and I’m not his keeper”. Okay, well he knows we are working then I’m good, “Have a good breakfast James”. I’m chilling at the computer desk hoping and praying that I don’t have to get up during the next 15 minutes when in walks Meanie McStinky. I get up to tie his gown, and I immediately sense his mood is off. No words were spoken, no eye contact exchanged. I will just quietly get through this 10 minutes and zoom. McStinky proceeds to get his gown and gloves put on him from the scrub tech in the room, a taller surgeon I attempt to reach up and button his gown up (old school laundered gowns), when out of nowhere McStinky rips his gown away from me pulling at his chest with his sterile gloves. Bumfuzzled at what had just happened, I asked “are you okay?”, to McStinky responding “I don’t like being choked!”, and this point I know what time it is, he was obviously upset about something and is now re-directing the energy on making me look stupid. I just calmly say “all I am trying to do is tie you up”. Then he proceeds to let me tie him up and goes into the real issue “okay, well nobody told me you guys were in the room, I had no idea what was going on”. Mr. McStinky “I am not the nurse in this room today, I was helping, I will pass along the message”. I proceeded to sit back at the nurses station, and thoughts continued to pour into my head, how ungrateful this man was that we got his case in the room on time, how I knew the fellow had texted him, and how ridiculous he looked trying to make me look like I am “tying him up aggressively”. What an asshole, I grabbed the OR schedule and proceeded to doodle. I doodled “Meanie McStinky”, Groucho, and several cartoon faces with aggressive eye brows. When James returned to the OR, I proceeded to let him know I would never help him again in this ungrateful surgeons room, and off I went.
Two weeks go by and I am living my best life, staying positive, having a great day when I get a message from the desk, “we need you to go to the managers office when your done with your case”. Managers office, I have never even spoken to the manager since my telephone interview months ago. I find my way to the managers office and sit down, “Hey Sarah, heard you needed to see me”. Sarah proceeds to close the door (uh-oh bad sign), did you give a lunch a couple weeks ago in the Liver surgeons room. “Hmmm, maybe, I don’t remember specifically”, She proceeds to give tid bits of information, small amounts hoping a confession of some sort comes out. Then she says, “something about a gown being tied”, it hits me. She asks me to tell her the story of what happened. I explain the morning, the case, the help, the odd behavior of snapping his gown away from me, which was obviously a redirection of his emotions from something else. I’m feeling pretty good about myself, I mean, I handled that well. Then she lifts the paper, my doodle, my artistic expressions out of frustration at his behavior. “Did you draw this she asked?”……….I was on the verge of busting out laughing, I said “Yep”, she proceeded to let me know that the Liver Surgeon had hand walked my doodle to her office, he was sooo upset about it.
I sat shocked, and also slightly amused that a grown ass surgeon, a man who gets paid to take apart peoples insides was so upset at my doodle, that he hand walked it over to the manager. I explain to the manager that his behavior was very aggressive and rude, and my doodle was just my emotional outlet. She proceeds to tell me how Liver Surgeon is actually a nice person outside of work, and plays the guitar in a band. Then I pondered, should I go find Meanie McStinky and offer him a apology over my doodle? Would a direct apologize bring the sort of cathartic relief I am seeking from this situation? Or will it cause Meanie McStinky to implode on his ego that this little nurse had the guts to approach him directly and confront him on the matter? Still sitting in Sarah’s office I say “I will go apologize to him”, she quickly tells me “no no no, that’s not necessary, that’s okay”. I get up and leave the office, still pondering the realization of the gaslighting that was done to me by the manager, that his rude behavior is actually acceptable because he plays a guitar in a band. That is the day, I renamed a prominent liver surgeon, Meanie McStinky.
Love everything about this story!!!!! Lolololol