It’s Just One of Those Days, Dixie by Linda2

Dixie knew it was going to be one of those days. Not because of the waiting area filled with people, nor because the night shift nurse practically flung her report at Dixie and ran. What tipped her off was the fact that when she set foot in the hospital the fire alarm was ringing. She stopped a nurse who was leaving the hospital and was told that the alarm had been going off since 1 am.

When she had reached the ER she had approached the reception desk, behind which was the light board for the alarm system. Staring at the light board was the reception nurse and a maintenance man. The whole board had been lit up, indicating fires in every room including the one she was standing in. She had recognized Harry, the maintenance man. Upon her inquiry Harry had told her he did not know yet what the problem was, but he would find out and have it fixed in a jiffy. Since then she had spoken to him twice more and been given the same reply.

She received report from the nightshift nurse who told her the alarm had been going off since 1am. It would stop ringing occasionally, but before the maintenance men had had time to pack their gear and go it would begin ringing again.

“Oh, and did Harry tell you he would have it fixed in a ‘jiffy’?” the nurse asked bitterly, “that seems to be his stock answer.” As she spoke the call light for one of the observation rooms went on. “Not again,” she moaned. “If I could just get the person who invented the call light in a dark alley one night…”

“Who’s in there?” Dixie asked curious about the other woman’s response to the call light, she was not normally so irascible.

“A man with a concussion,” she replied, “he’s been on that call button since three this morning, every 10 minutes, just like clock work. Never anything important, just lights on and off, pillow fluffed, things like that. The only good thing about it is I didn’t have to wake him for neuro checks.” She paused then said through gritted teeth, “Oh, that alarm!”

“You go ahead and go, I’ll get this,” Dixie said indicating the call light.

“Thanks, Dix, it’s all yours, good luck,” the other nurse replied then fled the department.

Dixie went to answer the call light. As the other nurse had said it was nothing urgent. As Dixie had expected the ER stayed busy that day. Because of the alarm going off continuously in the background everyone’s nerves were on edge. Tempers flared as nerves became more and more frayed. Everyone tried to ignore the alarm but it proved to be impossible. When asked Harry would invariably reply “have it fixed in a Jiffy.”

In addition to the patient still in observation activating his call light frequently, the ER stayed busy with everything from minor scrapes and bruises to major trauma. About midmorning a major TA occurred on the highway. The paramedics were kept as busy treating and transporting patients as the ER was busy treating and releasing or admitting them. The paramedics began to run low on supplies. John Gage was standing at the nurse's station filling out a supply request form when the call light for the observation room went off. “Not again, when is he going to go home?” Dixie muttered to herself. Standing she walked towards the observation room, “If I could just get the inventor of the call light in a dark alley,…” she mumbled to herself.

“What’s that, Dixie?” John asked.

“Nothing,” Dixie replied continuing into the observation room

The patient in the observation room was as irritable as everyone else, he wanted to know when the alarm would be shut off. Dixie replied as civilly as she could once again that it would be shut off just as soon as the maintenance people could find the problem and correct it. Seeing the time Dixie decided she would do another neuro check.

“Mr. Davis, can you tell me what day this is?” she asked as she removed the pillow from behind the patient’s head and began to fluff it. Mr. Davis had been answering questions like this all night and was becoming fed up with them, but he answered anyway.

“Tuesday, the 23^rd,” he said.

“No, it’s Monday,” Dixie replied looking at him in puzzlement.

“No, it’s Tuesday,” the man assured her. Dixie thought for a moment and realized the man was right.

“You’re right,” she said placing the freshly fluffed pillow behind the patients head and walking to the door. “I’ll see what’s keeping the doctor,” she said as she pulled the door open.

When she returned to the nurse's desk, John was still there. Suddenly John gave a cry of dismay and began shaking his pen.

“Dix, this pen is out of ink,” he announced grimly. The alarm was getting to him, Dixie could tell, it seemed to be having a worse effect on all the firefighter paramedics than on anyone else. Whether this was because they were in and out of the ER and were not getting used to it or because it was a fire alarm and their firefighter instincts were kicking in Dixie could not say. “Dix, do you have a pen I could use?” John asked. Then covering his ears with hands and grimacing exclaimed, “Can’t they turn that thing off?”

Dixie reached into both pockets and came out with a pen in each hand. “Here, take your pick,” she said offering them to John.

“But what if I want that one?” John asked grinning, pointing to the pen behind Dixie’s ear. Dixie pulled the pen from behind her ear and offered it to him. He did not take it but looked at the pens suspiciously, “what’s the difference?” he asked.

“Let’s see, this one’s from Caltex Pharmaceuticals,” she said reading off the first pen, “this one’s from Calorg Pharmaceuticals, and this one’s from Burlington Pharmaceuticals,” she finished offering him the pens once more. When he did not immediately take one she said, “well do you want one or not?”

“Do they all write black?” John asked.

“Of course,” Dixie replied, as if any nurse would have a pen that wrote anything but black!

“I don’t know,” John still hesitated, “ I don’t want to leave you short handed…”

“Here take this one,” Dixie said as, temper flaring she nearly threw the pen at him. The phone rang and she picked it up. It was the pharmacy returning her call. “Yes,” John heard her say as he continued filling out his request form with his new pen, “I called earlier, you sent the wrong med.…no, no…I know it’s the wrong med. because we asked for an antibiotic and you sent an antipsycotic…Yes it is….I know the names sound alike, but they don’t work alike…can you just please send the right med.?…Thank you.” Dixie hung up the phone with a snap. John had finished his request form and offered the pen back to Dixie, “Keep it,” she snapped as she walked away toward the lounge. John shrugged and pocketed the pen.

Carol was already in the lounge with her feet propped up on a chair eating popcorn out of a formerly sterilized bedpan. When Dixie entered the other nurse proffered the bedpan, “want some,” she asked. Dixie looked at the popcorn thoughtfully for a moment then scooped up a handful murmuring thanks. She took a chair from the table and dragged it over in front of the couch. Plopping down on the couch she put her feet up on the chair and munched her popcorn. The two nurses sat in silence for a few minutes both munching their popcorn. Then Dixie put her head back on the back of the couch, closing her eyes and sighing, trying to relax.

“Some day, huh?” Carol asked sympathetically.

“Mmmm,” Dixie replied without bothering to open her eyes.

“Say, Dix,” Carol began, “did you hear about the nurse who died and went straight to hell?

“No,” Dixie replied, “what about her?”

“It took her two weeks to realize that she wasn't at work anymore!” Carol replied laughing at the joke.

“That a horrible joke,” Dixie moaned.

“I know,” Carol said still giggling.

“Today it’s way to close to the truth to be funny,” Dixie said raising her head to regard the still giggling Carol.

“I know,” Carol said on a giggle.

“Then why are you still laughing?” Dixie asked, beginning to giggle herself.

“Because it seemed like the thing to do,” Carol replied, “don’t worry Dix, this will all seem funny someday.”

“Yeah, like in ten or twelve years!” Dixie said closing her eyes once more. After a moment or two Dixie raised her head listening, realizing the alarm had been off for several minutes. “Hey the alarm,” she began, but before she could get out the rest of the sentence the alarm began ringing again. Dixie reluctantly stood and started for the door. “I better check and make sure it’s not the real thing. Just as sure as I don’t it will be and the building with burn down around us!”

“At least the alarm will stop ringing then,” Carol said as she followed Dixie out of the room into the hallway.

Later that day, after the fourth code of the day and the third unsuccessful one, Dixie, Joe Early and Kel Brackett left the treatment room and walked dejectedly to the nurse’s station. Dixie walked around the desk and sat on the stool. Propping her chin in her hands she said, “I swear, I’m going to have ‘no code’ tattooed on my chest!”

“Why would you want to do that, Dix?” Joe asked in puzzlement.

“Because I sure don’t want to go through that,” she said indicating the treatment room they had just left. “What good did we do him?”

“Dixie, we have to try…” Kel began in an admonitory voice.

“Why?” Dixie asked. She was in no mood to be reasonable. “Look at the one you did save today!” she said, “he’ll most likely be a vegetable on life support for the rest of his life.” She continued before either doctor could say anything, “No, don’t keep me alive on life support! Just let me go nice and peaceful.”

“But, Dix,” Kel began, “you know very well….” The rest of his sentence was lost as the alarm stopped ringing and the lights went out. “Now what?” Kel asked in frustration.

Within seconds the emergency lighting came on. Kel started toward the reception area with Joe following close behind him. More out of morbid curiosity than anything else, Dixie followed behind them. Walking down the hall in the unusual silence Dixie heard a rattling noise. After several moments she realized the sound was coming from her. From her pockets. Reaching in her hands she brought out two pair of bandage scissors and no less than four clamps. Normally she carried only one set of scissors and maybe one or two clamps, where the rest had come from she had no idea. Shrugging she returned them to her pockets, who knew they might come in handy later.

“Why did you turn the lights off?” Dixie heard Kel ask the maintenance man behind the reception desk.

“We thought if we shut down the whole system for a while the alarm might reset itself,” the man explained.

“Do you really think that will work,” Kel asked belligerently.

“Don’t know,” the man said shrugging, “It’s worth a try. Any way we’ll know in a jiffy.”

Before Kel could explode, as Dixie could see he was on the verge of doing, she grabbed his arm and turned him from the desk. “Come on Kel,” she said, “let’s go get some coffee.” Having spent the morning arguing with the man, off and on, Dixie knew it was no use. She half dragged Kel away from the maintenance man and the now darkened light board.

“I hope there’s a pot already made,” Kel said loudly and belligerently, “because we don’t have the electricity to make any more.”

Somewhere along the way Joe had been called into a treatment room and was no longer with them. Luckily there was a full pot of coffee freshly made. Dixie poured two cups, one for herself and one for Kel. They sat drinking them in silence.

“I’m sorry, Dix,” Kel said, “I shouldn’t have gotten so mad.”

“It’s okay, Kel, we’re all on edge to day,” she replied readily.

“Yeah,” Kel said, “It’s just on of those days, Dixie.”

The alarm and lights stayed off for an hour. When the lights finally came back on the alarm did not sound. In fact, the alarm did not ring the rest of the shift. When Dixie’s replacement came, Dixie, uncharacteristically for her, practically flung her report at the oncoming nurse and fled the department. Normally, Dixie loved working in the ER. She loved staying busy and she loved the people she worked with – by and large. Some days it was all she could do to drag herself away from the ER. Other days she was more than happy to be going home, this was one of those days.

As she left the building she heard the alarm ringing once again. Shaking her head she continued on to her car. She got in and drove away thinking: ‘It’s just one of those days, Dixie!’

The End