Priorities

We all have our priorities. In the Emergency Room, a drink of water never seems high on anyone’s list. Yet, for a patient whose mouth is dry from the fear of an unexpected ambulance trip followed by waiting and wondering for hours, a drink of water can be all that matters in the moment. It can be something normal, a gesture of kindness, a distraction, a small relief. So, when that water is unavailable, it becomes a focus of anxiety. The patient’s feelings of helplessness, of frustration, increase. Sometimes, there is nothing I can do. A patient’s illness or injury is such that they must wait for test results before they can have anything to eat or drink. This is simple to explain to most patients, and is usually acceptable.

Then there are the times when the ED is just busy, and so the doctor doesn’t get in to see a patient for quite a while. Sometimes, the patient’s nurse will make a judgment call, but sometimes she won’t. Or she, too, is busy. Or maybe I can’t find either doctor or nurse, and I must leave the patient waiting, attending to other things while I wish for one of them to reappear.

It is such a little thing, this drink of water, until I can’t get it for this patient. She is scared because her brain cancer is giving her seizures, and she doesn’t know if this means the cancer is getting worse. She is trying to be stoic, but when no one is in the room, she is crying. She has been waiting to see a doctor for over six hours, but because she is stable, she keeps getting pushed down the list. This she understands, but it is getting more and more difficult to explain why I can’t get her a drink. When the doctor does get in to see her, I am right there to ask if she can have water. I run off to fetch it for her so quick I almost miss the eye roll the doctor gives me with his response.

“It’s just a glass of water. Don’t know what her hurry is.” the doctor says to the patient when I return, but she just smiles at him.