maybe this will give you all a laugh. for those who don't know, i was married to a surgeon for 16 years and have mostly always worked in healthcare field. from psych hosp to ER and now counseling geriatric patients/families......

my friend had a horrid wreck and was airlifted to the trauma center in OKC. when my daughter and i got there, we couldn't believe the damage to his face......90 stitches on forehead......jaw broken and hanging down on his collarbone.....oh, it was horrible. voice box crushed, etc.

i slept in his room, on a cot that my butt fell through every night. but i was determined to not let anything "happen" to him......

early, early one morning i woke up and a doctor was standing there with his chart..he started in on my friend saying things like "i don't know why you're here, you need to go back to Austin and come back for outpatient surgery" and more........well, i turned on a light and saw that i didn't know him. i asked him who he was and he haughtily informed me that he was going to repair my friend's larnyx.........it took me about 15 seconds to compute what was really going on. i told him to come out in the hall with me.

i grabbed his coat and shoved him up against the wall and said this, "look, buddy, you got a consult slip in your box this morning and your sole responsibility is to repair his larnyx..you ARE NOT HIS PRIMARY DOCTOR AND AS SUCH, DON'T YOU COME BACK TO THIS ROOM AND DON'T HAVE ANOTHER CONVERSATION WITH HIM, you almost scared him to death and you don't even have the authority to discharge him from this hospital.....and i'll be here with him all the time and if i see you anywhere near him except in the OR, i'll report you to the state medical board"..........he literally slunk past the nurse station and into a door (that turned out to be a closet).....as he closed the closet door all of the nurses turned to me and applauded and gave me high fives.........the charge nurse said, "pat, that was about three years overdue".........i "dusted" my hands off, grinned and went back to the bed without a place for my butt and told Robert to now worry.....he didn't have to get out of bed and drive himself to Austin just yet............xoxoxo pat