assholes

for the last two days, i've taken care of a very kind gentleman. he is sick and weak. and he is a dentist.

being the judgmental person i am, i assumed he would be smart, inquisitive regarding his health, and perhaps a bit arrogant. i don't know why. but sadly, that's my perception of physicians. i don't like caring for medical professionals. we make bad patients!

but he was none of the above. he thanked me for every last task, despite being in pain and feeling miserable. he called me sweetheart (which i actually hate and think is disrespectful of my age and professionalism - but that's another story), i think in a kind tone. and my day with him was pleasant.

his wife however. she was a different story. a total nightmare. seriously, i wanted to shoot her. thankfully, she only arrived at 5:00 pm - so i had just 2.5 hours with her. but honestly, she may have been the most annoying person i've cared for.

her husband returned from a procedure quite sedated. he needed to be transferred from a stretcher to the bed. and she sat and watched us, commenting every 2 seconds, accusing us of almost dropping him (which we didn't), reminding us to be careful of his leg (duh, i've spent the last two days with him helping him out of bed and transferring him. i know he's in pain. and i'm not going to be careless and intentionally hurt him), and asking why i needed to do certain things i was doing (like log-roll him over soiled sheets to protect his skin from laying in shit). i can't make this lady sound annoying enough. i cannot describe the tension in the room. the other nurse i had in there with me to help just kept looking at me with this look, like "really, is she being so inappropriate?"

the worst comment...

eventually i helped the dentist to the commode. when he was finished, i helped him stand and proceeded to clean his backside. she said, "i would offer to do that, but you got training for this, right? i mean, you get paid to do this after all!" i could hardly contain myself. "really, you think i went to nursing school to learn how to wipe butts?"

i don't get paid enough. i don't mind wiping behinds. if i ever need help cleaning myself, i'll be thankful to have a nurse that does so gently and with respect. it's not the ass-wiping that makes nursing challenging, it's the assholes i sometimes deal with! (excuse my language).