Sunday - The Moon Effects and Other Stuff

The moon, the moon, so silver and cold, Her fickle temper has oft been told, Now shade--now bright and sunny-- But of all the lunar things that change, The one that shows most fickle and strange, And takes the most eccentric range, Is the moon--so called--of honey! ~~ Thomas Hood.

Whoops!  I lost a whole day somewhere.  I went to work yesterday thinking it was Friday.  And now it's Sunday!  Has someone seen Saturday? LOL.

Work wasn't too bad last night, except our special was assaults.  I was thinking "it must be a full moon", but nope, it's a "new moon".  Sometimes I think that is worse.  I read this article a couple of weeks back written by an astrologist who said that because we have such a low percentage of water in our body compared to the earth, that the moon has no gravitation effect on us or our psyche.

Phil Plait, an astronomer, writes in his blog that "Nurses, cops, doctors — they all swear that things get crazy around a full Moon. However, study after study shows that is simply not the case… yet the swearing continues."  Phil goes on to state:  "Never underestimate the power of anecdote! People read about this idea, and it makes some sort of sense — we’re raised with stories of werewolves, and the power of the full Moon on romance — and they believe it. After all, nurses, police, doctors, they can’t all be wrong, can they? Of course they can. Like anyone else, they remember the time the emergency room was a madhouse during a full Moon, and forget the dozens of times it wasn’t, or the far more common times it was crazy but there *wasn’t* a full Moon. That’s human nature.  The Moon does have a profound affect on Earth; it powers our tides, changes the Earth’s spin, and provides light at night (many animals have cycles based on the Moon), but there are no physical effects on humans themselves. The tides from the Moon are far, *far* too weak to affect us physically, and the gravity from it is incredibly weak as well. Also, the gravity of the Moon does not depend on its phase at all; the orbit of the Moon is elliptical, so sometimes it’s closer, and its gravity stronger, than other times. But that’s different from its phase, which only depends on the geometry of the Earth, Moon, and Sun.  The tides we feel on Earth are greatest at full and new Moon, because the Moon and Sun align in the sky, and their tidal force combines. But again, that’s far too weak to affect humans directly… and if it did, we’d expect to see the same craziness at new Moon as we do when it’s full. We don’t."

So in reality there is no "full moon effect".  Bull I say.  That man never worked a full moon Saturday night.  And I don't know if anyone has studied a new moon effect, I but I see it often as well.  (Go to this site for more interesting moon facts)

There was really only one person who I wanted to stab in the eye last night, and he really would have deserved it.  All I can say he was lucky that there were 4 police officers with him.  Apparently this man was arrested for a domestic disturbance call, which turned into a assault charge.  And, according to police, he has a history of beating his wife, which was what was going on when he was arrested.  But when I asked him why he wanted to be seen, he said "I told these policemen that I have carpel tunnel in both my wrists and that they couldn't put the handcuffs on me and they did anyway.  Now I have severe pain in both my wrists and my hands are numb.  I want the police to pay for my hospital visit."  "Sir, your medical bills are your responsibility.  Now do you want to be seen?"  "I am not going to check in until you get the police to pay for my hospital bill."  :Heavy sigh:  "Sir, I have absolutely no control over who gets billed, I'm the nurse.  Now do you want to check in or not?"  "I want my lawyer."  "Sir, you don't get a lawyer at the hospital, you get a doctor.  If you want a doctor you need to check in.  If you want a lawyer, these fine police officers will take you on your way to jail where you can be processed and speak with a lawyer.  Now do you want to check in or not?"  "Are you going to pay for my hospital bill?"  "OMG! Sir it is actually illegal for me or anyone else to discuss how you are going to pay your ER bill before you are seen by a doctor.  And I don't have time to sit here and argue this point with you.  I have sick people here who need to be taken care of.  Answer my question, do you want to be checked in or not?  Yes or no?"  "Not if I have to pay for this bill."  "Fine, sir.  I will bring you a form to sign that says that you do not want to be seen and then you can go on to jail."  So I go get a LWBS (leave without being seen) form and then the jerk decides he is going to check in and begins answering my questions.  Okay so he is soooo agitated and sweating like a pig (like someone who just did meth) and we can't get his blood pressure.  But the PA doesn't want to treat him unless he has a blood pressure.  So about 30 minutes later I go back in to get his blood pressure and he goes "No, you're not touching me.  I don't want to be seen anymore.  I'm not having anymore pain.  I justwant to leave."  Fine, sir.  I'll go get you a form to sign."  Now the idiot is leaving AMA (against medical advise) because he has been examined by the PA and no insurance company, government or otherwise, ever pays for AMAs.  So regardless of whether or not he qualifies for government assistance for his hospital bill, he just voided that option.  So when I bring the form back into this guy to sign he goes "where do I write 'I don't like you' on here?"  I said "Anywhere you want, just sign it and get out of here because the feeling is mutual."  Oh jeez, the drama of it all!

The up side was were were fully staffed last night.  Actually, we were overstaffed so the charge nurse went home as he didn't have any patients and I was in charge.  When he left, S said "De go ahead and put down that you were charge for 12 hours tonight."  I said "Why?" because he didn't leave until 10pm.  He said "Well you have actually been charging since you got here."  I laughed because I had been making all the decisions mainly because S wasn't in the ER hardly at all during the 3 hours of our shift he was there.  I said "Well I knew that, I just didn't know if you did!"  That was too funny.

Okay so I'm talking to David (who is out of town) on my way home this morning and all of a sudden there is all this noise on the other end of the line like he dropped the phone.  But it was more than that.  Like he fell or something.  And it took him a few minutes to pick the phone back up, too.  So when he did I was like "What on earth happened?"  David said, "Someone just shot at me through the hotel window and busted out the sliding glass door."  I'm like no way, if anything someone just threw a rock or something.  But David goes "A rock doesn't pierce the curtain."  Oh crap!  Who the heck wants to shoot at David?  He said, "Boy this brings back memories!"  I said call the police and get your room changed.  You know what he does?  He calls the police alright, but refuses to change rooms because he said "If they want to kill me, they will find out what room I'm in anyways.  I have too much stuff to pack up and move into another room.  The hotel is replacing the sliding door."  Oh, I give up on understanding that man!  And, it's not like he can change hotels or anything, because it's actually the only hotel up there on the reservation.  :Sigh:

Okay, well I guess I had better get off here and see what I can scrounge up for the boy's dinner.  Tomorrow morning...first day of school! 

Hope you all had a good weekend!

 Ciao!  De ;)

Tags: Full Moon Effect, Who's Really in Charge Here?, First Day of School