Dinner in the E.R.

Well, if you didn’t know already my husband…Ken…is an Emergency Room Physician. Which when I met him was the beginning of the show E.R., remember in the George Clooney days? No, well if you don’t then you are too young to be reading my blog! It’s not like the show, everyone used to ask that, and it’s not. They actually go home and have a life. And when they are at work they are so freaking busy there is no time for smoochin in the utility closet….although Kens says there have been stories. But he’s a good guys. He doesn’t go there, no time for gossip when people are dying, literally. I have to brag about him…cause he is AWESOME. Everyone likes him, he is an awesome teacher, in that he takes time with the residents and the patients to try and teach them about what they need to do to help themselves. I used to kinda get sick of hearing what a super duper guys he was….(that was back in my barefoot, fat, and pregnant days when I rarely left the house….and my self esteem was at record lows), every time I’d meet someone from the hospital they’d always gush about Dr. Johnson…yeh yeh yeh…like I don’t know he’s amazing!

Okay where am I going with all this blah blah about my hubby? The other night we were eating some sort of noodle and sauce concoction, and Kenny starts in telling a story about a Q-tip (a.k.a. cute old lady with grey hair) he had taken care of and how sick she was and this and that about her bowels….well you get the idea…and Cece (7yr) drops her fork leans back and says “pleeeaaase, how am I suppose to eat when you are talkin like that?”. Really the rest if us hadn’t even missed a bite, …guts-“hey anymore noodles left”, blood, bones sticking out of flesh- “pass another piece of chicken”, puss squirting across the room- “could I have more mashed potato’s?”, body impaled on a pole- “wow this spaghetti with meatballs is awesome!”. You see this is how our dinner conversation usually goes. The older kids and I are just used to it, or are desensitized to it, I don’t know…

What my husband deals with and sees, is incomprehensible most days to me. He is not at an intercity hospital, anymore, he used to be. He also used to be a flight physician for AeroMed. Those days are behind him. But he stills sees humanity at it’s finest. I always say that Kens view of “normal” is not what most people would say “normal” is. Like what’s a normal cut, or a normal zit, or a normal rash, or for goodness sake a normal family dynamic. He has seen a lot…..

Do you know some people that are funny and when you are around them you just want them to be funny? It’s like our friend Mike, he is so blasted funny, but he just IS funny he doesn’t try to be. People always ask him to be funny. That’s kinda like Ken with his E.R. stories. Sometimes they are all at the surface and they come flying out, and people start gathering around, but mostly it’s just a day to day thing for him. Just another day at the “office”. Everyone always remembers his stories though. My sister just said there other day, they had some friends over and they got telling “Ken stories”. We were like “what stories were those?”, and they rattled off a handful of crazy things that Ken has seen….we were like “oh yeah, uh-huh, that was crazy, ooooh that was horrible”.

Of course I have to be careful, there are laws, PRIVACY laws, ya know?! Not that I know any names, he never tells me that stuff just the stories… and unfortunately most are rated PG-13, so my E.R. Doc wife story section might not be for the faint of heart. Stay tuned….