friday around lunchtime we heard a patient next door moving some furniture and yelling violently. it lasted a few seconds. perhaps it was a child who didn't want to get vaccinated? we often hear crying children on our floor.

a while later we heard the patient again. this time everyone became silent to try to figure out what was going on. the yelling persisted longer. then we decided to peek down the hall to see what the commotion was.

i don't know any bad words in spanish. but monin told us that he was definitely cussing and also threatening to kill someone. people were paging security. and a couple male coworkers came down to offer help just in case he needed to be restrained. eventually the managers called the cops to take him to a crisis center.

speculation is that he was having anxiety/seizures, but also likely spiritual attack or demonic attack? the whole staff kinda stopped to pray for him. like laying hands style. hehe. micronesia flashback here...

we found out who this patient was. and i actually am very fond of him! he's always been chill with me and polite. when he was in prison, he got a bunch of tattoos, including half his face. including a spider web around his eye, and a skull/teeth/mandible, decorated with a baby cartoon red devil on his cheek. i wish someone would laser that piece off. maybe it was cool when he was 20. but 20-25 years later, i'm sure he regrets it.

the battle is real here.

ok this is gross.

one man's definition of love?
-i went to the front desk to make a copy of some forms and then i froze, mouth open, stared at a man in the waiting room popping his wife/girlfriend/sister/random stranger's zit on her temple. at first i thought, maybe he's giving a head massage. and then looking more closely i saw that he was indeed digitally draining her pimple.
blech!!!

so little did i know that this was my next patient.

he sat in the chair. and then told me about how much pain he's been having. then reached in his pocket and told me he was taking these pills to no avail, and showed me the bottle.

it was a bottle, labelled tramadol. but WAIT. the name on the label was cut off. totally not legal. anyway, no need to be indirect here, so i just directly asked him, "why is there no name on this bottle?!?!?!?!?" PORQUE?!!!!

his answer that the drugs belonged to his ex-girlfriend.

how is that a legitimate/relevant answer to my question? i'm not sure.

am i supposed to infer that his thought process was that he got a new girlfriend and perhaps she didn't want to see the ex's name anywhere, so she cut her name off the label? (kinda like the patient who turned his ex's name tattoo on his neck into some squiggly design? or the other patient who put a big black rectangle tattoo over his ex-wife's name tat on his arm?)

or... he had trouble getting over her, because her name just kept popping up everywhere, that he finally gave in and cut out her name.

anyway, at least we were eventually able to remove his rotting wisdom tooth, which smelled like rotting wisdom tooth.

had to look at a few pictures of puppies after that experience to feel better.