The stupid: It BURNS.

This has been One Of Those Weeks. The level of Stupid has gotten to the point that, if somebody doesn't do something soon, the Stupid will all roll together into one big ball of Damn That Was Dumb and there'll be a cataclysm.

For instance, Doctor Fuquad, you should probably not put a luer-lock access on to an arterial line. (For you non-medical types, an arterial line is just what it sounds like: a big IV-type thing that goes into an artery in your wrist so we can monitor your blood pressure directly during surgery.) For one thing, if you're monitoring pressures with an A-line, the luer-lock access will screw things up and make it look like the patient is running a blood pressure of 264/264. For another, and here is where I start to get all-cappy, YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO PUT ANYTHING INTO AN ARTERIAL LINE EVER EVER EVER AND PUTTING AN ACCESS ON ONE MIGHT CONFUSE PEOPLE.

Let's make it simple, Doc: arterial lines are to be flushed only with pressure bags through pressure lines and are supposed to be directly connected to whatever they're going to. Luer-lock IV accesses are only for intraVENOUS access and are meant to allow you to shoot drugs through them. YOU ARE A MORON.

Gracious. Was that a rant? I think that was a rant.

*ahem*

Okay, boys, second thing: If you've done belly surgery on a patient, and that patient has developed a rigid abdomen and a sharply falling hematocrit about two hours after surgery, please don't keep that patient in the CCU for eight more hours to see if the bleeding will stop on its own.

(Yes, I just said that. And I just put my head in my hands In Remembrance Of Things Stupid.)

Ten hours after surgery, things were going.....badly for that poor bastard. Dr. Fuquad's brother, Dr. Diqhed, looked with some surprise at the lab values that were incompatible with life. A hemoglobin of five-and-a-half and a pH of seven-point-one? (For you non-medical types, these lab values are both fatal and entirely preventable. If you're not STUPID.) Well, then! Let's pour eight fucking units of blood into this guy using pressure bags, and if we don't have enough pressure bags, let's have Jo just stand there and squeeze!

And let's watch the blood we pour into the patient pour straight out into his already board-like belly!

Dr. Diqhed stopped by the unit after his patient's second surgery and expressed surprise at how well the patient looked. I couldn't stop myself--I hate this guy; he's an attending who should be weaving baskets--and said, "Yeah, it's amazing how great people do ONCE YOU STOP THE BLEEDING." (YOU MORON)

Uh, oh. Ranty again. So very sorry.

*koff*

And, finally, Manglement At That Other Hospital? It doesn't matter how sick your immunocompromised patient is with his widely-disseminated herpes simplex: you probably shouldn't put him into a unit meant for people who are seriously immunocompromised. Because if you do, all those poor bastards will be showing up at Sunnydale's CCU, medevaced in with screaming disseminated herpes simplex infections. It really doesn't matter how much negative pressure you have and how much your nurses scrub; that shit will travel.

Herpes encephalitis is bad enough. Herpes encephalitis combined with a cutaneous herpes outbreak bad enough to obscure major anatomical landmarks is worse. Like, if I can't see the person's navel for the blisters, that person is fucking SICK. And, if not for the level of MORON at your fine establishment, this could've been prevented.

*rubs eyes*

Every morning between three-thirty and five I get a little shirty and short-tempered. This week's been worse. I only cry when I'm angry or frustrated, and today I found myself sitting in the locker room on a bench, facing the wall, trying to decide whether breaking my hand by punching that wall was worth it, or whether I should just sacrifice my mascara to the Stupid.

I ended up having some Gatorade and a chicken sandwich and going back to work. Sometimes there isn't enough time to get upset about The Stupid; you just have to try to fix it.