Mmm Mmm Good

Took care of an absolutely delightful older lady the other night who had the misfortune of falling at home while eating dinner.  Still very high functioning, she described how she slipped on a rug while cleaning her empty soup bowl.  EMS delivered her to us with an obvious and painful-looking shoulder dislocation, and though she winced mightily while being transfered to our stretcher, she seemed more concerned that her hair wasn't done and she wasn't "dressed properly" to leave the house (I don't know if she was comforted or shocked when told that many of our patients come in with no clothing at all).

I helped get her settled while the nurse went to grab some morphine to take the edge off the pain and the resident explained how he would try to reduce the shoulder.  I had just finished hooking her up to the monitor when the nurse returned to push the pain meds.  The patient smiled and was in the middle of thanking all of us for taking care of her when she promptly began to vomit all over the nurse who was charting at the bedside.  

This wasn't just a little spitup, either - we're talking serious, projectile vomit aimed squarely at the nurse's chest that continued to erupt over the stretcher as the heavy, moist odor of warm soup tinged with bile quickly filled the room.  The resident and I couldn't contain our laughter as the nurse turned to the mortified little old lady and, wiping little yellow chunks off her scrubs, asked "Corn chowder tonight?"