How i survived christmas...

So almost everyone on my previous list in their many variations, except item no 7 (thank god!), turned up over Christmas.

1. Fake hemiballismus old man with flaking fungal infections on his face who made writhing movements on his right side saying that he doesn't have control over it. I caught him out. Wanted to turf to psych, but just as we were about to do it, his stay in hospital finally gave him a hospital acquired infection and we had to keep him. Shit.

2. 20 year old girl who lived alone and drank too much alcohol on Christmas eve pretended to have ataxia and other subjective signs like vertigo and scored herself a CT Brain, which was completely normal of course, brought estranged mum and dad scurrying to bedside.

3. Middle aged man who recently broke up with girlfriend and lost $2k+ gambling while pissing drunk on Christmas Eve attempted suicide by ingesting 57 panadol tablets and 10 diclofenac. No idea why he bothered calling the ambulance if he was serious.

4. Chest pain. Not just one... What more do i need to say.

5. Obnoxious old lady from nursing home with sacral ulcers who refused meds, refused bloods, needed to be fed by hand, incontinent of faeces and urine, slapped, spat, smacked and yanked nursing stafff's hair while smearing faeces all over herself and bed. I didn't care if she was slightly demented, i told myself that if she even tried to hit me i'd hand lock her in self defense and then put her in restraints. Luckily, it didn't come down to that.

So our solution to the above plus the misery of working 16 hours a day without time for dinner break... chocolate, chips, biscuits, fruit juice... anything with carbs and fat.

Borrowing a phrase from an article in National Geographic which made a resonating impression on me: it's a wonder that i didn't detonate with the sheer force of rage.