Most days I report via text or email when I go off my shift. This was today's report:

My report:

"(Name redacted) died. (Name redacted-different patient) played Moses to his foley this AM, setting it free from its prior bondage of servitude. I kindly rethreaded his gentleman sausage with a new 16Fr foley just now. Clear yellow urine out~60cc.

Big (name redacted) had to pee
His Foley out, it was up to me.

With a smile and slight of hand
Leading a new Foley, like Jews to the Promised Land!

Into his bladder with nary a bump
When it comes to Foleys, I ain't no chump!"

Have to find humor where one can!

Thanks for the laughs, Loaf...I needed them today.

Mortuus wrote:Thanks for the laughs, Loaf...I needed them today.

All in good fun. As my friend Jeff, also an RN, said, "we have to do something to stay sane!"

Saw the old fellow with the Foley issue again last night. Sweetest guy and family. Family struggling as the patient has appeared to do a 180 since coming home last week. Has expended every ounce of energy trying to be with family and friends. He is ready now and will decline rapidly, sadly. Says he is tired of fighting.

WW II Navy vet, spent his stent on a cruiser in the South Pacific. Hard working man with a heart of gold. Will be sad to see him go.

Yeah, it's very sad; I grew up worshipping the guys who fought in WWII & Korea, our Greatest Generation. They were still young and in their prime, the dads and friend's dads, uncles, the guy who owned the local bowling alley, or the Micky-D's, or even Big Joe's Pizza. On and on, countless stories told by and about a generation of heroes who survived the Great Depression, kicked the shit out of fascism and returned home to manage the industrial & technological boom that followed the war. The only mistake they made was bringing The Worst Generation (AKA "Baby-Boomers," my unfortunate group of idiots ) into being. And now the greatest generation are all frail, their shitty kids are going grey (and wearing their hair in pony-tails) and, like the gent you're caring for, they are largely prepared to move on. It breaks my heart, but this new crop 'o kids out there today really impresses me, like my nephew-the-math-whiz is headed off to the Air Farce Academy this fall. Perhaps they're our new greatest generation...?

Anyhow, if you could, please shake the gentleman's hand and tell him a semi-old ( ), retired nasal radiator friend of yours just wanted to say 'thank you for your service."

Will do, Mort. Will do.

Oh, and I agree and hope that the new generation will be better than mine...