The last post was a bit depressing...

so let me leave you with a more upbeat one.

At this ER, there was a medical tech named Max.  Max was Russian, determined to be a doctor, about 23, and very, very cute.  Also very shy and polite.

There was another tech named Steve who was studying to be a nurse.  He was really a character.  Everybody loved him; he was always making people laugh.  I heard after I left the area that he had passed his RN boards, and sent him a note congratulating him.  One of Steve's favorite things to do was play practical jokes on ER staff.  He was such a ham that he could get away with even playing some pranks on doctors, and they'd just laugh.

Steve liked few things more than playing jokes on Max.  Max had quite a sense of humor, but was very serious and dedicated most of the time.  Steve shook him up a little, and that was a good thing for both of them.

One day, Max fought back.

After a week on which he had some sort of joke played on him during EVERY shift by Steve, he finally came up with a somewhat fiendish idea.

That Friday (a completely dead evening, I might add) he approached Steved with a worried expression on his face.

"Steve, I've been trying to figure out how to get these arm braces just right, but I can't seem to make them go on properly. I'm supposed to demonstrate this for class tomorrow, and I'm worried that I'll mess it up."

I can't remember exactly what these braces consisted of.  While not plaster casts, they involved a splint around the thumb/forefinger area and miles of gauze.

Steve, being a softhearted guy, fell for it.  He said, "Oh, why don't you practice on me, and I can tell you what you're doing wrong?"

"Oh," said Max, innocently, "Are you sure?  I don't want to bother you."

"Naw, go ahead."

So Max does a very credible job of wrapping Steve's forearms in bandages and splint material.  At the end of it, Steve can't use his thumb/forefinger for anything involving a pincer grasp, because they are held apart by splint material.

At that point, one of the ER docs (another frequent victim of Steve's) suddenly yells that the patient in Room 4 is coding.  (a side note: there was no patient in room 4).  Room 4 was one of the rooms assigned to Steve.

The nurses etc at the desk RUN to Room 4 (or, more appropriately, just around the corner so they can watch), leaving Steve standing at the desk and cussing an absolute blue streak because he can't get the bandages off.  Eventually, he's trying to use his teeth to remove the gauze when the staff can't hold back the laughter any longer.

Once he gets it, he starts laughing.  And laughing.  And laughing.

After that, he took a decidedly "if you can' t bat 'em, join 'em" attitude, and would usually round Max up to help him come up with the pranks.

One of the few I remember was placing decaf in the doctors' coffee machine.  Don't ask why the doctors had a separate coffee machine from the rest of the staff when they all shared a break room.  It didn't make sense to anyone.  But it was even LABELED "Doctors' Coffee."  One day, there was an unusually rude (and new) doctor on who had been giving the nurses holy heck for nothing.  These two techs went to the breakroom and replaced the "doctors coffee" with decaf.  That doc kept chugging the stuff down, but it never seemed to do anything for him.  (snort, giggle)