Amid the chaos/ a funny story

Yesterday around 4 pm Ethan was practicing the piano. Our piano is in our basement rec room, just outside my office. I was still working and was planning to work until around 5:00. Ethan was busy later in the evening though, so he had to fit his piano practice in then while I was down there.

Anyway, he was practicing a brand new song, a Christmas song. As it goes, when you’re learning a new song, you make a lot of mistakes. He was slowly plodding along, sightreading the music, playing wrong notes and then fixing them. It sounded….. uh, really nice. 🤣

As I was reviewing a patient’s chart in the other room, I had a moment where I had to bite my tongue from yelling, “Okay, STOP already!!” (Or at least play a song you know better, for the love of God.)

It made me think of that scene in It’s a Wonderful Life. You know the one? Where George is in total chaos mode after the whole bank debacle, and he is about to lose it. He comes home, all frantic, and the house is full of commotion with the kids and his wife and Christmas decorations going up and Janie won’t stop playing “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” on the piano over and over and over….

I love that scene. I think it so perfectly encapsulates what STRESS looks like. And how totally normal things can totally set a person off, under the right circumstances. He was falling apart internally, but no one else even knew what was happening. You can just see the world spinning around him, about to break into pieces.

This scene also always makes me think of a funny story from when I worked in the hospital.

One day, a Saturday, I think, we had an Amish patient on the unit. It was around the holidays, and the large, extended, very lovely Amish family offered to sing carols in the patient lounge.

Our unit was shaped like a big cross. Think the reception desk in the middle, with 4 hallways extending in either direction. The lounge was located at the end of one hall.

So anyway, they were set up down there, singing some beautiful, peaceful songs. It was very pleasant for all of us staff and the other patients to enjoy.

All of a sudden, a patient down a different hallway (but just around the corner), had some kind of major meltdown. To the point that he was being combative and Security had to be called to help contain him, etc. All sorts of people came running, alarms were going off, voices were raised…. you get the idea. It was pure chaos.

However, meanwhile, down in the patient lounge, the sweet Amish family had no idea that anything was going on down around the corner. So, they just kept on singing!

The songs carried perfectly down the hallway, essentially creating a “soundtrack” for this total mess of a situation unfolding in this patient’s room.

It wasn’t my patient, so I wasn’t directly involved. A few of us were standing nearby, just checking if anything more was needed, etc. I remember catching one of my co-workers’ eyes and almost dying laughing at the absurdity of the situation. It felt like a scene out of a comedy movie, with sheer chaos unfolding, with these angelic voices serenading us simultaneously. (Fortunately, the patient was fine physically; it was more of an emotional situation, and it settled down soon enough.)

But I remember we were all looking at each other like, “What is happening right now?!”

Hahaha!!! Oh, I do sometimes miss the funny stories that came out of working on the inpatient unit. There was never a dull moment. lol!

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for the ability to pay people electronically! Had to send money over to someone for a shared gift, and it’s so convenient.