Be Patient

"If there were no desire to heal
The damaged and broken met along
This tedious path I've chosen here
I certainly would have walked away by now..."
Tool, The Patient

What's black and deadly and spread all over New Orleans? Whatever you're thinking, it's wrong. The right answer is the motherfucking plague.
Seriously. Shit got bubonic today.

You know what? I'll take it. If I have to fight a plague, I'd rather have to deal with a bubonic plague over septicemic; it's a lot easier to treat the hemorrhagic inflammation of the lymph nodes (that's the bullshit that makes the bits near your armpits and thighs swell up all nasty like. The technical term for nasty swelly bits is buboes) than treat free-floating blood clots, but that's strictly my own medical preference. If it had been septicemic plague, I don't know if even I could have helped all of those people, that shit hits fast. People die in a day, bleeding from one organ into another and usually suffering lots of hematemesis (they vomit blood). So there's that.
Actually, if I'm being completely honest (my journal, so I am), my medical preference would be that the plague stayed where it fucking belongs - in the Dark Ages.
Like waiting on my puppies and unicorns vision, I won't hold my breath.

I'm not sure if I should be trying to pin this one on Caleb, but he's a convenient enough target. So he's on the list now. What list? My list of people and things that just need to roll over and die (and stay dead instead of coming back to piss us off). I think I'll probably be adding the plague - fuck it, plagues in general, and cancer - to that list.
So, yeah. We figured out the sirens. I'm really glad Nate asked me to go with him, the CDC knows fuck all about what they're doing.
Well, okay, to their credit they did at least suspect the correct contagion. Their mistake was taking so much time for verification, instead of automatically beginning blanket treatment. I understand the need to protect resources, medicine's not cheap, but... But I'm just grumpy.
I lost some patients today, which never gets to be any more fun. I'm pretty sure I did everything I could.
We spent hours there, Nate and I. When we left, it was because I couldn't bear to just stand around watching people die anymore, the ones I didn't get to quickly enough.
I didn't lose any kids though, thank the gods. I mean, some were infected but they took to the treatment very well.
At least that way I left the hospital with dry eyes and my composure more or less intact. And Nate was really helpful, not just with the way he got us in (he needs to teach me that trick, I'm as inconspicuous as a neon pink feather boa) but also with administering the vaccines and making people listen to me. I don't care if it sounds narcissistic, having the doctors just trust me probably saved some lives.
Wish I'd saved more, but I'll take what I got over nothing.