[SEOBowhntr]

I was working last night (Friday) and a patient I'd taken care of a couple days earlier in the week seemed to be doing better when we came in, he was up to a chair, and getting trial feedings, etc. VS were stable, and things were looking pretty good for him. He was S/P large abd. surgery, and his course of recovery was going to be a long road, but his positive attitude would hopefully get him there.

Well, around 2:45 in the morning, as I walk down the hall, I notice that his ECG is showing some ST elevation. Pull up his "View all leads," and he's in the early phases of having a nice moderate sized Anterior MI. I hoped I was wrong, but the tell tale signs of ST elevation in contiguous leads told me that there was no way I was wrong. Now his course of recovering has lead him back to ICU, and he's dealing with yet another hurdle in what was already expected to be a long recovery. I suppose that it is part of the BEAST of the job, but I just hate it when someone we've worked relatively hard to get better takes such a brutal backslide. And in this situation, I HATE being right.......

Sometimes I believe "Ignorance truly would be blissful...."