Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Client Counting aka the awkwardness of the er.

So, one of the annoying things about hanging out in the emergency room of my nearest hospital happens to be the number of clients I see there. I decided to play the client counting game, but really, I was too tired. I saw at least two that I know quite well though, and then a bunch who I know, but don't really know and hopefully wouldn't recognize me. Fine, whatever.

The awkwardness though. I'm sitting in the er by myself crying because I felt so sick (note, I feel MUCH better now, it's 4AM and I'm awake, but I've slept for like 14 hours). One of my higher functioning clients comes over and tries to comfort me. This is definitely an awkward situation. I mean, I like the guy, and if it wasn't for the fact that he was my client (addiction related) I could totally be friends with him, he's my age, and quite nice. But still. Here's me, sitting in the er, crying and sick with said client, whose just in for some tests or something, comforting me.

I suppose next time I should probably go to a different er if I want to avoid situations like this. I knew which one I was choosing, but it was the closest and since I was so nauseous I didn't want to go for a long drive. In retrospect, I don't think it will hurt my professional relationship too greatly with this particular client because we don't have a lot to do with each other now that he's in transitional housing, but yeah, it just felt kind of awkward, but I was so sick, that I couldn't do anything about it.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think often when you need to go to ER it is just a matter of going to the nearest one! I would do exactly the same - you're still human and get ill and upset just like anyone. Nothing can really change that and it's better than driving for hours when you're sick.. that's what I think anyway