Years and years ago, I was covering the ER X-ray dept during the dinner hour. Things were a little slow that night. One chest x-ray here, an ankle x-ray there and so on.
Then I received a request for an abdomen x-ray of a young woman in her 20's. Business being slow as it was, I volunteered to go get her from her little curtained room. I walked up to the curtained area, pulled back the curtained and there sat a lovely blond haired, green eyed beauty. With legs that went on forever. In a patient gown that did her no justice at all! She was cute! I tell no lie. So I wheeled her over in the stretcher. As we made our way to the X-ray room I struck up a conversation about the day and traffic and how long her wait was....blah blah blah. She was well spoken and seemed very bright. Animated. Talked with her hands a little bit. But still very nice. Truly not our typical patient.
I get her on the X-ray table for her abdomen X-ray, I ask her if she's preg-os, she says no, I take the film. Simple. Cut
and dry right? Then I developed the film to find that.....girlfriend had some weird eating habits. In her stomach I saw what looked like coins, a small spoon and a 9 volt battery. She had Pica. That's a condition where you eat things that have no nutritional value at all. For instance: Coins, spoons, salt shaker tops, paper clips, batteries....etc. Its really strange.I asked her what happened and she said,"That's just something I do from time to time." I asked her what she meant. She told me that as long as she could remember, she just gets the urge to eat something made of metal. Knowing full well that it's bad for her. That she could choke and that it could poison her system. Aside from her weird eating habits she seemed really normal. And cute!!!
Having finished her X-ray I put her back in the stretcher and took her back to the ER area. As we turned the corner, I maneuvered near an admin desk and there on the edge of the counter were a bunch of paper clips. Guess what happened next. Go ahead take a guess. If you guessed she grabbed the paper clips tossed them back like peanut....You guessed right! She reached out with her left hand, grabbed that fistful of clips and tossed her head back like you and me taking our multi-vitamins in the morning. Those paper clips were GONE. I had never seen anything like it!! Except for maybe the occasional Fear Factor episode. She made it look easy. I put her in her room and went to the ER Doctor to rat her out. The Dr. says,"Heather's here? Oh she's one of my favorites. Which curtain? Did we call Endoscopy yet?" Apparently "Heather" (not her real name....her real name was Tracy)was a regular customer. After all that, one of the other techs came down from dinner and says,"Hey do you wanna go eat? Oh Heather was here? Ah she's nice. Hey go eat." As I went to eat I saw Heather going down the hall with one of the Endoscopy nurses. They were chatting like old friends...I ate a salad that night.
Go easy people and Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Gonzo
