Can You Have Fun in the Emergency Room?
Oct 14, 2025
This week’s newsletter is a peek into how I work. It’s also a sincere thank-you to people who deserve more recognition than they often get.
Now and then I’ll open up the newsletter Word doc I started in 2022. With about 85,000 words, this one document has more words than the average non-fiction book. Perhaps one day I’ll see if it will organize itself into a book. For now, here’s the newsletter process I’ve followed for years:
- About once a month I type in the Tuesday dates for the following month and then come up with an idea for each newsletter. Often, I use one of those “weird holiday” websites for ideas. For instance, this week is Emergency Nurses Week. More on that in a minute.
- When the urge to write comes over me, I’ll open up this document, look at the ideas for inspiration and then start writing. I may or may not cite the holiday I’m spring-boarding from, and I always have fun spinning a gentle lesson around it.
- Once each newsletter is done, I come up with a good title, find a fun image that goes with it, and then post it as a blog on my website as well as a newsletter to go out to the people who have subscribed.
- Often, I have the newsletters ready to go a month before they’ll actually show up on my site or in your “in” box. Once or twice, due to big news stories, I’ve gone back in and replaced what was planned with something more appropriate. Generally, though, once it’s loaded up, this newsletter goes out on auto-pilot.
And that, dear reader, is how a newsletter about dancing with dogs went out last week, which was National Dancing Week, at the same time as I was icing a badly sprained and mildly broken foot and ankle. Last week’s newsletter was written well before I found a hole in my back yard the hard way.
Now for this week’s newsletter – it’s a love letter to ER nurses.
It’s not fun to fall suddenly, hear the loud snap of your foot and ankle moving in ways they’re not supposed to go, and end up on the ground, wondering how bad the damage was. OK, so laughing at myself for the Great Poop-Bag Toss as I fell was kinda fun – why the heck did I throw the bag? I wish there was video – we would, however, have to bleep out a very bad word.
I could walk, so fed the dogs, crated them, and headed for the ER. It was my right foot, so I channeled my stick-shift brain and used the left foot for the brakes. Getting through security and check-in on Sunday evening wasn’t fun – I guess those people didn’t want to have to be there either.
The whole night changed when I was taken into the triage area. The nurses were fun. FUN! They were having fun with each other, and if you know even just a little bit about me, you know I hopped on the fun train right away. After getting my vitals checked and telling the story of why my right ankle was rapidly swelling, I was taken to x-ray, where more fun ensued, and then to a small room to wait for the doctor.
As I waited, I marveled at the atmosphere in this ER. I could tell that the nurses were competent and professional. I could also tell that they probably were having a bit of a slow night, and that maybe nothing life-or-death serious had come through their doors that night. And I was grateful.
- Grateful to not have serious injuries that interrupted their fun.
- Grateful that they were willing to have fun in my presence.
- Grateful that they let me join in their fun.
- Grateful for their slow night because it meant that others weren’t having a really bad night.
- Grateful that the doctor fit right in when she showed up and joined us all on the fun train.
I hope you don’t have to go to the emergency room for any reason this week. If you do, I hope you have as much fun in yours as I had in mine. No matter what, take a moment to say thank you to all the nurses you know, whether ER nurses or not, because the work they do is important and often thankless.
Here’s to the ER crew at Kaiser Permanente Southwood in Stockbridge, GA – y’all are fun!!
