I was in the ER the other night and it was a pretty long wait... about 5 hours. Some guy in there was complaining almost non-stop about his leg that was supposedly infected and smelled bad, and he kept going on and on to anyone who would listen, as well as yelling at the nurses about how he hoped it didn't have to be amputated since he had to wait so long.
At first, I agreed with him... but after a while it just became so incredibly non-stop and excessive that I started wondering how bad it really was...
I almost WANTED to see the guy's leg, as gross as it might be, just to satisfy some curiosity and give some validation of some sort to his complaints for myself and my own sake of listening to it the whole time.
Does anyone else have this weird sense of curiosity... where it doesn't matter after a while how gross or bad something is to look at, but you just WANT to see things if someone talks about it (especially complaining about something) enough?
I mean, everyone has curiosity to some extent, I think... but mine usually creeps up (with things like this) when I'm starting to get a headache from listening about it so much. I never start off all that curious though, especially in ERs 'cuz I know it's a place where you could be exposed to all sorts of nasty stuff that you wouldn't want to deal with yourself... but there is still that part of me if I hear someone complain enough... maybe it's one of those things, like, I think if I can see it and validate it for them or agree or something, that maybe they will shut up about it? Or maybe it's just to make the constant complaining more tolerable.
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Sorry about the incredibly long post...
"I enjoyed the meetings, too. It was like having friends." -Luna Lovegood
