NEW WEEKLY VOTING INCENTIVE!!! PUCKWATCH!!!
All throughout June, we’ll be paying tribute to Baywatch, that awful show from the 90’s! Because hey, if Hollywood is doing it… Get your beach on and vote for Puck on TWC! And remember, this idea came from THE PATRONS! Patrons on Patreon who pledge $5 or more a month get a personal say in what incentives are coming your way! If YOU want to put your two cents in, then my HEAD ON OVER TO PATREON and join the select club!
VOTE FOR NO HASSLE, ONLY THE HOFF!!!
As for this comic…
We come full circle, in a way. This is not the first time we've been in the ultrasound lab within the context of this comic. Of course, these are different circumstances. But we do get a return of the ultrasound technician, whom we haven't seen since Puck #142. Which was almost five years ago. Sheesh. Time does not fly in this comic.
Puck 392
NEW WEEKLY VOTING INCENTIVE!!! PUCKWATCH!!!
All throughout June, we’ll be paying tribute to Baywatch, that awful show from the 90’s! Because hey, if Hollywood is doing it… Get your beach on and vote for Puck on TWC! And remember, this idea came from THE PATRONS! Patrons on Patreon who pledge $5 or more a month get a personal say in what incentives are coming your way! If YOU want to put your two cents in, then my HEAD ON OVER TO PATREON and join the select club!
VOTE FOR NO HASSLE, ONLY THE HOFF!!!
As for this comic…
We come full circle, in a way. This is not the first time we've been in the ultrasound lab within the context of this comic. Of course, these are different circumstances. But we do get a return of the ultrasound technician, whom we haven't seen since Puck #142. Which was almost five years ago. Sheesh. Time does not fly in this comic.
You gotta imagine that if you’re a doctor, your least favorite part of the job is having to go below the belt. It’s never a fun experience.
I wonder if there’s a ‘strictly above the belt’ doctor. Oh yeah. Dentist. But the mouth is its own pool of grossness, so I guess all medical jobs are nightmare fuel.
Otorhynolaryngologist. Head and neck cancer surgeon. Thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon (though they do have to harvest saphenous veins). Hand surgeons. None of these go “below the belt.” And my bf says that doing going “below the belt.” is no biggie, the problems are dealing with insurance companies or the government.
True. Administrative nightmares are always the worst part of every job.
@Susan
ophthalmologist
I didn’t say it was a complete list. I just got tired of typing 😛
@Susan
Eye Doctor
What, getting paid to do what perberts get arrested for?
P–verts diagnose cancer/gross carnival sideshow type swelling?
You don’t know their hobbies…
It’s only fun if they find you ‘very’ attractive
I’ve been through this when i went to get my guts examined.
It’s fun, huh? So uncomfortable and awkward and weird! Who wouldn’t love the experience?
try getting a mri with a exobrace on(rods in bones and stuff) fun times
I plan not to. (Though I think that experience is one few people really plan to have as part of their lives.)
Must’a left moments like that out of the training films.
Some things training cannot prepare you for.
Yes. I called it.
You called it? What’s ‘it’?
I can speak from experience that the ultrasound gel is COLD AS HELL down below the 38th parallel.
I think they keep it in the fridge or something.
Probably a freezer. Maybe chilled by LN2.
Really? My experience was warm. Just scared to chills is all.
I don’t remember the gel being unusually cold when I had a cardiac ultrasound.
I mean, the whole place was cold, but the gel didn’t seem way the hell colder.
Maybe it’s individual taste? Or individual cruelty depending on the technician?
Gecko, this is funny. I started laughing because she reminds me of three things.
1, Rosie somewhere fuming that the tech can’t soak her hands in Palmolive.
2. Somewhere is a pile of dishes waiting patiently.
3. Babs berating Greg in the car.
I do not know what numbers one through three are, exactly, but I’ll take it as a compliment.
I’ll wait a while before I let you know what that means.
Nice callback with the title.
Seriously though, Puck gets the title “Ancient Fairy of Lore.” (Which appears to mean nothing). Colin needs a worthless title too!… Any ideas?
I don’t know. Do you have two thumbs and ____________?
How about “Colin, Emperor of Nerdania”?
While one the right track I would say he is more of a Baron.
Mmm. Or a Marquis?
Marquis De Sad?
De Sadsack.
I can’t say I blame her for referring to it as a waking nightmare.
I am curious, however, if Colin gets some form of title (given how Puck has “Ancient Fairy of Lore”, Colin could have “Ancient Fairy of Lore’s Father of Her Child?” Well, that’s a mouthful…)
Ancient Fairy of Lore’s Consort Victim. 🙂
More accurate, certainly.
Ancient Faerie of Lore’s Baby Daddy?
Accurate. But very long.
I don’t know whether this was mentioned to Young Pre-Ultrasound Technician on Career Day.
Yes, but mentioning is much different from actual experience.
More like “then I’ll apply the ultrasound to your wand”, eh? Nudge nudge? Wink wink? Saynomore saynomore?
Well, not really. The wand is immaterial in this scenario.
“Wand”
(snicker)
*sigh* You guys just don’t get patient care workers. None of that is a problem for us, though male patients’ lewd comments can be. But we have the POWER to shut them up.
Well, custom has inured you to the experience, as it were. Though I consider the lewd male comments to be an inherent part of of the waking nightmare.
Heh, the lewd comments tend to dry up when I uncap a needle. Actually, the worst I ever heard were from senile old men who were past fear.
Old men are the worst. In hospitals. In stores. In cars. In general.
Well, I guess she won’t be upselling THESE photos!
Who wouldn’t want the t-shirt?!?
And yet her bedside manner is still better than that doctor’s.
It’s a shame she can’t take pride in her work….. 🙁
Hey, you don’t have to LOVE your job. You just have to DO your job. That’s why they call it a ‘job’.
@EG
The only difference between A JOB and A CAREER is that “JOBs”” get OVERTIME PAY.
“If work is so great, how come they gotta pay you to do it?” -Mike Toyko
Royko! Stupid autocoorect
@Susan
Yep !
That ultrasound gel cost $$$ !
It would be far more economical if the tech spread just a dab on her hands and applied it slowly and evenly.
Just sayin’
And it’s usually applied a bit less liberally. But that’s not very visually amusing.
Hmph.
I say HMPH !
Just finished up a 30+ year career in nursing. I had MANY moments like this….. Worked hard to “bring dignity to an undignified situation” with my patients…..
And the various nurses and medical professionals I’ve dealt with have always been great.
Don’t get me started about prostate biopsy. I’ll be eternally grateful to the nursing student (because there were nursing AND MD students watching, this being a University hospital) who held my hand throughout the whole procedure…
So many ways to experience medical unpleasantness. So little time.
So no one told you life was gonna be this way!!!
Is that a song? Sounds like a song.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2vuaqDDr–Q
See how clued out I am? CLUED. OUT.
Okay, I followed one of the links on the incentive site and I learned a new word. Waifu. I am now totally grossed out and will never, never click on one of those links again!
Oh, nice incentive, though. Redheads and all people with blue eyes shouldn’t go out into the sun, no matter how much sunblock they put on. Freckles are the least that can happen. Th Ink: malignant melanoma
Heh. I am more amused by the concept that you’ve been able to live a life where you’ve avoided the word ‘waifu’ until now. I have not been afforded that. Especially given the fact that I make a comic which contains a few characters that more than a few people have seemingly chosen as their waifu. (Not naming any names, of course. And I can’t claim the high ground and act like I haven’t, on some level, encouraged this practice.)
*applies mind bleach*
@Susan
I’m far too confused to be grossed out.
Leching after real people that you will never meet is one thing; Leching after imaginary creatures quite another.
(still …. TRACEEE, TRACEEE, TRACEEE – Purrrrrr….)
So Susan, you’re saying that you know how many stairsteps there are inside of the Tower of Mordor, but you don’t know from Waifu?
The last time we saw the ultrasound lady was when Puck was pregnant with Miranda.
The Puckwatch incentive was Aw3some EG!!! I won’t say masterpiece though until I see Phoebe, lol.
Well, I’m adding a LOT of characters over the next month. In fact, I think it’ll run into July, there are so many!
Waking nightmare huh? Guess Retail has some crossover with other jobs. That said, I DO have this homicidal urge every time I walk through the sliding doors to my job…wonder if it’s the same with her.
All jobs can become waking nightmares, though jobs dealing with the public are usually more prone to lapsing into nightmare land.
Can’t speak for her, but almost all healthcare workers I know love their jobs. It pays well, you can live anywhere you want and find good jobs, and it is *NEVER* boring. Certainly that is the case with me!
I live in a city where healthcare (weirdly) is almost the primary industry. I’ve had a number of relatives and friends who have worked as nurses, x-ray techs, etc. They have all generally been various shades of miserable. But maybe that’s just around here. (I’m also guessing that the ‘well paid’ part of the equation is less so up here.)
Just googled my job description when I worked at the hospital: “The median annual Medical Technologist (ASCP) salary in Dallas, TX is $65,149, as of April 27, 2017, with a range usually between $59,695-$72,670 not including bonus and benefit information and other factors that impact base pay.”
Enh, probably similar salary ranges here. But money doesn’t go as far in Canada. Everything’s WAY more expensive.
The other factor might be that I’m just talking to my relatives, and my relatives (all in all) are just generally miserable people. So maybe the job was great. But they always complained of crazy hours, being overworked, being underfunded, having to do miracles on a regular basis with little to no support from the higher-ups, and … yeah.
Well, let’s see. My apt. rent was $650/month before I moved in with my bf. I worked 7AM to 3PM mostly with about four 3PM to 11PM shifts per month, rotated among us. The work is fascinating, even at the hospital, let alone where I work now, for a private surgeon. She doesn’t take night call any more, so little of long shifts. I love the patients. and my job.
Sounds good. But right there I can tell the big difference. Apartments for $650 a month? Where I am, in Canada, you cannot get anything for that price. I last rented fifteen years ago. My rent was close to $1200 a month. And real estate values have tripled since then. I honestly shudder to think what a decent apartment now costs in my area. I also shudder to think what a decent house costs in my area, but I sadly know the answer, and it’s approaching a million dollars right now.
@Susan
You earn every penny.
God Bless You.
(yeah, I can be serious once in a while. it hurts, though 😛 )
@EG
my relatives (all in all) are just generally miserable people.
Are we related ?
No. Miserable relatives are just a universal, I feel.
I’m curious what the results will be.
I wonder if Colin will need to go under the knife.
@GW
24 hours may tell….
I’m trying to find something remotely sensual about these panels (attractive female, KY Jelly and nude the waist down) but I don’t think my mind could get that gutter.
This looks way too unpleasant.
It is not. Having been through this experience, and many like it, it is always unpleasant and icky and clinical and … yeah.
So if we last saw the ultrasound technician 5 years ago in our time, and Miranda is one or two now, then that means that it has been about two and a half years in comic…so time is passing at half the speed for them as it does for us. …and in one story arc they took a year just to live one day, so you know that we’re missing a lot of really neat stuff from their lives.
I think most of the stuff we’re missing is just the “Get up, eat cereal and go about your day” stuff, but maybe there’s some interesting stuff we’ve skipped along the way.
I’ve been a PSW for 12 years, looking after older gents in wheelchairs so they can keep living in their own homes as long as they can.
Worst day by far… (and you will have to read the rest of this at your own discretion)
I came in that morning to get grandpa out of bed and dressed. He’s not able to leave his bed without assistance anymore to get into his wheelchair or use the bathroom.
I could smell something was wrong as soon as I opened the front door. Turns out sometime during the night, he’d had the most horrible, horrible and voluminous diarrhea at some point in the night, but didn’t want to call me at 3am and wake me up to come help him. I’m not sure it was ultimately a kindness. By 7:30am when I walked in the door, he, in his deep V of an adjustable hospital-style bed, was in a pool of liquid crap up to his waist.
At the time he wasn’t using any other mechanical aids to get himself from bed to chair other than a sturdy 200lb PSW, so the only way to get him out of that pool was to lift him up myself.
I required to go find a heavy yellow rubber raincoat to wear backwards to protect my clothes. The morning routine took 45mins longer than usual.
How do I do something like that, many have asked? I just tell myself, the one thing worse than my having to clean this horrid mess up… is him having to sit in it, helplessly, because there’s nothing he’s able to do about it himself. Yes that’s worse, but it’s something I can fix.
Nonetheless, that goes on record as my worst day ever (and thankfully never been so bad before or since!)
Like I said, special place in heaven. It’s got your name on it.
I visit my one aunt in the LTC facility and am always humbled and awed by the care and kindness of the workers there. It is one of the hardest jobs (both physically and emotionally) that one can have.
My sometimes off-colour sense of humor you’ve complimented a time or two is in full-effect there as well; I get an old man with dozens of perfectly valid reasons to suffer depression to laugh his ass off every day. (The less I filter myself, the harder he laughs).
That’s my favourite part of the job. ^_^
The only lasting effect we make on this planet is the moments of joy we can bring to others. I’m a firm believer in that.
I remember that gel. Even fresh from the warmer, it’s cold
They have a special fridge just to keep it icy.
So, the gel warmers are a lie? I can understand that.