The Stories That Don’t Make It Into the Chart
- Orlando Rivera
- Oct 30
- 3 min read
We chart vitals. We don’t chart the silence after the call.
You can write a thousand SOAP notes and never once touch the story that actually matters.
Because it’s not in the blood pressure.
It’s not in the 12-lead.
It’s not even in the “ROS: all other systems negative.”
It’s in the moment you walk back into your house after a shift and stand quietly in the doorway, wondering why your hands are still shaking.
It’s in the way you remember the shoes a dying kid was wearing. The sound someone made when they realized they were going to die. The look a nurse gave you across the trauma bay, one that said: We’ll talk later… but we both know we never will.
The hardest parts never get documented.
There’s no checkbox for the moment you stopped believing this call could be won.
No field for what it did to you when the kid called you Mom by accident.
No dropdown for the silence in the ambulance when the adrenaline fades.
There are stories inside every nurse and every medic that never make it past the four walls of their mind because no one ever told them:You can write that down.You’re allowed to tell the whole truth.Your story matters even if it’s messy.
This is why Beyond The Chart exists.
I built this publishing house not for perfect authors but for real ones.
The kind that cry halfway through writing their first chapter because they never realized how much they’ve buried.
The kind that say, “I don’t even know where to begin,” and I say, “Right there. That’s your first line.”
The kind of providers who know what it feels like to break down in the supply room and still show up for the next call.
You don’t have to be a writer.You just have to be ready.
Because the world needs our stories. And if we don’t tell them… someone else will and they’ll get it wrong.
The book that started it all
My first book, You Can’t Chart Gut Instinct, was born from the silence.From all the things we knew in our bones but were never trained to write down.
It’s for the medics who saved lives with intuition, not protocols.It’s for the nurses who read the room better than the labs.It’s for every provider who’s ever charted "stable" while feeling anything but.
And now, that book has become a movement.
This patch isn’t just merch. It’s a mission.
To honor the stories we never got to chart, I’m releasing a limited edition “You Can’t Chart Gut Instinct” patch, a 4-inch, iron-on emblem that says: I carry more than what’s on paper.
It’s a badge for those who’ve lived it.Who still show up.Who want the world to see that we’re more than checkboxes and time stamps.
🔥 Preorders are open now. Only a limited number will be made. Shipping starts at the end of November.
Because if we don’t write the real story, who will?
You’re not alone.
Your chart may not show the whole truth, but Beyond The Chart, we will.
Call to Action
📚 Read the book that started the movement: You Can’t Chart Gut Instinct on Amazon
____________________
Want to get future posts like this in your inbox?
Comments