My Day Off, and Green Eggs

So, I had yesterday and today off. Made a break for the mountains yesterday. Packed about 8-9 miles and camped over night. Weather was perfect. Hot yesterday (sunburned arms), and perfectly overcast and cool today. Was nice to get away, and the trail was mostly empty. I realized that I really need to move somewhere that had good mountains.

On my way back home I stopped at a brew pub. I was sitting next to the owner at the bar. People kept coming in and saying hi to the guy. Nice local place. And no shit, this guys brings a carton of eggs (god love a local place), and opens them up, and they are, in fact, GREEN EGGS! I guess they come from some kind of Peruvian hen.

Back to clinic tomorrow. And then I'm back to the ER this weekend. Tuesday will be starting back on Medicine wards. May is going to be a busy month...

Cheers,

Brian

Trauma: A Spectator Sport

I was a spectator, today. My patients were stable, it was too close to shift change to start seeing new patients. We'd had 7 "trauma" patients in 2 hours, and 3 more (all of whom had been shot), were rolling in the door, so I decided to go in the trauma room to be a spectator. I wanted to take in some coffee and popcorn, maybe heckle from the back of the room ("Hey Doc, ya gonna stop the bleeding sometime today?"). . . but didn't think it would go over well...

What a mess... I think every ER resident was there, plus god knows how many surgeons/surgical residents, plus 2 ER attendings, a dozen nurses, and some xray people, security guards, police, and us gawkers at the back. In fact, I think at one point the hospital operators put on the answering machine and popped by to watch the action. Needless to say, it wasn't pretty.

While I watched the trauma-drama unfold, all I could do was think back to the surgical pit at Bara (South Africa). Simplicity. Good care. People lived. 3 guys in Bara, showing up at the same time who had been shot, taken care of by a grand total of 5, maybe 6 docs/nurses. Surgeons without ego. People who had seen so many trauma patients that they could do their job in their sleep (In fact, I fell asleep standing up in surgery there). This "third world" hospital was delivering superior care to what I was watching.

I am closeted in the ER. I don't let them know that I worked in an ER during college. I don't let them know that I probably saw more people shot in my month at Bara than these residents will see in their entire residency. Instead, I'll happily tend to the patients that the ER residents find boring. I like the elderly folks who have fallen. I like the kids with coughs. I like the suicidal teens. I like the guy with HIV and kidney failure.

I like being an internist and a pediatrician.

Going to work, knowing that I am in my ideal profession (even when residency makes me fatigued, depressed, angry), makes me feel damn lucky.

That's what ran though my mind as I watched the trauma team. And then I left, I had better things to do than be a spectator.

I may not enter the trauma room again.
Been there, done that.

Life and Death in the ER

Not in the dramatic sense.. but last night was really life and death in the ER. One minute I'm telling a 19 year old that she is pregnant (surprise!) and then 30 minutes later I'm asking two women if they want us to continue doing CPR on their father. That was the spectrum of my night last night. You might be picturing lots of tears and hysterics, but in reality the 19 year old took the news well, as did her parents, and the sisters had been expecting their dad to pass away soon, and they were well prepared.

I'm off today. And sadly I need to finish a presentation that I have to give tomorrow. Nothing worse than having a "day off" and spending all day doing stuff for work.

B

Unlucky Socks

I wore my unlucky socks yesterday...

You see, I was on Jeopardy call yesterday. And Friday I knew I would be on the pedi ward in the morning. But I figured I would be done by noon, or 1 at the latest. I figured wearing my unlucky socks, which are these striped multi-blue socks and are fun to wear with scrubs, would be harmless.

So, at 5:45 when I finally was able to leave the hospital, I was 5 minutes out the door when I got paged back to go on a NICU transport. And of course, what should have been a simple scoop and go transport took way too long, and I finally left the hospital at 9:15 pm.

I don't mind that I spent most of my jeopardy day working. Sure, the selfish part of me really wanted to have the day free to run errands, maybe socialize, and sadly I work at 3pm today so don't really have much of a weekend at all. I took care of cool kids and nice parents yesterday, got to work with a good friend during the day, and even went to dinner in Amherst (dinner at 10pm?) and got to see some friends (work/non-work) whom I hadn't seen in AGES! What I do mind, though, is what to do about socks that I like, which are unlucky? I hadn't worn them since July, when I had an ugly on-call shift on the pedi ward... I'm guessing that they will live, forever, in my sock drawer, but it'll be a while before I wear them again.

Today is April 1st. Am starting in the Adult ER tonight at 3pm. I'm looking forward to the educational opportunity to brush up on some adult medicine topics, but have a serious mental block when it comes to thinking good thoughts about the ED in general..

Cheers,
Brian