PJ

I suspect a majority of the pedi residents will know about PJ in the coming days. That's not a good thing. He will be added to the list of kids with cancer. Kids, who we residents know well, who we happily take care of, who we protect when we see them in the ED. He will be in and out of the hospital. He will be the kid that when he dies, we'll stop and recall when we first met him. And for me, that was last night when he was in the ED. Giving his parents the CT report, and trying to maintain some optimism about not having a final diagnosis was difficult-it's obviously going to be a horrible cancer. I can't even fathom how a parent would be able to deal with this news.

It's been a bit brutal the past few nights. We've seen sick kids. Not much in the way of snotty noses and coughs. Admitted a kid to the Pedi ICU last night with a bad pneumonia, and admitted a kid with meningitis recently as well.

Overall, aside from finishing work at 1-2am, (which means not getting to bed til 3 or so, and not getting up til 10 or so) it's a great month. It's nice to have that immediate gratification of making kids feel better, or giving guidance to parents about their sick kids, and sending them home (even if I have to pay for the taxi myself-like last night).

I'm suppose to be at my second site in 6 hours, so should probably hit the sack...