Synchronized Coding

Code Blue! ... Three of them! ... In a span of 8 minutes! ... At around 5:40a.m.

None of them were my patients, but at some point you have to wonder if there's enough code team to go around, so I dragged my ass out of my call room anyway.

Firsts

I was on-call last evening, my first Thursday call this month, which means I get a 3-day weekend.  It was a quiet night, but the first order of business was to pronounce a patient who had died shortly after 5:00p.m.  It was my first time pronouncing and completing a death certificate.

That's why it's called Family Medicine

While on-call for Cardiology last weekend, I spent quite a bit of time with a patient with end-stage heart failure and her family. It was complete reaffirmation for me that I'm in the right program when one of the family members approached me and said, "You're the only doctor so far who understands that all of this affects the family too."

Baptism by Fire

On my first day of my rotation in obstetrics (which I haven't done in 2 years), I had to deliver a baby that came very quickly and unexpectedly and just wouldn't wait for the obstetrician to arrive. It all happened very fast and it took me a few minutes to process what I had just been through. Then it hit me: it was not nearly as traumatic for me as it must have been for the baby ... and for mom!

Car Woes ... Again!

I'm not a violent person, but if they made car alarms that electrocuted would-be vandalizers and thieves, I would the first to plunk my hard-borrowed cash for one!

Poop Shoot

Sometimes, a little rectal stimulation is all you need to get a constipated baby to blast a little poop across the room.

First Day

I worked my first shift as an official doctor yesterday in the pediatric Emergency Room. It was a busier shift than I was hoping for, but about what I was expecting for a holiday (though, surprisingly, I didn't see any fireworks burns). Overall, pretty much the same as it had been when I rotated through as a student, and only two aspects of the evening freaked me out a bit:

1. I wrote a couple of prescriptions, and nobody else had to review or co-sign them for me.
2. I introduced myself as Doctor and stumbled over it the first time.