A Week of Nights

So for the last two weeks, I have been looking forward to a leadership conference that I will be attending in Washington D.C. this week.  To make up for the fact that I would be gone for about 6 days during a non-vacation month, I had to squeeze in my required shifts into the rest of the time.  So, I just ended a string of 6 nights in a row.

Now, a 72 hour week is nothing compared to the sometimes 120 hour weeks I'd put in as a surgery resident. However, the last time I did something like that was over 3 years ago, so I was a little rusty.  Suffice it to say, there were a lot of patients seen during that time....

 - the "newlyweds" who came in concerned that an infection on one had spread to the other... it hadn't, but I was more concerned about the fact one of them had Hepatitis C.  Now, that's something that you don't want to be sharing...

 - why are the nicest patients always the sickest?  I had the status-post bone marrow transplant for leukemia who came in with a pulmonary embolism.  He and his wife were the nicest people.  She kept track of every doctor's appointment, lab result, medication schedule, and he showed an inward strength I can't begin to imagine.

 - on the opposite spectrum, I saw my share of 10 out of 10 abdominal/chest/back/etc. pains who are "allergic to everything except that di, dil, daldid, something d stuff.  Of course their pain is always something non-specific with random symptoms, and they have to have the full work-up and treatment... I did say "seriously?" once or twice as several I knew had multiple ED visits came in crying and writhing on the bed.  They just stopped for a second and said, "Well, maybe it's a 7 or 8.."

 - moving someone from the ambulance gurney to the hospital bed and seeing brains is never a good sign

 - I actually admitted a 10 year old for "severe constipation"... come on, parents, more leafy greens and water and less processed chicken nuggets and colas... make your kids run around instead of sitting in front of the Playstation... I can't tell you how many "rule out appendicitis" kids I see that turn out to be constipation

 - some things come in pairs:  I had a Martin and a Marvin both come in with the same wrist fracture on opposite arms, one from roller skating and one from skate boarding on the same night... wierd

 - we are not fast food, you can't come in, pick what you want off a menu and then leave if you don't want to finish your meal... also, if you're crying and writhing in the hallway and you've been waiting about an hour, I am still going to bypass you for the little old lady who's turning blue who just came in the door... keep screaming, I'm going to be just a little busy saving a life across the hallway

 - some people are crazy, literally.  I always wondered about mental illness.  I had to do an evaluation on a paranoid schizophrenic...  it was something like the scene in "Patch Adams" where Robin Williams fights the squirrels with his roommate... yeah, something like that...

Ok, I think I touched on the highlights.  I'll be blogging from the conference this week, so stay tuned!

My Brilliant Feat

So, today was not a good day to be elderly and male in my E.D. Besides having someone die (came in as a cardiac arrest), I had two other gentlemen come in who most likely have some form of metastatic cancer, both of whom are married, one of whom takes care of his wife who has Alzheimer's. He is 75.

I've been blogging for over two years now, and I recently had the opportunity to apply to blog to the American College of Emergency Physicians Blog site The Central Line. I am happy to report, I was accepted, and I will start posting some thoughts there as well.

This site however will continue to be my main blog despite my new-found fame and increase in readership from 4 to 6. (I love you Ladies, Betty, Julia, Lisa and Claudia!!) I will post the link from today's post on The Central Line (my second, so don't think you missed anything.)

Happy reading! My Brilliant Feat

Back from Chi-Town!

Oh what a trip! I can't believe in 5 years how much has changed.

Although I was there for the conference, I really wish that I'd had more time to explore my old neighborhood. My driver back to the airport had actually grown up in the neighborhood where I lived while an intern, and he and I talked about all the changes that Chicago has seen. Like everywhere else, Chicago is being affected by the economy, and we talked about the projects started and not yet complete.

Anyway, on Sunday we had the med student Residency Fair where I was able to share our program with perspective applicants. I was able to meet a lot of people from a variety of programs and hopefully sell them on coming out to Buffalo to interview. We then checked into our hotel and hit one of my favorite spots for Chicago style deep dish pizza - Edwardo's!

I was worried for a sec, because a number of buildings along the street were torn down, but we turned the corner, and there it was! The sauce is still thick, the cheese even thicker and the spinach and mushroom filling, still fresh. Yummy! My colleague thoroughly enjoyed it as well. This one is off Congress, on a street just west of State across from the Chicago Public Library. I remember flying a frozen pizza back to California just to share the taste with my family. Oh, yeah.

During the rest of the week, our days were filled with meetings, our nights with going to different restaurants and having way too much fun! I passed Garrett's several times while out, but I was never able to actually make it into the store. Plus, that large poster board on the table, yeah, I had to carry that on the plane. They wanted to charge me for an extra carry-on which I was able to avoid going to Chicago, so I opted out of stopping at Garrett's to bring back a tub of their popcorn which would have been too much for the trip back. :( Next time.

The conferences ranged from boring to interesting, and it is very exciting to hear what is happening in other parts of the country. While Buffalo is just setting up their hypothermia protocol for post-cardiac arrest patients, other parts of the country, ie: U of Pittsburgh are writing and publishing their results. We have hundreds of possible lectures to choose from, and I chose all the ones I thought would help me at this stage in my career - mostly dermatology and cardiology topics.

However, I did go to some fun ones like "1001 Uses for Duct Tape and a Safety Pin." It was taught by an attending who does Wilderness Medicine, and who shared photos and stories of his travels all around the world. He works sometimes at the clinic on the road up to Mount Everest, and the stories he told about saving lives with just the basics are amazing. I left the meeting both inspired and humbled. There's so much to learn.

I was also very excited to see some friends from medical school who I hadn't seen since graduation and who are now attendings in different parts of the country. It was kind of funny to explain to them that I was still a resident, but we all follow different paths. I exchanged addresses and emails with them. A whole new set of connections.

Finally it was time to come back home to my current world. The children behaved, and my apartment seems to be intact. I worked yesterday and am starting a stretch of nights tonight. Will be exciting to see what I can apply from the conferences I attended this last week just as it is exciting to be contemplating my future...!

My First National Conference!

Back to Chi-town! A few months ago I was elected as our residency programs rep to the national group Emergency Medicine Resident's Association. Which means I get to go to the national conference being held in Chicago this week!

I can't wait. I've heard a lot about these national conferences, and I signed up for some exciting lecture presentations several weeks ago. I plan to take my camera, so I should have a lot of shots to share.

I spent my intern year of surgery in Chicago, and I loved the town. What I have mostly been talking about to my friends is the food... yum. I probably gained about 20 lbs during the year I was in Chicago.

One place I have to mention is Garrett's Popcorn on Michigan Ave with a smaller store near Macy's (formerly Marshall Fields) on State. Mhmm... they pop the corn fresh in this huge tumbler then add the butteriest caramel or cheese topping. You can buy the mixed bag or splurge and get a bucket. They also have to die for caramel nut mixes including almonds, macadamia nuts or standard peanuts. So good.

Ok, with that I have to keep packing... will write more when I can... Cheers!