One of the things I enjoy most about the conference is hearing other EM physicians' war stories and realizing that no matter where you practice, the patients are still the same. While we don't have some of the inner city gang violence that LAC-USC encounters, we still face a lot of the same homeless and chemically-dependent patients.
Some of the other patients we all seem to share:
- the "I don't smoke in the house" parents who can't understand how their kids have been coughing non-stop over the last two days at home, but who miraculously improve once they're in the E.D. Or, why their kids seem to have so many ear and upper respiratory infections. Or, why is Johnny's asthma so bad.
- the "I know I'm having a heart attack right now, but I need to leave to take care of business" patient
- the "I don't understand why my kid is so fat when all he does is drink two liter bottles of Coke a day even though he's two"
- the "I know I called the ambulance because I was really worried about my vaginal discharge, but now that I'm here I just want to leave and what do you mean you need to do a pelvic?"
I could go on and on... but I'll leave those for future blog entries as I get to learn all about my patient population in the new place I am calling home... until then, the things I learned this year in Vegas in terms of patient care are definitely not staying in Vegas... however, regarding my encounter with CarrotTop, well.....
3 comments:
Glad you are settling in, my husband I moved many times, including Europe and Asia. You are right about only the names changing. Sometimes I wonder; are you really that stupid, do you know how dumb you sound, or what ever made you think that was a good idea.
My daughter has finished Nursing School and in PA job are hard to fine. She has moved to WV and OH in her search.
Hope all works out, I am sure it will.
I want to hear about your encounter with Carrottop.........
we really are all the same aren't we? no matter where we call home. hope you are settling in; can't wait to hear your "horror" stories.
betty
That reminds me of the time, many years ago, when I called our doctor out of hours, around midnight, to ask if it was o.k. to take another synthetic morphine tablet for my gallstones pain. He o.k'd it and that was that I thought.
He came out anyway and I apopogised as I didn't want him to be bothered so much. He said" That's alright, I don't mind coming out to real emergencies, it's when you are called out because someone's corn is hurting that I get my dander up!"
It seems as though patients are the same the world over Veronica.
Jeanie xx
p.s. Who is Carrotop?
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