A Page and a Half Day

We have a patient log we keep that helps us keep track of our patients during our shift.  It's basically a sheet of paper with 20 sections wherein we place patient stickers.  The average amount of patients you see is about 20, so you fill up a sheet during your shift.  Extra patients go on the back... today I filled a sheet and a half.  Thirty patients!  That's a lot for a small town E.D., and it can be overwhelming for a single physician during a shift...

Today I saw:
 - child with vomiting; there's a lot of the stomach flu going around
 - teen with a possible STD
 - nausea and vomiting; did I mention the stomach flu?
 - thrombosed hemorrhoid; they hurt, you not me, but I have a fun and satisfying time cutting them out
 - gallstone and pregnant; ouch
 - baby with a fever
 - patient with dizziness that had no findings on all of her labs and CT scan
 - elderly patient with broken pelvis after a fall
 - patient with high blood pressure needing to start medications
 - Bell Palsy, worried they'd had a stroke, it's scary not to feel half your tongue
 - MS patient with pain
 - patient with a zit that turned into a facial infection needing antibiotics
 - patient who passed out then left against medical advice even though they had abnormal changes on their EKG
 - patient with infection of his both of his legs
 - back abscess that needed draining; I think all docs find these somehow satisfying
 - infected hand from a bug bite
 - shortness of breath that turned out to be from heart failure
 - drunk and on meth coming in with nausea and vomiting
 - nausea and vomiting that comes from having too high a nicotine patch dose
 - abdominal pain from a large spleen, why the large spleen...?  maybe the medical docs can figure that out, not for me to know
 - worsening back pain after a fall
 - back pain after a fall due to spinal fractures and spinal cord impingement
 - Nursemaid's elbow, another satisfying procedure
 - belly button infection that I burned with a silver nitrite stick, cool
 - another stomach flu victim
 - vaginal bleeding in a pregnant woman
 - chest pain in a patient with no heart disease that's been coming in over the last year with the same problem
 - broken foot

Wow... what a day!  It's amazing to see all the patients laid out like this.  Now to get all these dictations done... and you know how much I love dictations... ugh...!  Back for more in the morning.