NaBloPoMo Day 20

There's a quote, which I may or may not be wrongly attributing to Osler, about how being a great doctor means that you, amoung other things, have to be a great scientist.  And, what do scientists do...?  They observe.

That's what I did mostly last night.  I observed.

I had two patients come in... one young, one old.  Both had potentially life-threatening conditions.  The young one had croup.  The old one had angioedema.

Croup can go bad real quick.  One minute you have a reasonably healthy 18 month old, and the next thing you know you're putting in a breathing tube and doing everything you can to help them keep breathing.

Angioedema can go even worse.  The tissues in the face swell up in reaction to an allergen.  Most often a medication called Captopril, but sometimes it's due to a simple food allergy.  The lips swell, the cheeks swell, and then Heaven forbid, the tongue swells.  You can do everything right, and the patient may still die.  The best case scenario can be a cricothyroidotomy which is basically cutting a hole in your neck to place a breathing tube into.  This is the blog post from my first ED Cric.

Unfortunately, the patient later died in the MICU.  But, in a strange twist of fate, their child was awaiting a kidney transplant, and the patient was a match.  Maybe some things are just meant to happen... although, that experience has continued to affect the way I practice medicine.  So, like last night, I gave my medications, and sat back and observed.  However, a little prayer now and then doesn't hurt.

NaBloPoMo Day 19

 So today I got to indulge in something I hadn't had for a while... free time.

Hubby and I took a walk along the beach and looked for rocks.  If you remember a prior posting, we have been carrying a backpack on our walks and collecting rocks that caught our fancy..

Today, there were rocks galore, and a bit of sunshine!

So many rocks, but we were looking for very special ones...

The beach is ever-changing.... and it's really interesting to see how things can change from one day to the other.  The last time I came the rocks were just along the shoreline.  Today they were scattered way above the wave line.

Did I mention how much I love the beach?

NaBloPoMo Day 18

"Oh, I don't drive. I keep taking the test over and over again, but, I'm all, this is hard."



That's kind of how I felt after taking my board exam today... "but, I'm all, this is hard." That line kept me laughing for a while. Hopefully, I will find out in 90 days that I don't have to take this test over and over again... once was enough...!

For fun, I will share with you my test taking anthem... A good friend and I were working our way through med school prerequisites. We were both "non-traditional students" a good many years older than most of our classmates, so we supported each others' decision to go through it all over again. One of our most challenging classes was Organic Chemistry. We sat across from each other in class, and our ritual before every test was to tell each other, "Hakuna Matata." No worries.

We both made it through premed. We both made it through medical school. Now years later I still think of those times... struggling with every exam... working three jobs to pay for school... sweating out the MCATs.... wow... wonder where my friend is now...?

Enjoy!

NaBloPoMo Day 17

There's a scene in the movie "Memphis Belle" where one of the characters is talking about his dream of opening a chain of restaurants where the food is the same in all of the restaurants.  His colleagues laugh at him and ask who would want to eat the same food everywhere.  He answers that they would because it's "comforting."

This is not that scene, but still one of my favorites from the movie...



I was thinking about the "comfort food" comment as my husband and I left home to drive the 4 hours east toward Redding where the testing center is for my board exam. He has a theory that the better the restaurant, the more cars will be parked in front of it. As we pass restaurant after restaurant with an empty parking lot, we settle for a familiar chain restaurant.

It's based on my theory of "when you don't know where to go, you go to where you know..." Again, the notion that going somewhere where things are familiar is comforting. Hence the reason why McDonald's are popular around the globe. We were in Australia, surrounded by yummy and awesome foods. We saw a McDonald's and had to go in. It was like a little taste of home in a foreign land....

NaBloPoMo Day 16

So, I have my Emergency Medicine board exam on Thursday, and for the last month I have been doing review questions and reading study guides.  This in addition to working and getting used to my new surroundings.


Now, like the Larson cartoon to the left... my brain is full.  I think I've hit the wall.  Tomorrow should be a semi-relaxing day of driving over to Redding to spend the night before the exam.  I'll take my camera and perhaps capture some of the sights we pass.


For now, it's time to sleep.... perhaps to dream... although, most of my dreams lately have been about being back in medical school and residency training.... eek.. it's hard being a life-long student!

NaBloPoMo Day 15

Well, are you sick of my daily blogging yet?  It's actually kind of hard to come up with something to write every day, but it has given me something to do as a creative outlet...  Since I am halfway done with the NaBloPoMo challenge, I started thinking about halves:  halfway, half full, half-baked, half the calories, etc, and I really liked the idea of writing about optimism and seeing the world as a glass that is half-full.


I have a test to take on Thursday that will clear me to take another test in 5 - 8 months.  Then I will be done with tests... for about 10 years.  Do I think I'm ready...? Heck no.  Do I think I'll pass...?  Maybe.  Am I worried about it...?  Just a little.  I felt less prepared for my USMLE Part III exam and did well.  I was freaking out about my USMLE Part II exam and obviously passed.  So, I'm the eternal optimist.


So as not to take up too much time... I need to sleep to get up and keep studying tomorrow... I thought I would share a poem by Emily Dickinson entitled "Hope."

Hope     

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

NaBloPoMo Day 14

I worked the local Urgent Care today, which medically is very uninteresting.  I wrote in a prior blog post how you see, pretty much, the same seven people in urgent care... and the same can be said for today.

So, I decided to take a peek at some of the prior prompts given by the NaBloPoMo website for things to write about and found this question interesting:  

Thursday, June 10, 2010

If you could go back in time and meet your 16-year-old self, what three things would you tell yourself?

1.  Follow your heart and don't be swayed by other people's perceptions.  It took me a while to learn for myself that some people had their own agendas, and that I really needed to learn to think for myself and trust in my own instincts about things.

2.  I'd like to tell you not to fall in love with a fantasy because you're going to get your heart majorly broken in a year or so.  The results of this will lead to another relationship which will eventually lead to a loss of two of your closest friends.  Friends are forever;  true love will come when you're older.

3.  Your small sedan is not the appropriate vehicle in which to transport 10 track team members (two in the trunk)... so don't do it... even though it will be a lot of fun...