another code blue to start out the day. it seems like they usually occur in the morning between 6 and 8. kinda like earthquakes how they usually happen at night. pt survived.

1 down, 1 to go

i went in to the hospital at 6am yesterday. i left the hospital today at noon. that, just in case you cant count [or are just in disbelief] is a 30 hour shift. i got to sleep for about 4 hours. how did i end the shift? the best possible way...had to do a rectal exam right before i got to go home. like i always say, theres no better way to end a 30hour shift that to stick your finger in someones...

Code green

i heard "code green" over the PA system and asked the nurse next to me what that is...she laughed and said it means a patient went AWOL. apparently its the code you call if your patient is missing.

an hour later in the residents lounge we were sitting with our interns and one of them got a phone call. after he hung up he said: "that code green was for our patient Mr. X. hes gone, i guess they found him running towards firestone blvd."

Fungi

was sitting in the resident's lounge when two interns walked in.
 one said to the other, "wow, that presentation was pretty good." [this was referring to Tan's presentation he had just given them on an assigned topic.]
when i heard this i said, "thats nice, im gonna tell him you said that" [thinking i was being nice, i know how hard Tan works on his research presentations.]
next thing i know the intern is looking at me laughing saying, "you know what, just for that im going to assign you a presentation. is that ok with you? [turns to my intern who says yeah sure why not because she thought he was joking--he wasnt.]"

know i have to do research on different systemic fungal infections just for opening up my big mouth.

i need to stop talking.

another one of my patient's died today. i swear its not me, they are just really sick!

one that isnt really sick is my 60yo pt who checked himself into the hospital for alcohol withdrawal symptoms. this can get pretty serious if your body is used to alcohol at all time, you can have a seizure and thats not good. Originally, i thought 'wow, good for this guy. he wants to clean up his act.' FALSE. after talking with him, i found out the guy had a stomach flu and was vomiting for 3 days and he couldn't drink because of it. so he started having tremors and felt like crap so he checked himself into the hospital to get IV fluids. we call it a banana bag because it really does look yellow. its normal saline with supplements that most alcoholics dont have beacuse of their poor nutrition. rumor has it that they cost around $1,000 because of all the calculations to mix one up [complete bullshit i think to cost that much...]. so we were forced to check him into the hospital because of his withdrawal symptoms. your tax money hard at work [medicare patient].

"Is it just me or is it unnatural to have to be asleep by 8pm?" -Tan

Thursday at 11am:

While eating lunch Nicole looks at her watch then looks up at me:

" I know, don't say it. It's still the AM" -me

"yeah. so wait, that means I'll be able to go home in about...24 hours" -Nicole
[ps lunch at 11am is the norm when you wake up at 4:30]


"why do you like to torture yourself? -nurse
"[long pause]what do you mean?" -me
"why did you go to med school?" -nurse
"i ask myself that everyday..."-me

"its like the show ER without all the dialogue" -one of the 10 people crowded outside the patient's room who was coding

First code blue

before i could even set my coffee down this AM we heard a code blue announced over the speaker system in the hospital and a couple of us went to check it out. it was an old man who's BP dropped. after giving him some bicarb he came back, he didnt need any CPR or epinephrine. a couple hours later while i was seeing my patient another code blue was announced. after finishing up with a quick physical, i went down to the 2nd floor to check out the code. it was an old man with no previous history of cardiac problems. they gave him a couple rounds of epi and were doing CPR. this is the first time id seen CPR and man is it rough. this mans body was going through hell. the daughter was called and asked to continue until she got there. a couple of the interns asked us if we wanted to do CPR and i shyed away and let victoria and darron do it. i figured its my first time seeing it, ill take in the experience and then jump in on the next one. unfortunately, with all the geriatric patients we have in the hospital, im sure there will be more in my next 3 weeks there. when the daughter eventually got to the hospital she didnt go into the room, she just asked that we stop and let her father die in peace. im sure that was best because if she saw how rough the code really is, she would have been much more upset than she already was.


the interns let us go at noon today, saying it was our christmas present. i went home and slept for a good part of the afternoon. this week was exhausting. i hope i get used to these work hours soon.