Interesting Shift

The most interesting shift Ive had in a while had its ups and downs. I had a homicidal maniac who the cops had to taze after he threatened to kill me and the cop and was screaming, shaking and flipped the bed over. It was also a night of nasty pelvics. Started with 210 kg pregnant lady with vag bleeding, then there was a girl who hid a pouch of tobacco in her vagina when going into jail and lost it for two weeks and I had to go digging. it was the second time she had done the same thing in a month. didnt she learn? The whole room stunk before she ever took her clothes off and pus was flowwing out. first case of fitz hugh curtis ive seen. whats worse this thanksgiving day was like a hospital frequent flyer all stars day. all of our frequent flying psych pts were in, some multiple times. I think they were lonely on the holidays and we are reallly like their family. the higghlight of the shift was the save i made in the nursery, the one day old who was dropped on her head and had an epidural. the pediatrician was sitting on his hands, wanting an mri, etc. what the kid needed was a peds neurosurgeon and i pushed until we got it...saved maybe my first life that shift

A case in point

on the local news yesterday, an apartment used as a meth cooking house (in some brand new low income apartments which look very nice), in a nearby town caught fire. One man was burned on 60% of his body and another injured as well. luckily, the people's two kids were at a grandparent's. the two neighboring apartments suffered smoke damage and are considered contaminated and have to be totaly evacuated and cleaned. The newscaster said that police say there has been a dramatic resurgence of meth with the recent crack down on prescription drugs.

The Prescription Drug Problem

I have thought a lot about the prescription narcotic problem. I have experienced it every day I have worked in the er, and I have seen friends and family members consumed by it. I have hated it. every day I see the crimes and blights on society produced by it, my car was even stolen from my driveway. I am ashamed that educated "professionals" contribute to the drug problem. However, recently, I have been thinking a little different lately. There has always been a drug problem, throughout history, and will always be. The only thing that changes is the drug abused most commonly. Right now, in my region, and in most of America, the drug of choice is prescription opiates. Is this the worst drug that we could have as our drug of choice for users? Maybe not. Unlike cocaine, heroin, or the like, these drugs are not furnished by large cartels in other countries. Organized crime has less opportunity to become involved. The manufacturers of these drugs are legitamate companies that provide jobs for legitamate american workers, unlike the slaves in the fields of south america. Even the people who make money from dealing these drugs are middle and upper class Americans who likely pump this money back into the US economy. Maybe this system is not the worst possible way our drug abusers could get their drugs. At least this way provides more income to our country and even to some innocent people (such as those drug factory workers). This is probably the wrong way to think, and I am going to continue to fight against this thing every day in the ED, but at least it is a small way to look on the bright side of the problem. On a related note, do you know that the street price for oxycontin is a dollar a milligram? So the average monthly prescription of say, 90 pills, 80 milligram oxys, the street value is 7200 dollars! Wow! Think of the people who just drive around all day, obtaining prescriptions for these things! More on this next time.

The wild wild south?

The town is in an uproar and the hospital has been on lockdown two nights this week. Killings and reprimands have shaken the city. It started with a guy who was stabbed, but survived, then somebody stabbed the first stabber and he came in as a full trauma code, with thoracotamy. the families spilled into the waiting room and fights broke out there and in the parking lot. this went on for an hour before we were able to get the police to even respond to our calls. The guy who was accused of killing this guy then had his house burned down the next day, then, three days later another man was shot in the stomach and killed in his yard. Online community message boards are filled with posts, supposedly from atlanta and houston gang members who threaten coming to town and carrying out revenge killings.

Pessary

A pessary is a small device worn, often by elderly women who have had multiple children, to hold bladder or uterus in place. It is a small plastic disc placed in the vagina. As you can imagine these things can get very nasty. All it takes is a demented nursing home pt. to forget that she has one of these for a couple months and.....zang! But nothing could prepare you for a chief complaint of "leaves from virginia". A friend of mine saw a lady, brought in by her daughter, with just this complaint. When he looked it was true. She had a vine, with leaves, protruding from her "Virginia". Turns out, the demented lady had secretly , for years, used slices of potatoes as pessaries! When she forgot that she had it in, the warm, moist environment was perfect for sprouting spuds!

New Format

Hi. Been a long time, I know. Anyway, the new format I was talking about is going to be too close this blog to public reading. I suspect people from my hospital spy on the blog, and I don't feel that I can write about what I want. So, for you people who are already followers, if you want to post or send me in some way your email address so I can add you after I go private, I would like that. If you don't follow already, sorry. I can't accept new email addresses now, because I won't be sure who it is. In short, I am going to turn this into a private space for me to write what I want, with no desire to publish publicly, but those of you few who have been loyal readers are welcome to come along. Let me know.

34 year old grandma

sewed up the arm of a 33 year old grandma tonight! How old was her grandchild? Well she has 6, but the oldest is 7!! How? That means she was a grandma at 26! if she was 13 when she had a child, who then had a child at 13, that is the only way this is possible (roughly).