Emergency....parade....being hit on??

I just ended week 3 of pediatrics, and my first week in the pediatric emergency department. So far, the ED is going okay. The morning is very boring because there are no patients. So, I basically bring a book and read. Usually about 11am, it starts to pick up. We get the routine patients: sore throat, stuffy nose, fever. And then we get some interesting ones: 15 year old who was dunking, fell, and subluxated the radius/ulna. His wrist/forearm was shaped like an "S". Very cool, for me of course, he was screaming in pain. I got to interview the 1 year old with Kawasaki's disease. I missed actually seeing it in the ED because the patient came in the evening. Apparently, the signs/symptoms were very apparent. By the time I saw the child Friday morning, only a hint of those remained.

Of course, Friday was extremely busy in the ED (day after Thanksgiving and many kids have it off). The day started off slow, but by 1pm, the waiting area was packed. I had the pleasure of doing my first psych eval/interview on a 17 year old who "wanted to see a psychiatrist". This particular patient had a history of bipolar, cutting, and suicidal thoughts. During my interview the following exchange occurred:

Patient: Are you single?

Me: (trying to refocus the interview): I am more interested in talking about why you are here.

Patient: I don't mean to offend you....I just think you are F*****G hot!

Me: So, when was the last time you though about suicide

Patient: I really think you are F******G attractive!

Me: (Just standing there, waiting for an answer to my previous questions)

Patient: Who knew I would be so into a doctor?

At this point I decided that interviewing the mother may be more beneficial in obtaining answers to my questions. Eventually, the patient answered my questions but not without referencing "my attactiveness".

Around 3:30pm, we received a 15 year old female who had 2 seizures at home. The resident and myself were about to collect blood work when she seized. I had seen a absence seizure before during internal, but never a generalized clonic seizure. For almost 5-6 minutes, this poor girl was shaking, eyes rolled back in her head, and some muscles fixed/rigid. We tried to pry her jaw open with a jaw-thrust to keep her from biting her tongue. We applied oxygen, and tried to suction her mouth. After the episode she remained unconscious. We quickly collected urine samples and blood samples. By this time it was 5:30pm, and the attending said that she was just waiting on CT scan so I could go home. I felt so sorry for the girl, but inside, I was ecstatic! This whole episode reinforced my desire to become an Emergency Physician (not that I really needed it: I got more than enough reinforcement from my surgery and medicine clerkships).

So, I have one more week in the emergency department and then 2 weeks on the floor, and then pediatrics will officially be done. 6 weeks flies by so much faster than 12 weeks :)

Lets briefly talk about thanksgiving. I decided not to go home and stay in NYC. So, I got up early (4:30am) and headed down to the Macy's Parade. I got a great spot on 57th and 7th. I waited there for 3 hours, but it was well worth it. The parade live was so much better than on TV. I never knew that the handlers of all the balloons chant the name of their balloon as they walk in the parade.

So, as the handlers of Spider-man walked by they were all chanting "Spidey", "Spidey", "Spidey" in unison. I heard "Kermit", "Buzz", "Kitty" (as in hello kitty), "Dough boy", and many more. In addition, everyone in the parade was so happy and nice, yelling out "Happy Thanksgiving", throwing confetti, and high fiving people along the route. I had a great time and I am so happy I went!!

After the parade, I took the subway down to Chelsea and watched the movie New Moon. It was okay. I think you needed to read the books before watching the movie to fully appreciate what was going on because they left alot out. I then ate my dinner at the Malibu diner. I had Turkey, mashed potatoes, carrots/peas, stuffing, salad, bread, pumpkin pie, and a glass of wine - all for $21.95!! YUMMY! After dinner, I walked around the city for a while and then headed home. Overall, a very adventurous and fun day!

I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving, and if you shopped on black friday, I hope you survived!! I will be home in 3 weeks!! Take care.

End of internal, hockey fun, start of peds and whatever else I decide to throw in!

So it has been a wild and crazy 2 weeks and I have lots to catch you up on. Lets start with:

My last week of internal medicine.....what to say but FINALLY!!! I could not wait for this to be over. I have come to the conclusion that internal is not for me. I really felt that many times our patients were not getting better. We had a few successes.....but not nearly as many failures. Overall, medicine is just management.....try to get the patient well enough to discharge them home or to a nursing home so that in a week or so they will return again. Overall, my last week flew by and soon it was friday and I was saying goodbye and heading out to:

The Yankee ticker tape parade!!! I decided since I was getting out early I was going to head down to lower manhatten to see if I could catch a glimpse of any of the World Series Champs. Wow, was it packed!!! There were so many people all wearing their yankee blue (i actually was one of the few not wearing anything remotely yankee). I managed to crawl up onto a firetruck parked on a side street, but because there were about 40 other people on top of the truck I couldn't see anything but the tops of the floats. I may have caught a glimpse of one Yankee but I honestly couldn't tell you who. I quickly decided that I had had enough and tried to embark back to Brooklyn to find that most of the subways were shut down because of the parade. So, I had to walk about 15 minutes to another station closer to the brooklyn bridge. Not all was lost...on the way home I picked up some lunch sushi:

Back at my place I pounded said sushi and then headed out to Penn Station to catch my train. I was headed to Albany to see Mit, Dy, Laura, Sacco and the rest of the CNY wrecks in a hockey tournament. Unfortunately, they lost all of their games but I had a great time. I got to hang out at Roberta's house and eat some great lasagna and of course spend a gorgeous Sunday afternoon outside stacking wood. After, we had pizza, wings, and ice cream (I had a peanut butter sundae....yummy!!!). Then, I headed back on the train to NYC. Arrived at 12am at Penn Station, pushed my way through thousands of Bruce Springsteen fans (of course there had to be a concert at Madison Square Garden on this night), hopped the Q train to Brooklyn, and was in bed by 1am:

For my early wake-up call at 5am!! It was my first day of Pediatrics and I was looking forward to it. Although I know that I am not interested in Peds as a profession, I am aware that if I do go into Emergency Medicine I will have to deal with kids all the time. So, I decided to try and learn as much as I can during this rotation. I found out early Monday morning that I am in the nursery all this week, except for wednesday because its Veteran's Day and I get it off:

The nursery actually is not bad at all. Most of the babies are only a few days old. They cry and little but not much, and if they cry too much you just stick a pacifier of sugar water in their mouths and they quite right down. I got to examine babies, I did a few heel sticks for blood draws, I saw 2 lumbar punctures (to rule out meningitis), I did a circumcision (and a fine job I must say!!!), and of course, I got to watch a few live births and C-sections because we are in the room to take care of the baby once it is delivered. I got to rub some nasty white stuff off, listen to a newborn's heart (murmur and all), and suction the mouth and nose. I wasn't expecting to like the nursery as much as I did.....overall I had a really great time and a great experience:

Saturday was Ishie's b-day and she wanted to celebrate at the Bohemian Beer Garden in Queens. I had never taken the N train to Astoria before and what a long ride from Brooklyn (over an hour). The beer garden was awesome although we didn't get a chance to go outside because it was raining. It is a Czech restaurant and bar. We ordered a few pitchers of Czech beer and I had some potato pierogies and sauerkraut along with an apple strudel for dessert (all very good). I only stayed for 3 hours because I had to head home early....I had call today and I didn't want to be overly tired:

Call went well today. I got there at 7am, we had signout of all the patients to my team, we did rounds on all the patients and soon it was 10am. I helped the intern write a few progress notes and discharge summaries. I then helped the senior and intern with a delivery; natural with no pain meds.....OUCH!!!! And was she screaming!! I took a history from a new admission for my first write-up, and then the Senior resident sent my home. I got home about 3pm. I decided to go for a run in the park since it was gorgeous out today and I didn't want to miss a day like this, especially since it is almost December and the weather will turn very cold soon!

So tomorrow starts Week #2 in Pediatrics. I am in the outpatient clinic all week. I hear it is very busy for the doctors anyway. I mostly get to follow and observe. I love having these little 6 week rotations because they go by so quickly!!!!

I hope everyone has a great week. Hopefully I won't go 2 more weeks until my next update.....of course, you all know me by now :) :) Take care!!!

Adventures in Rainy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!!!! Yesterday night was a blast. Some friends and I decided to dress up as characters from Alice in Wonderland. I was the white rabbit.









Ishie was Alice.












Daniel was the Mad Hatter.
Matt was the Catepillar.

Chelsea was the Queen of Hearts.









We were joined by a bunch of other "characters" in what was our first Halloween in NYC!!!


* There are a few more pics of people I don't have yet!!

We all headed out to the NYC parade thinking how fun it would be to walk in our costumes and also to see everyone else dressed up. Unfortunately....it started to pour. Being wet, cold, and needing some adult beverages plus a bathroom stop, we all decided to head back to Brooklyn. Only to find out that the train we took to Manhatten was not returning back to Brooklyn (crappy MTA and their construction). Our attempts at hailing 3 taxi's also failed miserably. So, we ran through the rain to city hall to board another subway and finally made it back to Brooklyn Heights where we ate some yummy backed ziti and pumpkin pies courtesy of Chelsea!! Then the few remaining brave ones headed out for a drink at a local bar.

Overall it was an adventurous night. At least I can say that I was at the Halloween parade in NYC, standing in line for 45 minutes waiting to march, only to be spoiled by rain!!! Typical NYC...you always have in mind what may happen, but it always turns into something else!!!

Happy Halloween everyone!!! Take care.