Good Morning from the ER

1:12 AM. Just over halfway through my ER shift tonight! I'm working a series of 7pm-7am shifts (fondly called "overnights"), beginning last night and going through Monday night. Certainly not my favorite thing I've done in residency so far, but at least I'm 1.5 shifts down, 4.5 shifts to go....

The Children's Hospital ER is an interesting place, to say the least. We have such a range of patients who come in - for example: between last night and tonight, I have:

• sewn up 2 facial cuts (one hit chin on bathtub; one hit forehead on coffee table)
• seen a few patients with wheezing (they all went home)
• admitted a 6 year old girl to the psychiatry ward (she was threatening to kill her mother and sister, bad situation)
• admitted an 18month old who swallowed a coin and is going to the OR tomorrow morning to have it removed
• seen a few patients with colds (seriously.... there are WAY too many people who come to the ER with snotty noses and cough...)
• seen a few patients with abdominal pain, diarrhea, etc.
• seen a 7 week old with a VP shunt (a tube placed in the brain by a neurosurgeon to drain excess cerebrospinal fluid)

Trying to think... not much else that's been exciting.... Right now I'm just killing time until the next patient comes in, who knows what that will be.... or when, for that matter!

Why I'm Learning to Love Medical Conferences

I'm at the North American Cystic Fibrosis conference this week, in Anaheim, California! Finally, all the work I did in medical school on my CF project (a questionnaire that I gave to adolescent & young adult CF patients, focused on what they know about the genetics of CF & various related issues) has paid off.... with more work, of course (I submitted an abstract for this conference last spring, got accepted, & then had to prepare both a poster and a presentation of my research). But, I'm learning to love medical conferences:

1. Location, location, location! Southern California weather (70's and sunny!), beautiful hotel, and..... Disneyland right down the street (walking distance!)
2. Time with my wonderful husband, who came out to be with me and attend my presentation as well as enjoy the location (see #1)
3. A great conference tote bag (free)
4. Free delicious dinners out, courtesy of your friendly neighborhood drug reps
5. Free stuff - again, thanks to drug reps & other conference sponsors - lots of pens, highlighters, hand sanitizer gel, breath mints, a rubber duckie, a personlized cell phone charger (okay, I haven't stood in the long line for this one yet, but I will), popcorn, Dippin' Dots, Starbucks coffee, sodas, and (which I just found in the free WiFi lounge) a soft-serve ice cream cone machine
6. Oh yeah, and I might actually learn something...

Anyway, today was the last day & was the Big Day of my presentation. I think it went pretty well! I presented to a "workshop" (series of short research presentations) with topics specifically related to genetics. I had 10 minutes to present, followed by 5 minutes of "discussion" (which ranges from research critiques to questions to personal anecdotes). I stayed within my time limit, and only had a few times where I "ummm...."-ed or hesitated, and I got more comfortable after getting my nerves out in the first 2 slides or so. And from the discussion afterwards, I think my presentation was very well received... and I'm SO glad it's over (and fairly proud of my efforts, I must say...)!!