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[whitecoat-bluegown]

A new series: sh*t my patients say:

Discussing recurrent BV infections:

“Oh yeah, that’s been a lobster fest”

[whitecoat-bluegown]

In clinic, I generally type notes into the HPI section of my note while I'm talking to my patients. I go back later to finish the note and make sure I captured all the details. I was working on some notes last night and came upon this inscription in one of my patients who I inherited and am trying to wean off of chronic Norco use:

"in pain today because of pain"

Honestly, seems like that sums up chronic pain just fine.

[whitecoat-bluegown]

Peds ER

I diagnosed a kid with diabetes last night. He came in with vomiting, but his parents noticed that he'd been really thirsty for the past week, and he was putting a ton, too. Vitals were totally normal and he looked great, not at all sick. I left the room and asked my fellow "is it crazy if I want to check a blood sugar on this kiddo?" 486. He turned out to have DKA with a bicarb of 10.

As cool as it was too make a crazy diagnosis based on one tiny historical detail, overall I'm finding the peds ER to be a pretty unsatisfying place to work. With this kid, for example, I'm left wondering who's going to manage his insulin therapy when he leaves the hospital. Who's going to watch his blood pressure and his kidney function and take on the long task of helping him understand diet and exercise and weight loss. Me diagnosing him with diabetes certainly changed his life, but good primary care is really the thing that's going to determine what path his life takes in the next 5, 10, 15 years.

Here's hoping there's a good family doctor waiting out there for him.

[whitecoat-bluegown]

My day today involves going in to my shift in the big-Children’s-hospital-ER to stop by the big-tertiary-care center to see my clinic patient, who we transferred from our small community hospital last week. My family doctor heart is loving this continuity of care :)

[whitecoat-bluegown]

Emergence

So it's been a minute...

AKA an entire intern year has passed minimal posting on my part.

Now that I'm a big bad PGY2, I'm hoping to post more regularly about hospital things, both past and present. Maybe tell some tales of some of the interesting things I've seen this year. Talk about my first month senioring and all the ups and downs. Reflect a little and try to figure out where I'm headed from here.

Thanks everyone for hanging in there despite the lack of posts. More coming, I promise :)

[whitecoat-bluegown]

Texts from intern year

[whitecoat-bluegown]

This seems like the way to start a week of L&D night float.

[whitecoat-bluegown]

I'm a doctor but tonight I put ranch on my hotdog because I ran out of ketchup and I'm pretty sure that's what they mean by work-life balance.