Monday, August 04, 2008

Trauma - Day 1

Well, the high expectations of trauma surgery fun have been replaced with the frustrating reality of ICU and critical care. I spent all morning filling out a progress note sheet on 4 patients. FOUR in SIX hours. Disgusting I know. Then it was off to the cafeteria where I spent $4.08 on the worst chicken tenders ever made. (Maybe that's a little exaggerated, but come on, I was irritated at this point). After lunch we went to round with the attending. Even though he was pretty cool and kept a decent tempo it still took us like about 3 hours. As rounds ended we got called for a trauma! My heart started racing thinking it was go time for some blood and guts, but alas it was a boring motorcycle crash. His face was bruised and his collar bone was broken, but no need for surgery. I did hear a pretty crazy story about some guy that lost electricity during the ice storm of '07 and in desperation decided to rig his way into a powerline near his house. (Assuming of course it still had power...) To determine whether this random line had power, he decided to park his truck directly underneath, erect a 20 ft aluminum ladder in the bed, stand on the top rung and touch the line with a metal pipe. What the heck was he expecting to find? Really? Apparently it shocked the pee out of him as he fell 25 ft. Idiocracy at its best... Hope tomorrow's better...

Sunday, August 03, 2008

Trauma - Preface

Pulled in today watching Jerry leave for dinner. He pointed me in the right direction and I eventually unloaded my crap in the apartment. Sadly, I could hardly find a place for my meat. I went on to tell some stories with Jason and Brad while we all waited for Jerry to return. I told them all the story of the Craftsmen Emergency, the fat lady that dropped a chip and crushed her leg while rear-ending a back hoe tractor story, and the old lady who fell off her toilet broke her leg and nearly died story. Jerry returned and we all retold the stories. Eventually, I took a shower (by the way, don't EVER buy a "travel louffa") and called Ma Lady making sure she remembered to call me back when she hit the sack (and found the deodorant). She did and she did, pretty funny. Now that I'm laying down to go to bed, I'll find out where I'm supposed to be at 6:00 AM tomorrow. Unfortunately I'm pretty sure I'll never know where to park.... good night...zzzz