Today was long-call. I was actually out sick yesterday, feeling a lot better today. I had not patients who I was previously following on the list, and the list was short as it was (only 4 patients), so I just waited for new admissions given were were on call.
I first got a alcohol withdrawal patient who was agitated and pulling out his IV with his teeth, then a code stroke who was clinically completely normal by the time of exam, and then a cellulitis vs DVT complicated by psychiatric issues. Overall they were pretty straight forward, but good learning and review cases.
It ended up being an extra long day though because right as our shift was ending we had to consecutive trauma calls that we had to go down to (that’s how it works at this hospital). For the second one I was at head of bed. My job was basically to make sure patient was protecting his airway and to stabilize his neck. I also had to perform the physical exam on his head and get some history from him. The whole process is pretty chaotic cause their are like 5 other people all doing their own things on him. With these relatively minor traumas I kinda feel bad because the patient is fully alert and aware that they are kinda just being tossed around (safely) and man-handled and getting their clothes cut off with scissors.
Then after the trauma there was a code rapid response on one of our patients, so we had to run up and make sure that was all ok. Turned out to be nothing too serious, but in a high risk patient so important to rule-out. Then finally almost an hour after we were supposed to sign-out to the night team, we were able to sign-out. It was a long day, but exciting, especially near the end, and definitely got some good experience in.
nANIMOv 