ER!

January 2012 is my month to work in the ER. I am at McKay Dee Hopsital following Dr's Brian Smith, Karen Bossler, and Amber Mounday. In the beginning I was really overwhelmed by the speed with which patients are seen in the ER. But now, 23 days into the rotation, it doesn't seem quite as bad, but definitely still faster than I would be able to do it. I have worked in the EDx, which is like the "now care" section of the ED. I like it over there, as there is more minor trauma patients and less severely ill patients. This is more my speed. I have gotten to perform some new procedures in the ER! These are a shoulder dislocation under conscious sedation (propofol); this was neat because I felt the shoulder "clunk" back into place! I have also performed some quick caths, my first on an infant that didn't go so well, then 10 minutes later on an older lady which I got my first try. I have done a few of these cath's since and feel fairly competent with this procedure. I have helped relocate a displaced lower leg fracture and a displaced radius/ulna fracture. I saw a "blood bath" from a little old man who pulled the IV out of his arm and sprayed blood all over the exam room. I watched Amber perform a lumbar puncture on a lady with encephalitis. I got to do 7 stitches by myself - completely by myself with no doc even near the room - on a guy who was stabbed in the back 3 times with a screwdriver after being hit in the head with a cinderblock by his girlfriends son and his friends..... glad they are not my kids. The doc, "burkules", was dealing with the family of a 93 year old non responsive man, and came in to check on me as I was finishing. He said they looked good and gave me some tips on how to make it pretty for the patient, as that is how they judge just how good of a job I did. I have also done a nasal cautery on a young man for an anterior nosebleed, placed an NG tube, and removed a J tube. I have really liked working in the ER so far, and have enjoyed getting to know my preceptors a little better! I have worked some crazy shifts like 10 pm-6 am and 6 pm - 3 am. Lets just say there is a lot of sleeping going on after these shifts!
I got a sinus infection over Christmas that is finally cleared up.....One month later I am finally feeling "normal".
It has finally started snowing this season. I have been up 2 days for control work, and trained a couple of new patrollers - Lisel and Dickie - on control route in Sunshine bowl. We are on control alert for tomorrow, and since I don't go in to the ER until 2pm I might try to go to control.