Monday, June 18, 2012

anomalous origin of the coronary arteries

I finally started rotations. I'm in the Emergency Room and so far I have felt like I know absolutely nothing. Yesterday, I diagnosed a patient correctly and my attending replied with "well even a blind squirrel finds an acorn sometimes..." I think that pretty much sums up my experience thus far. I am starting to get the hang of it more and more though. I have learned to clean and dress a wound, suture, do a pelvic and swab for the clap, glue a little kids cut together, do a rectal exam, a rapid strep test, even did compressions during a real life code blue. Last night was the coolest night in the ED thus far for me though. I had a pt with a piece of his fathers day steak stuck in his esophagus which we had to retrieve, a pt with a massive collapsed lung that we had to do a chest tube for, a pt with a severely dislocated elbow that we had to set, and a little kid with a salter II fracture that I diagnosed from the xray (boo-yah). This last tid bit was particularly sweet seeing as the attending who called me a squirrel had incorrectly named it a salter III.... This attending is a rock star though. He really does know everything about everything and I am hoping his relentless teasing means that on some level he thinks I am worthwhile. If only I had known that when a new born is crying and sweaty you have to worry about anomalous coronary arteries...blast.  Here's to 6 more weeks in the ED!