ER and THE Last Rotation of Med School

I spent the last two weeks in Emergency Medicine at Dallas Methodist. Boy it was career confirming rotation. Although I enjoy the fast pace of the general day, the variety, and acuity of the diseases. I however didn't like seeing benign problems like alcoholics who black out after heavily drinking and thinking they had a seizure needing a full workup. I also didn't like c/c headaches that turned out to be a partially completed root canal that turned into abscess. Neither did I like the c/c headache - a older lady who had the "worst headache of her life" but didn't take tylenol or any other NSAID. She felt better after some Vicodin.

I did get to brush up on my ob/gyn skills and did a lot pelvic exams on pregnant ladies who came in with c/c vag bleeding w/ x weeks pregnancy. I will probably never use that skill again. Throughout the two weeks I saw alot of abcesses that that needed to be I/D. The worst one was a 40 yo HM with a facial abscess that started when he scratched a folliculitis in his nose. It spread from right inner nostril to down half his upper lip. We tried draining it the first day but there was not abscess. So we treated as facial cellulities and gave him doxycyline to cover for MRSA. The second day it got even worse, the abscess spread and now he needed a head CT and Surgery to drain ...yikes! There trauma all the time mostly MVC's nothing was really exciting to me anymore. I actually enjoyed looking at the radiology from the trauma more. Mostly the MVCs were caused by drunk drivers or people weaving in an out of traffic. After working a shift I was generally exhausted both my legs and my head, so I decompressed by watching a lot of TV.

This is the official end of blogging med school rotations. When I go back and read my first entry & starting Ob/Gyn in Odessa I was alot more excited and facinated with everything. I was a lot more paranoid too. This med school chapter is over and now on to starting my real love ...Anesthesiology. I'm looking forward to the 4wk break before graduation. In the meantime I'm going to Cleveland to look for an apt, and setup a bank, and do a pre-employment physical.