headache

I had a patient sign a consent form, had her prepped and ready for a lumbar puncture when she said," My headache is now a 0 out of 10." Earlier, she had been writhing in her bed with the lights off complaining of 10 out of 10 pain. Amazing how the threat of a procedure can totally turn things for the better.

Besides that headache last night, I had a headache of my own. I can't stand how people play games so they can get xanax or whatever their drug of choice is. This one lady complained of chest pain and stomach pain and had been there for the same thing a month earlier. This time, however, the difference was that the pain now radiated to her back. So of course, in the ER, she got tons of work-up, and we had to hear herrant and rave about how only morphine helped her pain. In the end, tests showed ABSOLUTELY NOTHING and she finally reveals all she wants is xanax.

"So you think if you didn't run out of your xanax you would have come to the ER?" I ask. "Probably not" she says restfully after I give her "something for her pain" (intravenous pepcid prescribed for heartburn).

Why do these people like to waste our time?

life in the er (eeee are)

I haven't been in the emergency room since my first month as an intern so I had a few qualms about it. Even though I do 12 hour shifts just like in almost any other rotation, this rotation leaves me haggard, thirsty, and in need of relieving my bladder. As a second year, I am in the resuscitation room where the acutely dying, chest and abdominal painers go. I've had a few codes that just leave me thinking "what in the world am I doing here?"

I also have this new, well-founded paranoia. There are portable X-ray machines everywhere and I do everything possible to get far away and protect my 1st trimester baby. I perform needle sticks on people with who knows what disease and then I talk and breath the same air as SICK people all the time. I not only endanger myself, but also someone else now.

I am 5 of 6

Six of the residents in my program are pregnant. We seem to have come in pairs.