ER Patient of the Day

***100+ white female in the ER for confusion***

PATIENT: Get in here!

ME: Hi, ma'am. Do you need help?

PATIENT: No. What do you want?

ME: Well, I heard you call for someone...so I came to see if you needed help.

PATIENT: No one helps me. You all have broken my cookies. MY COOKIES ARE BROKEN!

ME: Your cookies are broken?

PATIENT: I am over 5 years old. You all want me to die!

ME: We don't want that. We are here to help you.

PATIENT: Get out of here!

***I start leaving the room***

PATIENT: Get back in here, sir!

***Please note: I am NOT a sir......last time I checked in the mirror, I was female.......***

ME: Yes, ma'am?

PATIENT: Get someone here to help me.

***Here is when I call for a nurse...not knowing what to do with my 3rd year medical student experience***

NURSE: Can we help you, ma'am?

PATIENT: Get this off of me!!!

***Patient rips out IV. As the nurse goes to grab it from her, she starts whipping the nurse with the tubing***

PATIENT: That's mine!

NURSE: You have pulled your IV out. Stop hitting! We need to reattach this.

PATIENT: You aren't helping me. Someone has to help me all the time.

NURSE: We ARE helping you.

PATIENT: ***Looking to me*** Who are you?

ME: I'm the medical student.

PATIENT: Well, you're NOT doing a very good job at it!

ME: ***Already starting to laugh at the situation*** Oh man! You're the first patient that has EVER told me that! I'm sorry to hear you say that.

PATIENT: I'm going to tell your folks and they are NOT going to be happy about it!



Hahahaha!!! I have been laughing at this situation the rest of the day. First she whipped the nurse with her pulled-out IV tube, then told me I was not doing a good job. It was so humorous! Better than that, when I passed her room about 5 minutes later, she had no idea who I was! Hahaha....I will remember her for a LONG time!

Check it out!

I meant to write a blog about my sister's recent engagement....but I guess I forgot!

Lucky for you, you can check out their new website dedicated to the planning of "The Big Day".

It is a really fun site to look at...and I'm sure will be updated by my sister, Kasey, quite frequently! I'll look forward to creating one whenever it's time for ME to get married!

Great Perspective

I've posted quite a few things that have been forwarded on to me from my Aunt Bobbie. Here is another great one.....apparently written by Jay Leno....although this cannot be confirmed. Either way, whoever wrote it.....it's a great perspective!

"The other day I was reading Newsweek magazine and came across some poll data I found rather hard to believe. It must be true, given the source, right? The Newsweek poll alleges that 67% of Americans are unhappy with the direction the country is headed, and 69% of the country is unhappy with the performance of the President. In essence, 2/3's of the citizenry just ain't happy and want a change.

So being the "knuckle dragger" I am, I started thinking. 'What are we so unhappy about?' Is it that we have electricity and running water 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? Is our unhappiness the result of having air conditioning in the summer and heating in the winter? Could it be that 95.4% of these unhappy folks have a job? Maybe it is the ability to walk into a grocery store at any time, and see more food in moments than Darfur has seen in the last year? Maybe it is the ability to drive from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean without having to present identification papers as we move through each state? Or possibly the hundreds of clean and safe motels we would find along the way that can provide temporary shelter? I guess having thousands of restaurants with varying cuisine from around the world is just not good enough.

Or could it be that when we wreck our car, emergency workers show up and provide services to help all, and even send a helicopter to take you to the hospital? Perhaps you are one of the 70% of Americans who own a home. You may be upset with knowing that in the unfortunate case of a fire, a group of trained firefighters will appear in moments and use top notch equipment to extinguish the flames thus saving you, your family and your belongings. Or if, while at home watching one of your many flat screen TVs, a burglar or prowler intrudes, an officer equipped with a gun and a bullet-proof vest will come to defend you and your family against attack or loss. This all in the backdrop of a neighborhood free of bombs or militias raping and pillaging the residents. Neighborhoods where 90% of teenagers own cell phones and computers.

How about the complete religious, social and political freedoms we enjoy that are the envy of everyone in the world? Maybe that is what has 67% of you folks unhappy.

Fact is we are the largest group of ungrateful, spoiled brats the world has ever seen. No wonder the world loves the U.S., yet has a great disdain for its citizens. They see us for what we are. The most blessed people in the world who do nothing but complain about what we don't have, and what we hate about the country instead of thanking the good Lord we live here.

I know, I know. What about the President who took us into war and has no plan to get us out? The President who has a measly 31% approval rating? Is this the same President who guided the nation in the dark days after 9/11? The President that cut taxes to bring an economy out of recession? Could this be the same guy who has been called every name in the book for succeeding in keeping all the spoiled ungrateful brats safe from terrorist attacks? The Commander-In Chief of an all-volunteer army that is out there defending you and me?

Did you hear how bad the President is on the news or talk show? Did this news affect you so much, make you so unhappy you couldn't take a look around for yourself and see all the good things and be glad? Think about it...are you upset at the President because he actually caused you personal pain OR is it because the 'Media' told you he was failing to kiss your sorry ungrateful behind every day?

Make no mistake about it. The troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have volunteered to serve, and in many cases may have died for your freedom. There is currently no draft in this country. They didn't have to go. They are able to refuse to go and end up with either a "general" discharge, an "other than honorable" discharge or, worst case scenario, a "dishonorable" discharge after a few days in the brig.

So why then the flat-out discontentment in the minds of 69% of Americans?

Say what you want, but I blame it on the media. If it bleeds, it leads; and they specialize in bad news. Everybody will watch a car crash with blood and guts. How many will watch kids selling lemonade at the corner?

The media knows this and media outlets are for-profit corporations. They offer what sells, and when criticized, try to defend their actions by "justifying" them in one way or another. Just ask why they tried to allow a murderer like O.J. Simpson to write a book about 'how he didn't kill his wife, but if he did he would have done it this way'...Insane!

Stop buying the negativism you are fed everyday by the media. Shut off the TV, burn Newsweek, and use the New York Times for the bottom of your bird cage. Then start being grateful for all we have as a country.

There is exponentially more good than bad. We are among the most blessed people on Earth, and should thank God several times a day...or at least be thankful and appreciative."

Grand Cayman, Here We Come!

My brain is fried.

I just realized that I haven't really had a break since I started my clinical rotations on August 6, 2007. That is 7 months without a break! Well, okay....I had a week off at Christmas...but that holiday is just so dang busy that I can't really count it as a break!

I usually get home from the clinic or hospital and am so tired that I'm hitting the sack by 9pm! Then I wake up at 5:30 or 6am to start it all over again. Is it bad to just want some time AWAY from the patients, lab values, X-rays, physicians, and studying?

My family - including my sister's fiance, my boyfriend, and other sister's friend - are leaving for a week and a half trip to Grand Cayman in one week. I can't wait!!!

Here is a brief list of what I am excited about:

1. Stepping off the plane to the smell of salt water in the air

2. Stingray City

3. Scuba diving

4. Snorkeling with my boyfriend

5. Cliff diving at Pedro's Castle

6. "Beaching it"

7. Getting tan

8. Playing tennis in the evening

9. Walking along Seven Mile Beach

10. Eating a meat-pie after diving

11. Messing around with my sister's underwater camera

I'd like to say that I won't study at all while I'm there. But in all honesty, I'll probably have some board review books to look through while I'm soaking up the rays. Even though I should take advantage of the sun, I also know that I've only got 6 months before my next medical board exam. YUCK!!!

Anyways, my boyfriend and I will be leaving Tennessee on Monday to drive back home. Then we'll be leaving late Wednesday night to head to Cayman. I'll keep a "vacation diary" while we are gone!!! We'll miss you all!!!

ATTN: Panera Peeps

Well, I'm in Chattanooga, Tennessee!!!

It's 8:15, I don't have to be at work yet, and I'll get off by 4:45....this is the life! Radiology is the life!!!

I'm at Panera right now. Not quite the same as my Panera....but that's just because they don't know my name yet! I'm eating a BACON, EGG, AND CHEESE Sandwich here....freshly grilled on Ciabatta bread. It's AWESOME!!!

Since I'm not there to do it, will one of my Panera peeps ask Tana when our Panera will get these? The funny thing is that I first tried those Crispanis here....and now I get to first sample this sandwich here. Panera Iowa must just be a little behind!

Anyways, I'm having fun so far!! I'll keep you all updated!

Dear Anonymous

I've had four, count them, FOUR anonymous responses to a post I had written called D.O. vs M.D.. Why it took people this long to start responding, I don't know. I wrote the post on March 1 of 2007. Whatever the reason, it has sparked some good discussion. Maybe people will respond to this post by 2009! We'll see!

To anonymous person #1 who decided to respond by writing up a bunch of statistics: I'm not sure what your point was. You've used statistics from a medical journal that is 2 years old....in order to point out that D.O.'s make up only 6% of the total population of doctors. And??? I mean, maybe you were saying that D.O.'s were few and far between...and that is the reason people have a tough time finding one even if they are looking. Or it may have been a snide way of pointing out that there are a ton more M.D.'s, therefore, making M.D.'s better. I'm not sure. But, again, I'm not sure what your point was.

To anonymous person #2 who responded to the above mentioned comment: It is completely true that there are fewer D.O.'s in general. (I don't know what the above person was trying to point out!) However, I would like to respond to your comment that "M.D.s do their clinical rotations in a teaching hospital affiliated with their medical school, while D.O.s do their clinical rotations in community hospitals and local doctor's offices." This isn't actually true. Some D.O. schools have affiliated hospitals for students, some do not. My school, Des Moines University in Iowa, does not. Therefore, we do rotations at other hospitals. I guess it just depends where you go to school. I'm not really sure where you pulled that information from, though.

To anonymous person #3 who responded to the above mentioned comment: You said the same as me. Or, shall I say, I said the same as you. Well done! Doing well on your COMLEX or USMLE is important, as is doing well on rotations.

To anonymous person #4 who, to be honest, ticked me off: Congratulations on getting into medical school. That is a major achievement! (I promise, I'm being genuine.) Whether you were in the M.D. program (as you mentioned) or a D.O. program, you have worked hard to get to this point. You had to have done well on the MCAT and I'm sure you'll do well on your boards.

Thank you for prefacing your comment with "I don't know much about D.O.s." That, in fact, was why I wrote the post in the first place.

You were offended by my comment that D.O.s treat the patient and not just the symptom. But, I was not meaning that M.D.s thought differently. In fact, I led out my entire post that it is dumb to think one is better than the other. I don't think I'm better because I'm a D.O. I don't think I'm better, period. I just think I have one other thing in my "pocket", so to say, that an M.D. doesn't. I don't use OMT (osteopathic manipulative treatment) very often. In fact, I use it rarely. However, there have been those occasional patients, coming in complaining of low back pain, that I have been able to fix. The hands of a 3rd year medical student have fixed the problem, not the numerous shots of steroids they have received in the past. Actually, I use my OMT skills more on the M.D.s I am learning from, than I do on patients. Mostly because 1) they are curious 2) their necks, shoulders, backs, etc hurt 3) they want to see if I really can "pop their neck" in the exact place it has been bothering them for the past 2 weeks. (And, YES I CAN!)

You wondered when we were trained in OMM (osteopathic manipulative medicine) if we are taking the same curriculum as you. Well, we do the same as you....2 years of didactics/patient encounters....and the following 2 years doing rotations in hospitals/clinics. But our schools shove the OMM into the first 2 years. So, we're taking all the basic sciences and systems courses, but ALSO taking OMM. We typically had one or two lectures a week...followed by a one and half hour lab based on that lecture. Therefore, anywhere from 3-5 hours per week, for two years, of OMM. Not a whole lot more time commitment each week (because I can manage lab the day before a test), but a TON of information learned over the course of 2 years.

I do find it funny that you asked that question in this way: "What is your schedule? Is it the same as medical schools..." Which implies to me that D.O.s weren't really in medical school. Maybe that was just a mistake....but maybe it wasn't. When my brother-in-law mentioned to his M.D. friends that I was going to a D.O. school, their response was, "Oh, so she's not in medical school." Hmmmm..... YES. I'm in medical school. Ask all my friends at Panera - they see me studying and working my buns off. We, as D.O.s are working VERY HARD in MEDICAL SCHOOL.

Also, you mentioned that 3x as many D.O.s failed the USMLE compared to M.D.s. First of all, the USMLE isn't our board exam....we take the COMLEX. And just as M.D.s would have a tough time with all the OMM on our exam, we would have a tough time with the M.D. exam. Sure, we learn the same information.....but we are taught to look at things a little bit differently. I'd like to know where you got that statistic though.....I'd be interested to see that. Actually, I'd be more interested to see how the M.D.s would do on our exam. I'd bet you'd find 3x as many M.D.s failing the COMLEX vs D.O.s. Not because you are less educated....but because you have learned differently. But, that will never happen. M.D.s have never been made to take the COMLEX..... Hmmmm.

Finally, you said that the D.O. entering MCAT score was 26 while the score for M.D.s was 31. I can't speak for all schools, I can only speak to the program I am in at DMU. As a student interviewer for 2 years, we saw MANY excellent candidates come through the doors. MCAT scores ranged anywhere from 23 - 42 while I was interviewing. Probably similar ranges to M.D. schools. The 23 might be a little lower....but, still similar. Anyways, I remember one day interviewing this guy who scored A+ all the way through college and had a 42 on his MCAT. Sounded like a good guy on paper. But talking to him? The guy was looney! He had no character to him. He had no spark. In fact, he was outright weird. He couldn't communicate with the interviewing panel and only had one-word answers. Needless to say, we all rejected him. He did not come to our school.

At DMU, I always thought we did a good job admitting good people...not just how they looked on paper....but how they were in person. If this meant they had an MCAT score that was a couple points lower, who cares??? My class still had a 96% pass rate on the first attempt of boards. Must have chosen good candidates........

You're right to say that D.O.s have an uphill battle. That's because there are so few of us!!! (Please refer back to my response to anonymous person #1).

Man, what good conversation!

Strange Wilderness

Does this movie look as funny to you as it does to me? I just get a kick out of this trailer!!!

Strong Woman? More Like PUSHOVER!!!

Give me a break!

I don't care what your political view may be. Democrat? Fine. I'll just counteract your vote. Republican? Fine. More votes for my side. But voting aside, I have to tell you what this patient said on Friday.

Pretty quickly into the conversation, she knew I was NOT a Hillary fan. Never have been, never will be. Just can't stand her to be honest.

Do you know what she had the audacity to say????

And I quote: "Hillary is a STRONG woman! It takes a STRONG woman to stay with her man. When she entered into that vow of marriage, she took that to heart. She stuck by her man despite what he did. That is one STRONG woman! Young girls should learn from her example!"

ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

Standing by "her man" after he did what he did? What a joke! That's a PUSHOVER in my book. She should have been a "STRONG" woman by sticking to her guns....and telling her husband that he couldn't treat her that way. Fooling around with another woman in the White House is NOT a good role model. I don't care what anyone says. Hillary Clinton is NOT a strong woman for that!!! Young girls should NOT learn from that kind of example. This isn't the 1950's. This is 2008. Get real!!!

Phew.....needed to get that out!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!!

This is one AWESOME Christmas choir! If you get bored, keep watching! It is REALLY GOOD!

Another New Career Path!

That's right ladies and gentleman...you heard it here first. I'm 2 days into Anesthesia....and now....that's what I want to do!

Forget Pediatrics - school physicals get old...and I don't think my immmune system can take it.

Forget Psychiatry - I've psyched myself out of that. Alzheimer's is sad - I don't like that.

Forget Plastic Surgery - Too many demanding patients with body dysmorphic disorder.

Forget OB/Gyn - Okay, just joking!!! This is still WAY up there on my list. But man, oh man, they work HARD!!!

I'm drawn to anesthesia (which I didn't think I would be) because 1) they DO actually perform procedures 2) they seem to work WAY BETTER hours than OB 3) they get to experience all sorts of medicine but don't have to deal with crappy patients - they just put them to sleep.

Who knows. I'm so lost in this process. Everyone says that in less than a year from now I need to know what to do. When I mention OB, everyone says, "Don't do that!!!" I haven't mentioned Anesthesia to any of the doctors yet...maybe that will be my experiment tomorrow! It is just so hard! Maybe now I am feeling what all my friends felt after college - What do I do with my life? All my friends - or most of them - have steady jobs at big companies - and are already making good money. Then here comes me....still in school....not sure what to do....not making ANY money....and extremely in debt. Quite overwhelming.

I'm going to try to update my blog more frequently. I'm sure I have many avid readers....and I remember how it felt waiting for the final Harry Potter to be written. I don't want my readers to feel that way.... =)