Today I'm enjoying a day off.  I really wish you could have smelled my kitchen this afternoon!  I cooked up a storm!  I had homemade chicken stock simmering on one stove eye, while spicy and smoky chana masala cooked up on the next... all the while zucchini bread was rising in the oven.  It's really nice to have an off day where I can just be quiet and slow-paced and do what I love doing.

That's definitely the opposite of what I do the 6 other days of the week.  Right now I'm in the middle of a month-long rotation in the Emergency Department.  It's the opposite of calm down there.  I think I've actually been a bit more stressed doing this than I was on my in-patient month last block.  There are days when I've eaten lunch at 6pm, and even one day when I didnt go to the bathroom on my entire 10 hour shift!  Patients just keep coming in from everywhere and if you get behind on seeing them it gets even more stressful.

Since it's busy the time goes by fast.  And I've seen some interesting stuff (heart attacks requiring electric shock, strokes, ruptured esophagus) ... but I've also see the not-urgent, weird stuff that comes in that doesn't get admitted to the hospital.  And that's not very exciting.

Whenever a patient gets put back in a room, they pop up on my computer screen.  And the first thing I see is their "chief complaint", or, the primary reason they came to the hospital that day.  Some of the stranger ones I've seen have been:

"I feel like my leg is stopped up"
"I accidentally took one Vicodin"
"I was dizzy, now I'm better"
"I have headaches, dizziness, pelvic pain, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, muscle aches and joint pains"

Unfortunately some people (like that last one I mentioned) don't have a primary care provider and decide to come to the emergency room for all their aches and pains, and they also would like you to cure them in one afternoon.

It really seems like some of my patient encounters go a bit like this:
(warning ... there's a few expletives.  Picture me as the one in the tie.)

It's hard to not get a bit cynical down there, but there definitely are some rewarding moments too!  For instance, yesterday a super cute 87 year old lady asked me if she could come home with me!  And another lady told me I was the best doctor she'd ever seen (guess she hasn't been to many)!

I'll be done with this rotation on Sept 10th, then I'll be flying to Oklahoma by way of Gadsden to see a friend's wedding and my best friend's baby!