My weird ER schedule has been throwing me off of my blog-writing groove. Thankfully, my week in the ER is already over, but this does not bode well for my blog during the surgery clerkship!
Thursday was crazy-busy in the ER. At one point we had 35 kids in the system even though we only have 19 beds (not rooms, mind you, but beds - half of which are just gurneys lining the halls). This makes for a lot of running around, though not many teaching moments. For a while, I was following a resident who was just seeing kids in the waiting room. These patients never even got a bed in the ER and were seen, treated, and discharged straight from the waiting room. Honestly, this was a pretty sweet deal for them because they probably saved a several hour wait and avoided the cramped chaos of the ER hallways.
Nights like this are when the ER triage system really annoys some parents. Triage is, of course, the assessment and care for patients by order of severity. That means that if you come in with a paper cut but 15 traumas come in after you, you'll be seen 16th.
One particular family came in with an infant who probably had a super-mild, super-common viral infection, but because of the slew of sicker kids that came in at the same time, they were stuck on a gurney for nearly five hours. I interviewed them when they arrived and became the unlucky go-between for them and their care team. It's hard knowing what they need and not being able to get them it. But I did have their gratitude to grabbing them a couple extra formula samples for the child and exchanging some crumpled one-dollar bills for crisper ones that might work in the vending machines. As always, little things can go along way toward showing that your empathy is not just words.
ThursdayIL: "Witches milk" is a colloquial term for male infant lactation caused by hormones in breast milk.
FridayIL: Anemia is very common in small children due to the fluctuations of iron that they get from breast milk and formula. Do not freak out parents by mentioning this when it comes back in a lab test.
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