Tuesday . July 9 . 2002 . 5:31pm |
blood on my dirtypillows I had a Carrie-at-the-prom moment today, when, after drawing bloods from my patient--a 7 year-old kid in such acute liver failure that he's transcended mere jaundice and actually become bright neon green, like a tennis ball--I attempted to label the tube with a sticker, accidentally flipped the top of the tube open somehow, and splashed blood all over myself. I suppose I should have been a little more freaked out, and probably would have been had the patient been a grody-looking grown-up instead of a cute neon-green child, but he had already ruled out for viral hepatitis, and has no significant past medical history to note, so I just kind of laughed it off and swabbed myself off with alcohol wipes. Really, it was pretty embarrassing--my first attempted (and successful) Peds blood draw, only to have the moment eclipsed by doing something so stupid as to take the blood and pour it all over myself. Plus, my white coat is ruined, looking now like an artifact from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Maybe I should save it for Halloween. I'm working hard these days, and tired almost all of the time, but I have to say, I am loving Pediatrics. At least, I love hospital Pediatrics, which seems to take all the great things that I like about the field--the thinking through of difficult diagnoses, the stickier issues of patient management, the didactics and the teaching, and more critical care issues--without having to deal with some of (in my opinion) the more ho-hum aspects of Peds like the well-baby exams and the filling out of school physical forms. Does this mean that I like sick kids more than well kids? Not so much. I just like working with sick kids. I like the mental calisthenics. I like the hospital, consulting the experts at your fingertips when you have a question, bouncing ideas off other people, seeing those rare disease entities that you thought you'd only read about. I guess this means I'm destined for a career of academic medicine. Which some might also argue means that I'm destined for a life of poverty. Well, there are always lotto tickets. xo Michelle |
