I just finished my first emergency room shift. Very cool. As expected the variety was amazing. First a pregnant woman stung by a bee, then a man who had just had a stroke, a woman with severe migraines and even a car accident. The pace waxed and waned through the night with times where I was juggling multiple things at once and also times where we just chatted about emergency medicine. Very cool.
I hope to post after most of my shifts this month, so stay tuned! Oh, and I did a spinal tap tonight (long needle into spinal column to sample the cerebral spinal fluid and check for a cranial bleed).
Mike
3 comments:
Why was the pregnant woman in the ER for a bee sting? Was she allergic?
OHMYGOD- I had the same thing happen to me in the ER once when I went in w/a severe migraine. After three days of intense pain (even w/great meds and after multiple tests) they did the patch and the RELIEF was IMMEDIATE.
The headache after a spinal tap is appropiately termed a "spinal headache." They say the pain is unbearable. Amazing that two different people in our family had one. There is a 3% chance of getting one if a very small needle is used (more like 15% with a medium size needle). The blood patch works just how Carrie said (no surprise). The blood is injected in the space around your spinal cord and it actually clots over the hole left by the original injection.
Thanks for the comments. If you have any medical questions let me know and I will post the answer anonymously.
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