October 16th, 2009 by MotherJonesRN in Better Health Network, Humor, True Stories
Tags: Cap, Education, Nursing, Questions, Students
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I felt like an antique this weekend thanks to some medical students on my unit. Why do students seem to get younger every year, and please don’t place the blame on my chronological age. I refuse to believe that I’m getting older. I forget how we got onto the subject, but somehow I told a group of medical interns that I graduated from a three-year diploma nursing program.
One of the interns innocently asked me, “What’s that?” I felt so old when he asked me that question that I expected a museum curator to come out of the woodwork and cordon me off with a velvet rope. I answered his question. They were fascinated that they were actually talking to an “old time nurse.” They had more questions:
Question: “How did you keep you nurses cap on?” Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Nurse Ratched's Place*
October 14th, 2009 by Shadowfax in Better Health Network, True Stories
Tags: Emergency Medicine, headache, Infectious Disease, Instincts, Meningitis, Migraine, Pediatrics
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Saw a nine-year old with a headache today. His dad brought him in, and explained that all the men in his family get migraines; he figured this was his son’s first one. The kid seemed perfectly well, with a positive Cheetos sign and my gut instinct was that I would discharge him with no work-up. But when I flexed his neck fully, he winced. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Movin' Meat*
October 12th, 2009 by KevinMD in Better Health Network, Humor, True Stories
Tags: Ban, Drug Company, Gifts, Pharmaceuticals, Physicians, Regulations, Schering-Plough
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And that includes food of any kind, which makes for some awkward moments at national physician conventions.
So, during this week’s ACEP Scientific Assembly in Boston, WhiteCoat snapped a picture of this notice, which borders on farcical:

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*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*
October 11th, 2009 by Dr. Val Jones in True Stories
Tags: Bicycle Safety, Cycling, Emergency Medicine, Helmet, Injury, Orthopedics, Roller Blading, Skate Boarding, Wear A Helmet
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Well, indirectly that is. I was spending a nice Sunday afternoon biking around the Potomac with my husband when Obama’s Marine One helicopter flew low over us and took a sudden left turn. The maneuver was eye-catching, and hubby took his eyes off the road to watch. His front wheel slipped off the pavement and got wedged between the grass and bike path. He took a pretty bad spill, and I jumped off my bike to check him out. (I had given him a lecture about not wearing a helmet only a few hours prior). Luckily, he did not hit his head… unluckily, he got a pretty nice abrasion on his left elbow and hip (right through his clothing) as well as this lovely developing bursitis. See photo on next page… Read more »
October 11th, 2009 by Bongi in Better Health Network, True Stories
Tags: Acetone, Dermabond, Emergency Medicine, Eye, Eye Lashes, Eye Lid, Glue, Super Glue, Surgery, Treatment
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I recently read a post that reminded me of an incident. depending on which side of the eyelid you found yourself that day, it could have been funny…or not.
I was doing casualty sessions after hours. It was a way of making ends meet while I was specialising, but mostly I just hated it. Anyway one night, between the snotty noses and neurotic parents a patient actually came in with a casualty-worthy complaint. He had a small laceration on his forehead. We decided to glue it together with dermabond because it was so small. I decided to leave it to the sister. After all the unit was full to overflowing with snotty noses and paranoid parents that I was required to work through and get rid of.
After a while the sister came to me. She had terror written all over her face. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at other things amanzi*