Of EMed (4)

nothing much last night - had the standard cases of vomiting, chest pain, breathlessness. some flurry of activity occurred when a standby was called for a patient in status (epilepticus) and a russian patient, whose only english word was "cold", came in for haemetemesis. got to do some t&s, catheterisations and lots of blood taking. still need more practise in setting plugs - i managed to set a green one last night after failing two blue ones, how ironic. granted, i was successful because the patient was a young, albeit whiny army boy while the other two were older folk, and one of whom kept wincing in pain when the needle was in. like, from the first poke she was already hissing and clenching her teeth. to cut a long story short, i harm-ed and so asked dr s- for help. sigh.

and talking about the whiny guy, he presented with blood in his vomitus after an all night drinking binge. said he started at 11 the night before and lasted till 4 in the morning, and drank a couple of martell's. during the consult, he kept checking his watch and sighing about how he had to report to camp soon and that his friends were waiting for him outside etc etc. it wasn't his first time at the er for such a problem, but he made quite a big fuss when told about the possibility that he might have to be observed. like, whatever. it's not as if the medical staff were waiting for him to turn up!

forgot to mention about the man with scabies we saw on friday night. from afar, we spotted him scratching his legs furiously and moaning in pain. we approached him and saw that with each scratch, a whole lot of skin flakes fluttered onto the bed and the floor below. his skin was all red and bloody from all that scratching. needless to say, we were both repulsed and full of pity for him. he said he lived alone, and when i took a look at the address, it wasn't in a good part of town. it's so tough with patients from such backgrounds - this gentleman actually bore the itch for over a month before coming in to hotel o.n.e. for some weird chest pain. i'm not sure how his follow-up is going to be like, but i certainly hope he somehow gets rid of the scabies in his home.

anyway, the latest batch of urine bags has been a giving us a problem - they leak. first time i did a cath alone, it was with a faulty bag, how exciting. heard of one patient who ended up changing like three or four bags because they all leaked. haha. it's like some russian roulette now, seeing who gets the leaky urine bag. heh.