smirkingatyou

Aside from being on call last night and getting some piss poor sleep, today didn't suck nearly as much as expected. I managed to avoid the usual caffeine-induced-post-call-stomach-ache. I finished all of my morning work in time. I didn't even get hassled for not completing a small project (that I will have finished by tomorrow morning). However, the highlight of my day was potentially diagnosing the cause of a patient's very confusing problem. I can't give out too much information, obviously. The gist of the situation is that this guy has several problems. Most of them, we understand. Yet there was one finding, just one, that stumped everyone. One damn body part was messed up, and we didn't know why. (Not that part, you sick bastards.) The bitch is that his problem didn't present like anything any of us recognized, and unfortunately, this problem could mean a boatload of trouble. So I sat down and went through his medical history looking for any damn thing I could find that might cause his affliction. Then I stumbled across something on the internet that stuck out. I read about a rare and unusual side effect of a very common medication. I had never heard of this side effect, but it fit this guy's symptoms perfectly. I showed it to two doctors. Neither of them had ever heard of it. I then looked up the medication in a respected drug text. There it was, again.

This came at the perfect time. I got an evaluation last Friday. The doc told me that I was doing well, but sometimes it seemed like I was just "going through the motions." When I asked him how I could improve, he told me to put forth a little more effort into understanding my patients. Essentially, he wanted me to become more involved in their care. From the reaction I got, I think he was impressed.

Though this man has several chronic problems, the one I'm describing brought him to the hospital in a savage amount of pain. I may not be right, and I certainly haven't cured this man, but figuring this out might help him live a better life. It's not often that I get an ego boost like this that could also help out someone else. It's a cool feeling.