Firsts

Intern year is full of firsts. Primarily, the first time one is called Dr, asked to make an important decision, called to a patient's bedside when they are ill or simply signing your own orders for the first time (in med school someone has to "co-sign" them for you).

To give you an idea of what this is like, I thought I'd make a lists of my firsts since intern year started (as you might guess, I'm working so much I haven't had any fun trips with exciting pictures, so a work-related post is the only option):

first night on call (usually means I spend the whole night in the hospital taking care of new patients that come in and all the patients in the hospital that night)

first "champagne" tap (this refers to doing a lumbar puncture, where you stick a needle in to the space between the vertebrae and the spinal cord to get spinal fluid to test for meningitis, and get no red blood cells in the fluid)

first patient with typhoid fever (really! she was 4 and had never been outside of Alabama, but mama was from the Philippines...there were a few typhoid mary jokes among the residents)

first night on call in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit), which involves attending all high risk deliveries in the hospital and "resusitating" the babies, which can involve anything from smacking the feet (not the bum!) to sucking goop out of their airway (suctioning) to putting a tube down the throat to help them breathe. Lots of times it also involves showing the baby to mom for the first time....those are good ones!

first tap (lumbar puncture, see above) on a patient on a ventilator (breathing machine)

first tap on a patient on a ventilator (breathing machine) AND with a chest tube (tube place through the skin into the space between the chest wall and the lung...a little delicate)

first intubation (putting a tube down the throat to help a patient breathe)....on a baby that weighs 500g (0.5 kilograms or ~1 lb)

first fever while working 30 hours straight (not fun, but I'm sure it won't be the last)

Well, that's just a few of 'em, but you get the idea. I promise the next post will be more colorful and less full of medical speak.