Monday, 2 April 2012

Chapter 2 - Ortho(awful)peadics

The first day of my new rotation....Orthopeadics.  An elective (meaning it was my choice....yeah right!?)  12 weeks of it and so far so good.
It's interesting that the very registrars I fought with to get patients admitted to their service when I was in ED and it was going to create them work, are now so nice to me that I am on their team and will DO their work!
It seems a lot less stressful than ED in that, there is a finite number of patients. There are patients on the ward, in fracture clinic, pre-admission clinic and "on the board" - awaiting emergency surgery. The numbers vary a little day by day, however clinics come to an end and eventually there is no-one there.
In ED, they never stop coming, and neither does the pressure.
So today another new learning curve begins.
I know very little about orthopaedics and bones in general. In fact as in intern I know a little bit about nothing in medicine and surgery in general!
What the hell do they teach us in medical school??!!
Anyway I muddled through the first day with much thanks to the very patient clinic nurses, until a family medical problem took me home early.
A problem that weighs heavily on my heart tonight.
It is sooooo much easier to be a doctor and sort things out for people you don't know and infinitely more difficult and emotionally exhausting to want to fix the problems of family and friends.




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