The world of medicine is like a bubble. A lot of people THINK they know what goes on there, but unless you're down in the trenches it's unlikely you do. So here is my semi-anonymous blog, here to tell you what really goes on in the life of a medical resident.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Another Week Down

It's been a long week.

Big dog managed to impale himself on a stick while we were playing fetch in the off-leash park last weekend. One sleepless night and an early morning trip to the vet later he was diagnosed with a wound infection. Since the vet had to sedate him to explore the wound, I actually called in sick to spend the day looking after him. I blame Mr. Couz, who was still visiting his family, for not coming home early to be with our poor injured dog. When I suggested this to him, he called me a crazy dog lady.

The next day the snow started to fall. I got in the car to make the 1 hour commute to my family practice, and made it all of 8 blocks before turning around and coming home. Good call, since by the time the snow stopped falling about 60cm had fallen on my town. More had fallen on the town where I practice. It was not a good day for commuting. I stayed home and studied for my board exams.

The day after that I didn't even make it out of the house. It was a Snow Day-- capital "S", capital "D". People were being told to stay off the streets, and even the malls were closed down. I stayed home another day, leaving the comfort of my couch only to join my husband in shoveling out our front path, our sidewalk and our cars. Considering that I live in a part of Canada where this kind of weather is really not the norm, this was an event. The fact that the snowbanks are as tall as I am brings me back to my childhood faster than a Raffi song.

The next morning I woke up, ready and willing to go to work. Well, maybe not entirely willing... my throat was scratchy, I was coughing, and my head hurt. I am *not* impressed. A month after getting over URTI #1, URTI #2 hits. Ugh. I guess I should be happy it's not a gastro. But how I managed to get sick the one week I wasn't in contact with patients (unless I caught it from a dog) is beyond me. But I couldn't very well take another day off when I had already missed more than half the week, so I dragged my germ-y butt into work and saw a steady stream of patients with the same symptoms as I had. Seriously... if there was a cure for the cold, don't you think I would have used it on myself?

And in spite of the copious amounts of time I've had to sit around with my laptop and a cup of green tea, readers may have noticed a lack of blog postings recently. I've been hit with... The Block. It must be a midwinter blah thing. I can't come up with anything worth talking about, and when I try to force it I manage to create posts that ramble on for pages without actually making a point. So I stopped trying.

So that's it for my random thoughts from this week. At least I made it until the weekend. Hopefully this week will be better-- my last week in my community family practice. Sigh.

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5 Comments:

Blogger MedStudentGod (MSG) said...

Goodness - your poor doggy. I hope that he's getting well.

11:11 AM

 
Blogger ERnursey said...

Poor big dog. My dogs are very important members of the family so I can imagine what you are going through. hope he is ok.
I used to live in an area of heavy lake effect snow in upstate NY. I see the town I used to live in got over 100 inches last week. Boy, I don't miss that. Stay warm

11:28 AM

 
Blogger XE said...

Sorry to hear about your dog. Thank you on behalf of all of the veterinarians I've worked with for not trying to fix the wound yourself! (the poor vet spent the rest of the day in surgery with that dog, if my memory serves me).
Do you get to go back to the emergency department once you finish at the community practice?

12:37 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ouch! I hope Big Dog is recuperating well.

Dogs do have a way of getting themselves into trouble don't they? Our doggie hurt her leg several years ago stratching under a fence - she still has the scar. And then this past halloween she ate about thirty gold foil covered chocolate coins and pooped it all out ten days later. Crazy dogs.

I have to ask though, what is that picture of? I'm having a hard time figuring out what part of the dog that is. When I first saw the picture, I thought it was his butt (with tall up), but I'm sure you wouldn't post a picture of your dog's arse! Looks like a paw on the right, but that was all I could make out.

Hope you're feeling better too. And hopefully the weather out there gets a little more hospitable.

Cheers,
Sarah from Wedding Bells

5:00 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Okay, never mind. I took another look at the photo and can see its his chest. OUCH! Poor fella. Good thing he has you to look after him.

Sarah

5:03 PM

 

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