Wednesday, November 23, 2005

My favorite drunks

Working as a Unit Coordinator in a medium size city without adequate jail space, I see a number of intoxicated people without real medical problems come in to the emergency department. Tonight I would like to write about two of my favorites.

The first is a recent patient who is not a regular but still stands out as memorable. Normally, drunk patients come in stinking of old booze and that sweet smell of, I haven't showered for a week. This person was different though. His breath was heavenly, almost as if he had decided to take the time to brush his teeth before passing out on the street, where the medics found him. Needless to say I found out why he smelled so refreshing. His drink of choice happened to be Listerine, which to my surprise, is ~60% alcohol. Unfortunately for him, his decision to drink 3/4 of a big bottle, bought him intubation and a stay in the ICU. Fortunately for us, the room he was in stayed minty fresh for a couple hours.

The second is a frequent flyer of ours that amazes many that she is still alive. She has come in after: being hit by a car, being pushed out of a moving car, having the shit kicked out of her while fighting for money, walking around for hours on the freeway soaking wet in 40 degree rain, etc. Inevitably, one of the first things we do is get her to blow through the breathalizer. The great part is she likes to guess her level and is often within .02 of her alcohol level, which is normally in the .3-.4 range. While she is in the department her medical needs are met, she is allowed to sober up enough, but not too much, lest she start to seize. Then she is offered detox, which some days she takes, most she doesn't.

It may be kind of morbid, but when I read the paper I do keep an eye out for her name in the obits especially when it has been a week since her last visit.

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Starting out again

To blog or not to blog.

After spending the last 3 years working on "perfecting" my application for medical school I have finally been accepted. My first year I tried schools that people had recommeded and I figured I could get in and of course the only school within my state, Washington, hoping for in-state tuition. I was across the board rejected from the 5 out-of-state (OOS) schools and was rejected after interviewing at the illustrious UW. So then I took the time, hindsight is 20/20, to pay for the US News rankings and statistics only to find how stupid I had been. None of the 5 schools had more than 10% of their students from OOS.

So 3 months have passed and I find myself going through the shotgun approach to applications, after making a very technical and colorful spreadsheet from US News' numbers, including OOS acceptance, selectivitity, and minority ratios (especially since I am a complete mutt-also read Generican-American), 12 schools have been chosen. AMCAS was happy to see my money coming to them. Additionally, after traveling across Western Australia a couple times I decided to apply down under also. Needless to say I have interviewed and been accepted to Univ. of Sydney and will be starting in February. I have gone through secondary applications for all of the schools, unfortunately, since it was ~$80 per school!! However, I am excited and definitely looking forward to the adventure of learning to become a doctor in Australia.

So I have started this blog to chronicle my exploits as I travel through medical school. As this is my first log I would like to link others to a log that has somewhat inspired me to write: http://www.medicalmadhouse.blogspot.com/ in addition to some friends, one a med student in Arizona who writes about some of his experiences http://spaces.msn.com/members/osteopathway/ , and another who is working in Antartica for the summer http://blogs.bootsnall.com/erica+joy/ .
All of them are entertaining.