Leaving the 'Lawns

Just finished my last shift in the ER at Broadlawns Medical Center in Des Moines. It's been a great month -- I haven't been able to convey, in my humble blog posts, even a fraction of all the fascinating cases I've been seeing. And the staff here have been friendly, supportive, and dedicated teachers. It's bittersweet to be leaving. On my way out of the Emergency Department a patient stopped me in the hall. I had seen her when she came to the ER, and she was admitted to the hospital. She wanted to let me know how her tests came out, that she was doing much better, and thanked me for taking care of her. I can't think of a more poetic conclusion to my ER rotation.

And now, back to the student apartment to pack and hit the road back home.

Hydrophobia

The last patient I saw yesterday was getting rabies shots following an animal bite. After my shift, walking out of the hospital at 4:30 a.m. I came face-to-face with a raccoon sitting on the fence by the entrance eating goodies out of a trash can. "Hello, little furry rabies virus reservoir," I thought. "I'm going to stay well away from you." Admittedly, it looked less like a slavering, crazy-eyed beast ready to sink its virus-laden teeth into my flesh and more like an overfed, slightly lazy garbage mooch, but you can't be too careful, eh?

Hello from Des Moines

Yes, that's right -- Des Moines. Yesterday I started a four-week rotation here in the Emergency Department of Broadlawns Medical Center. So far it's everything I could have hoped for. Yesterday I saw a large, bearded patient wearing Harley-Davidson paraphernalia who was speaking in tongues. We went on bypass today after receiving three motor vehicle accident victims at the same time. Two of my attending physicians are identical twins. And that's only the first two days: we're just getting started!