Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Rollercoaster

Yep, I've been riding one since last week.

It all started when I got sick. I came down with a nasty, nasty cold early last week that knocked me off my feet. I only missed one day of work, but I slept so much it felt like I had missed a whole week. Ironically enough, I hate taking medications, so I took only what I needed to get through the week, and it helped tremendously. I still managed to go dancing Saturday night.

Well, I'm getting dressed to go to work yesterday, and the cop wakes up out of his sleep moaning and groaning. I walk in to check on him, and he begins to complain of dizziness. I initially thought he may be overheated; our apartment gets very hot in the summertime. When the dizziness returns, and is accompanied with profuse sweating and nystagmus (which I had never seen up close before), I know something more serious is wrong. Thank God we live literally two minutes away from the hospital.

So, the cop has vertigo. Scared the living daylights out of me. We had an excellent doctor working with us. I took mental notes as he performed the cop's physical examination. The medical interview was beautiful! Great open-ended answers, and great rapport with the patient. Within 5 minutes he had his diagnosis, and within 20 minutes we were headed to the pharmacy to fill prescriptions.

Needless to say, I didn't go to work last night. I'll be returning tonight. Word has it that census is low. I'm hoping this pick up. I need all the diseases, drugs, lab values and patient interaction that I can get. That sounds really selfish, doesn't it...

Work is still exciting, however, it becomes more and more mundane every day. I feel like I have all of this new knowledge and no license to use it. Very, very frustrating. My saving grace is knowing that at the end of this year, in 7 months, I will be in PA school studying all the diseases I see everyday, and learing how to treat them! How cool is that? I've been in contact with my school, and everything is set to go. I paid my deposit last Monday (YAY!!!!), so my seat has officially been set aside for me. What a relief!

In the meantime, it's work, eat, sleep (very little), and SALSA!!!! And not necessarily in that order!!

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