Day 334 Cops, Xanax, and Helicopters

9:46 pm Man I'm tired. I'm on call the second Saturday in a row. I wanted to write about what has been going on in the hospital but I can't right now. I feel a bit drained. There is this resident that has been asking me for help to do his power point, and I guess he has never used it before, and I have been helping him even with the little time I have free this week. I hope I get some time of next week when I go to ACP in Philadelphia. (which the program is paying for !!! weee!!!) But anyways. Man I'm tired. By the way my friend called me from the parking lot before he left. He is a second year resident. He wanted me to come out and watch the helicopter on the roof. I was like "huh? helicopter?" He said "yeah you can see it hanging from the roof come and take a pic!!" I was like "this is not a joke right?" he said " no, no man... its for real. If you are coming I'm turning around." So I took my camera and I went outside the hospital lobby. And sure enough there was a helicopter on the roof. Boy my friend was excited. Not sure if he had ever seen anything like that. But he was a "kid in a candy store" happy. It got really cool when the helicopter starting moving the tail and started to speed up. And as it was taking off my friend said "you know what this means right?" I was like "what?" He said "that's means someones got a unit admission!! " He started laughing. It was a cool site to see.

Other than that the floor has been ok. I saw a patient of mines that has been pretty "un-popular" here with the staff. I remember seeing her about 2-3 weeks ago in the general medical floor. She had come in for sinusitis/ recurrent and was staying in the GMF floor, and she was giving the nurses a really hard time. I wasn't sure what they met till I went to talk to her. I think she spoke to me almost an hour. I was trying to "escape" but I tried to be understand and listen to her as long as I could. She seemed very anxious, and I have learned that sometimes anxious people just need to be heard. She when on to tell me how she thinks there is a conspiracy against her. The last 2-3 hospitals she has been to have been really bad. I think she said she was going to call her congressman. She said that she was also kicked out of R__ W___ hospital too, but that the fault was mostly the nurses. But when I saw her she was upset because they were being "racist" towards her. The African American nurses were treating her bad she said. And also her neighbor in the bed next to her had her family over last night which was about 20 of them (according to her) and she really felt a bit uncomfortable, even though she has no problem with black people. She has a lot of black friends. She says that while she was lying in her bed, there was a little girl just staring at her, and it made her really uncomfortable. She said it got so bad she even called the cops!! I was like "what, you called the cops?" She said "yup, I sure did. You can't treat people like this. What kind of country do we live in? These people are just racist." That has to be one of the first I have heard of patients calling cops from the hospital at the bed side. It didn't take too long talking to her to make me realize that she has some anxiety issues. I tried to listen as much as I can. I told her I would get the patient advocate to come and see her. The following day I saw the attending who she was under. He told me "Hey, Dr. Mike did you make MS.___ non teaching?" I smiled and laughed and told him "her? no....lol. I wouldn't do that to you. By the way, you know she called the cops yesterday right?" His eyes widened and he seemed shocked, he said "what ? are you serious?" I said "no..I just wanted to tell you. She called the cops and they came here, so if I were you I would be careful." I left the room, but I got the sense he was a bit worried. He is one for the attendings that try to avoid any legal issues or situations like this. Who can blame him? The next morning on sunday, I actually saw him come in to personally discharge her. I think thats the first sunday I've ever seen him in the hospital. I laughed when I saw him. I think he looked at me and smiled back.

Well fast forward to today , and here she was again. Guess what ? she was a patient of Dr. DEvil !!! (dr.DEvil http://thankyougodforresidency.blogspot.com/2008/08/across-your-time-in-wards-and-floors.html) out of all people!!! I saw her this morning and she was in a state of mild panic. She seemed very upset and was angry.I said "what happen?" She said "last night was horrible. I had the doctor come in and he basically screamed at me and told me that my asthma is triggered by my anxiety, and I told him that was not possible." She then asked me to give her a second because she was upset now, and she was having a hard time breathing. I tried to "explain" to her that maybe the stress of the situation might be causing your body to react differently and it might cause you to breath differently. She said she doubts that it was from the anxiety, but that while she spoke to me she felt a little better. I told her I would give her some more respiratory treatment, incentive spirometry and mucomyst. She said ok and she agreed to try to relax. I told her if she had any problems that she could call me. Surprisingly she hasn't called the entire day.

10:12 gonna try to get some rest. Have to wake up at 4am to do some notes. and tomorrow that resident is coming to my house to finish up the power point at 7pm!!! amazing huh...... geesh must be nice to sleep and have a day off........

God BLess
Dr.MIke