Thursday, May 24, 2007

Winter has Arrived

This morning, I woke up at 4:45, to complete silence. As any Canadian knows, there is no silence like that of a snowfall, so instantly I knew that there was a blanket of snow on the ground outside. When I looked out the window, I was greeted by about three inches of snow. June is in a week, and I still need to get the snow off my car before I head out to the hospital.

Anyways, I was gonna say a bit about my 24 hours of trauma call last weekend. It was pretty crazy. There were some car crashes, a couple of stabbings, etc. But, the big shocker for me was the number of ATV/quad injuries, who made up the majority of cases. In terms of long-term problems, I think that it will probably the quad riders that will end up in the most trouble; those things are dangerous, holy cow.

Good to see, though, how the whole system works. The city has a few good people standing at the ready to save our lives, 24/7.

Well, I got about 30 minutes of sleep during my shift. I was pretty much shot when I got out the door late in the morning on Victoria Day. Oh, it was snowing then too...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Snow?

Admit it, you miss the east coast.

Marysienka said...

Snow??? It's been in the 30's here for the last couple of days. That's kind of a shock when you get out after a day in a freezing OR...
And of course, there's nothing like a motorcycle accident to monopolize a beautiful day and spend it in the OR! It really discourages you to get that kind of thing!

med neophyte said...

Quads are hugely dangerous. When I was working in the oil industry they actually made a rule that employees weren't allowed to use them; though contractors still could.
But I think the time I have spent in emergency has made me a little superstitious. There seems to be theme days: one time everyone seemed to have renal problems, another it was an unusual number of concussions, or all infections (and me woefully ignorant of my antibiotics).

Tall Medstudent said...

I don't miss the coast really; Boston always felt so wet and cold. But, I do miss the intense heat of summer nights in the Ottawa valley...

I wish it was 30 C here... although I probably wouldn't notice; I'd be inside a freezing cold hospital anyways.

I am pretty sure I'll never quad in my lifetime.

Theme nights at the ER. Interesting idea!

My first gen surg consult ended up being appendicitis, with a classic presentation. Reminded me of studying for the MCATs... sigh.