The Excitement of Parenthood

There are many people who do not understand a lot of things to do with medicine and the human body.  I get this.  That is why a lot of people go to see a doctor.  Even though I get this, it still amazes me some of the things that people do or ask me.

Case in point: I saw a young woman who was there with her boyfriend.  She was newly pregnant for the first time and started to have a little bit of bleeding.  She became concerned and came in to be evaluated.  Blood work and an ultrasound were done to evaluate her condition.  She was so newly pregnant, that a fetus was not visible on the ultrasound.

I went back in to the room to discuss the results with the hopeful parents.  As I told them that everything was very early, she had a positive pregnancy test (although the pregnancy hormone in her blood was still very low) and nothing was seen on ultrasound, they sat there and soaked it all in.  At the end I asked them if they had any questions.  The boyfriend piped up and asked, "Is it a boy or a girl?"  It is times like these that I am glad that all of my thoughts are not broadcast for everyone to hear.  Inside my head, all I could hear was, "We just talked about that we can NOT see the baby.  How are we supposed to know if it is a boy or a girl if we can't even see it at all!"  Instead we had another discussion, although this time it was the condensed Reader's Digest version, about how we can't tell anything since it was still very early and NOTHING could be seen.

It just amazes me the things that they taught me in medical school.  There are many things that I think are common sense, but then I start talking with patients and realize that isn't the case and that I must have gained even more knowledge in medical school than I thought.

The Tang-Tang Problem

Mr. Kool came in to the ER with severe irritation and dripping from his tang-tang.  He was not happy when a colleague of mine went in to see him.  This doctor is female and he was not happy about having to show his tang-tang to a girl.  This was kind of entertaining to all of us because it was due to the fact that so many girls had had such intimate contact with his dear tang-tang that he was in such a state that he required emergent medical care.  He was treated and sent on his way.  I am sure that it is not a matter of if, but when, he will return for a similar complaint.

Mind Your Own Business

A lot of trauma comes through the emergency department each day.  So, I have had the opportunity, if you want to call it that, to see a lot of extremely injured people.  Several of these injuries are due to gun shot wounds.  They are becoming more and more frequent.  In talking with several of these victims, I have found some very useful information that I wanted to share with everyone so that you can prevent yourselves from becoming a gun shot wound victim.

I would say over 90% of gun shot wound victims have a very similar story.  They were all in a pretty shady part of town known for violence.  But there is something even worse than that.  They were all standing on the corner minding their own business.  It just amazes me how so many people that are not causing any trouble and are minding their own business can get caught up in such violent situations.  Granted, a lot of them do kind of look suspicious just standing there, but I am not convinced that is the reason for this.

So, my advice to everyone is to never just mind your own business, especially in shady parts of town.  As it is a new year, I might just make it a resolution to be up in every one's business wherever I go just to make sure that I am protected from senseless violence.  You might want to do the same.