PFO!

No this does not stand for "p!#$ed and fell over" as some ED 'terns have asked.

Instead it is the extremely rare patent foramen ovale which our urology team diagnosed yesterday.

Boy comes in with abdo pain. Boy gets CT scan. Boy's CT-scan shows dead kidney. ED calls Urology. Urology do CT angiogram on boy and find isolated embolus in renal artery. Urology then get suspicious and get carido, resp, renal, ID and haematology to consult. They all dance around not wanting to take over care so we start ordering Echo's and V/Q scans and CTPA's and what do you know we find a V/Q mismatch highly indicative of a PE, and on Echo we find that there's a giant hole in this poor boy's heart.

Cardiology/Resp/ID/Haem doctors -0 ...... Urology surgeons - 1

It took up most of my day and the poor boy was being wheeled from test to test and although it's extremely rareand interesting medically... this poor boy is facing some serious medical issues and his parents have been worried sick. I feel so sad for him... his whole life ahead of him and he has all these issues to deal with.


Thankfully after all that running around yesterday I finally negotiated that long awaited day off which was spent today doing absolutely nothing! In retrospect I didn't HAVE to take itoff, but it was the principle of making sure I get my days off so that the evil hospital sytem doesn't steal them from me.

Interestingly, I was talking to some other interns last night who were complaining about having to do ED later this year because they wont get paid as much (cos they will work less hours)... I was quite taken aback cos to be honest I'd rather have less time at work and less pay than the opposite scenario.

Each to their own I guess?

Having a day all to myself though was just what the doctor (ie me!) ordered. It was nice to just be by myself with no commitments to take my attention, no friends to call up and invite me out... just time to sleep, eat, relax and blow up Imperial Stormtroopers (playing "StarWars: Empire at War" on my computer)

Back to the hustle and bustle of the Zoo tomorrow however... if only for one day... and then the weekend.

Come oh weekend.... come. The intern and the registrars say "Amen"!