E-R Experience 2: What day is it?
May 8, 2006*Just some interesting facts I got from the internet.
What day is it?
These are observations from a metropolitan ER on the Eastern Coast of the US.
Undeniably, certain diseases are more prevalent during certain seasons or days of the week.
Friday and Saturday nights bring a preponderance of motor vehicle accidents, drunkenness, gunshot wounds, and laceration from bar brawls.
Motor vehicles accidents are also common on prom nights.
Sunday complaints reflect the mood of the weekend, mainly parties. They are mostly body aches and pains, abdominal pains and diarrhea.
Patients may come in late Sunday nights or early Monday morning hoping to get the next day off work.
Monday nights brings in the patients with the unmistaken “PID shuffle”(Pelvic Inflammatory Disease). Experienced doctors can tell these female patients apart a mile away. Typically, they are tilted slightly forwards and with slow deliberate steps as they walk into the ER. They complain of low abdominal pain. The problem can usually be traced to sexual exploits over the weekend.
During midweek urinary tract infections are common.
Serious medical problems can present at any time of the week.
In the winter months,broken bones from falls, skiing and sledding accidents are common. Hypothermia, frost bites from cold exposure, and carbon monoxide poisoning from kerosene heating stoves are prevalent. Exertional heart attacks are also common for people at risk shuffling snow.
Early morning rains and light snows on frozen roads, tend to wreck a lot of traffic havoc and accidents in metropolitan areas.
The warmer months bring a lot of outdoor accidents. Boating and fishing accidents: broken bones and lacerations from different sports including baseball, rock climbing and all terrain vehicles: and alcohol related accidents are common.
Many patients also present with symptoms relating to allergic insect bites and environmental allergens. They could manifest with breathing difficulty with a rapid disastrous effect.
And of course there are the malingerers, especially teenage girls, who deliberately mimic these symptoms of shortness of breath for secondary gains. They can show up at any time of the year.
With the full moon everything and anything can happen. Ask anyone who has put in enough hours in the ER and they would probably tell you some awry stories. The freaks do come out when the moon is full.
Contributed by A.J. MD., Frederick Maryland
Source: http://www.er-experience.com/
I love life - its mystery and its complexity. There is much to discover and to understand. I love people with passion. It's always interesting to meet a person overflowing with emotion. I love to play the piano and listen to intersting music. I like working with my hands that proabably explains my affinity with playing, doing crafts, typing (blogging) and even eating when doing nothing but I can't seem to make my whole body coordinated that you can't make me dance or do sports. I also like walking beside the bay, watching people, singing or humming, smiling or greeting strangers, thinking and not thinking of anything at all. || I prefer intimacy. I don't like going into bars or partying where you go on group dates. I like it when I can give 100% attention to whom I'm with because when I'm with a lot of people, I feel I have to accomodate them and I'm not able to share quality time with any of them. Drinking coffee and dining out is always on the top of the list.|| I feel I'm sitll living in my comfort zone. I'm yet to understand what's on the the other side of the wall. I'm yet to understand what others say 'the cruelty of reality' (if there is such). I like to do so may things but remain generally a passive person. I'm still on the path of discovering and adapting to the ideals (irony) of reality .
