October 2003 Archives

MEDICAL UPDATE! MEDICAL UPDATE!

Young second year medical student learns how to suture, and stitches up a real human finger - one that is still attached to a live human! The following week she experiences yet another first in her medical career by performing her very first rectal and prostate exam. This was much to the gratification of the patient, who was lucky enough to be the recipient of 2 rectal exams in a row. Well, medical students have to learn on somebody.

These were all exciting things that happened to me a couple of weeks ago, in my once-a-week stint in the ER in the VA Hospital. Lots of old guys with heart failure and emphysema and prostates. Sometimes they get clumsy and lacerate their fingers.

I really like being in the emergency dept, and right now it is the career path that i am most contemplating. I love the hands on stuff (or "hands in" stuff, if you catch my drift), and you get to see such an interesting variety of patients and problems. Too bad I only have a couple weeks left. I'm doing dermatology next. Probably not quite as exciting, but you never know.

On monday my preceptor, Dr. Hartoch, had me give a mini lecture to all the residents working in the E.R. that day. The topic: LeFort fractures. I had to do some fast research cause I hadn't ever heard of them. Turns out they are a series of maxillary (mid-facial) fractures that occur with blunt trauma to the face, below or above the nose. I drew a big skull on the whiteboard (in honor of the approaching holiday) to demonstrate the 3 different fracture lines, which cut all the way across the front of the skull. The way you can distinguish between the 3 is by seeing how much of the face pulls out when you tug forward on their teeth. In LeFort I, the upper teeth pull forward. In LeFort II the nose and teeth pull forward, making a pyramid shape. In LeFort III, the entire face separates from the head in what's called "craniofacial dysjunction." Medicine is fun! Yay!
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