Labor/Delivery and Burns

This will be a short post, I plan to elaborate later on my overall ER experience, which was good, bad, and ugly. Anyway- I might be the most unlucky SF dude that has ever walked through the doors of the L&D department at Richmond's MCV hospital. Why? Because there wasn't a single pregnant woman in the department for the two days I was there, so I didn't get to deliver a baby like the rest of my buddies. Bummer- guess I'll do that in my next rotation in the Spring. To catch you up to speed, I finished the ER rotation when I got back here from Xmas leave and then moved to L&D, and today I was assigned to the Burn Unit which included the Burn ICU. It was tough seeing all the patients in so much pain, especially the pediatrics. There were three sub 18 month olds, and a three year old all little girls, it about made me cry. Had I not been in front of such cute nurses I might have shed a tear ;-). My day consisted of unwrapping dressings, debriding wounds, applying topical ointments, administering pain meds, and rewrapping the wounds all of which consisted of 2nd and 3rd degree burns. I also helped out the Occupational Therapist get some of these guys moving and working their limbs again. Pain, pain, pain. That about sums up a burn patient. I can't think of anything more painful. Alright, that's about all. We are working 6 twelve hour shifts so I've been absolutley exhausted, but still trucking. I'll keep you posted.