#one of my new meds turned out to be poisoning my liver a bit lol

[hyp3rbolee]

worlds first man to look sexy with liver damage

[confused-scientist]

Things I Learned in Med School - Week 130

Last week in ICU! We had to swap zones this week - so new patients, new consultants, new registrars and new JMOs. But as it turns out the team basically change every week as well, so it was our consultants first day on the floor when we started as well!

Our consultant was quite young, and was much more hands on, but this did mean the rounds went FOOORREVVER. On the plus side, both him and the senior registrar were fantastic teachers - they’d often spend time explaining their decisions and, in particularly, the physiology behind what they were doing, so it was really good educationally.

I also had to do an ICU case presentation - I got my case early in the week, it was a traumatic brain injury post-MVA. Presentation itself was fine, both my slides were very shoddy (and could have done with a good spell check omg), but I guess that what you get when you put it together the night before lol.

This week was also pretty sad - we had a younger patient die after only a day or so in the ICU. The circumstances around it were really sad and complicated, and it felt a bit needless... I’m not really explaining this really well but honestly, it was just really sad.

I think my favourite (med student) part of ICU was the imaging... You really get to see crazy pathology in the ICU - mediastinal masses impinging on vessels, or distended small bowels pushing livers to the wrong side or just rip roaring chest infections. Its not great for the patients, but it really interesting to see. One of the radiographers also gave us great internship advice (as we finalise our apps!) - basically confirming for me the decision of my first choice hospital!

Overall, it was a pretty interesting few weeks in the ICU. Enjoyed it more than I thought, and it was a lot better than people had suggested. Off to Anesthetics next!

Anyway, here are some things I learned in med school this week:

1. Critically ill patient generally secrete less gastric acid

2. One of the first aid measures for paraquat poisoning is to eat dirt, as it get inactivated by contact with soil!

3. The GCS scale actually was invented for the prognostication of subarachnoid haemorrhages; rather than a state of consciousness!

‘til next time