Day 992

My last official shift in the ER was also the most challenging simply because my attending, who was great and nice, gave me an outline of the way he wanted me to present patients to him and I wasn’t quite used to it. I fumbled through a terrible first presentation but rocked the second one so I felt better. Toward the end of the shift, another resident in a different pod called me over to help her with bandaging and stitching up this patient who had been in a cycling accident. It was a great opportunity and I ended up closing the deep, strangely shaped laceration pretty well but I felt bad because I kind of ditched my team in the peds ER. I did mention it to them and the residents kept assuring me that the attending would be cool with it but I still felt like I was being unprofessional which is the one thing I consistently am on the wards. I hope I don’t get points docked for it on my evaluation, but I am really glad I got to stitch up that nasty wound. I had to take a break in the middle of it because my left hand started shaking very noticeably and I didn’t want the patient to freak out. I quickly downed a package of crackers and chugged two cups of apple juice to get my blood sugar back up and I was back in the game. I think it looked kind of like a butterfly when I was done.