Smothers' Soliloquy: April 2011

28 April 2011

Infectious Disease

Sometimes having a slow morning is a wonderful thing. It means no one is sick enough to need our help.

Right now I'm on the Infectious Disease consult service at Parkland. People call me when someone has a bad infection that our regular drugs don't work to treat, or if they have a fever without any known cause.

All I do is some research on Up to Date, then peek in the Sanford Antibiotic Guide and then give them recommendations.

Some of the teams take our recommendations, sometimes they don't. Which kills me. Don't ask for me to recommend something if you're not going to follow up on my recommendations. Honestly.

I get to see lots of pneumonia and osteomyelitis (bone infection). I get to see some cases of HIV/ AIDS. I occasionally get to see a wierd bug that doesn't belong in America. At Parkland people get treated even if they can't pay for it, so sometimes we see people from all over the globe. It's pretty sweet!

In the morning I check on my patients, get new patients, and write notes. We have lunch conference and then we round with the team (2 students, 2 residents, 1 fellow, and 1 attending) at 1:30ish.

Very ishy. Sometimes it's closer to 2.

We table round (sit at a table and discuss the patients) then have walking rounds on all the new patients and some of the old patients.

In general it's an 8-5 job, not bad, but some days feel really long.

More pictures to come soon :)

And now for some exciting news!! Frances (a girl from school) and I have been accepted to ZAMBIA to do a rotation in mid-September!! SWEET! We can fly straight there from DFW (no changing planes!) and take the 4ish hour bus ride from the capital to Mushili Health Center. Zambia is also home to Victoria Falls, one of the 7 wonders of the world. Pictures will get posted!

You'll get to read exciting posts from Zambia this fall, look forward to that!