It's a Boy!!

I made a real fool of myself last night at work. It was late, I was tired, and I guess not paying much attention to what I was doing. I grabbed a chart for a teenager with complaints of abdominal pain. The chart said he was a boy and had a boy's name, but for some reason when I walked into his room, I thought I was looking at a girl. He had on nail polish, had long (ratty) hair, and had somewhat of a skinny girl's figure. I just thought he was one of those punk girls who dress scary. At any rate, when I told my attending about him and explain he was really a "she", the doc order a pregnancy test and then when in to go see him (her). After a few seconds of talking to him, the doc turned to me and asked me to go cancel the test he had just ordered. I could tell by the look on his face he was trying not to laugh. I felt pretty dumb. I can tell when I see a drag queen, but for some reason, I couldn't tell that this guy was a guy. I was so embarrassed I couldn't go back in the room and I was really praying that I never referred to him as a "her" while I was in the room. I don't remember doing so, but that doesn't mean I didn't. Of course the doctor fully enjoyed reminding me of my mistake several times during the night. If that's the worst mistake I ever make, then I guess I'll be okay.

At band practice tonight, the french horns sounded especially bad. I've never heard the noise a sick elephant makes, but I think it would sound something like what I heard tonight.

What I'm eating: an icey I made of frozen peaches, strawberries, diet sprite, and splenda. Yum!

Michelle

Since the 1994 Olympic debacle between Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding, I don't think any athlete has shown more class than Michelle Kwan. She quickly became my favorite ice skater back then and is still my favorite, which is why I am so disappointed she won't be skating in the olympics this year. I was really looking forward to seeing her skate. She is so beautiful and graceful. It literally broke my heart to see her press conference when she announced she was withdrawing from competition. Now I'm not so sure I'll even watch the women's figure skating competition. Oh, I probably will, but not with the enthusiasm as I originally thought. It just won't be the same without her.

So, I've had a few inquiries about the baby with meningitis that I blogged about yesterday. I didn't actually see him, but I looked him up on the hospital computer system last night, and he is still alive. I would imagine by this time he is probably out of the woods but maybe I will find out more tonight.

Neisseria

I was really looking forward to my Friday night shift because then I would have a nice long weekend without having to work. I got there at around 3pm and just grabbed the first chart I saw. Hmm...9 month old who has nausea and can't open one eye. Sounds okay to me. So I go see him, and he's like, really sick. He was listless but if you disturbed him he would get irritable and cry. One of his eyes wouldn't open and the pupil was really dilated and wouldn't react (get smaller) when a light was shined on it. That's not ever a good sign. I went and grabbed one of the docs and told him what was going on and he went in to take a look at the kid. We spent about 5 minutes in there before he started ordering stat labs, a head CT, and moved the family to a room that could be observed from the main nursing area (for really sick people).

As soon as the CT came back, I got to do a spinal tap on the kid. Those are fun. I've done several of them, but not successfully on a kid that young. I know how bad those hurt, and it's hard not to think about that while you're doing it. He was really squirming around (despite the nurses' strong hold on him) which made me so nervous my hands were shaking. Finally, when I thought I was never going to get there, I felt the needle "pop" into the space the holds the spinal fluid. As soon as I withdrew the needle, the spinal fluid came out through the catheter pretty fast. It was grey and cloudy, which I had never seen before, and it also made the doctor pretty excited. He said it's not something he's seen very often. (spinal fluid, or CSF, is supposed to be clear)As excited as we were, it's a pretty grave finding. It's spinal fluid full of white blood cells, which are only found if there's an infection. As luck would have it, the lab called and said it was Neisseria meningitis, one of the quickest, most deadly kinds, and not very common. All of us that had contact with the kid had to take Cipro for prevention that night and I guess for the next 10 days we need to watch oursleves for symptoms of meningitis. (Gee, wouldn't that suck to come down with meningitis on Valentine's Day, especially since my doctor-boyfriend is out of town until Thursday). The baby was transferred to ICU, and hopefully he is alive today. None of the doctors were too hopeful he would live through the weekend.

When I go in tonight, I'm going to go up to the PICU and see if he's still there. I really hope he is. I'm just left wondering where this baby picked up that bacteria. He doesn't go to daycare, but yet he got if from somewhere. I guess that will be up to the health department to figure out.