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I know I should be reading about Crohn's disease right now because I will probably get pimped tomorrow (and of course I won't know the answer) but this is much more fun.

Medicine has started off a little like they all do - I feel like I'm too apprehensive and I can't even find my way to the bathroom, much less figure out what I'm going to do with my patient's failing kidneys. I've had a couple interesting cases...

My first patient had an eye infection. I thought "hey, infected eye, sounds pretty straightforward." Well, I have at least learned one thing this week: UK patients never are straightforward and are usually very, very sick. He actually ended up with a MRSA infection INSIDE his eyeball - ick! They injected intravitreous antibiotics and later did a "vitrectomy" (I do not recommend looking that up on youtube, by the). While all this was happening, he also had a MRSA abscess on his foot, a diabetic toe (that's going to need amputation), and to top it all off, his diabetic kidneys started to fail. Like, really really fail. His GFR (the number that measures kidney function) was 9 (and mine is over 60). Fortunately, his kidneys decided to get a little better on their own (whew!) but his GFR is still only 14 or so...but we're inching up each day. Unfortunately, there's no viable tissue in his eye so he's never going to see out of it again. Bummer.

My other patient now is a man with alcoholic cirrhosis who came in with a GI bleed. Today he told me I was skinny and asked if I weighed 109 pounds. Um, not even close, bud. The he asked how old I was! I told him that you NEVER ask a lady her weight or her age, and he told me he thought I was 20. Well, not that off...


In other news, I think Chris and I almost got scammed at Meijer today. We were putting our groceries into his car and a two ladies drove up to us and told us their nephew was in the UK hospital and they didn't have any money to get a hotel room and could we buy their $25 walmart gift card. We almost believed them but I just decided I didn't want to risk getting an empty gift card, so we told them we didn't have any cash. They left, but I really wish that I had suggested the Ronald McDonald house or UK Hospitality house, or told them to get in touch with the social workers at the hospital (all which would have been what a normal person would have done)...but the more I think about it the more I'm convinced that it was just a scam. How slimy!

Anyway, got to sleep...early day tomorrow (like every day).