My First Patient: Mr. Box. Mr. Cardboard Box.

I felt like a nerd being excited to finish up my rotation with a 10:30 pm to 7:00 am shift in the ER.

So, just think how excited I must've been when the doc told me, "If there are any drunks that come in who need to get stitched up, we'll get you suturing tonight."

If there are any words which will guarantee that no more patients will come into the ER, that must be the magic spell. Between 2:00 am and 6:00 am when I went home, we saw two patients. Somewhat unusual for a Friday night.

It's probably a good thing. The rest of the time the doc and I and the nurses all sat around and chatted. Then, I did end up suturing - on a cardboard box - following one-on-one lessons with a physician. It was good to start on something that won't leave a lifelong scar. And I quickly learned that suturing is another one of those things that isn't as easy as a doctor makes it look - it's easy after a bit but you feel like all thumbs for the first few minutes. He also showed me how to hand-tie sutures

I did finally get a view of a patient's fundus using an opthalmascope, though! Well I was excited because I had tried a number of times, unsucessfully. All the more reason to buy an otoscope/opthalmascope set - so far in our registration package we've been told that only about half the class buys one; the other half thinks you can get by without one.

So that's it for me. Back to relaxing for the rest of the summer, until classes start.

I can't wait.