BYU TV

My second night of call was a little less stressful than the first was. A young man was admitted to the SICU yesterday after stabbing himself multiple times on both sides of the neck and slitting his wrist. He has a long history of depression and has was recently started on a new anti-depressant medication. When interviewing his mom, I found out that he hasn't slept for the past few days and has been pacing nervously back and forth from room to room in his house. This behavior is pretty classic for a manic episode. An intersting fact about anti-depressant medication is that if the patient has bipolar disorder instead of major depressive disorder, starting an anti-depressant can throw the patient into a manic episode which is what may have happened with this patient. Lucky for him, he missed the major vessles in his neck. However, we left him intubated (with a breathing tube in his windpipe) because we were worried that blood could collect in his neck and obstruct his airway.

Another patient of ours has been in the hospital for a couple weeks after crashing on his motorcycle and fracturing multiple ribs on both sides of his ribcage, a condition known as flail chest. He too is intubated and has pneumonia. The last couple days he has been very agitated and thrashing around on his bed. Last night, I think I figured out why. I walked past his room and noticed that his television was tuned to BYU TV. All day and all night he was watching conference talks, devotionals, and firesides. No wonder he was so agitated! I would go crazy too if I had to watch 24 hours straight of general conference.

I was able to get 4 or 5 hours sleep which was good because on rounds I was asked a million questions by the attending and the fellow (a teaching method known as "pimping"). Since I am on the bottom of the totem pole as an intern, I get pimped more than everyone else, but it is supposed to be for my educational edification.