Neuro

I had my patient I talked about before; the young guy with cardiac arrest from drug overdose? We had a great day today. He is making a lot of progress, especially in his speech and memory. A friend came to visit today, and he was able to whisper the friend's name. After I came in today, he wrote me a note.

"What is going on with me? Am I sick or what?"

Then I had to explain to him about the drug overdose- and that his heart stopped, which caused no oxygen to his brain and damaged it, but he is getting better.

This is such a sad situation. It's unsure whether he OD'ed on purpose as  a suicide attempt, overdosed because he was so high he didn't know better, or whether someone slipped something into his drink while he was at a party. Never slip something into your friend's drink thinking it's funny; the next time you see them, they may be in ICU, in a nursing home, or dead.

It was unlike anything I've ever experienced, tube feeding, bathing, and changing the diaper of a person my age. People my age rarely get sick. It's one thing to be taking care of an elderly person or a child, but someone who could very well be a collegue of mine was just... weird. And sad. I know he was a completely different person a month ago, and now he has to have someone feed him and wipe his butt for him. It's a hard thing to swallow.

A girl in my clinical had a guy today that fell out of a bar because he was so drunk. He's now braindead.

I'm unsure whether or not I am going to like neurology. I love seeing the progress people make and how far they have come, but the stories are just so sad.