pediatrics week 2

The good:
- Yesterday was Halloween in the peds ward and all the patients were dressed up in constumes and the staff decorated the entire floor and turned some of the exam, office and storage rooms into decorated "houses" (black lights and all), and the kids got to "trick or treat" for about two hours and each child received about 2 grocery bags of coloring books, toys, bubbles, stickers, etc (no candy!)
- I rounded on my 22 month old patient this morning at 6am and he was sleeping soundly, curled up in a fetal position, but not sideways, so that his weight rested on his knees and his chest and his butt stuck up in the air. I couldn't bring myself to wake him and just listed to his chest and lungs and made sure he was warm. An hour later, I got to carry him around the ward, and take a tour of the left over halloween decorations.

The bad
- I have pink eye.
- I'm dehydrated and my skin itches and I no longer see the sun during the week.
- I'm starting to realize that I will need to start relearning microbiology all over again.

The horrible shit that puts everything else into perspective:
- My first patient on the peds wards last week was this cute 6 year old kid who fell on his butt while playing soccer. He walked a little funny after that, had a possible fever, and was admitted to our ward to rule out a septic hip. By the time we saw him, he was much better, and his hip only hurt when we poked it. We got an ortho consult anyway, and they thought he looked great and probably just had a butt bruise. He would giggle when we examined him, and occasionally yelp "ouch" and then smile and laugh. His mom and dad were friendly and laughed a lot, too; you could tell that there was a lot of love in the family. We sent him home the next day, reassuring the parents that the bruise would pass quickly...
...Today, the little 6 year old boy was readmitted to our floor, but this time, to the hematology/oncology service. Blood tests done by his primary care doctor showed that he had acute leukemia. I walked into his room by accident and found him sitting there, smiling and laughing as he was getting into his hospital pajamas, while mom tried to restrain her sobs and set out his things for the hospital stay.