Safe & Sound in NC (and busy!)

So I made it to Durham, NC. I'm actually starting out with three weeks at UNC-Chapel Hill, and then after that I do a month of radiology and a month of CCU at Duke. So it's going to be a lot of driving for the first three weeks, but not too bad after that, as I live just a few miles from Duke's Medical Center.

I'm basically working every day for the next three weeks (I might get 1-2 off, but not sure yet), as I have to fit in 13 8-hour shifts as well as lectures and conference twice a week, and one shift with Orange County EMS, which I'm really excited about. In the meantime, I'm running back and forth between Raleigh (Wake Medical Center, which is where I'm doing most of my shifts for the first two weeks) and Chapel Hill, which is where our lectures/conferences are.

I've already met some other really nice medical students from around the country. We went out and had Mexican food as soon as orientation was over, as some of us are going into southwestern food-withdrawal. They are going to be a fun group to work with.

Monday was orientation (boring) and then last night I had my first shift at Wake Med. It was awesome - there we just work with one attending, and mine was totally excited to have a med student with her, and she constantly was asking me questions and teaching me different things. It was a great night. We got several traumas in, so I was happy, and I got to see a bunch of medical patients on my own. One of the traumas was a nice open tib-fib fracture (where you break both the bones in your lower leg, and open means that the bone fragments have gone through the skin), so that was neat to see. I found a similar x-ray on Google, so for you non-medical people, here is what a tib-fib fracture looks like:

These are pretty bad and definitely need surgery - you can't fix this with a cast. And it's especially an emergency because when the fracture happens, the bone fragments can cut the blood and nerves supplying that area, so it can actually end up being even a worse injury than it looks. Anyways, that is my teaching for the day, and I hope the x-ray wasn't too graphic for those with weak stomachs.