Human enough to comfort the soul

2002-10-31 - 7:14 p.m.

Today was Halloween on the pediatrics ward. Not the ideal place for a kid to celebrate the holiday, but I think most of the kids still managed to have some fun today. The general pediatrics floor at the hospital is a square with a plus sign in the middle. The kids' rooms are around the outside of the square, the nursing stations are on the inside of the square, and in the plus sign are offices and storage rooms. We decorated the nursing stations and the rooms in the plus sign and then the kids went trick-or-treating to the rooms. They all got dressed up and we brought in candy and stuff to play with to hand out. The kids ranged from bouncing around the halls like nothing was wrong with them to barely able to lift their heads from their pillows as their beds were wheeled from door to door. Its hard seeing these kids, but at the same time at can be so amazing. Kids are so resilient. They have such spirit. JK is 10 years old, was born with HIV, is blind from CMV retinitis, has enteropathy so bad that she gets all her nutrition intravenously, and yet she always has a smile and joke. Or AS, an 18 year old cystic fibrosis patient, knows more about his treatment than I do, and gave me a good-natured lesson on tobramycin pharmacokinetics today. But then there are other cases that are just so tragic. I had to work so hard this morning not to cry during morning report. They were discussing a 5 year old boy with a three year history of unexplainable emesis and recent onset leg pain. Neuroblastoma, already metastasized to liver, kidney, and bones. Five years old.

At any rate, today ended up being largely unproductive. We didn't get done rounding until nearly 11. Then I helped the kids trick-or-treat. Then I got a page from David asking if I'd done my ward inspection. I hadn't. He told me it needed to be done by 5pm. So I headed over there to do it. I met with my preceptor, Marlis, at 2:30. At that point I had only managed to follow up on my 7 patients (my little MVA skull fracture went home last night) and pick up one more patient. I left the hospital at quarter to five. I didn't get home til six. Traffic was so horrible. And the assholes were out in full force.

I'm listening to this book on tape right now. Well, not right now, but you know what I mean. It's "The Loop" by Nicholas something. I get Nicholas Sparks and Nicholas Evans mixed up. One writes good books, the other writes stupid books. One wrote "The Horse Whisperer" (yes, a good book, much better than the movie), the other wrote "A Walk to Remember." Anyway, it's sort of an interesting story about wolves in Montana and the struggle between them, the ranchers, and the biologists. And then there's this relationship between the 18 year old rancher's son and the 28 year old female wolf biologist. Its interesting the way the younger man thing just seems so wrong. These things are easier to handle in a book than in a movie. For example, I read the book "Tim," a story about a young developmentally delayed man who falls in love with and eventually marries a much older woman. The book was pretty good, but when I watched the movie, I just couldn't get over the age difference, even if the young man was Mel.

And now, yes now, I'm watching a PBS special on brains. It's pretty cool. Did you know that chimps are twice as successful as hunters than lions? Yes, this is because they have brains. So if brains are so darn cool, why are so many animals so lacking? Because brains require lots of energy, even when they're at rest.

Oh goodie, Somnambulist is here, I can quit rambling!