Well what followed was a massive effort to navigate the bureaucracy of medicine. We had ordered a bone scan for today...but my attending over the weekend didn't think it was necessary at the time and took it off the schedule until Monday. Putting it back on the schedule last minute was a massive effort requiring me to call and smooze 5 different schedulers, 2 different doctors, and bribe 2 nurses with chocolate...which actually works way better than I ever would have believed (I'll never forget the power of chocolate after today) ;P...seriously though. It took an act of God to get it done...and then another act to get the thing read by a radiologist today...but it was a big payoff as we were able to figure out what was wrong with this little guy.
DISKITIS!!!! It's awesome, because 1) it was on my differential of suspected causes 2) it had gone undiagnosed at two other different hospitals 3) I had to fight tooth and nail to get this bone scan which ended up being the one test that we really needed and most importantly 4) this is a treatable disease (not cancer thank God!). Anyway it's a big win for my team and for my patient...I had to stay 4 hours longer than normal, but I would do that day in and day out if everyday were like today.
It seems as a resident sometimes you are lost in a sea of "wrongs", you don't know down from up, north from south and all you really have is your faith that you'll get to where you are going, but every once in awhile when you are feeling lost in the storm, the clouds will break for what may be only an instant, and with a sudden shining beam of light, you'll see a bright blue sky with a radiant warm sun - a stark reminder of where you're going and who you want to be.
Newbie Doc
