Friday, February 18

My Day Ended Well

Whew what a day.

8:20 class, bunch of crap, 11:20 exam for 160+ people, more crap, sneak home to play with my daughter while my wife picks up our son from school, back to work to post the grades of the exam, off to a party where I couldn’t drink as I had clinical time latter, attempt to sound semi-intelligent in speaking with the Dean of the Faculty at the party as he asked me questions about the program I run, then home to change and off to clinical time.

I arrived at the Emergency Department to see people everywhere. Every bed full and people stashed in various halls and spaces. Before I can really introduce myself and say why I am there a Physicians Assistant I know sends me into a room to get an initial set of vitals on a patient. In the three hours I was there I personally worked with:

20 y/o male with severe ankle sprain from a basketball injury.
3 y/o male with seasonal allergies.
7 y/o female with injury to her ear from her dad cleaning it too rigorously.
14 y/o female with medial right knee pain from basketball injury.
22 y/o female with pelvis pain radiating to her right flank.
29 y/o female with abdominal pain radiating to her left flank.
63 y/o female having a panic attack.



That’s all I remember.

I’m now home. I expected a bunch of pissy e-mails from the exam today (with 160+ people, 16 of them are in the bottom 10 percent and they are NOT used to it). Instead I get ONE e-mail, and here it is (I sent a congrats e-mail to those who scored 90 and above):

“Dear Prof. **********,
Thank you so much for congratulating me on my grade and for everything this semester. I truly cannot tell you how much I loved your class and how much I am going to miss having you as a professor. Your class was always something I looked forward to, and it was always the highlight of my conversation whenever anyone asked me how school was going. Thank you for making it such an enjoyable experience, and I look forward to being in more of your classes in the years to come.

Sincerely,
*******”


And that, dear reader, makes my day (believe me, the pissy ones will come, but for tonight I don't care). I’m off to bed.

DJ