For some reason I expected the saturday night shift from 2100 until 0400 to be incredibly busy, mostly with young people getting injured after indulging at the bars. While the average age of the people I saw that night was probably about 23, there weren't nearly the volumes that I'd expected. Always a good thing, a little for me, but mainly for the patients.
Among the more interesting cases that came through the door were a cat bite, a dog bite and a human bite. Maybe it was a full moon? Nonetheless, it struck me as odd to have a 40 year old come into the emerg at 0200 on a Saturday night because his cat bit him... Not that it didn't need to be treated, but the juxtaposition between treating a cat bite and treating a trauma is just a little odd to reflect on at that time of the morning. All part of what keeps this job interesting, and all part of the art of medicine: clearing your mind from the previous case to focus on the person in front of you. At the end of the day, this person was distressed enough to feel the need to come into the emergency and ask for help, even if it turns out to be a minor bump. Easing that patient's distress is argueably as important as suturing up a bleed lac (that's our short form for laceration).
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