Emergency--What Does It Mean?
From the 30 tabs I've got open all relating to EM.

Saturday call tomorrow. The worst.

Cake plays in the background:

Sad songs
and waltzes
aren't selling
this year.

Time to get the eye on the prize--EM residency.

Immerse myself in it, and forget my suffering.

"He who has a why to live, can bear almost any how." --Nietzsche.

So, a little exercise to remind myself of joy.

Free association/Google treasure hunt to "Emergency"--Go!

Charity Doc's -- lawsuit woes--respect medicine--fear is your ally--a doctor with a reputation for safety or for recklessness?

GruntDoc -- still having fun after all these years.

Kim -- my teammate, my comrade, my right hand.

Shadowfax -- You are judged by how you treat those lower than you. Go Dems! Don't let me down. Obama for President!

Nick Genes -- Fellow ER res. The first ER blog I read. I read all his posts. Organized Grand Rounds, fer chrissakes. Props, man. Let's have a beer.


Central Computah -- a salty ER nurse. I feel like I know him, like he's in my crew. Tells great f'in stories. He would tell this story better than me:

Pt: "What do you mean I can't see my doctor! I'm in pain!"

Platypus: "Doctor's busy. You twisted your ankle playing weekend warrior. It's 3AM. You got pain medicine a half-hour ago. You're obnoxious. Citizens with real emergencies get treated. Trolls who waste our time wait."

Pt: "WHAT! How dare you! I'll have your ass! I know people! I'm litigious! Do you know who I am?"

Platypus [over his shoulder]: "Hey guys, he doesn't know who he is. Get the leathers--he's moving to the psych holding area. Seems he's suffering from acute Vitamin H deficiency."

Aw yeah.

Scalpel -- Dad? Is that you? My blog Attending.

Panda Bear -- Yo, dude. Solid. Part medical travelloguer, part ER God. Mad Props.

Cadeuceus -- Good writer. How about a new post once in a while. Mark Foley is SOO October. MORE! Dictate a post to your resident, I don't care! I want more!

Dr. Couz -- Makes me want to move back to Canada--yes, I'm a Canuck. I'm politer than you! ER Docs got it good in Canada. I got a sneaking suspicion the Canadian medical system is the bomb. And don't whine about no MRI's when you can just crawl across the border and pay for it yourself, you need it so bad. At least Canada has a functioning and respected primary care system. There they understand that docs aren't greedy, they just want to make enough not to worry about money so they can focus on patient care. Of course this type of system is subject to abuses, like in the UK where the system is a cruel joke. If Kafka and Ayn Rand had ever collaborated, their most fiendish allegory of apocalypse by bureaucracy would be canonized as gospel by the parasites at the top of the NHS.

Tyson Lewis -- The fire in your heart is out. You are an artist as a writer. How it must hurt you not to practice your art. Please post more. Pretty please?

[At this point I just googled "Emergency" to invite serendipity in for a chat.]

Meditations in an Emergency -- And I thought my paragraphs were long. Dude. Trim. It. Down. Read some Hemingway. Brevity is the soul of wit, like the wise man say. Next.


Emergency Medicine Journal -- Hmm. Interesting, if a bit busy. Where's, like, the content? Bookmarked for further review-------------->

Emergency.blog -- unfortunately, the prime www real estate is inhabited by a crackpot. I'd be more likely to be asking this guy about why the CIA wants to kill him while wondering if his tinfoil hat could be used as a weapon.

Wonkette -- The venerable. Not really EM relevant. Katherine Harris--TOBASH, yeah, but is this really an emergency? More like a sad inevitability. I guess it's actually a painfully true commentary of EM. "Emergency" seems to have lost some of its urgency, neh?

Baby Toolkit --In contrast to the myopic hysterics of the polymorphous perversity squatting at emergenc y .com (purposely misspelled to avoid backlinking), the eminently sensible syllogisms of citizengeek shine like diamonds. Overtly wrapping itself in the
ancient stereotype of geeks as useless techno-fetishists, this blog seeks to propogate the association of "geek" with masculine competence and power. Associating "geek" with the Godfatherish qualities of problem-solver, deal-maker, or "Fixer" flies in the face of traditional high-school impressions of ineptitude, misunderstood obsessions, and pathetic meltdown under any kind of stress--a reputation for calm effectiveness being nigh anathema. But when the wheel of fortune deals you instant karma, who better to rely upon than the emergency geek?

NNSeek -- The politics of triage. "Triage" in EM-speak is almost an article of faith. Failure at the top results in a bad situation turning into a disaster. This little editorial shows that Dear Leader should have an ER Doc as Chief of Staff.

docuticker -- Dextromethorphan is a little-recognized OTC opiate used as a cough suppressant. Needless to say, lots of it ==> ER visit for some Narcan.

"An estimated 12,584 emergency department (ED) visits involved pharmaceuticals containing dextromethorphan (DXM). This was 0.7 percent of all drug-related ED visits."

And sudafed is restricted???

Lifehacker -- More on non-medical emergencies, this time from one of my favorite sites. A winter road-kit. Duh. Do it yourself, dude. Seems that preparation and a judicious aforesight re: your anticipated environment/situation is a common theme for mitigating emergencies. [Strokes chin thoughtfully].

Emergency.com -- Hey waitaminit! I thought I had already relegated this site to the dustbin! Seems the parent site/portal is a lot better than the blog. Unfortunately outdated--the table of contents has "Y2K" and "Bosnia" as glaring anachronisms justifying safely relegating this site to another google dead-end.

FEMA -- the case study of Bush's leadership failure. Yes it's his fault. Interesting deep-links for the attention-deficient:
Grants and Assistance Programs for Emergency Personnel
Protect Your Family and Property
Prepare for Hazards

"Emergency!" -- Eh. Google delivers what people link to. "You'll never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people" --P.T. Barnum.

This post is way too long. I'll stop with a gem:

eMedicine EM reference -- eMedicine delivers. Again. 'Nuff said. Go forth and learn.  ¶ 8:18 PM