Ok, I know I said once that I wouldn't crow about my fascinating patients, because it seems wrong to use them for blogfodder, but this one is just a medical marvel. I can't help myself. No one else in HospitalWorld gets excited like I do, so I have no one to share the thrill with -- and I'm going to explode if I can't share the thrill.
She's in her sixties, and totally healthy aside from the blood thinner she takes for a heart condition. However, for the past three months she's been losing weight and becoming more and more tired, while her adoring hubby has tried without success to get her to see a doctor. Finally, yesterday, she came to the ER.
Initial exam shows nothing but a pale woman without obvious physical problems aside from a slow heartbeat.
Initial labs show that her kidneys have utterly failed. Because of the kidney failure, she has uremia (toxic overdose of the body's waste products) and a potassium level high enough to stop her heart.
And she's missing two-thirds of her blood.
I got her potassium down from the danger zone, poured bags of red blood cells into her, and called my Kidney Man to do emergency dialysis.
My official diagnosis thus far is What the fuck?
More later. I can't wait to go to work today!
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1 comment:
Did she get well? On dis I still dwell.
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