GERD is not a very fun condition to have. Especially if you enjoy the spiceness of hari mirch, lal mirch, love chocolate and eat halapenos with everything. When I had to go to the ER, for the first time ever in my life, it was for this excruciating pain in my chest. I knew all along it was nothing but reflux. But the pain, I mean a 100 on a scale of 1 to 10. I had to call the ambulance. I was so embarassed that it would take me to the hospital I work at because of the proximity to my house, so I requested them to take me to a different but closer hospital which is like the enemy of the system I work for. Regardless, in the ED I got the Green Goddess ,also known, more commonly as the GI cocktail and it comes with good stuff such as lidocaine but then that didn't do much for the pain so they had to start me on a Nexium drip. Later I revealed to the ED doc that I was an ER resident myself and then there on patient bed number 8 he first made fun of me , "...and you came to the ER for this? Ha ha ha." And then I assume it must be as a punishment he started pimping me and asked me top five deadly causes of chest pain to which I replied triple A, pneumo, MI, ...whatever. Bottom line I have a whole new concept of when patients say to me, "Doc I am in pain." Oh the hospital bill for a bunch of useless blood tests, an EKG and a chest x ray was upwards of 2500 dollars. Thank God for health insurance.

Well I was on oral Nexium for a while. But then my mother who has nothing to do with medical field and who conducts most of her clinical research while making aloo ki sabzi in the kitchen made claims that "all medications" have an adverse effect on the ability of women to get pregnant and I should stop taking all unnecessary medication. Long story short I ran out of Nexium last week and didn't have time to refill it for 3 days and lo behold I had that chest pain again. Thankfully I was in the ER I work in so a nurse gave me some Protonix and it worked like a sublingual nitro for an angina patient. I am back on Nexium and never going off it again!

Tonight will be spent reading for PALS. There is just so much to review. I am nervous about running real codes on actual dead patients becase for some reason as a first year I didn't get any chance to run a code. Usually during a code situation I would either intubate or start a central line. It is kind of scary to be in that role. There is so much to learn.

Work's been busy. Supposed to get busier. Lot more reading this year. Really as I transition into second year and residency leans more towards specialty ER training, I realize I am not going to have much of a life. Like the program director said at orientation, "Guys med school was play school." First there is Step 3 which I should have taken like, maybe last year. Then the in service exam and then more boards and some more. Recerts and CMEs, life will truly be a never ending learning process. In a couple of years I will be 30 and still taking exams. For the rest of my life...