I was on call today.  Note: this was my last call day of my first (of five) block of medicine.  Woot.

Anyway, it was apparently a bad day to be a lung today.  People were dropping lungs all over the place!

One guy had 1000cc (that's a nalgene bottle full for the visual people in the crowd) of bloody fluid drained from his right lung.

One guy had a pneumothorax that collapsed his left lung by at least 50% and had a(nother) chest tube put in.

One guy had pneumonia.

One guy had a pulmonary embolism to his left lung (that I assume came from a clot in his leg).

One lady just couldn't muster the energy to take deep enough breaths to keep her oxygen up.

One dude was already missing a whole lung because they took it out because he had cancer.  His other lung was a little full of fluid.

One dude has smoked since he was 9 and has a touch of COPD (flashback to NC).

And another guy had an infection in his leg after his friend branded him with a wire hanger that was heated in a bonfire.

Okay, you caught me.  That last one has nothing to do with a lung... but I just found it too amusing not to share.  I think it was supposed to look something like this...


It did not.  Note to self:  Don't brand yourself.  Leave that to the professionals.  Another note to self:  Scars don't come with as great a story when you intentionally gave them to yourself...

Let the restrained chuckling commence.